Practice Practice Practice

While assessing the results of 2010 and preparing ourselves for 2011 - one thing people may not consider is practice. What would you like to practice every day? What could become a practice you do every day? There are some key elements to practice that are important to consider. 


1. Consistency: choose to practice something you really are motivated to do on a consistent basis. Often, we can begin by tweaking a practice already in use. Is there something you do every day that can be modified to meet your new aspirations? Are there key things you do each day that may serve as a regular, repeatable stepping off point for the new habit? For example  - push ups can be easily incorporated by saying that you will always drop and do them after going to the restroom, or after some other regular activity. Just drop and do them wherever you are.


2. High Interest: If you don't like it - don't kid yourself. Intense bribery is likely the only route. Choose something easier, more pleasant - and link it to something else. Such as - I can have coffee, but only after eating a healthy breakfast which includes no bread and a fruit, and the coffee can only be without sugar (I have done this one, and I got used to black coffee within about 9 days). 


3. An old love: Something you have tried before and wish you had succeeded at. If you tried it before, you may find it easier to stick to it this time. You can check out this web site and see where you would place yourself in the stages of change. You will want to be at the Preparation stage or "higher" to choose this goal with some likelihood of success. 


4. Process: Choose a process and have a goal to the process. 2010 was the "Year of the Muse" for me. I took each month to work on developing a form of creativity. I appreciate this approach because each month I have leeway - I can change the approach and still meet the goal. I do stick to one item for a month, with the end of the month as a time to re-evaluate and decide whether to continue to shift the approach. I spent the first three months with one project. The next three months I changed art forms each month. During the last six months I figured out which art I wanted to focus on and stayed the course for the rest of the year. A monthly check-in with the expectation to re-evaluate is helpful for staying reflective and on track. 


Write in to say what you may be contemplating for the next year's process... I haven't yet decided mine. I would love to hear some ideas. 

New Year's Resolutions - Coming Soon

While working on the holiday lists, and contemplating all that needs to be done, why not take a break to think over the last year?

Suggestion for preparing to make a New Year's Resolution:
Use the time in the car, in the shower, on the couch for 5 minutes to look back at the year and really appreciate what this year was about for you. What have you accomplished? What have you learned this year? What do you appreciate most that has come this year? Try to keep it positive for now... but look at those things you really appreciated about your own approach to your family life, to your work, and to your creative practices.

Also, what have you really appreciated from others? Who showed you a special kindness you still remember? Who was it that just did that little extra you never said "thank you" for?

Be thinking of how you might be able to move into some special kind of giving in the next year. Nothing is solid. Just looking, watching, listening to how things are happening. Are you enjoying what you are doing for others? Are they enjoying being with you? How do want them to experience life with you?

Try not to make lists for next year, yet. Just use this time to watch how things are happening without changing anything.

I bet you'll be surprised to find some new delight you never fully appreciated before. If you don't see one... try to be more the observer and less the critic for now. Let the ideas come when they come instead of purposefully trying to think of them.

Today is a Day of Stars

Okay - so it may seem funny - but try just a little - what if today you realized you were the star of something... your life.. this situation you're in. What would happen. Use today to make it happen. Make calls you would never make, forget that you have a lack of luck. Know in your bones that that inkling you've had for weeks about a project or something else you're supposed to do - the time to do it is today. Don't consider it goofy to do this. Consider it a dare. An experiment.

Now tell me - what happened? We can take a poll and see if the results were good or bad... later.

Remember: "Do one thing every day that scares you." - Eleanor Roosevelt.

Making Your Life Come to Life

Starting a fire in the fireplace for the first time since it got cold outside, I remembered something deep in my body, in my breath... that you have to love the flame in order  for it to grow under your air. Have you ever tried this? If you blow too hard, it doesn't stoke the fire at all. And blowing too softly does nothing; it will still go out. However, a firm yet gentle loving breath will stroke the fire and make the kindling catch. You give some of the breath of your life to the life of the fire.

So it is with whatever creative endeavor we seek to bring to a new level. The spark, the small flame of our idea is so vulnerable and needs our loving care to guide it to the next level of coming into existence.

This isn't some woo-woo idea about just feeling the project is important, but is really putting our own physical  work into the project, in the right amount, with the right timing. In this way it comes alive, but is not killed with our zealousness or a burn-out on enthusiasm. New projects literally can inspire (breath into) us. Some people get so excited they forget to sleep or give proper care to the idea, meaning rest.  Instead, they breath too hard - they act on it and act on it and spend all their energy right away, burning it up as they go so there is nothing left at the end of the day or at the end of the week, and their enthusiasm burns out.

What project or work are you thinking of as you read this? How can you give gentle pressure to your effort, without overkill? Around the holidays, so many people put so much effort into pleasing others and getting to all their friends and family that it can feel empty - like they are too exhausted to actually enjoy the fruits of their efforts, and they are burned out and restless on the actual day of celebration. How can you back off, but still give that controlled and loving effort to the work at hand?