This discussion is scheduled for all day on Wednesday, March 15th right here in this blog. Read the book, and join us!

I am reading Quiet, The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can’t Stop Talking [LINK], and every time I share about this on social media, folks seem interested and ask me what I think of the book.

So, I thought I would tell everyone what I think.

I think it’s great. And I highly recommend it for introverts like me.

Unless people know me pretty well, they don’t realize I’m an introvert.

I like people, I like public speaking (now I do), I like  socializing (occasionally), but I am happiest, most productive, and most creative when I am alone.

I mean totally alone. Like with no one in the house with me except pets.

And I mean alone for long stretches of time, without interruptions, and concentrating deeply on my work.

I have realized over the years, if spending time happily alone was a competitive sport, I could definitely be a contender. I have far more stamina for it than most people I know.

And this book by Susan Cain, explains in well-researched detail, why I am the way I am. She also explains why I have struggled in the past by trying to mold myself into the dominant extrovert paradigm of our society.

I know plenty of extroverts. My husband is an extrovert. My daughter is about a 50/50 extrovert/introvert. And I am a hard-core introvert.

This book also explains why I like the Internet so much. As a tool, the Internet really helps me interact with others in ways that do not drain my energy.

So if you have ever wondered if you are in introvert or how much of an introvert you might be, you will find a lot of answers in this book.

I also like that the book talks about the POWER of introverts. Introverts can do a lot of good in the world, and this book describes how. Don’t think for a second that this is a book about how inferior you are if you are an introvert. That’s the common misperception that this book turns on its head.

This is not a formal book club, but when I am done with the book, we can have a discussion about the book here in my blog. I used to do an online book club and folks were crazy about the idea, but it wasn’t a profitable use of my time, and I am a creative professional, so I had to quit doing it.

I have a bit more time now, and basically I am just sharing a tool that is helpful to me, so if you think you might be an introvert and this book might benefit you, too, then why don’t we read it together?

Good things are better when shared. So join me, if you feel like it. There is no hard deadline, because blog posts are forever. But let’s aim to finish the book by the end of February.

And if you have already read the book, let us know if you liked it, but don’t give away too much, okay?

Onward! Into the quiet…

So much inspiration, so much time! Please subscribe to the Create, Share, Prosper blog and sign up for The Prosperous Creative ezine for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to put your creativity to prosperous use right now. Like words? Check out my Etsy shop. And you haven’t seen anything, if you haven’t seen all the helpful offerings in my online shop. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing this post with fellow creatives!

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Everything moves much faster today than things moved in the past. News travels fast and is often inaccurate or incomplete. People travel fast and are often stressed and rushed. As a result, our minds can race, our thoughts can be chaotic, and it’s too easy to jump to the worst possible conclusions.

These are all reasons why it’s so important to get grounded and stay grounded in our daily lives. When we are not grounded, anxiety can become a normal state. But when we are grounded time returns to its normal rhythms from our point of view and we feel much more safe and secure.

So how do you get from one state, ungrounded, to the other state, grounded?

When you are trying to get grounded, get out of your head and focus on bringing your attention downward, towards earth instead. You are not going to get grounded from anything out in the world. And you can only ground you, you can’t ground anyone else. You also cannot save the world. And if you are trying to, maybe you should stop and see someone about being allowed to focus on yourself and your own life.

Another good idea is to stop talking so much. Stop ranting, defending or picking fights, if you are doing any of that. Find your happy place and hang out there for a while. Animals have their dens where they can feel safe and secure. We have our homes and they should feel like safe havens to us.

A good visual metaphor for being grounded is to imagine a large tree with deep and widely established roots. See the tree bending with the strong winds but still standing tall because it’s roots are solidly established. Rain or sleet or snow, this tree does not crack, bow, or break. This is how we need to be if we want to stay grounded no matter what else is going on.

Spend the day noticing which activities you do that make you feel more ungrounded and which activities you do that make you feel more grounded. Keep your attention inside yourself, on your subjective point of view, focused on how you feel as you move through your day. What are you learning about what makes you feel better and what makes you feel worse? Paying attention to how you feel and trusting that is the key to making healthy future choices.

