I am!

I had the pleasure of being at the Martha Beck Coaches Summit in Keystone, Colorado, for the past 4 days. What fun!

Today is my chill day. Four days of "work" (a.k.a. crazy fun), and now a day of rest.

How about you? Can you cut out of work early, take a day off, play hooky, and rejuvenate. You deserve it!
 

Creativity is spurred by many things, one of which is newness. Exposing ourselves to new sounds, sights, tastes, and activities feeds our brains.

If you have a puzzle you’re trying to solve, such as “What to do with my life,” before you sit down to brainstorm, set yourself up for success by first changing the scenery. When you tackle a problem like “How to find a job I love,” don’t sit in your drab cloth-covered cubicle and recount what you already know: good boss, more free time, something meaningful, blah blah blah. Escape the cubicle and head somewhere new to find new insights.

Go to a new coffee shop, read a book on a topic you know nothing about, then spend the 15 minutes writing down 50 possible careers, from the practical to the insane. (Martha Beck says that if the list doesn’t include at least one illegal item, you’re not brainstorming hard enough!)

If you’ve gone through most of your life in one particular way (whatever that way is), finding a new way of being or a new job or expanding your business to reach more people is going to require some edge-of-your-box thinking. Start by getting yourself physically out of your usual surroundings. Go someplace new. Mix it up even more by filling all of your five senses with new experiences.

A change of scenery doesn’t mean you don’t have to live in Italy for two years like my friend Katrina, though I know that’s done wonders for her creativity. Take two hours to head the town next door, sip a blend of tea you’ve never tried, and read a book on a topic you know nothing about. After you’ve fed your brain, see what it can do for you. Ideas will abound. Now your puzzle solving is on the right track. Not over, but on the right track.

Then report back and tell me what you discovered. Did you find any new ideas on finding a job you love?

Photo courtesy of Katrina Sloma at www.kateyeview.com
 

In April I chose two monthly themes to help me focus my energy in areas where I was looking to grow. For May, my two themes are Dance of Shiva and gratitude.

I don't understand what Dance of Shiva is, but funny enough, that's the point. It's fun, quirky, and something we're supposed to suck at. I've practiced it off and on for about nine months (okay, more off than on). I now want to put in some dedicated time. 10 to 15 minutes in the morning, followed by a 15 minute meditation. I'm looking forward to radical epiphanies and goofy fun.

In April I taught a class on Lizard Taming for Money Fears, and in our last class, we discussed gratitude. For May, I'm going to amp up my practice of gratitude in two ways. First, I have a beautiful new journal where I will write about the wonderful things in my life, throughout the day. Second, I have a smaller book I will carry with me when I'm on-the-go, to capture those moments of gratitude when inspiration strikes.

Do you have themes for May? Want to join me in either of these endeavors?
 

I can be guilty of being unnecessarily serious. In an attempt to lighten up over the last week, I decided to start playing with my food.

There are no children in our house, so funny food faces is far from necessary; my husband and I will eat our broccoli and spinach without a fuss. However, taking an extra two minutes to be creative with my dinner presentation was worth it for the child-like glee that followed when I saw my final creation.

Here’s steamed broccoli and a salmon burger.


Here’s pan fried polenta with spinach and cherry tomatoes, and chickpeas and sauteed mushrooms. A little parmesan cheese added a fun color contrast.


Where in your life can you be a bit more playful?

Enjoy!
 

There is wisdom in your body. Can you hear what it’s trying to tell you?

When we find ourself in physical pain or dealing with a cold or illness, it is quite likely that our bodies have a message for us. It’s tired, it’s overworked, or it’s sick of the mental and emotional crap we’ve been dolling out for the past weeks...months...years.

I have come to believe in my body’s wisdom, even though it is so much easier to blame aches, pains, and sickness on more logical causes like the extra workout, a cheap desk chair, or the germs from the airplane.

Last week I got a cold. Sounds trivial, but I never get sick. Well, almost never. But last week I did. My body had been talking to me for weeks, and I wasn’t listening.

First I had low back pains, then my right leg tensed up like I had run a marathon. I started getting headaches. My sinuses got angry. Then I got a cold. I had five clues that my body had a message for me, and I ignored them all.

I find this funny because “I should know better.” How often does that happen to you? We know better, yet we ignore what we think we know.

As the aches and pains came on, I pulled up all of my so-called logical reasons for those problems, the ones we’ve been trained by doctors to believe are the real causes of our problems.

I was feeling worse and worse and then the denial came in. I knew it was my body talking, but I didn’t want to believe it.

“But I’m in a job I love.”
“But I have so much freedom in my day.”
“This has to be something else.”

The cold came, and then it cleared. The revelations then came through.

Yes, I am in a job I love. Yes, I do have freedom in my day.
And, I can still be a workaholic, maybe even more so since I’m now self-employed.

