Cynthia Morris's Blog, page 30

One True Line

Hemingway got past writer’s block by telling himself to ‘write one true sentence’. As a writer and artist, I crave more permission to be honest.

Long ago, I decided to never post anything ‘negative’ online. But now I see how that has allowed me to only show the cheerful, positive parts of myself.I want to take the muzzle off and share myself more authentically.

So I am taking up Hemingway’s invitation with a new series, One True Line.Every day, I will write or draw what I consider a truth. Just one line. This project could take many forms; I am leaving it intentionally open.

Join me in your own daily One True Line. It’s free and there’s no need to sign up.

Simply follow along on Instagram or Facebook, using the hashtag #onetrueline .

 

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Driving Toward Authenticity: 2017 year in review

I hope you are ending the year feeling good about your year. My wish for you is that you feel satisfied with your creative progress and ready for a splendid 2018!

This year, I didn’t do my full-on annual review, but I didn’t want to end the year without telling you about a few things that 2017 brought. I had some failures that I haven’t spoken about publicly and it didn’t feel right to not tell you about them.

There were also some big wins, life-long dreams fulfilled and of course, plenty of art, writing and adventures.

I’ve prepared a mini review for you with hopes it will inspire more creative authenticity all around. You can download your file here ↓

Download Now!

To the most splendid 2018 for all,

Cynthia

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What’s in the way of your creativity?

 

Do you feel lack of confidence, attempt too many projects, suffer from disorganization and plain old fear?

It’s easy to let our demons force our creativity into the closet.

Probably the biggest thing I do for my clients and students is help them get these obstacles – both inner and outer – out of the way so they can create with joy and ease.

When I talk about a program like my year-long Atelier program, I emphasize getting things done. But often we have to get things out of the way in order to get things done.

What would your life and your creativity be like with that biggest bugaboo finally gone? I’m taking a stand for creativity that empowers us and makes a difference in the world.

If you have a project that you are ready to commit to for real, check out The Original Impulse year-long Atelier program.

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It’s okay

There are so many things I want to write at this time of year. About end-of-year reflections. About finding peace and space during the holidays. About how our creative endeavors matter even if it doesn’t seem like anyone is paying attention.

But the thing that rises to the top is a simple reassurance for us all.

It’s okay.

It’s okay if your life doesn’t look perfect.

It’s okay if you didn’t have the best year ever.

It’s okay if you aren’t feeling the holiday cheer this year.

It’s okay if you don’t know where you are going, even though you know it’s not here.

If you didn’t meet your goals, it’s okay.

If you aren’t measuring up, it’s okay.

It’s all okay because no matter how things appear or how you may feel, you are bigger and better than anything you can imagine.

Let’s all trust that it’s okay and see what happens.

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Travel like an artist

I lead a workshop in Paris and elsewhere called Capture the Wow. Unlike tours or classes that teach you how to paint or draw, Capture the Wow is a playful invitation to become unabashedly receptive to the delights that surround us every single day, whether at home or away. Basically, I help people lure out their inner artist in a city devoted to art. What could be better?

Always have your sketchbook handy

I’ve been traveling this way for so long, it would be hard to imagine not setting out with a notebook (or two) in hand. I have shelves full of my sketchbooks, resplendent with stories, shapes, color and memories. It’s easy to whip one out to recall a special moment or share it with a friend. Sure, I could do that with a photo but it’s not the same.

But beyond the sketchbook, what does it mean, exactly, to travel as an artist? As I prepared to take my artist to Japan (I’m there now!), I set the intention that this was a trip for my artist. That I would come home with insights and inspiration for my art and my life.

In addition to the intention, I also practice the following approaches when I travel, and invite you to as well. I invite:

Openness to synchronicity and random surprises rather than being attached to an overly-full agenda.
Willingness to adopt a slower pace, perhaps even stopping to take things in more deeply.
Using the sketchbook more often than your camera to capture things that move you.
Veering off the well-worn path offered in popular guidebooks.
Bringing out the camera selectively, perhaps using a theme or photo prompts.
Reflecting on experiences and how they contribute to our art.
Seeking out local artists and artisans.

This ability to tap into the wonders of the world is what allows artists to make art, musicians to compose great symphonies and photographers to see what the average person misses.

For the first time in 19 years, I took time off completely from work to go to Japan. No clients, no classes, no writing. I wrote this in advance of leaving so I could still keep my promise of sending a bi-weekly newsletter. I’ll be filling sketchbooks, writing daily haiku and making watercolor postcards. I can’t wait to see what inspiration and actions come from this time traveling with my artist.

