As I sit at my desk fiddling with my website(s); tweaking this, adjusting that, playing with the fonts, answering this email, checking out this productivity apps, trying out this zen writing app in the back of my mind I’m chastising myself for not getting on to my IMPORTANT work.

Here’s my plan:

Beginning Monday, I’m going to start a new process.  I’m going to show up at the same time each day for 30 minutes to write.  Sounds simple enough, it’s something Tom McGuane wrote about.  Simply show up every day, I don’t have to write but I can’t do anything else.

I am going to share my experience and I’m going to commit for five days, Monday to Friday.  I’ll see how this journey goes and by next Friday I’ll be a writing machine!

Curious to know how it’s going, you can check in on Google+.  I’d love to hear your tips, thoughts and ideas!

I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on Gratitude during the month of March, if you’d like to join you can sign up here.

Thank you hellolapomme via Flickr

Last night, like I try to do many nights, I got out my journal and started writing. The topic? Why of course it was about procrastination and what’s stopping me from expressing my whole complete unique creative self!

Some of the quick snippets that hit me right away (and I’m sure most of you will or can relate):

• What if they don’t like me
• What if I do this full time and I can’t make money
• Fear of being open, honest and raw — people will laugh
• I’m not good enough
• I’m not that creative

and the big one that sits in the back of mind and always creeps to the front when I feel I’m on a creative roll:

You’ll NEVER make money as a dancer.

So said my father when I was 18, getting ready to graduate from high school and trying to figure out what I would do with my life. Now I don’t dance anymore, due to injuries, but I was good. No prima ballerina, but corps good. I could have made a living.

And you know what? I didn’t remember this comment from my Dad, until about 5 years ago when I was encouraging my husband to pursue his dreams. At the time it angered me. I wanted to go and yell at my Dad,

How could you? How could you trample all over my dream like that?

But I quickly realized, I let him do it.

I let him affect me that way. It’s not what someone says to you, but how you react to it. At that point in my life I didn’t have that insight and I let his comment affect me for 20+ years. Now you might think I’m angry at my Dad, I’m not. God Bless him, he passed away in February 2012 and I wish he was still here so I could say, it’s okay I’m okay and I’m going to be the creative person I deserve to be!

I’m here now, being open, honest and raw and I’m opening the door stepping over the threshold and becoming the Creative person that’s inside.

A couple of side notes:

1. Thank you Dan Goodwin of A Big Creative Yes! for offering the Procrastination program.  This post wouldn’t have happened with out the questions being asked.
2. My Gratitude Habit program starts in March, it’s pay what you can and if you are looking to build a habit of gratitude in your life you can join me on the journey.
3. While I wrote this post, I listened to Aad Guray Nameh by Snatam Kaur on Last.fm.  If you can I encourage you to listen, it’s a beautiful meditative mantra

For many, I know at one time this was an average to-do list for me on any given day:

• Check Facebook: respond to requests, update status (multiple times a day), update my Facebook page, trouble shoot why something isn’t working right etc.…
• Monitor Twitter: respond to tweets, update my own tweets, schedule as necessary, respond to @replies, follow folks, unfollow folks
• Check my Klout score — am I up am I down?  Ack! what’s gone wrong
• Check my email: Gotta get back to everyone right away
• Update my blog at ReneeShupe.com
• Update my blog at RedheadBusinessSolutions.com
• Write, Edit & Schedule my next Newsletter
• and on and on it goes.…

That’s on top of my own marketing, client work and personal projects that matter!  It’s no wonder I was starting to feel over stressed and overwhelmed AND nothing ever got done!

I’m DECLARING right now that this needs to stop!

I desire REAL connection with REAL folks.

Seriously, do you think that if you don’t respond to that email or text message within minutes of receiving it that everything will fall apart?  I have now taken to saying to my 17-year-old step-son when he’s reaching for his phone to respond to a text in the middle of dinner, “Do you NEED to respond right now?  Will you die or the other person on the other end die because you didn’t answer that text within seconds?”, we all know the answer is no.

So this is my new declaration:

• I will do at least one thing related to my IMPORTANT creative work before I look at email
• I will refrain from Tweeting & Facebook until all of my IMPORTANT  work is complete
• I will write everyday (my important work)
• I will strive to make a REAL life connection everyday
• I will be raw, open, honest and focused on what matters not my twitter or facebook numbers
• I will engage
• My phone IS NOT my best friend nor my connection to the “REAL” world

What are some of the ways you engage everyday in the real world?  Share your story.

When I was 15, my best girlfriend was tragically killed in a car accident over the Christmas break, January 3, 1987 actually. Nine years later on the same day my Nana, a woman who had a profound affect on my life, passed way from cancer, my Grandfather a few years later and last year (February 5th) my father.  I’m young and looking back on all of this I realize how much death I’ve experience and I’m sad.