There are lots of simple ways to feel more grounded in a very short time. Here’s a quick list of reminders to help you slow down and get both feet firmly planted on the ground.

Turning off the news

Staying off social media

Doing grieving work for any recent losses

Drumming

Dancing

Taking a walk outdoors

Jumping rope

Tap dancing

Using a mini-trampoline

Running or jogging

Doing aerobics

Doing physical work in the yard

Gardening

Doing heavy chores indoors

De-cluttering and creating order

Cleaning the room you spend the most time in

Soaking your feet then rubbing them with lotion

Getting a pedicure

Trading a foot massage

Wearing quality socks

Wearing supportive shoes

Making your bed cozy and luxurious

Carrying small stones in your pockets

Wearing jewelry with stones that feel grounding

Putting rocks you like around your home

Sprinkling the edges of your property with salt crystals

Making soup or stew with root vegetables

Eating quality, home-cooked meals

Putting your health first

Taking responsibility for whatever you’ve been avoiding

Being direct and honest with others

Wearing red clothing, especially socks

Considering whether past traumas are still affecting you today and getting help

Joining an in-person support group

Working with a supportive coach or therapist

Getting a deep-tissue, full-body massage

Spending time with pets or getting a pet

Making a list of what your priorities are, letting go of everything else

Staying away from chaotic, disruptive people

Having a no-drama policy in your life

Remembering that you are the primary authority in your life

Taking your power back from anyone you are putting on a pedestal

Renewing your sense of healthy safety and solid security on a daily basis

If you did not get your basic childhood needs met, don’t be surprised if you struggle to keep yourself feeling grounded no matter what your age. If you have experienced trauma, abuse or neglect, you may benefit from spending some time seeing if you could become even more grounded than you are.

If you unconsciously put yourself into situations where you re-experience the same trauma, abuse or neglect you experienced in your past, why not get some help? We all deserve to live a happy, safe, and grounded life. And once we put ourselves and our self-care first, we can have that, no matter what happened in the past.

Christina Katz has been a self-care advocate for women and moms since she wrote the popular article, “The Art Of Making Time For Yourself,” which lead to an appearance on Good Morning America. Since then, she has written gobs of articles on the self-care, which are regularly published in magazines all over North America. To learn more about taking better care of yourself, check out her new video class More Joy Now, her ebook, The Art Of Making Time For Yourself, and her 50 self-reflection questions for women, Creative Knowing.

Save

Save

Save

I am powerless over a lot of things going on in the world right now. It’s helpful to remind myself of this on a regular basis throughout the day and remember that I am not personally responsible for everything happening in the world. This makes me feel a bit better, but not much.

In my world, I am creating a lot of good. I have been creating good for a long time. Of course, I don’t do it perfectly. But for an imperfect person, I feel like I do my fair share. Sadly, all the good that I have created and all of the good I am creating does not seem to be trumping (pun intended) the unfortunate things that are happening on the news.

However, I am not helping anyone if I dwell on the terrible things that are beyond my control. Whereas I can increase my personal power in an immediate way simply by focusing on the good things in my life.

For example, if I am feeling bummed out, I can turn things around pretty quickly by answering the question, What are 10 things I personally enjoyed in the past 24 hours?

Here’s an example:

1. I got a gratifying thank you note, which you will hear about this weekend if you subscribe to my newsletter.
2. I held a 90-minute conference call on which everyone involved wrote the most amazing essays. As their writing coach, I could not have been more proud.
3. I procured some donations as part of my volunteer work, and the whole thing just felt very win-win-win for everyone involved.
4. I held another 90-minute conference call and was so impressed with everyone’s clarity and vision for the upcoming year. Yay!
5. I finally finished an article that I started earlier in the week that was challenging for me to write. I was grateful to finally get to a publishable draft. Phew.
6. I had a former student post a very long, supportive comment on Facebook when a person from my own political party was being nasty to me.
7. I ate a delicious scone from the local bakery a couple of miles away. It was superb!
8. I had so many goldfinches visiting my bird feeder that I had to stop and watch them for a while.
9. The spicy Thai food I ate for lunch temporarily cleared my head congestion, caused by nasty cold number two this winter.
10. I am on my way to the art supply store to replace some worn out markers.