What helps you travel like an artist? Leave a comment below.

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Make every year a great year

Download a pdf of this Annual Review process here. 

It’s so valuable to do a reflection process to see how my busy-ness adds up to my satisfaction and goals. I spend time checking in with how things are going so I can make adjustments for more joy the following year. I often design a luscious and vast magazine-style annual report. (Get the 2016 version here if you haven’t already.) Because of travel, my review process this year will be much more simplified.

Savor this reflection time

Before you begin, clarify what’s important about reviewing your year. What do you hope to gain from this process? Free-write for 10 minutes using this prompt:

For me, the annual review…

Then, read over these three options and choose which one is appropriate for you now. There’s no need to do an exhaustive process. Just choose one that feels right and adapt it to your own needs.

The 15-minute version

The Wheel of Life is a trusted coaching tool to help you see a quick snapshot of your life. At a glance, you can see where things are less desirable place than you want. This will allow you to see where you can make changes.

Make a circle on a page and divide it like a pie into eight pieces. You can label different categories of your life as you’d like, but here are some suggested categories.

1. Health and fitness
2. Money
3. Career
4. Spirituality
5. Creativity and fun
6. Friends and family
7. Significant other
8. Environment

For each section on the wheel, assign a number. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being not satisfied and 10 being totally satisfied, mark your current level of satisfaction. Make a line for each section.

What do you notice? You can quickly see where things shine this year and where things need a bit of polish. For the higher numbers, jot some notes about what makes that satisfaction level so high. Do the same for the lower numbers. If you wish to be proactive, you can use this to make a plan for 2018. Reflect on the specific actions you will take next year to bring those numbers up.

Choose one or two sections with low numbers and focus your efforts there. This simple process is a great way to make the annual review flow into a plan for the following year.

The one-hour version

Take out your 2017 calendar and your notebook – analog or digital – whatever works for you. You can also do this visually by looking through your Instagram feed or your Facebook feed.

Begin in January and go through each month, noting the WINS. Look for work wins, creative wins and personal wins like anniversaries or fitness wins.

Jot notes for each month, noting the things that surprised you. How did the things you planned go? What surprises rocked your world?

If you take a lot of photos, you can also go through your photo year to see what you focused your lens on. What stories do your photos tell about your life? What images do you want to see in next year’s photo album? Those are the images you look at and say, thank you, more of that, please!

At the end of the year, give your year a title. This was the year of… Use insights you gleaned from this to plan a fantastic 2018.

The three-hour version

Feel free to make this a special mini-retreat. You may wish to light a candle, put on some soothing music, brew some special tea. Do whatever will help you savor this reflection process. Or simply answer the questions in bursts between errands.

Looking back over the year, what did you accomplish?

List at least 25 things, among them:

• things you have done right
• ways that you have grown as a person
• creative projects you have worked on
• creative projects you have finished
• goals achieved (both personal, professional and creative)
• positive life changes
• special memories you have created
• relationships you have cultivated
• anything else that is meaningful for you.

Here are a few coaching inquiries to deepen your reflection process. Use free-writing to gain the most clarity.

• What ritual can you use to celebrate 2017?
• What were your disappointments?
• What can you learn from the disappointments?
• What surprises, opportunities or juju came your way?
• What thoughts, beliefs or habits can you release to move forward?
• What/whom do you need to forgive?
• How will you savor your efforts and successes from 2017? Don’t skip this vital piece!
• What is your vision for yourself and your work for 2018?
• What is one thing you can do now to prepare for that vision?

Sharing your process

I like to publish my annual review as a magazine to savor and inspire readers. Sharing my annual review has always been part of my business. As a coach for creatives, I’ve always wanted to ‘walk my talk’ and show things I have done as a way to encourage others. But not everyone wants to do that. What feels right for you? Why and when might you share your annual review?

You could share yours:

• to show your process and your progress
• to be accountable for things you commit to for the following year

Here are some ways to share. Sharing helps us to reflect more deeply and to connect to others. You might share your annual review with:

• your partner, business or life
• your family
• a circle of close friends or colleagues, where you each share your reflections on your year
• your online community – on your blog or in your newsletter, or as a download

It’s not always easy to be public about our process. My challenge is to not just share the highlights, but the lowlights as well. I sometimes forget that we learn even more from our ‘failures’ than from our successes. It’s important to include the missteps, disappointments, and challenges as well.

