8 Ways to Think Outside the Box

 Am in the middle of changing my blog over to a website (where the blog will be a tab) on WordPress.  This is a major part of my own next steps.  While I'm in the midst, things feel a bit muddled, chaotic, and very very scarey.

For a while, I have been feeling very stuck with my art business and my blogging and generally restless about why that is.  Well, anyone who has gone through uphevals in their life (on purpose or because they had no choice) knows that there comes a time when everything that used to work no longer feels right:  it's a bit tight, a bit scratchy, slightly out of tune, a bit off-kilter.  There are days that feel like you are toiling up hill, days that feel like you're on a ski jump and days that you just might be curled up in a nice dark hole refusing to take the covers off your head.

Having been through uphevals that presented themselves because I mostly stayed in the nice dark hole, and having in the front of my mind  "if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got" I decided to do something other than what I usually do.

I know my pattern, write down all the things I need to do and try to cram them into 24 hours.  Sometimes that includes sleep.  This is my box.  Uncomfortable as it is sometimes, I know it, and can grow smaller if I choose, in order to keep fitting it.  Not this time.  Time for leaving the box behind.

As it happens, as I was looking around for a way to see outside my box, I landed on Christine Kane's site thinking perhaps I would do another retreat with her like the one I did in early 08.  To my delight, she was getting ready to start an Up-Level Your Business (ask and you shall receive) program.  Exactly what I needed.  Then I saw the cost.  And all the voices started clamoring.  And the first thing I did differently was decide that I am worth as much as my art supplies.  And I charged that program (admittedly on a 0% credit card, but hey, I wasn't going to pay it off at the end of the month.  For me?  That's HUGE!)

Well, do not take a Christine Kane program unless you plan on moving.  She does not let you sit on your laurels.  And she gives you a good year at college worth of information (in 3 months) to help you along...and a safe place to practice your new wings.  And, oh yes, a gathering in Asheville, NC, for participants.  Have I mentioned how I adore Asheville?!

I have hired an assistant to make cold calls to shops to help me expand my sources of income, and I have (just today) taken ads out with WholesaleCrafts.com Winter's Buyers Guide (and it wasn't the smallest ad available either - I pushed myself on that one) and New Age Retailer magazine.

I have reserached and (just today - boy today is a high water mark!  but only the first...and I'm going with this flow!) found a lovely spot to conduct women's retreats.  Now that the where is in place, the when and how and what are bursting at the seams to get themselves on paper.  But first I have to fill a few art orders that came in from a mailing last week.

And the sun is out after much rain.

Life is good.  Life is rich and full and will lead us where we allow it to.  I'm preparing the way for a ginormous 2010 which will bring challenges and gratitude and yet new friends. 

So here's a recap:

1.  Write down what you usually do

2.  Brainstorm  some things that you don't usually do because (fill in the blank): 

• I don't spend money on advertising because PR is better
• I never go into any debt at all because who knows what tomorrow will bring
• I only spend money on my art supplies because (well, who needs an excuse for art supplies?)

3.  Pick one of the above and journal about how your life would look if you did that something you don't usually do.  Be creative with how it would look.  Give yourself a budget and go "spend" it and think about how it might shift your outlook.

4.  Identify the walls of your box (you will know them immediately - the minute you think outside your box, the voices that tell you that want you want is silly, impossible, etc., will start up.  That is your box)

5.  Write down the walls of your box (all the voices and what they're saying).

6.  Light a candle, take a deep breath or two and burn the walls of your box.  As you breathe out, bless the old ways that once helped you.  As you breathe in say a prayer of gratitude for this opportunity to think bigger.

7.  Pick one thing you could do that would move you closer to changing what you usually do.

8.  Do it.

9.  Repeat (okay, if you've read this blog at all before you know I'm big on giving something extra, so today you get 9 ways instead of 8).

What do you want to do with your one, wild, wonderful life this next year?

WyldeWoman Wisdom :  There is no more meandering.  There is no more escape - not one more errand to run, not one more load of laundry to wash and fold, not one more phone call to answer, not one more letter to type, not one more word I can write until I take the next step.  Until I am willing to fall. Standing at the very edge of the cliff I shout at god/us, "Are you sure I'm ready for this?  It seems we've been moving awfully fast these past few years...How do You know I'm ready?...the angel leans forward, kisses me on the lips. "Love is all that is real," she says, "good-bye."  She turns my shoulders around.  I face the edge.  I do not jump.  It is more subtle than that.  I simply let go. Christina Baldwin, Calling the Circle: The Once and Future Culture

 

Comments

[Tish]

Very powerful - and exactly what i needed to hear today. I love how the spirits guide you to where you need to be fed. I will read this many more times and meditate on this. I think this is the new beginnings i have been dreaming about.

thank you so much for sharing this.

Stay blessed

[Lois]

Hi Tammy!
Isn't it amazing how the answer always appears (even if sometimes it isn't in the way you thought wanted to go)?
I've always believed in "things happen for a reason" thinking.
I'm glad your path is going in the direction you feel you need to go in. Just don't forget to take some time to look at the scenery while walking down the new pathway.
Good luck on your journey!
Take care!
Lois

[Carla Sanders]

Tammy, so glad I stopped over to see you today. I am eagerly awaiting your new look. I love how you went for it, you said to your art: you've been good to me, I'll be good to you, we are in this creative life together! Go Tammy and Tammy's ART.

And I will choose something to do differently today too.
Blessings and keep writing to us.

Carla

[healingmagichands]

Hey, I'm glad I stopped by today too. I was wondering when you were going to get your car unpacked! No, really, I knew you were at a retreat. Still, it was odd to keep seeing that title.

I need this list. I have been feeling very stuck lately, and now I have a game plan for making a change.

Looking forward to your new look. . .

[linda]

you could have no idea how timely this was for me to read right now, today, this minute...I too have been contemplating and running away, forward two steps, back three, forever it would seem...this post has inspired me to stop and think about that dance and perhaps add a few new steps - FORWARD!

thank you for writing this and sharing your thoughts-you never know what it leads to nor whom you might touch :)

[tinker]

Wow! It sounds like things are really taking off for you - you're stepping forward and the Universe is rising up to meet you. Way to go! Go Tammy go!

[Kirsten Alicia]

Hello Tammy, this is a powerful post & it came to me at exactly the right time. I am listening to the universe & more & more it gives me the answers I need. Thank you for inspiring me today. love & light, Kirsten Alicia.

[Carol Wiebe]

Holy moly, Tammy, you feel stuck and the rest of us still have to run to keep up with you.

[Katie]

Hello! Just stumbled upon your blog and am enjoying it immensely! Have to pull myself away and go be productive for a while. :) Thanks!

Katie

www.kikiandpunkin.etsy.com