Jun 27
“And every day, the world will drag you by the hand, yelling, “This is important! And this is important! And this is important! You need to worry about this! And this! And this!” And each day, it’s up to you to yank your hand back, put it on your heart and say, “No. This is what’s important.”
― Iain Thomas
Happy Monday!
Doug recently helped me hang our new Letterfolk letter board in our home, and I love it! I love quotes, as our refrigerator is filled with quotes and photo magnets! With our letter board I can now, as frequently as I would like, change the quotes displayed in our home! If you love mantras and quotes, this is a great way to easily and visually display the mantras and quotes you love. Our Letterfolk board currently reads, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” — Helen Keller.
A few photos of Letterfolk boards, from around the web, are shown below.
Happy Wednesday!
The above images are via Letterfolk.
Below are some ways you can foster more creativity into your life, which have helped me when I have felt stuck creatively.
1. Set a Schedule – Setting and sticking to a schedule to work on your creative endeavors is really important. Otherwise, too often, time slips by with little work completed. Take advantage of little bits and chunks of time, even if that is all you are able to work into your schedule. Small, incremental progress adds up over time, and you will be amazed how much you can get done in a small amount of time, if you put your mind to it!
2. Dedicated Work Space – Having a dedicated work space frees you from distractions, while providing a place where you can surround yourself with items that inspire you and make you feel the most comfortable. It also helps to separate work life from personal life, a mix that can often leave some people overwhelmed. Also, don’t be afraid to mix things up every now and then — working from the deck on a nice day can be a refreshing break in the routine, particularly when your creative juices have stalled.
3. Discuss Your Creative Endeavors — Share your work with others that you trust, and talk about what is going on in your work. Having someone/some people to share ideas and discuss hurdles, is vital to keeping an open mind and developing creative solutions.
4. Explore Other Creative Interests – Working everyday on the same project or types of projects can become a drain, at times. It is easy to get stuck in a creative rut and fall into patterns that you may not even realize exist. Exploring other creative interests, can provide you an outlet that is different enough to keep your mind stimulated, while still keeping you thinking about your creative work from a different perspective. Thus, it is a good idea to pursue other creative endeavors that you enjoy.
5. Get Ample Sleep – Sleep deprivation can make it difficult to focus on anything, let alone your creative work. When you are tired, you are not going to have many creative insights; and when your body is not at its best, neither is your mind. Thus, it is important to have ample daily sleep to help you continue to steadily pursue your creative projects.
6. Take Breaks – If you find that you are in the “zone,” and you find yourself working for hours, then embrace it. During these times, you often can produce your best work. However, a couple of regularly scheduled breaks, throughout your work day, can serve as a great way to re-energize. When you get stuck, it is a good idea to take a break, as it forces you to stop and step away and, during these breaks, you are more likely to see the problem you are trying to solve in a new light.
7. Regular Exercise – Daily exercise is a great way to get your creative juices flowing. It provides space and many people devise ideas while they are exercising that they would not otherwise discover. So, if you are stuck in you creative project, go take a walk or run, and you will be likely to solve the problem or road block that you are facing.
Happy creating!
Jun 13
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” — William Penn
Sometimes it feels like I never have enough time to get everything done on my ever growing to do list. I believe one of the reasons we feel like we do not have enough time is we get caught up on what others are doing instead of focusing on what we can actually be doing. Often, we feel rushed, busy, and unaccomplished because of comparison. Comparison is the worst game because nobody wins. I feel better and much more productive when I focus on what I can accomplish versus comparing myself to what others are doing. The lesson to having more time: focus on your goals and dreams!
Additionally, I really like the idea of a “Stop-Doing List,” coined by Jocelyn K. Glei, which has changed my perspective in relation to time. Glei states, “In this Age of Distraction, we’re all dodging and weaving between so much incoming information that what you don’t do on a daily basis has become as important—if not more—as what you do execute on.”
Below are two lists that Glei follows, which also might help you create more time and space in your daily schedule.
Here’s a list of the things I don’t do while working:
I don’t schedule meetings in the morning.
I don’t listen to music or radio that has words.
I don’t look at my email until I’ve done 90 mins of deep-attention work.
I don’t treat emails from people I don’t know as urgent.
I don’t look at social media until the afternoon, and then only on breaks.
I don’t tweet live. (I schedule almost everything in advance.)
I don’t over program my daily schedule so that there is no downtime.
I don’t work more than three hours without a break.
I don’t answer my phone or texts in the morning.
I don’t read the news.
I don’t eat at my desk.
I don’t work past 6:00 p.m.
And here’s a list of things I make sure to do:
I do make my to-do list for tomorrow the night before.
I do focus on deep-attention before hyper-attention work.
I do regularly identify and update my goals for the next 6 months, and the actions I need to take to meet them.
I do always have a variety of projects on my slate so I can shift tasks based on my mood and energy level, while still getting important stuff done.
I do meet (or catch up with) one interesting person a week.
I enjoy listening to podcasts while I am working. Below is a list of my current favorite podcasts, that you might be interested in checking out!
1. Good Life Project Radio – Good Life Project Radio is hosted by Jonathan Fields. Good Life Project Radio comprises in-depth, unscripted, deeply-inspiring conversations and insights from artists, entrepreneurs, makers, and world-shakers. You can also view Good Life TV here, to watch past interviews.
2. Elise Gets Crafty — The Elise Gets Crafty podcast is hosted by Elise Cripe. The focus of this podcast is discussing creative small business.
