It promised to be a scorcher today, so I was out early for my morning walk. I hadn’t gone far when I saw a frail, white-haired gent in a motorized wheelchair approaching. I felt suddenly very fortunate to be walking upright and at a brisk pace.

“Good morning!” I said, as he neared me.

“Helluva day for convertibles,” he said, looking at me with a glint in his eye.

He was past me before what he said fully sank in. And then I was grinning from ear to ear. Yes, indeed. It’s a helluva day for convertibles. I kept that cheesy grin on my face all the way home.

In that brief exchange, my elderly gentleman demonstrated that he knew something—he knew a valuable secret. He knew how to free himself of limitations!

He wasn’t handicapped and confined to a wheelchair—oh, no! He was out in a convertible and it was certainly a fine day for convertibles!

The secret is all about interpretation. How are you interpreting your circumstances? How are you interpreting events? How are you interpreting limitations…obstacles…handicaps? Are you traveling in a wheelchair or a convertible?

Because…..it’s a helluva day for convertibles!

Is your business plan—your blueprint—a nice, neat, little package planned out in detail far into the future? Or does it allow for unforeseen change and possibilities—is it a living, breathing organic thing?

How about building flexibility and innovation into a plan from the beginning? Can we expect and plan for change?

There is wisdom in keeping a plan simple and the structure minimal. It doesn’t need to be detailed out too far into the future. 90-days is good; a year is tops.

I love the article Bob Reiss wrote in Entrepreneur, “Write Your Business Plan in Pencil”. Some of his thoughts:

• The smartest entrepreneurs plan on growing and prepare for change.
• One of the attributes of successful entrepreneurs is flexibility.
• You will probably have to change, amend, modify, scrap or abandon your original business plan altogether.
• Every entrepreneur discovers new opportunities that didn’t appear until there was actually a business up and running.
• Most small business owners he knows never wrote a business plan. He hasn’t in 16 startups!

Michelle at Creative Emergence sees how the principles in improvisation theater can apply to “adapt, create and improvise in the work place.” [flexibility & creativity!]

She says,

Or consider the Upstart Smart interview with Alexander Renzi about how he started [me] & goji, the first custom cereal and granola company. Notice how he built in flexibility and creativity!

• “We wanted to have a brand that sort of had legs, not something that would pigeon hole us into cereal.”
• “Once or twice a month, we sort of have a big-picture plan of what we’d like to accomplish and the path that we want to take.”

What ideas can you think of to incorporate flexibility and creativity into a business plan? How important do you think it is to factor these things in? What have you experienced?

I did purposefully raise them according to their own individual bent though. I wanted no clones—and I didn’t get any. I got four delightful originals!

If you follow this blog—you know that I homeschooled my children—which gave me some advantages. Here are some things I was able to do with them that may have made the difference.

1. Believe in them absolutely. Believe in who each one is—and be able to structure their schooling around that.
2. Provide opportunities for—or just allow— “discovery learning”. This means they can try things on their own and learn from cause and effect. It fosters independence.
3. Encourage independent thinking (no clones!). When they are encouraged to think for themselves—they have more confidence—and are open to creative approaches and solutions.
4. Acknowledge and honor each one’s unique gift/strength mix. There are no expectations to be like someone else, but strong expectations that each will be remarkable in his own arena.
5. Let them play Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow 101 (How to Get Out of the Rat Race).

Here’s a hodge-podge of what that looks like:

Shannon is extremely social and loved doing hair. She also liked law—but hair won out. In high school, she had developed relationships at a high-end salon…followed and interviewed stylists…did a science project on the chemistry of hair…etc. Today she owns her own high-end salon.

Tim is kinesthetic (always moving)…right-brained…brilliant. When he was 15 and working in a window warehouse—he learned American Sign Language from the deaf foreman he worked for and translated back and forth between the foreman and everyone else in the company! Today he is building capital for real estate investment.