I recognize that there is nothing earth-shattering on this list. For example, I was not able to make all American Immigrants feel safe and secure. I could not stop the new president from making a mockery of the office he holds. I wasn’t even able to shake off my darn cold.

And yet, somehow, by focusing on small, positive things, I feel good…happy…almost content.

People seem dismayed when I talk about self-care and happiness at this juncture in history. But I don’t think they realize that self-care is not self-indulgence and happiness is one of our inalienable rights.

When I am cared for, I can care better. When I am happy, I bring happiness to others.

As a society, we are a bit better at happiness than we are at self-care, but this might be a good time to get better at both. I don’t think we can have personal power if we don’t take care of ourselves and manage our happiness. And if we don’t have personal power, then we don’t bring our full power to groups and movements we join.

Isn’t my personal empowerment important today so I can write the best article I can write? Doing service through my work is important to me. I don’t be so traumatized that I cannot even put a sentence together.

Isn’t my happiness important since I am the mother in a family of three people and six animals, who all fundamentally rely on me (including myself)?

Should I let the news convince me that my personal happiness is no longer important?

I don’t think I will. Instead I will study goldfinches, enjoy good food, sip tea, and shepherd the important work I’m doing into the world.

Self-care is not either-or. It’s core. Until self-care happens, nothing else worthwhile can happen.

Happiness is much the same, even if others want to make it seem frivolous. Happiness is mindfulness. Mindfulness is the key to making good choices.

I think I am audacious enough to say that my work is important, my sanity is important, and even my happiness is important—no matter what else is going on in the world.

And I can say it calmly whether anyone agrees with me or not. And there is power even in that.

I hope your happiness is also important to you because it is one of the things you CAN control today. Actions based on fear and anxiety can often just make things worse. So, I hope you will feel free to pause today, take a deep breath, and list 10 things you enjoyed in the past 24 hours…and see if it helps.

So much inspiration, so much time! Please subscribe to the Create, Share, Prosper blog and sign up for The Prosperous Creative ezine for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to put your creativity to prosperous use right now. Like words? Check out my Etsy shop. And you haven’t seen anything, if you haven’t seen all the helpful offerings in my online shop. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing this post with fellow creatives!

Save

Save

Save

I have written, taught, and spoken so many times about self-care, but it seems like we could all use some reminders right about now.

First of all, the key to all self-care is to stop making excuses for not taking care of yourself.

For example, if you are thinking, “It would be selfish to take care of myself while [insert any drama on any given day] is going on in the world.”

This is a classic self-care dodge. It’s merely an ingrained mental excuse to avoid self-care.

In an ideal world, we would not lift a finger on any given day without taking excellent care of ourselves first, and we would continue to take excellent care of ourselves throughout the day, not yielding our personal priorities until the day was done.

Beware the idea that external circumstances are more valid than taking care of yourself, and putting your personal power first.

Many of us were not raised to think this way, especially if we are women. We were likely raised to put ourselves last on our priority lists, and to only think of taking care of ourselves after most of the rest of the world was taken care of first. And even after we habitually kill ourselves trying to take care of everyone else, we often still feel guilty and selfish for thinking we deserve self-care at all.

I have been working on healing from martyr syndrome my entire adult life, and I’m not done yet. In fact, I have declared 2017 my year of extreme self-care. I have decided to take all of my self-care principles and not only practice them, but also amp them up to maximum capacity. It feels like the best way I can protest against all of the things in the world that are beyond my control.

What? Taking care of yourself as a form of protest? That can’t right, you may be thinking.

Not only is it wise, if you are a woman, I think self-care is the most radical form of protest there is. For me, this protest is absolutely necessary, if I want to get through this year joyfully.

Yes, you read that right. I don’t just plan on surviving this year. I plan on having my best year ever. I feel this way about every year, so why should this year be any exception? I stubbornly refuse to give up my priorities just because there is a crazy-maker running the free world.

I am going to post three things below. Two are posts from my Facebook page that were meant to inspire me to stay detached from all of the drama. Others have found them helpful, and you might find them helpful, too.

I’ve also included a list of baby steps you can take to decrease emotional upset and increase your detachment during especially difficult times, so you can get back to increasing the joy in your life as soon as possible.