Let us know what you plan to do for your annual review! Leave a comment below.

 

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Overwhelmed? Try this simple approach to sanity

If you are like me, you like heaping lots of things onto your plate. At the buffet line or in life, you love the abundance of having many things going at once.

Then this crazy thing happens – when overwhelm approaches, we don’t let go of things. We add MORE! I don’t know why I pile more on.

Sometimes it’s chaos here

What happened to the joyful abundance? We’ve gorged on possibility and now we’re the rushed, anxious, slightly crazy person we avoid at the grocery store.

The problem is, we can only digest so much. We can only DO so much. And we don’t realize we’ve gone too far until we’re cranky, sleep deprived and anxious. How to reel it in so we can enjoy life?

Here’s what I do to stay sane.

First, I look at the calendar. I’ve got all month, right? That should be plenty of time to get everything done, do everything.

But when I subtract travel days and days when visitors are here, I see the actual work days available. And there’s not that much time.

When I did this for October, instead of 31 days to get stuff done, I actually had 15 days. That was sobering.

Then I do step two. I make a large sign and hang it by the calendar. It’s made of three words:

This means nothing more. No more outings, no friend dates, no new projects, no more client calls. The door on possibility has shut for this month. It’s the month of inhabiting and enjoying what I have committed to.

This might also mean no more media. We become obsessed with the disasters happening and listen endlessly to news even when there is no new news.

Part of me pouts; she wants to do everything! She wants to read every newsletter and sign up for every new class. She wants to believe in the joy of infinite possibility.

But a bigger part of me draws a sigh of relief. She doesn’t have to do any more than she’s already committed to. Phew!

If you are feeling overwhelmed and not enjoying it, try this two-step process to creative sanity. It works great at holiday time, too.

Try this and let us know below how it worked for you. Share your strategies for coping with overwhelm.

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Time for your ‘duh’ dream

What to do when you’ve achieved your goals? How to let yourself dream really big without scaring yourself into inaction?

I’m fortunate to have achieved many of my goals – publishing my novel, leading workshops in Europe, falling in love with a beautiful man, making and selling my art. Fortunate and, let’s face it, I work my butt off, too.

Sounds great, right? But what happens when you get the things you want? What now? There’s a time of wondering and ruminating. Of savoring all the goodness that’s here. This is needed, and there’s always more.

Not more from a place of greed. Or of amassing more stuff. More because I can do and be more. Because accomplishing my goals shows me that I have the skills, tools, allies and assets to make more creative dreams come to life. But what’s next?

So obvious, I call it the ‘duh’ dream.

When asking the question, “What do I want to do now?”, I caught myself doing what my clients do – saying “I don’t know.” But I believe we do know what we want. Most of the time the seed of a dream has been inside us for a long time. We haven’t watered it, tended it or believed we can do it.

I sat myself down with my notebook and started exploring ideas. And it came to me…the thing I really want to do. The idea that I have had since 2002. The thing that I have done in baby steps and loved. The thing that, when I tell friends about it, they say “Duh!”

I turned 50 this summer – yes, I was born in the summer of LOVE! A milestone birthday like this can really motivate us, right? I have been much more motivated to go for the dreams that I have long held.

I’m not ready to announce my ‘duh’ dream yet. But I have been going camping more, I’m engaged to the man of my dreams, and I’m gifting myself a big trip to Japan to celebrate my inner artist and my creative life.

No more deferring our dreams!

What’s your ‘duh dream’? The thing that’s been lurking in you and around you? The thing that when you admit it, a full-body fission passes through you saying Hell YES! along with a Hell Gulp. Share your ‘duh! dream’ below!

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Your creative routine will fail you… but how to recover

You’ve got it all set – you’ll write (or make art) on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, at 3:00, for an hour each time. Sounds good, doable and perhaps even a little exciting.

This lasts for a week, maybe two. Something comes up – always – and you’re thrown off your routine faster than a squirrel leaping off a branch. And you’ll be left feeling like a failure, like something is wrong with you. You may even abandon your creative ambitions altogether.

Why does your splendidly devised routine fail you? Mostly because we don’t take into account all of our other obligations. We don’t give ourselves wiggle room. We tend to over-book ourselves, and our beloved optimism works against us. We also crave variety, and we don’t like to feel boxed in or pinned down.