Michael is a structures and systems kind of guy—left-brained, solid. It was his idea…at 12…to start a lawn company with his younger brother, Pat. Pat was the aesthetic part of the team—he designed the flyers, the way the yards had to look, etc. Mike was the negotiator.

Together, they made thousands of dollars each year for about 8 years. They bought their own commercial equipment…did their own advertising—full page ads in the neighborhood newspaper—did their own scheduling…estimating…negotiating…banking, etc.

They read most of Robert Kiyosaki’s books…and books on lawn diseases, etc. They hired other kids when their workload was too heavy—matching skills to the job at hand.

Mike will graduate college this year with a double major—Business Management and Entrepreneurial Business. Pat is also in college and is exploring ways to make a significant impact through entrepreneurship.

Four kids—all different—but all entrepreneurial!

Have you raised entrepreneurs? What’s your experience? Do you want to expose your kids to entrepreneurial thinking? How will you do that?

Imagine you’re Sleeping Beauty and you’re awaiting the magical kiss of Prince Charming to awaken you from your sleep. You sense someone leaning over you and—it’s the Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood! You’re in the wrong story and the ending is not at all what you want or hoped!

Do you know that the life you’re living right now was created by the story you’ve told yourself over and over in previous years? And that most of what we tell ourselves—our self-talk—is subconscious?? Meaning we aren’t even aware of it??

Jorge Barba—in his post “Innovations Begin When the System Gets Stuck” –– talked about the mental dynamics of “stuckness” for organizations. One of the key contributors to “stuckness” was “living in a story that leads you to inaction”.

Wrong story—wrong results!! Do you want your life or organization to have a better ending? Then tell yourself a different story!!!!

Rewriting your own story line is a powerful concept that has helped me tremendously—and it’s thrilling to see the transformation in my clients, too—when they grab hold of the idea. It unleashes hope & creativity & gets them unstuck.

What can you put in your new story?

• Well, usually we go on a little treasure hunt first and uncover positive attributes, gifts, strengths, talents, passions, etc. All of these can go in the story—especially in an “I am….” form. For example, “I am resourceful, strategic, considerate of others, etc.”
• Positive experiences can go in the story as well as learnings and positive interpretations of negative experiences.
• What you really desire can go in the story in a present tense form. For example, “I am the founder of a multi-million dollar training company. I live in a condo by the ocean, etc.”
• You put in your story your vision of what you really want to be manifest in your life or organization.

And then you speak it out loud to yourself daily—-because your own voice in your own ears is the only thing powerful enough to write over the old scripts playing in your head.

Don’t give voice to the old story line—-you know, the inner voice that says you’re not good enough, it will never work, remember this or that from your personal history, etc. You don’t want to live in that story anymore!!

First you write your story—then you speak it! Are you ready for the challenge? Anybody really going to do it??

I hope so! Don’t get caught living in the wrong story!

When you’re growing…when you’re changing…sometimes you just have to shed your old skin because it’s too confining—you have to create space for more!

I’m there right now. I’m moving into a new phase of my big-picture business vision. I’ve got new giants (of fear) to fight…new structures and systems to create…new doors of opportunity to walk through…new skills and knowledge to master…new growth-directed relationships to form.

It’s both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. But that’s always the way it is when you walk out of your comfort zone into the unknown!

(The alternative is worse! If you don’t move forward—your comfort zone turns into the DEAD ZONE!!)

Anyway—the plan is to create space for the new—for more. So, I am dedicating more of my time in the immediate future to the Eliminate and Reduce quadrants of the Right-Brain Time Scheduling Strategy.

And that’s a little scary…..letting go of things that were part of my growth and support in the last phase of my business vision.

For instance, I’m quitting Toastmasters which was HUGE in my personal growth in so many ways over the past 3 years:

• It helped me get over a mortifying fear of people.
• It was an outlet to express my ideas and to motivate and inspire people. I had feedback weekly.
• I was VP of Education for my club for a year, which allowed me to act as a catalyst, creating systems to help new members feel confident, and all members to reach their personal goals.