If women leading a joyful life no matter what isn’t a form of protest, then I don’t know what is.

If women leading a joyful life no matter what isn’t a form of protest, then I don’t know what is.

Don’t let external factors or factions rob you of joy in your daily life. Remember that you are 100% responsible for how you feel today.

So guard your joy with all of your might, today and every day.

Don’t let external factors or factions rob you of joy in your daily life. Remember that you are 100% responsible for how you feel today.

From Facebook on January 15, 2017

If the world as we know it needs to fall apart, then let it fall apart. No one is blaming you for problems you did not create. You are not responsible for the horrors of the world. When we dwell on horror, we embolden it. Do not deny the horror, but do choose to not participate in it. Turn your back on horror instead of wrestling it. Stop fueling it with your attention and emotion. There are plenty of other things to do right in front of you. Take positive actions that reflect your deepest intentions for good. This is what I am reminding myself of this week. Peaceful heart, peaceful mind. I refuse to traumatize myself because of external circumstances that don’t reflect my hopes and dreams. I get to choose, and I choose mental health.

Peaceful heart, peaceful mind.

From Facebook on January 18, 2017

My intentions for Friday, as of right now, are to take a personal day, with no screen access, and practice extreme self-care all day long. One of my goals is have as creative a day as possible. My protest is to not let anyone or anything rob me of feeling as creative as possible for 24 hours. For me, that means not participating in either side of what is sure to be a huge media circus. I wish everyone well who is doing what they feel called to do. Above all, I hope that folks will choose to do what feels best for them, and not feel pressured into participating in anything that is not a heartfelt desire. Don’t beat yourself up for what you are not doing. Embrace what you choose to do. I hope trauma survivors will take especially good care of themselves. If you are looking for detachment from difficult emotions and having trouble finding it, feel free to partake of my blog, where I have been posting on the topics of self-care and detachment for a long time. Take good care of you, friends!

Above all, I hope that folks will choose to do what feels best for them, and not feel pressured into participating in anything that is not a heartfelt desire.

Babysteps For Self-care During Emotionally Upsetting Times

Go straight to media-deprivation. Get offline. Unplug your modem and TV. Stash your phone in an out of the way place and power it off. Don’t try to do media deprivation half-way or you will likely get sucked down an emotional rabbit hole. If you do, be kind to yourself and begin again.

Find other things to do. Get out some inspiring books you’ve been meaning to read. Color, collage, or crotchet. Dive head-first into a creative project and stay in there for hours. What a great excuse for full creative immersion! If you are having trouble getting started, make yourself a cup of tea and take it from there.

Ground yourself spiritually. Spirituality is a form of intelligence according to experts who have done their homework. I couldn’t agree more. Cast a circle around the property where you live using salt crystals and statements of protection. Smudge your entire home by burning sage while sing-songing uplifting words . Spray water infused with essential oils around the house. Make an altar to peace, love, and kindness. Get down on your knees and pray. Take a mindful walk. Do yoga. Plan your garden. Basically do whatever you already do to feel more grounded and then add some extra practices for good measure.

Hold your attention on whom and what you love. Make a gratitude list. Set your intentions for the year. Read an inspiring book that helps channel your attention more creatively like The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron or Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain.

Turn towards inspiration, beauty and enlightenment. Who inspires you? What do you find beautiful? Where do you find enlightened ideas? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, get busy answering them now. Your answers may change over time, that’s fine. What are your answers today?

Steer clear of anyone who is agitated or judgmental. If you are cow-towing to these people or trying to soothe them, stop. Taking care of other grown adults is not your job. When you notice these types of behaviors, simply back away and refocus on taking care of you.

Remember that taking care of you IS taking care of the world. If you have been through trauma or have felt traumatized by recent or past media events, you likely need extra self-care. People who have been traumatized may recreate their traumas so they can relive them, and unwittingly upset the people they care about in the process. Here’s some tough love: even if you were traumatized, it’s your job to recover. Find a healing path and get on it until you learn healthier ways of managing pain from the past. Recovery work is powerful. If you don’t know this to be true, then why not give it a chance?

