Going from a bad situation to a good situation makes sense to people. The bad is chasing you towards the good. There’s purpose and reason to try, to struggle and to do things that will help you get from one to the other. The impetus is obvious - get out of pain.
Going from good to great? Not quite as obvious or as urgent. Good is simply that - good. Why change that? Why shake up the status quo when you’re good? If you’re happy without great, there’s nothing chasing you there urgently. So people dream of writing the book, but they are also good without it. Writing a book takes effort and time and it’s uncomfortable. It brings up fears and points out inadequacies. It’s a vulnerable process and it demands that you step up into your power and deliver something that is a statement of who you are in the world. It’s a step towards GREAT. So it’s easier to stay in the GOOD. It’s easier to dream about writing rather than get uncomfortable. It’s safer. It’s not urgent. Growing from good to great takes more than just dreaming. It’s when the want turns into a need… So read this and stay ‘good’. That’s fine. But if you’re willing to get uncomfortable and stretch, then you're ready to start writing the damn book. Going from Good to Great may not seem urgent, but I promise you that the discomfort is so worth it on the other side. http://www.writingthedamnbook.com
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I was interviewed the other day by a friend, Bri Seeley, for her upcoming book and she asked me what my favorite part of being a woman is. I replied something to the effect that I love our mutability, the ability to go from one emotion to the next with ease, often holding many emotions and feelings at the same time. Our ability to feel and emote is a superpower.
The thing is, that as an intuitive, our mutability is also a strength with one critical difference. We can only hold one feeling at a time. It either feels right or it doesn't. It either feels like love or not. So if we are confused, jumbled, feeling 23 different things at once, it's time for a breath. Because that moment where we feel too much can be simplified intuitively. It takes a moment to breathe. It takes a moment to get to the root. It takes a moment to whittle down to the core of anything. An intuitive answer is always clear. Take that moment. I can think of 1,034 reasons why I don't have time to write the book or why I'm not ready. I see it every day - I'm in a lot of writing groups and those who are actually making progress are a pittance compared to those who dream of it.
Literally I've done the stats in there in those moments where my Virgo goes wild... 1/23 people are actually working on their book in earnest. Why? Because while there are 1,034 reasons not to work on it, there's only one reason to write it...because you NEED to. See I know that with me, it became something I thought about almost daily. I kept feeling that nudge until it became a kick. It kept hanging over my head, waiting, showing me where I wasn't following through. It drained my energy. When the reasons not to become quieter than the reason to write, then we can play. If you want 3 days of intensive writing time to get your book DONE, my retreat is for you. If you want ongoing support and time and space to finish writing or to actually publish and market your book, then the 6 month program is for you. And if you want it all, let's do that. You choose your pace. But for crying out loud stop holding onto your message like it's a mountain. Writing a book doesn't have to be hard work people... but you have to make that ONE commitment to writing it. Ready? http://www.writingthedamnbook.com/writing-intensive.html 'I don't feel like it' and 'It's not calling to me' are an intuitive's best excuse.
I don't always feel like doing things. I'm essentially lazy. And sometimes (I KNOW I'm not alone here...) I use that as the reason I'm not doing certain things. Because sometimes those things are aligned and ready and are simply waiting for me to take movement towards creating it...and 'I don't feel like it' isn't really it. Perhaps I don't want to take on something really big. Well what if I took the tiniest step, just one thing that is simple and easy? Perhaps the details that have to get done bore me. Well what if I outsourced them? What if I simply took care of one little detail today? Perhaps the potential outcome scares me. Well what if living in the future isn't going to help me today? Perhaps that movie really is calling to my soul. Well what if I took a step AND watched the movie? Perhaps I'm already on to the next pretty shiny idea. Well what if I spent 3 minutes on the existing project before playing with the next? ALIGNED ACTION IS NOT ALWAYS GLAMOROUS OR FEELY-GOODY. And as intuitives we know we just simply can't do the things we don't want to do... so find the balance. Find the small things that will tip it back into feeling right and perfect. Energetically, we can't hide behind the 'don't feel like it' and yet we can still feel really good about everything we do. What's your balance? What is it that you 'just aren't inspired to do' today even though your heart is truly craving it? As a girl I was an avid reader, a bibliophile. I had this little spot in my playroom between a dresser and a bookcase, where if I sat just right I became invisible to the outside world. That little hidey-hole became a portal to different worlds -magic wardrobes, stuffed animals who came to life, mysteries to solve, epic journeys to undertake, secret gardens and princesses who did more than wait to be rescued, and some who just waited.
It was in that hidey-hole that I first felt the nudge. Grabbing the most imaginative book I could find, Alice in Wonderland, I sat down at my little typewriter and fed paper into it… clickity-clack clickity-clack - dutifully pretending, not to dive into the world of Wonderland, but that I created it. Clickity-clack and a little bit of hand illustrating - I followed the nudge I had inside to create something magical. That nudge to paint a story became that need to write in a journal as I grew older. Books filled with my random thoughts and rants and profound insights. Books filled with things that I felt the nudge to record, express, let out, create. I received nudges for many ‘real’ books too. 15 to be exact. But it’s not enough to be nudged is it? It’s easy to ignore. It’s easy to find other things more urgent, more persistent, more important than simply following a nudge. Until the nudge is no longer a nudge. It’s a need. My nudges had been shelved for long enough, in need of some serious attention. My nudge to write a book became a non-negotiable need when I realized that ‘Your Inner Council’ was ready to be written. Not just ready, but that beautiful concept kept hitting me in the back, deepening with every day. I started experiencing every chapter, every section, each of the individual council members I held within me - they all showed up in my life, one at a time, in my face until I committed them to paper. I was living my book in the same way I experienced those magical realms in my hidey-hole. Clickity-clack… it had to come out. How about you? Do you feel the nudge becoming more persistent? Do you feel it pushing and pulling you? Are you ready to write? In March we'll start writing here...I took these photos yesterday. There are no filters. It's a magical place to create. And then for 6 months we journey together and stay on course, cumulating of course in a published book. YOUR published book. Many say the timing isn't right. That's not true. What that means is that the nudge hasn't become urgent enough. Publishing is not yet a non-negotiable. That's okay. This is for those who are ready. Are you? http://www.writingthedamnbook.com/writing-intensive.html I used to think I projected my imagination into the conversation. That I was just making up stories of what was going on in a person's head when they were speaking and sometimes their words and their hearts were in two completely different places.