But now…Toastmasters is part of my comfort zone and I’m having to let it go to make space for growth outside of my comfort zone.

I’m also overhauling my office—eliminating papers…files…computer stuff…books (gulp!)…emails…subscriptions, etc. that don’t serve this phase of my business development. AND reducing what I DO need to structures and systems that are simple and easy to use.

Let me tell you—this stuff does not come naturally to me. I tend to keep and become emotionally tied to just about everything. BUT—it’s what I really need to do to move forward.

I have to create space if I want more. And I do.

Anybody at this place besides me? Inspiring words to share? Is this a challenge for you like it is for me? What are you being called toward that makes it worth creating space for?

Sometimes I take a sabbatical to an imaginary place…and sometimes it’s a place of natural beauty. But it’s always a space to slow down….exhale….and just be.

Recently, I experienced this in a book, the 50th anniversary edition of Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I’d never read it before…have you?

She wrote the book while vacationing for a few days alone on an island beach. And she invites us into that peaceful place with her. We smell what she smells, feel what she feels, hear what she hears, and draw on her wisdom and strength to reflect on beauty…simplicity…and life. It’s an experience I recommend!

This amazing woman was a force to be reckoned with. She raised five children after the kidnapping and death of her first child. She was the first woman in America to earn a first-class glider pilot’s license and then won the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal for her aviation and exploration adventures. She also won the National Book Award for the novel she wrote about those adventures, and was a best-selling author all of her life.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh was so accomplished, such a role model for a full-out life! It’s remarkable—yet confirming—to me that she advocates solitude in regular doses—sabbaticals!—as the wellspring of that life force!

“Every person…should be alone sometime during the year, some part of each week, and each day.”

“…these are the most important times in one’s life—when one is alone. Certain springs are tapped only when we are alone.”

Wow, those are incredible words coming from her! And I know I have to have this solitude, this time alone—every day—plus sabbaticals at regular intervals. I mean I really need it! How about you?

If I don’t get that time—I miss out on strength and focus and grounding.

What’s your experience? Do you practice this? What works for you? What do you need?

I read this piece over the weekend and recognized that inner stirring—a yearning to live on the wild side—to “fly”.

Were we born to be wild?

Is your heart beating faster? Is there something inside that is crying out to fly? What’s stopping you?

Are you waiting for permission?
Have you been institutionalized?
Are you trapped by your career?

Will you wait until the yearning dies?

A friend was bemoaning this week how differently kids play today than when he was young. When Ron was growing up, he’d get up and he and his friends would pack a bag and head out for the day. Every day was an adventure—uncharted territory.

Along the way, they would play “What if….”

• “What would happen if we did this?”
• “What would happen if we tried that?”

And then they would do or try whatever they had thought of—often at risk of life or limb—and see what happened! They had a summer of experiences!

I told you in a previous post that I homeschooled my kids. One of the things that I encouraged was creative play—something where they would use their imaginations.

So—we bought toys for play value—tons of Legos, blocks, PlayMobile (play people). Costumes, art supplies, tons of paper, boxes, etc. Outdoor play was encouraged.

The kitchen was open for experimentation. This resulted in candlelight lunches on one hand—and then there was the time they mixed together flour, water, food coloring, etc. to make “fake poop” which they mixed with corn and floated in the basement toilet to surprise Dad! Ah, well—discovery learning!

What does this have to do with creative work you might ask? Well, I’ve been thinking–and I think that the elements necessary for creative work are found in creative play:

• A wide-open space that’s not already filled in. Not prescribed. Like an unplanned day, or a blank canvas, or a piece of white paper, or… Something that invites you to act upon it, to make your mark.
• Imagine. “What if…?” “What if I started with a red ink background?” “What if I said what I really thought?” “What if we put that on top of this?”
• Experiment. Try it. Play with it.
• Discover. What happened?
• Experience….learning…..confidence….creativity….unique insight.