3. The Lively Show — The Lively show is hosted by Jess Lively. The Lively show is designed to uplift, inspire, and help you add a little extra intention to your everyday. Episodes relate to various aspects of our lives including possessions, personal habits, relationships, and career.
4. The RobCast — The RobCast is hosted by Rob Bell, a storyteller and former church pastor, who explores the idea that everything is spiritual.
5. Design Matters — Design Matters is hosted by Debbie Millman. In this podcast, Debbie Millman interviews all types of designers, artists, writers, and educators, and the conversations during the interviews are fantastic and very thought-provoking.
6. The Minimalist — At age 30, best friends Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus walked away from their corporate careers, jettisoned most of their material possessions, and started focusing on what’s truly important. In this podcast Joshua and Ryan, known to their millions of readers as “The Minimalists,” discuss living a meaningful life with less stuff.
Happy Friday! Wishing you a great weekend. If the weather holds, we plan to go to the Eastern Shore with our little fur girl!
May 6
“‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.” –Alice Walker
If you want more happiness, joy, and energy, gratitude is a quality to foster. Gratitude brings our attention to the present, enabling us become fully present and grateful in that moment, for the smallest things that we sometimes take for granted. The deeper our appreciation, the more life flows in harmony. Also, the more we are able to welcome everything that happens in our lives with gratitude, the more we are able to experience equanimity.
Why should the simple act of thinking about who and what I’m grateful for make such a big difference in one’s life?
If you wish to infuse gratitude into your life, here are some suggestions:
Below are thoughts on gratitude that I routinely reference, shown below.
Be Thankful
Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don’t know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
Because it means you’ve made a difference.
It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.
GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.
–Author Unknown
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Moms, Fur Moms, and Moms-at-Heart!
Are you a ‘workhorse’ or a ‘racehorse’? I consider myself a workhorse in almost every respect.
I cannot race through something just to finish. However, I can keep going, making incremental progress and take a longer view, thereby working towards what I really want to achieve, which takes time, effort, and work, in most cases. In relation to my long-term photography project, which I hope and plan to finish in the coming months, and with really anything in life, the best piece of advice I have received – is to continue to put one foot in front of the other and keep going without being paralyzed by it all. This advice can be applied to really any area of our lives. I believe one can accomplish so much with this approach, if one is willing to live with delayed gratification; be wiling to consistently work hard; have the ability to live with the uncertainty and unknown; and have faith that one’s efforts will pay off in the long-term, if one keeps going no matter obstacles one might encounter along the way.
So, if there is something that you really want to accomplish, chances are, taking the ‘workhorse’ approach will benefit you more in the long run versus the ‘racehorse’ approach. The ‘racehorse’ approach may feel like an easier approach in the short-term, but it will not lead to the same desired outcomes. After all, steady progress, work, and effort can lead to great things.
We hope that you have a great weekend! We are visiting Keeneland with our fur girl, Victory! Fortunately, Victory is permitted on the grounds of Keeneland!
“Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.” — Earl Nightingale
Mar 15
What do you do when you get stuck on something? Do you buckle down and work through it? Or, do you take a temporary break?
I recently learned about the term Albert Einstein coined as ‘Combinatory Play,’ where Einstein developed some of his best scientific ideas during his violin breaks.
Combinatory play is the act of opening up one mental channel by engaging in another. This is taking unrelated ideas and putting them together to generate new ideas. In Einstein’s case, he used his violin breaks as a form of combinatory play. When Einstein was stuck, he would set aside his work and play the violin for a few hours. It was during these times, while playing the violin, that he would suddenly get an idea(s) that would help him solve the problem he was working through.
Combinatory play includes everything from studying new subjects to playing instruments to engaging in physical activity, etc. So, the next time you get stuck on something, set the task aside and focus on something that you enjoy doing and you will be amazed that you are able to solve the problem that you have painstakingly been working to solve. While using the treadmill, I usually get some of my best ideas and answers to problems that I am working through. Maybe you already engage in combinatory play and you didn’t even know it!
“Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.” — Albert Einstein
Mar 9
I have been working on my long-term photography project for what seems like forever. However, I am making progress and the finish line is almost within sight! Below are some inspirational quotes for those who are also working through a large endeavor!
“Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come. Remember everything you have faced, all the battles you have won, and all the fears you have overcome.” — Unknown
“Ten years from now, make sure you can say that you chose your life, you didn’t settle for it.” — Unknown
“Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.” — Earl Nightingale
“Creativity is always a leap of faith. You’re faced with a blank page, blank easel, or an empty stage.” — Julia Cameron
“Creativity takes courage.” — Henri Matisse
“Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits.” — Twyla Tharp
“Everything you ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” — George Addair”
“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. — Erich Fromm
“I live a creative life, and you can’t be creative without being vulnerable. I believe that Creativity and Fear are basically conjoined twins; they share all the same major organs, and cannot be separated, one from the other, without killing them both. And you don’t want to murder Creativity just to destroy Fear! You must accept that Creativity cannot walk even on step forward except by marching side-by-side with its attached sibling of Fear.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
“You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” — Maya Angelou
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill
“The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost
“The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” — Thomas A. Edison
Food for thought: “Interesting people do things. They share what they know, what they’re curious about and what they worry about. They have interests and hobbies and causes and places and people they care about. ” Check out this interesting article by Jessica Hagy.
After reviewing the list below, I have to agree, that the most interesting people I know and admire, possess most of these characteristics!
Happy Friday! Have a great and interesting weekend!
The above image is courtesy of Jessica Hagy.
biscuit's space | The blog of photographer Katherine Carver 