One of the amazing things I realized is that as we move towards our right life, our tolerance for living out of integrity with who we really are plummets. My essential self now expects to be cared for and catered to in ways she didn’t ask before I quit my job. I have given her wiggle room over the past 6 months, and now she wants more.

I need some help catering to my essential self. I need some ideas to entertain her and get her excited again. After all, my essential self is what fuels my passion and creativity for my business and for coaching.

I heard my body talking and I didn’t listen. I’m ready to listen now.

Here are some things I did on Friday last week to help me get started.

Played with my friend’s horse.
Went for an hour-long hike by myself.
Shopped for a Christmas tree and all of the trimmings.
Purchased a beautiful new scarf that makes me giddy when I wear it.

Your turn.

What would thrill your essential self (your inner child, the part of you that you deny when you work too many hours and please everyone else)? Please share!

When is the last time you played hooky? For me, it was yesterday.

Hooky is a great way to shift your attitude and feel good. Taking a day to play helps you feel happier and more relaxed. It decreases your stress levels, keeps your immune system in check, and helps you approach life in a more even-keeled manner.

Whether you work for The Man, work for yourself, or take care of your family each day, you can always find a day here and there to play hooky.

Here are four clues that it’s time for you to play hooky.

1. Your schedule unexpectedly opens up for part or all of one day.
2. Your boss is on vacation or out sick for a few days.
3. The house is clean (enough), and the neighbors said they’d love to have Johnny over for a few hours to play in the leaves.
4. You can’t remember the last time you took a “you” day.

Is it time for you to play hooky? Pick a day. Put it in the calendar. No buts about it.

Now, you’ve got the day picked out. What are you going to do with it?

Here’s the best part: You get to decide. Do anything you want, as long as it makes you happy. Stop thinking of everyone else just for one day, or even a few hours. Savor the selfishness--it’s good for you now and then.

Here’s what I did yesterday: I slept in. I read a book. I took a bath. I ate a yummy lunch. I watched the Michael Jackson movie. I went to the farmers’ market. I enjoyed a late afternoon cup of delicious coffee. I went mountain biking. I took a long, hot shower. I cooked a delicious dinner with my market produce. I watched television. I went to bed with a smile.

Every minute of it was for me. No guilt. (Guilt over stuff like this is a waste of time, anyway.)

Your turn. Start planning your “you” day off. You deserve it. Drop the guilt and go have fun.

What are you going to do for you?

Sometimes “what would make me happy right now” is one of the hardest questions for me to answer.

I was having a bit of an “off" day not too long ago, and when I was done working for the day, I wanted to do something to correct my unease. Paul was gone for the night and I had not made any plans.

I wandered around the house just waiting for some inspiration. I’m not sure how I thought that would help, but it’s a habit I started in childhood--roam around (mope, maybe?) until something strikes me.

Then, it was as if I said to myself, “Enough is enough. We’re going for a walk.” We meaning me.

I pulled on my shoes and went outside.

When I set out on my walk, I assessed my uneasiness. I felt uninspired about several things I had on my plate. I set an intention for my walk: to release the uneasiness.

Within ten minutes of walking, the inspiration started flowing. I hadn't even been looking for inspiration. I just wanted to release the uneasiness. I had several writing ideas, a plan for the next step on a project, and a feeling of freedom about my wide-open weekend.

My original plan was to walk for a half-hour, but when I reached the point where I would turn to come home, I wanted to keep going. The inspiration was flowing, and the walk was apparently exactly what I needed.

The cool breeze that comes through my area in the summer was strong this night. It felt cleansing, like it was blowing off the uneasiness of my day and making room for the ideas to flow.

As I continued walking, ideas continued to come without much effort. After about 45 minutes, I wanted to slow down my brain. The ideas flowed nicely, and I know that if I over-think them, they lose their juice. The final mile of my walk was more meditative and relaxing. I felt much better.

I came home having shed my uneasiness and having found some inspiration. I learned my lesson:

Ask the question, “What would make me happy right now?” Then do it.

The key here is to seek something that will truly make you happy. Alcohol and chocolate don’t count. They may make it easier for you to pretend that you’re happy or they may numb the pain, but they will not truly make you happy. When I say happy, I mean genuinely happy. Or just shoot for content, if you’re having a really bad day and happy feels like a stretch.

Consider these ideas:
- go for a walk
- take a bath
- relax in a hammock
- curl up in a comfortable chair and read a book
- paint, draw, or express yourself creatively
- play some music
- turn up your favorite song and dance
- play with your pet or with your children

What was amazing about focusing on being happy was that the problems that were making me feel off were solved with little effort. I found more solutions on that one-hour walk than I would have sitting in front of my computer all day.

The key is to play, walk, or be creative without trying to solve your problems.

I walked to clear my head and my heart and the by-product was inspiration. This also happens when I take a bath. When I take a bath to relax, and the ideas come to me like a flood. It’s because I’m focusing on relaxing, or playing, or creating; I’m not focusing on fixing. If I take a bath to think through a problem, I only feel more frustrated.