An observation about creative play versus prescribed play (or work): In creative play, you act upon your environment instead of your environment acting upon you. It’s proactive. And that’s a good thing!

I see it in my children: They are all independent thinkers, creative, self-motivated, entrepreneurial. They are used to acting upon their world!

I’m using creative play with this blog! I know I should write to specific keywords, my categories and tags need some serious organization, etc., etc., etc.

But…..What if….

• I wrote in an unprescribed place that was not filled in?
• I wrote what I really wanted to without regard to keywords or categories?
• I played with this blog?

Where have you practiced creative play? Where would you like to? More ideas please?

If a picture is worth a thousand words—and clarity is power—then how powerful would it be to have a clear picture—or metaphor—of who you are and what you do?

Do you have one?

Let’s play with this for a while. This isn’t a test. There’s no penalty for coming up short. No one else need ever know. You can change your metaphor at any time.

Think about the contribution you make. Now try to find a metaphor to describe it. It should be something that resonates with you—gets you excited when you think about it!

• Are you a rock—do you provide stability?
• Are you a bridge—do you connect people?
• Are you a tube of paint—do you add color to the world?
• Are you a light switch—do you illuminate the solution?
• Are you a wooden spoon—do you stir things up?

I’ll tell you the metaphor I’ve chosen. I’m an ultrasound! I help you see what it is that’s inside you—waiting to be birthed!

Now I want you to find a metaphor that fits you!

Can we please keep adding metaphors to this list to get the creative juices flowing for everyone? Thanks!

Have you ever been in a place where suddenly your eyes are opened to the obvious—the answer to a riddle in your heart? And as soon as you see it, you realize you’ve known it all along?

That’s where I’m at today…and I’m amazed!

It began last week when I wrote a guest post for Jorja of Living Beyond the Pale. In it, I revealed that although I’m a trained coach, my real credentials come from homeschooling my kids for 19 years…fighting for each one to be free to live in the No-Clone Zone.

The whole homeschooling thing came up again last weekend in my morning coffee with my friend and fellow coach—D.J. Sie. We’ve known each other for a couple of years, but I’ve never really gone into any depth about my homeschooling years with her.

She asked me what got me started homeschooling—and it was this:

My oldest son was 5—and already he had a reputation! He was full of life and a real handful…probably ADD—intense—with every part of his body actively involved in everything he did.

His older sister was every teacher’s model student. But already I could tell that this son would not fit the school mold. He‘d be considered a liability—not an asset. A round peg in a square hole.

To me he was an asset—not a liability—and I was praying for a school that would see him that way too. I had him in preschool at the time.

One day I was waiting to pick him up and I peeped in the window of his classroom door. There was my lively little boy—sitting in a desk—thumb in his mouth—eyes glazed over.

Well—I became “the school” that I was praying for…

….the school for a misfit—a round peg in a square hole. And I was the perfect one to do it because I was a misfit too! Traditional school would have put his fire out!

• He was right-brained–>Great! We can do that!
• He was a kinesthetic, hands-on, always-moving learner–> Great! We can do that!
• He didn’t want to hear stories that were untrue (fiction)–>Great! We can do that!
• He understood things conceptually from the beginning–>Great! We can do that!

I created a learning structure that fit the boy—instead of making the boy fit the learning structure.

Moving forward….

Yesterday I read Dan Pallotta’s fantastic blogpost, Misfit Entrepreneurs. And as I read it, I was on familiar ground—my own turf.

My eyes opened wide: Misfit Entrepreneurs—that’s the tribe I belong to! The people I believe in fiercely. The ones that don’t fit in and never should!

This little revelation has me excited! This is where all my gifts and talents come into play. This is where I come alive! So…

I’m a misfit! Are you one too?