But really, it's not a story I'm making up - I can hear the other end of the conversation and it's not always pretty. I can hear their hurt, their anger, their pain, past the words...and sometimes it's directed at me. So normal conversations that sound fine one the outside have invisible layers that only I can see and hear. Today I woke up feeling invincible, powerful, full. And then a couple of sentences from someone and I now feel fragile and powerless. Before you tell me that no one can make me feel that way, that it's a choice - I agree. That's true. And it still hurts because I can't explain why something so seemingly little can cut so deep. Because it feels like a MacTruck instead of a piece of paper. Because we can hear the WHOLE thing instead of the visible. So that's where I'm sitting right now. Shocked and confused and a wee bit unsure. Wishing I didn't have superpowers once in a while... I was so excited that I lost sight of what was really happening...
And I totally screwed up. See I got so excited about my book writing retreat that I totally skimmed over the fact that it's actually part of a whole 6 month program. And I lost a lot of people who really wanted to join me but thought to themselves that the price was really high for just one weekend of writing. That was my bad. I downplayed the long term aspects of out work together and that was never my intention. I got excited to be sitting in the middle of a vineyard in a gorgeous suite creating awesomeness and eating fabulous food and writing, writing, writing. But it can be fixed. Because the Long Badass Writing Weekend was never about just those 3 days. It is about a journey that began there... It's about diving into full immersion and then emerging and getting the help on finishing, publishing, marketing and releasing that book into the world. Publishing a book is so much more than just writing. It's about creating AND finishing. I want to be there with you for the journey... So everything I've done for the past couple of months for the retreat was energetically wrong, because I forgot that this isn't a WEEKEND...It's a freaking PROGRAM!!! And THAT's exciting, and scary and oh so juicy. So I've changed a few things up to reflect that. I hope you'll take a second and re-read the details. I've pushed out the date to start in March but will send that out as soon as I confirm things with those who are already coming... Go to http://www.writingthedamnbook.com/writing-intensive.html to see the REAL vision done right. You've listened to all the 'messages.'
You've taken inspired action time and time again. You've called in the magic. And you're still waiting wondering what was wrong Sometimes it's because you're so caught up in one part of the vision you didn't take the moment to go, did I miss anything? See I get excited when I get the confirmation to 'go'. It's like crack running through my bloodstream and I dive in and create like a MOFO. And energetically I'm calling in the people who need to join me. But sometimes it's like crickets - and that's the clue that I missed a message. So I gotta go back and review my energy, see what's feeling odd or off. Where am I holding back. And sometimes it's a little thing that makes you go - OH! How did I not see that? Yeah - a lesson in slowing down for me today... I was so focused on having a retreat that the 6 months of support became a side note. Until Monica mentioned that a friend of hers was interested but it was expensive for one weekend. What I was focused on totally eclipsed the entire vision of what that program meant for me - which was going on a journey with authors to create a finished book, not just writing for 3 days. But everything I wrote and talked about was those 3 days. DOH. So a slight shift in perspective and the energy for the whole program has totally shifted. So for my creatives in the room... what could use a little shift in perspective to make your intuitive creation that much more powerful? Where do you need to slow down enough to see a different path? Word for today... Un-ImPossibility
We're diving in there today with my UnTraining groups, and not just because it's a great 'un' word, but because it's so much richer than focusing on the possible. Possible still has a question mark at the end. Possible has a bit of concession - like, yeah, I can see that that might be possible. Un-Impossible? It feels definite. It feels powerful. It feels like a non-negotiable fact that this is indeed not impossible and we can unravel this impossibility until it feels easy. It opens us up beyond the idea of being merely possible. Diving into the un-impossible...let's go! Do you know that you're MAGIC?
Do you have limits on just how far magic can take you? I do. I hit a point where suddenly I didn't think magic was applicable anymore, where I was damn lucky to have ridden the flow thus far but everything beyond is going to take some effort and doing mixed with a bit of magic. That I needed to up the hustle to move beyond this first level of success. That's a lie. It's a lie that we have limits to our own innate magic. It's a lie that it has to be complicated, hard, active, bigger to bring in more abundance. What if more abundance looked just like current abundance, just limitless instead of contained? Where had I created imaginary limits? Where do I hide from the magic? In times where I pretend to be busy so I don't have to answer 'what did you do today' with 'absolutely nothing', Where do I feel like a fraud because I don't always lead with energy even though that's the path I tout? Where do I feel like a fraud because I DO lead with energy and others work so hard? Where do I feel weird? Like an outsider who can't explain how I fill my practice with a 5 minute meditation... Our magic is not limited. It's with us always. It's inside of us ready to create any trick we can imagine. It's ready to surpass our wildest dreams... If only we believed... |