Do you have a problem you're trying to solve that you can let rest while you have some fun instead?

I had a great realization the other day, thanks to one of my coaching friends.

There will always be too much to do.

This may sound like a funny realization, but it completely changed my perspective.

I was fretting about my to-do list, which was growing faster than I was tackling it. I also had plenty of things I wanted to do that I was too afraid to write down, fearful of making my list even longer. I was feeling quite overwhelmed!

For some reason, I thought that when I left my corporate job to coach full-time, I would have excess time on my hands. In addition to coaching, I was going to read the books that were piling up on my shelf, spend more time working in the yard, clean the garage, put together the photo album from two summers ago, among a dozen other things. After a few weeks of not working my 8-5 job, I had barely dented this list.

As I was talking through this with my coaching friend, I began to recall all of the times I thought, “When [insert future goal here], then I’ll have more time.”

"When I graduate from college, I’ll have lots of time because I won’t be in class and working all day and having homework to do at night."

"When summer’s here, I can tackle all of those outdoor projects that have been accumulating over the winter."

"When I finally finish reading and completing the exercises in that business development book, then I can take a breath of fresh air and spend more time painting."

"When I get all of the cleaning and laundry done, then I can go play outside."

After I finished sharing the list of my “I will have more time when” experiences with this coach, I had to just laugh out loud. I am never going to tackle everything on my to-do list!

“So, what do I do?” you ask.

Take a few items off the list and commit to not doing them.

Here’s what I took off of my list:
- putting together the photo album from the sabbatical Paul and I took during the summer of 2007
- cleaning the garage
- figuring out how to make the back yard look decent

Realizing that there is always too much to do means you can decide to not do things. They're never going to all get done anyway. So do something fun instead!

I stopped thinking about the to-do list for the rest of the day, and I painted. I felt calm and relaxed.
 
The day after, when I sat down to work, I felt focused. I no longer felt like I had a looming to-do list. As a result, I accomplished a lot in one day. It amazed me that small things that I had been procrastinating practically did themselves! I felt like Superwoman. And at the end of the work day, Paul and I headed out with friends for a bike ride, and I felt fantastic.
 
What can you take off your to-do list?

What fun thing do you want to do instead? Do it!

Numbers often control my life. The other day I learned that occasionally ignoring them can lead to feeling happier.

I enjoy road cycling and mountain biking in the summer. My husband and I headed out for a ride recently, and I noticed that my cyclocomputer (the speedometer and odometer for the bike) was not working properly. I have a new one ready to be put on the bike, but it takes more time than I wanted to put into it at the moment. I took the broken cyclocomputer off my bike and set out with Paul to ride.

Usually when the two of us ride, he rides and front and I draft behind him. [If you’re not a cyclist, drafting is when one rides close to the person in front of them, so they experience reduced wind resistance, making it easier to ride.] For some reason, I set out on this ride in front of Paul this day.

Within the first mile, I must have looked down a half-dozen times to where the cyclocomputer display usually sits. My habit of looking at the display became quite evident when there was nothing to look at!

We had a route in mind when we set out, but the weather in the direction we were headed looked dark and rainy. We decided to play the ride by ear and make a decision about which direction to go at each intersection. We ended up following one of our usual routes, just in reverse.

After five miles, I felt rhythmic in my riding. I felt strong and confident, and I was having fun.

Paul shouted out encouragement at one point, not quite half way through our ride. “Doing great, babe!” I thought, “I am? Cool!” After all, his cyclocomputer was still working, so he knows how fast I’m going, and Paul likes to ride faster than I can usually go.

With his words fresh in my mind, I stopped worrying if I was going too slowly. I enjoyed the new view on our old route. It always amazes me that a riding route can look so new by just following it in the opposite direction. I saw the farms in a different light, as the sun was slowly setting over their fields. I saw the central Oregon Cascades as we headed east on a road where we usually ride west. It was gorgeous!

I continued to ride at a pace that made me feel strong and challenged. I felt comfortable and confident, which is not always the case when we’re out on a ride.

With just seven miles left, I started to feel my legs fatigue. I almost gave up my captain’s position to draft behind Paul, but decided to stick it out in front. I made it this far, why not keep it up?

As we cruised towards home, I felt strong, happy, and a little tired. I felt alive. I love when exercise does that!

We pulled up the driveway, and I dismounted my bike. I queried Paul for our average speed. He told me, and I was shocked. “That slow?!” For a moment I was disappointed, then I decided to let it go. Who cares? I pulled the whole way, and I had fun. I enjoyed the whole ride because I didn’t know what my speed was. If I had known my pace, I would have been beating myself up for going so slowly.

So this is what I learned:

When I look at the numbers, I judge, evaluate, criticize, and focus on how good or bad I’m doing.

When I have no numbers to watch, I enjoy the ride and feel strong and confident.

I have a feeling this idea can be applied in many areas across life.

Where could you stop checking the numbers and start having more fun?