Make the world a better place for all. If you contribute to the world from a place of emotional upset, you bring upset to the world. The only way to create a more peaceful world is to be a peaceful person. After you are calm, clear, and grounded, ask what you can share with the world. You might be surprised by the answers, and that’s okay. The world needs all of our gifts. Our job is to take care of ourselves so our gifts can take root and blossom. Only then can we co-create the multi-faceted and colorful world that we all deserve.

So much inspiration, so much time! Please subscribe to the Create, Share, Prosper blog and sign up for The Prosperous Creative ezine for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to put your creativity to prosperous use right now. Like words? Check out my Etsy shop. And you haven’t seen anything, if you haven’t seen all the helpful offerings in my online shop. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing this post with fellow creatives!

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

I have some awesome inspiration coming into my inbox these days. This is a filtering system I’ve been working on for years, and it’s really starting to pay off in inspiring ideas.

Case in point, yesterday I was visiting Leo Babauta’s site, and I noticed he had something called a “What I’m Doing Now” page.

I thought creating a page like this was a great idea because it’s challenging to constantly communicate what an evolving creative is focused on right now.

A “What I’m Doing Now” page or a simply a “Now” page gets this job done swiftly and concisely.

Mine is a little longer than most, but I got inspired while I was creating mine, and this is what I ended up creating.

Thanks is also due to the creator of the concept, Derek Sivers, who has created something of a movement of now pages.

Do I think every creative person should make a now page for the New Year?

Yes! Absolutely.

Making a now page is just another great way to focus and streamline your energy as your set and achieve new goals for 2017.

Won’t you join me, and create a now page for your site, too?

Even if you don’t end up posting anything, it’s a great exercise to ask yourself what your top priorities are for the coming year.

While you are getting your goals together, I highly recommend you check out my new Create Your Dream Writing Career online video course. If you feel like you could use some pep talks to get your actual dreams down on paper, then this is the course for you.

What do you think of this idea? Will a now page help you focus in 2017? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

So much inspiration, so much time! Please subscribe to the Create, Share, Prosper blog and sign up for The Prosperous Creative ezine for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to put your creativity to prosperous use right now. Like words? Check out my Etsy shop. And you haven’t seen anything, if you haven’t seen all the helpful offerings in my online shop. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing this post with fellow creatives!

Save

Save

Normally, I would be all over this New Year, new career stuff.

But that approach goes against the energy we’re dealing with this year.

I also usually feel a more natural beginning to the year at the start of the academic year. I’ve never really felt like this Roman Calendar holiday carries a lot of meaning, for me.

I could really frustrate myself, and possibly frustrate others, by insisting on starting new things just because it’s the new year in the Roman calendar.

But I know that this approach would just flail. So why waste my energy?

A much better approach to this new year for writers and creatives is to spend most of January continuing to look back at last year and cumulative years to sift and sort through what is wanted versus what is no longer wanted.

The real start to the year is going to come at the end of the month on January 28th. If you don’t believe me, just wait and see. You’ll likely have a lot more get up and go then, compared to how you are feeling now.

In my Facebook feed, I see that a lot of folks have been dealing with illnesses, hospitalizations, even deaths of loved ones in the second half of 2016. This has caused folks to feel pretty resentful towards last year, which of course isn’t accurate but apparently makes folks feel better.

It may feel disappointing that 2017 doesn’t yet feel much different from 2016 and probably won’t until we get to February.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, and yet, I am sure there are some folks who will appreciate this head’s up. Don’t get your hopes up for January to be much better than 2016.

So what is my advice for increased inspiration and creativity in January?

Let me count the ways:

• Be gentle with yourself, always, no matter what

• Don’t get impatient or try to make things happen using willpower

• Have a daily practice that gets you in the appropriate head/mind/body/spirit state for your day (see my ebook, The Art Of Making Time For Yourself)

• Pull out your results from last year and review how you feel about them

• Go ahead and sort your financial papers for tax purposes, if you feel so inclined

• Declutter and reorganize your work spaces, make them more inspirational while you are at it (check out: Cleaning & Clearing Your Home Office In Order To Better Focus In The New Year, 10 Ways To Recharge Your Home Office & Products To Inspire Your Next Home Office Update)

