I make sure I . . . → keep reading]]> I love that I can have clients around the world. I love that I can work anywhere with an internet connection. I love that I don’t have to brush my hair or go to an office or commute more than 13 stairs.

But, sometimes, nothing beats seeing people In Real Life.

I make sure I get a dose of IRL every week. I have a standing co-working cafe date with a friend and colleague. And I try to get together with other people for non-coffee dates pretty regularly. I have a couple of special hypnosis house-call clients here in Portland.

And sometimes I get extra-special doses of IRL time, like today when my friend Maryann, who lives in Philadelphia, and I sat at a cafe and talked and laughed for far longer than either of us realized.

Or like a couple of weeks ago, when I headed to St. Louis to co-teach an in-person workshop with  Janine and spend lots of quality time simply hanging out. (That’s us at the workshop.)

I love seeing my faraway (even if they’re just from the next county) friends IRL and working with clients IRL. There’s something about seeing people in person, that makes it extra exciting.

Don’t worry though.

Even though I have this little idea party in my head about how I can get more IRL time with friends and clients, there’s no way I’m giving up phone coaching any time soon.

Photo of Janine Adams & Shannon Wilkinson at the Create Freedom and Ease with Habits and Routines workshop in St. Louis taken by Ray Marklin

750 Words is a very simple journaling site that counts your words . . . → keep reading]]> In that post about cheating, I mentioned that it was partially drafted on the site 750 words (as was this post). I’ve been on and off of 750 Words for the last year, racking up over 80,000 words in 98 different daily entries.

750 Words is a very simple journaling site that counts your words as you type and let’s you know when you’ve reached 750 words. It has a clean easy-to-use interface, and somehow the wide blank screen invites you to write rather intimidates you.

Why 750?

The creator of the site, Buster Benson, wanted to do something like morning pages from Julia Cameron’s creativity classic, The Artist’s Way.

The idea of morning pages is to write three pages long-hand each morning before doing anything else. It clears the gunk out of your mind so you can get to your creative work with clarity and ease.

I’ve dabbled in morning pages off and on for years. About 10 or 15 years after I started, I read about 750 words. I always like writing my morning pages longhand, so I wasn’t sure how typing into a website would be.

Turns out I love it!

There are still plenty of times when I write longhand. There are just some ideas that come out better that way. But for these morning pages, this dump of whatever is in my head when I wake up? Typing is just fine.

The site also gives you plenty of electronic cookies for getting your writing done. I love the chain of green Xs at the top of each morning’s page.

I love the badges you’re awarded for doing certain numbers of pages in a row. I’m back at a penguin, and working again toward a Flamingo.

You can also get badges for completing your 750 words without distractions and in a certain amount of time (that’s a cheetah!) I find myself wanting certain badges. Right now, I’m coveting the Turquoise Horse. Which is elusive. You get it for publicly joining a monthly challenge, and writing 750 words every day that month.

For what purpose?

Beyond the morning pages idea, there are people who write novels on 750 words. People who journal. People using it for more things than you can imagine.

If you’re interested in cultivating a writing practice, I highly recommend it. If you do give it a try, you might be very surprised at how motivating those green Xs and silly animal badges can be.

These rules are not only unwritten, but they are also apparently unconscious. I didn’t even know they existed until I violated them!

When considering how I could blog more with ease, many of the ideas I came . . . → keep reading]]> It turns out I have rules. This month-long blogging challenge has been bringing them up left and right.

These rules are not only unwritten, but they are also apparently unconscious. I didn’t even know they existed until I violated them!

When considering how I could blog more with ease, many of the ideas I came up with were met with, yeah, but that’s cheating.

Cheating Who?

Two of the many rules I’ve discovered are:

• Anything you’ve already written doesn’t count. Even if you wrote it yesterday (i.e. writing in advance doesn’t count).
• Ideas you came up with before don’t count.

Isn’t it interesting that things I could do to make it easier don’t count. And, essentially I have to gut out the idea generating and writing on a daily basis. You know, put the challenge in the challenge!

Changing the Rules

Luckily I have not-so-secret weapons, like people in my corner to point this out, and ways to make change with ease.

Incidentally this post came from a list of ideas of for blog posts I have in Evernote and was partially drafted during a 750words.com writing session.

When I . . . → keep reading]]> It’s Friday afternoon, and I’m about to wrap up for the week. Well, that’s not exactly true. I will be doing a bit of work over the weekend, but I want my brain to be able to take a break from obsessing thinking about work.

Except, I find that really hard to do.

When I do unplug completely over the weekends, my Monday’s can be lost mornings, trying to get going again, unsure what my priorities are, a bit of a rut you might say.

Knowing this about myself, I’ve decided to build a bridge to Monday. A nice, beautiful but very user-friendly bridge that crosses over the weekend.

I can play all around, over and under it, and then after the weekend, I am clearly connected between where I ended my work on Friday and restart it on Monday.

