Create and Implement

Create and Implement: Sounds simple. And it’s the heart of the matter, isn’t it? If you are a visionary author, writer, messenger, thought leader, or conscious creator with a mission to heal, the idea is to get the work (and its healing results) out there into the world, to start serving the people you came here to serve.

I just read a review for a creativity process book over at Amazon, and there are now comments on the comments. One of those subcomments really struck home. Do these creativity process books help you take action on making your art (whatever it may be)? Or does the process lull you into endless loops of reflecting on the process?

It’s a fine line, I think. Because the inner journey, as discussed in prior posts, is important to building a strong foundation for the outer expression of your work and gifts and greatness in the world. But at a certain  point, it’s time to just do the work, to build the house, write the book, call the clients. How can you use these “process” approaches to launch you into the doing of the actual work (art) you came here to do (make) — and not as an excuse for endless procrastination and preparation?

Note to self: Is this a potential danger of the Write Synergies Path work that I am creating? How may I structure this “process” so it’s more about moving my people forward with doing whatever is the important work/art/creation/venture?  How do I prevent myself and others from falling into the thrall of something completely impractical and tail-chasing as an excuse to avoid the work of creating?  How can I make sure there is practical traction?

My personal challenge IS in doing my “own work,” whatever that may look like. It looked for a time like poetry. And for time it looked a lot like collage/assemblage. Then photography. Now it seems to want to shape itself into a book. Or several. And collaborating with visionary thought leader clients to support and mentor them in creating their most important writing projects.

This post, “create and implement,” is really all about encouraging you in the doing of your work. To do full justice to “create and implement,” it really calls for more detail than a  single blog post here.

You ask, “Do I just start creating?”  Yes. Sometimes you just start. Sometimes, instead, the creation “starts” you–its call is so persistent that it seeps out of your pores and your pen or across the keyboard without your even being full aware of it. This is the luscious process of what I call “divine dictation.” Something comes out, flows out the pen and onto the page.  I know I wrote it, but I don’t have a clue where it came from. These are the moments of the gift. It’s important to grab the gift moments, treasure them, and build on them. They are the gold.

Then there are the other moments, when the engine is cold and it’s tough to start. These are the times when the “Just do it,” motto comes in handy. Times that call for the admonishment to be willing to write what Anne Lamott calls, the “shitty first draft.” Get something out there. Pen to paper even when you don’t really “feel like it.” (And here, a perfect time for acknowledging the gift of the 30 day blog challenge, to get stuff done and out in spite of resistance, procrastination. So thanks #blog30 community!)

Remember: It’s a stronger house with a foundation, and it’s a stronger creation when it has the grounding and foundation of having done the inner work first, tapping into the vision and building on your authenticity, gifts, and greatness.

Be grateful for the gifts and moments of golden flow. But keep on writing (creating) anyway, even if you feel like you are plugging along up a steep incline. Think of the view when you get to the top. Just make sure you are climbing the right mountain!

The New Follow Friday Round-Up — Blog Challenge Day 7 Post 8

Heart-based, community-building mentors and coaches: all people worth paying attention to. On Twitter, it’s called Follow Friday, or #FF. These are a few of the people on my list–for starters anyway!

Connie Ragan Green’s 30-Day Blogging Challenge has gotten me to step deeper into the fast rushing river that is Twitter.  So in addition to doing the posts, I am tweeting them out — finding ways to let people in the social media universe know about the content I am creating. So, my first #FF (or “Follow Friday”–It’s a twitter thang) recommendation is Connie Ragan Green.  #FF  @ConnieGreen

I met Connie in 2008 at Judith and Jim’s Bridging Heart and Marketing Conference for soft sell marketers. As founders of the Soft Sell Marketers Association, Judith and Jim are on my #FF list too. Their association offers exceptional value. And I want to highlight Judith and Jim’s tagline: They say “It’s all in the connection.”  This rings a resonant bell with me!  #FF  @JudithandJim  (and hugs!)

I’m taking a course with Molly Gordon, founder of the Shaboom County community, to learn the process to finding clients who fit just right. Molly is a #FF resource. Totally outstanding.  Molly’s coaching is bringing us to a foundation and structure for listening for the words of clients who fit just right (or in my case, “write,”).  Molly, like the other folks I so appreciate, really walks her talk over on Twitter   @Shaboom  (and elsewhere too!)

I learned about the Chris Brogan’s latest post from @ToddTemaat who had created his own #FF blog post at his interesting site, http://www.winyourlocalmarket.com.  Todd, you might be interested in a Facebook group all about shopping local: Over on FB I just became a fan of the 3/50 Project. (They’re at the350project.net)

It was such a good idea that Chris Brogan introduced @ his blog.  It inspired Todd in his first #FF round-up today on his blog. Todd reported that he heard about it from @HelenRappy.  Scope out the original inspiration:   http://www.chrisbrogan.com/turn-twitters-follow-friday-in-blog-traffic/   So #FF love to all of you, and it’s so much fun playing together in this social media river and on #blog30

There’s additional thanks to Molly Gordon  @Shaboom  who retweeted this link (below) to an inspiring piece from Anne LaMott. I mentioned her book, Bird by Bird in blog post #6. So it’s synchroninstic to see a link to one of her recent essays today — well, it’s just this amazingly connected universe that we are playing in.

http://www.sunset.com/travel/anne-lamott-how-to-find-time-00418000067331/

Trying to get a little bit ahead on 30 days of blogging challenge, so it’s post 8 on day 7. #blog30

Write to Live Your Legacy-Blog Challenge Day 6

Legacy, “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past,” says Merriam-Webster online: It is most commonly considered something you leave behind. It is how you are remembered. Will your words paint the stories of your purpose fulfilled, your passions pursued, your life lived fully in the moment with a presence of love?

Forget the tired old definition, and don’t LEAVE a Legacy. LIVE Your Legacy instead. Live your legacy with your words and writings as well as your actions. Writing to live your legacy: it’s a stunningly powerful way to leave something of value behind.

In reality how you are remembered is created one day and one moment at a time, through interactions, conversations, and yes, the slipstream of your written words. Those synergies make up the raw materials of your legacy. If you are writing, it’s your presence embracing the moment of the writing that creates the memorable and remarkable.

  • Have you considered, rather than “leaving a legacy” behind you, instead to live each day as you wish to be remembered?
  • Have you considered, as you write, to bring to the page the conscious presence of your deepest truest self in the moment?
  • Have you thought it just isn’t possible or it’s too hard to express your gifts as a legacy?

You create what is memorable by how you passed through this world one moment at a time. Doing it with words makes your presence all the more powerful.

Your legacy is constructed of the bricks of consciousness, of the moments of your days stacked one atop and next to the other. It’s much like a dry stone wall–one rock fitted inevitably and perfectly next to the neighboring rock. No filler. No mortar. Just rock by rock. (Similarly Anne Lamott’s famous anecdote in Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
gets at this too. Bird by bird, her brother got the report done.)

Whether it’s rock by rock or bird by bird or word by word or tweet by tweet,  your legacy is created like that–day by day, word by word, moment by moment. You construct your legacy a day at a time, one moment and one interaction at a time, just as you live it. How you will be remembered? Will your legacy stand like some of Ireland’s dry rock fences, for centuries?

Follow the 30 Day Blogging Challenge on twitter at #blog30.