• Reconnect with past clients and thank them for their past business

• Review skills you already have and see how you might make them stronger (I offer online courses in article writing, platform development, and goal setting in my online school)

• Don’t be one of those high-powered people who lives only by quotas and deadlines, that is no way to work (or live)

• Ask yourself how you can make a deeper impact on the world with your work in 2017 (check out my ebook, Creative Knowing)

• Start imagining what your goals might look like and how folks might be positively impacted by them

• Take courses that help you consider all of these things I have mentioned, but just make plans, don’t execute them yet

• Take better care of yourself than you ever have and get used to it, because you will need to going forward

• Enjoy every moment in the life you are already living, don’t reject your past, be grateful to yourself

• Write about what is happening now (since it’s winter, check out my Writing Prompts For Winter Stories ebook)

• Steer clear of Negative Nellies, purge those social media feeds, and don’t make the happiness of others your job (it isn’t)

• Live thoughtfully in the world we are dealing with, don’t always be reacting, and if you cannot stop feeling angry, consider treatment for past traumas or media addiction

• Decide you deserve to live creatively today no matter what else is going on in the world and quietly preserve your right to reflect and grow, even if the world seems to have gone mad (check out my suggestions for books on creativity)

So much inspiration, so much time! Please subscribe to the Create, Share, Prosper blog and sign up for The Prosperous Creative ezine for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to put your creativity to prosperous use right now. Like words? Check out my Etsy shop. And you haven’t seen anything, if you haven’t seen all the helpful offerings in my online shop. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing this post with fellow creatives!

Save

Save

Save

Save

I am a foodie, so I welcome authors with recent book publications to share their favorite recipes with my readers. I don’t care if you are self-published or traditionally published, as long as the book was published within the last year. Feel free to contact me with your favorite dish via my contact page.

This sounds like an easy, tasty soup for a crowd on a cold winter’s night. Thanks, Amy Hatvany! And please be sure to check out Amy’s latest book below. She’s got another one coming out in March!

Amy’s Easy Italian Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

6-8 cloves finely chopped garlic
3 cups diced carrots (shortcut: bag of frozen crinkle cut carrots)
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp black pepper
1 Tsp red chili flakes (optional)
3 cartons Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato soup
Approx. thirty frozen meatballs (Costco, or Trader Joes, thawed & cut in half. Omit if you prefer a vegetarian soup, or you can use cooked Italian sausage.)
2 32 oz cans of dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 32 oz package frozen cut green beans

Add all ingredients into a large stock pot. Stir well, bring to a boil, then let simmer on low, covered, for at least an hour. Serve with your favorite crusty Italian bread, sprinkle the soup with grated Parmesan cheese. 🙂

This soup is great on the stove top, but for a crock pot, all you have to do is add all the ingredients, put on low heat for 8 hours, or high for 4, Stir occasionally.

Amy Hatvany is the author of Best Kept Secret, Outside the Lines, The Language of Sisters, Heart Like Mine, and Safe with Me. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her family. Her latest book is Somewhere Out There.

Novel in a nutshell: What happens when two sisters who were torn apart when their young mother abandoned them—and grew up in tragically different circumstances—reunite thirty-five years later to find her? For readers who love Jodi Picoult, acclaimed author Amy Hatvany fearlessly explores complex family issues in her gripping, provocative new novel.

 

So much inspiration, so much time! Please subscribe to the Create, Share, Prosper blog and sign up for The Prosperous Creative ezine for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to put your creativity to prosperous use right now. Like words? Check out my Etsy shop. And you haven’t seen anything, if you haven’t seen all the helpful offerings in my online shop. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing this post with fellow creatives!

Save

Save

Save

Save

Do you feel like you could use some help expanding your creativity in the New Year?

Do you think 2016 was too challenging and do you fear that 2017 will be more of the same?

I believe that 2017 will be another difficult year for creatives. I also believe that folks who can’t detach from the daily drama of living in our modern world will struggle with focus, productivity, and satisfaction in 2017.

Does this sound like how you felt during the second half of 2016? Did you find it difficult, if not impossible to extricate yourself from the chaos of the daily breaking news?

Truly, this happens to the best of us. I definitely lost a few days in 2016, and I may lose a couple in 2017, but I have no intention of making a habit of abandoning my daily creative process.