Built of Notes and Qualities

This bridge is built of notes and key words and qualities. Not too much, or it will be overwhelming when I look at it again. Just enough to know exactly where I want to start, and how to focus my attention.

This bridge is more than a to do list. It’s more like friendly graffiti, reminding why these particular things matter to me.

• Priority 1 – because it feels so great to have it finished.
• Priority 2 – because that will make Wednesday go, oh-so-much-more-smoothly.
• Priority 3 – because it’s been bugging you for awhile and you’ll love it when it’s no longer a problem!

What are your bridge-building skills like? When might a bridge help you stay out of a rut?

Photo Credit: The Pont du Gard in Southern France by Me

Today, I wanted to get a project finished, and I said it (and typed it to my Mastermind Superheroes group): “You can do it Duffy!”

It became my mantra while . . . → keep reading]]> It’s true. One of the phrases I use to motivate myself is from the ’70s ABC Afterschool Special: The Amazing Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon.

Today, I wanted to get a project finished, and I said it (and typed it to my Mastermind Superheroes group): “You can do it Duffy!”

It became my mantra while training for my first marathon last year. It also made me smile at a critical point about 22 miles in when my sweetie hollered it at me from the sidelines.

Don’t knock the cheeze, it works for me.

What gets you going?

Perhaps Duffy can help. To experience the power that is Duffy Moon you can watch just the catch phrase, or the whole show on YouTube.

Under his guidance, we learned our chosen instruments more deeply, and we expanded beyond them. I was already playing clarinet so I also learned . . . → keep reading]]> Mr. Leonard, my Junior High School band teacher popped up in the People You May Know box on Facebook. Wow. Just seeing his name and picture brought back so many memories!

Under his guidance, we learned our chosen instruments more deeply, and we expanded beyond them. I was already playing clarinet so I also learned Soprano Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, even Contra-Bass Clarinet, which was taller than me at the time.

After that we expanded beyond our instrument family, and I learned to play the Oboe.

He even commissioned a symphony for us! It felt so amazing to play the world premiere of a symphony as a young teen.

We played classical music and popular music. Every time I hear Handel’s Water Music or The Theme from Star Wars I think of Mr. Leonard.

Not just about the music

He wasn’t just a teacher of music and band, (which he was amazing at) but also a teacher of habits and skills and self-esteem and community and doing more than you ever thought you could do.

We had a chair system. Regularly we had blind competitions where we’d play pieces we’d practiced or sometimes, as I recall, sight read music. The system taught us fairness and friendly competition, the payoff for practicing, the consequences of not practicing.

He expected a lot from us, and gave a lot to us, and we did our best. Well, except when there was a substitute teacher.

All this in a Junior High School music program, in an under-funded district, in a community that was losing its blue-collar industry and shifting between rural and suburban.

As I think about it now, I wonder where the funding came for all of those instruments, the symphony, the space. I think of all the time and effort and love Mr. Leonard put into the program and all of us students throughout the years.

After Junior High, my interests shifted. I stopped playing the clarinet, (my niece is now playing it in her school band) but I never forgot everything I learned from Mr. Leonard, especially how to teach what you really care about.

Thank you for teaching Mr. Leonard.

Do you have a teacher you’d like to thank? Someone who made an impression on you? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

Photo credit: Clarinet – Rings by APMus on Flickr
There must be a photo of me playing clarinet that looks like it’s been through an instagram filter, but in the interest of time, I’m using this great shot of a clarinet instead.

Love this time of year. Especially when we get a few blue sky days in a row. It really feels like winter is finally over.

Today’s post is short for two reasons: Firstly, it’s the second Tuesday of the month, and secondly, I’m trying out blogging from my . . . → keep reading]]>
Fresh salad from the garden!

Love this time of year. Especially when we get a few blue sky days in a row. It really feels like winter is finally over.

Today’s post is short for two reasons: Firstly, it’s the second Tuesday of the month, and secondly, I’m trying out blogging from my iPhone.

Having these calls each week creates space for me to work through stuck places, to process aloud, to ask for advice, and . . . → keep reading]]> Each week I have two regularly scheduled calls. One is with my mastermind Superheroes group and the other is with a friend and colleague who was in a different mastermind group with me.

Having these calls each week creates space for me to work through stuck places, to process aloud, to ask for advice, and be held gently accountable.

Accountability. It’s not a dirty word.

That accountability is especially important. No one shakes their fingers at me if I don’t do something, but they do cheer for me when I do, and hold the space when I don’t. It’s a safe space where I can get at the issue, and figure out how to do what it is I really want to do.

Over the years, I’ve had different relationships that filled this need. I’ve had accountability buddies by phone and by email, a couple of different mastermind groups, and I’ve worked with coaches.

Do you have someone in your corner?

Having someone like this in your life is different than a romantic partner, a parent or even most friends. You need to be able to be specific about how you would like them to respond. What gentle accountability looks, sounds and feels like for you.

This person can be a friend, someone you’ve interacted with at a workshop or online, or a coach or other professional. What matters most, is that you’re both committed to the accountability relationship and to achieving what it is you want.