It took me years to accept the fact that setting up a routine is usually a set up for failure. Sure, it may work for a week, or two, or even a few months, and then, the ship hits the foam and we veer off course.

It’s not your fault! It’s life. I have learned that it’s always something. Every single week has its wrench to hack your carefully devised rhythm. And, sigh, you have to get back on the wagon, often losing valuable time beating yourself up that you fell off.

If setting and resetting your creative routine works for you, hooray! Keep doing that. I suggest another approach: become an ardent opportunist. 

This type of creative may not have planned her creative time but seems to get a lot done.

It helps to know when your best creative times are – early morning before everyone is awake. Late afternoon before the evening cycle begins. But the ardent opportunist knows that she doesn’t NEED those windows of time. She can create anywhere, anytime, even if it’s just capturing ideas and insights while away from the studio. 

The ardent opportunist seizes any chance she can to create. She has her notebook with her at all times to capture her ideas, to whip out a 10-minute free-write, to finish a sketch.

When an appointment cancels or a window of time opens up, she doesn’t pop over to social media or email. She digs into her project. She knows that these small drips of time add up. 

The ardent opportunist savors little victories. She knows that even the shortest sessions count, and she gives herself credit for showing up when she can. 

The ardent opportunist doesn’t make excuses. She looks for ways to make it work for her. 

She sets deadlines and works hard to meet them. When random events throw her off course, she gets back on with renewed commitment.

I try to be an ardent opportunist as much as I can. It’s often in those windows of time that I would never have suspected would be fruitful that have worked best for me.

Are you an ardent opportunist or a planning failure? Try to adopt the ardent opportunist approach this week and see what happens. Share your approach below!

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Be a badass finisher

You find a structure that seems great to help you stay on track with your art or writing- something like the 100 Days Project.

You choose your focus and start out with a BANG! The first days are heady, where you feel joyously connected and committed to your creative love.

You see progress. You feel pride. Flush with joy and power, you show up every freaking day for your project. You are a creative badass.

And then…vacation. Guests. A tornado/flood/election/accident/illness/baby/new horse/barn/puppy/kitten/squirrel/fill in the blank derails you.

And all the woo hooo you started with turns into boo hoo. The self-recrimination kicks in. You wonder why you ever thought you could stick to your creative passions. It seems SO impractical, anyway. Just go back to the ‘same old, same old’ and forget your creative dreams.

Has this ever happened to you? I know this well, not just because of all the time I spend with my clients and students, but because I go through this cycle as well.

I got derailed from the 100 Day Project when I went on vacation. I didn’t want to do anything! I even left my FitBit behind, and my phone didn’t have service the entire week. When I came back to the studio, I found it hard to get back to my 100 portraits. I only had 12 left, but finishing seemed like an insurmountable mountain.

I finally completed the 100 Day Project last week – a week behind everyone else. I eked my way forward and finished 100 portraits. With my coach’s help, I completed my commitment and feel so much better than if I had surrendered to the post-vacation inertia.

Having her support helped, but what really gets me to finish my books, launch new courses and complete most of the projects I commit to is not someone else cracking the whip.

It’s my own inner drive. Self-respect. Integrity. Intrinsic motivation. Call it what you will. For me, it’s a matter of being able to live with and like myself. Like you, I have plenty of inner demons that try to take me down on a daily basis. If I were to add ‘creative loser’ to the mix, I would be sunk.

My faves from the #100DayProject Portrait project

Keeping our creative promises is one of the best power moves we can do to generate self-respect and self-love. When I stay on track with my projects, following all the way to the freaking nitty-gritty, often excruciating finish line, I gain so much power. Not only do I keep my word, I have more fun and learn a ton about myself.

When I lined up all 100 portraits and took photos and video footage, pride welled up inside me. I chose my favorites – all 22 of them. That might sound like a small number, but it doesn’t matter. I made 22 portraits that fill me with pride and joy. I overcame a limiting belief about my artistic ability. I gained permission to do it my way, and made great strides toward developing my artistic style.

If I had given up before the finish line, that ‘fail’ would have been all I could focus on. I wouldn’t have given myself credit for what I did do. And now, I feel like a badass finisher, not because it was easy, but because it was hard to get over the finish line.

There are many reasons to stick with a project to the glorious finish line. What motivates you to stay on track? Share your tips and tricks below.

Need help finishing your projects? Pick up a copy of my e-book, Cross the Finish Line and be the badass finisher you know you can be.

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