Set Goals

Part of my secret is goals. I just reviewed the 50 goals I set for myself for 2017 and I was nodding along with each one the whole way through rereading my list. As I read the list, I could feel the inspiration welling up in my entire body. By the time I was done, I could not wait to write this blog post.

I don’t know how many goals you should set for the upcoming year, but for me, setting 50 goals for my 50th year simply felt like the right thing for me to do.

Give Yourself Permission

Another part of my secret is permission. I don’t feel like I have to be available for other people’s goals unless I have consciously committed to playing that role for them. This frees up a lot of my energy and helps me maintain good, clear boundaries with people. I also have simple, straightforward methods for folks to approach me and engage my services. I don’t carry around a lot of expectations about what others should do for me because I’m so enthusiastic about what I’m doing every day.

Don’t get me wrong, I have people and products I am genuinely enthusiastic about. But I no longer lose energy on projects that do not move me deeply.

There is no more unspoken you-rub-my-back-and-I’ll-rub-yours going on in my career. This frees up my energy so I can live in the moment more honestly and authentically. And when I say yes, I mean it. And when I say no, same.

At any given time, we have two choices about how to move forward. One way is the way others expect us to move forward according to how we’ve been conditioned and how we’ve always moved forward in the past. The second way is based on how we genuinely wish to move forward. I’m 100% committed to the second way because the first way is a painful prison I no longer wish to live inside.

Find Fresh Encouragement

A final part of my secret is encouragement. I look to the type of encouragement that feeds my soul. I spent the last couple of years ditching outdated resources that no longer do anything for me. And as I let go of what wasn’t working, something that works beautifully emerged.

I spent a lot of time this past year building an online school that would be a place of continuous encouragement. I wanted it to be open with the lights on 24/7, so writers and creatives could come in and find shelter from the daily chaos of everyday life and feel refreshed after flexing their creative muscles.

I wanted my school to be a place where creative souls could remember their uniqueness, tap back into their individual power, and find the inspiration to go back out into the world and express themselves to their heart’s content.

I wanted my school to be a place where creatives could go for a quick lesson or two or a place where they could immerse themselves in an entire course for an hour or more, as often as desired.

I wanted my school to be a place where individuals could go and rekindle their relationship with their own uniqueness. Because this is what is being lost in all of the doom and gloom shouted constantly from a plethora of media outlets.

Most of all, I wanted my students to be able to learn without having to wait for me. I wanted my school to be a place that could help individuals recharge their creativity without having to leave home, quit the carpool, or skip taking the shower that hadn’t had time for in days.

In short, I wanted to create a place of learning, growth, and expansion, and I have. This week I have added Certificates Of Completion to each course. So now, you can keep track of where you are in each class as you go along and print out a Certificate Of Completion each time you finish a course.

I thought you might want to hear which of the courses in my school are particularly helpful for rebooting your hopes, dreams, and goals right around this time of year. So here’s the short list. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Create Your Dream Writing Career With Writing Coach Christina Katz LINK

* Power Up Your Platform Like A Pro & Become Better Known Now LINK

* Writer Platform Success: Assess Your Strengths & Skills Now LINK

More Joy Now: Stop Struggling & Start Thriving LINK

* Prices on all $33 platform courses is going up to $49 on 1/1/17 as announced in my ezine. Please subscribe to my ezine to keep up with all of my latest updates.

The pressure to abandon yourself and your dreams seems to have never been stronger. It was already selfish to express yourself in the old world, especially if you were a woman. In the new world, expressing yourself means letting down all the people who are counting on you to rescue the world from a certain demise.

But don’t give into false external pressure, folks. Don’t trade your dreams for a daily panic attack. Set goals. Take classes. Let the slings and arrows of 2016 help you dig deep, tap into your strengths, and share the gifts you discover within with the world.

We need your gifts far more than we need your fear.

So much inspiration, so much time! Please subscribe to the Create, Share, Prosper blog and sign up for The Prosperous Creative ezine for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to put your creativity to prosperous use right now. Like words? Check out my Etsy shop. And you haven’t seen anything, if you haven’t seen all the helpful offerings in my online shop. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing this post with fellow creatives!

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save