I also realize that I have a period of low productivity in January of every year.  Until 4 years ago I was working a corporate job and I had to get things done.  Now with me making a living on my own terms I can embrace this period and honor those who have mattered in my life and who I miss.

With my birthday being in January as well it sees like an ideal time to step away, take a break, acknowledge, nourish, honor and cherish.

From experience this is what  I have learned:

• Sometimes you need to let go and embrace what your mind, body and soul is asking of you
• Don’t ignore your own inner guidance, the more you listen the more accurate you’ll be with your own needs and self-care
• Take time to honor, cherish and embrace the feelings and needs that are coming up
• It’s okay, everything always works itself out
• The universe will provide you with everything you need
• The process never ends and that’s okay
• Keep learning

and finally sometimes avoidance and the restistance you are feeling is part of a bigger picture that you haven’t yet addressed.  Take the time to embrace the feelings and learn what the lesson in among your resistance and avoidance you just might surprise yourself.

In honor to anyone important that you have lost.  

It’s okay.

Embrace. Honor. Laugh. Cherish.

Know you are blessed.

PS:  I decided to move my Gratitude Habit offering to March.  You can read about it and join if you want to experience more gratitude and abundance in your life.

The amazing

Most trips I take I ALWAYS bring my laptop and/or my tablet.  This trip I deliberately left them at home.  My husband, even said to me, “you sure?”.  I gave a purposeful yes.

Things needed to change, I needed to shift.  

I didn’t expect to have an epiphany or anything while I was away, I simply thought the few days away from the technology and the computer will be a good thing.

AND IT WAS.

Even those two seemingly short days were enough to make a huge change in how I see and how I want to interact online.  It’s one of those things where I need to make the purposeful step away to see what I was missing.  Honestly, I thought I had everything I needed where I was.  I was “connected” with “friends” and “followers”.  What else does one need? Ha!

When I got home, I made the spontaneous and intentional decision to stay “disconnected” from my online life.  I did go online briefly through out the next few days, but I discovered a few amazing things:

• I was feeling more content
• I didn’t have the feeling of stress that I needed to answer something
• I didn’t feel left out, or neglected

The struggle

This week came, I had some purposeful intentions on how I was going to experiment with my online life and how I’m going to stay connected and that I must say is working (I might write post about it when I’ve really settled in with it), but at the same time came the struggle.

For those of you who have followed me for a while you know I’m working on transitioning to not only offering WordPress Services through Redhead Business Solutions, but even more exciting for me I’m working on building a digital publishing business that gives me the opportunity to write and share my writing.

But here’s the struggle, I keep resisting ways to actually do the work.  As a writer one of the things you need to do is write (Duh!), yet I’m finding myself stopping from doing so.  I’m making excuses, what they are don’t matter, they’re excuses.

So here’s a few things I want to do to get me focused on my writing and you can help!  Ask me how my writings going?  Ask me to write about something, something you’d like to learn more about and I’ll share it here on the blog.

I also found a few other suggestions to get unstuck and maybe they’ll speak to you too…

• Put on a soundtrack — nothing like music to energize you
• Step away — go for a walk, focus on something else
• Let go — simply let go of whatever you are doing and watch what happens
• Ask for a dream — love this idea.  Ask your mind to work on the problem in your dreams. (Thanks Tiny Buddha for this idea & #1)
• Go to the end and begin — as quirky as this sounds sometimes we get so tied up in what’s happening right now that we lose focus on where we’re going.  Start from the end and see what the results are and then build your path to that result.

What are some of the ways you get unstuck?  I’d love to hear, share in the conversation on Google+

My Gratitude Habit Offering starts on February 1st.  Would you like to build a habit of gratitude and abundance?  Why not join me?

I know Sophia through Twitter and we’ve had some great conversations there and she’s always support my work and change in direction, so for that she gains a huge thank you!

So as I checked out the Versatile Blogger group, I discovered as few things on what you should do, at least what’s recommended:  Thank the person who nominated you, with a link back to them (that’s simple courtesy), share 7 things about yourself (you’ll have to read on for that), pass this on to 10 newly discovered blogs (I’ll try my best) and share with them that they too have been nominated.

7 things about me

1. I’m a fan of Gonzo, The Muppet.  He’s quirky and a bit kooky just like me.  I’ve always related to him.
2. I recently discovered the Enneagram and learned that I’m a 5 with a 4 Wing.  Doesn’t yet mean that much to me, but what I’ve read so far makes more sense than most of the personality tests I’ve done.
3. I acknowledge that I’m more of an introvert than extrovert (some might disagree) and that I have very little tolerance for idle chit-chat
4. I read A LOT
5. I want to be creatively sustainable by the end of 2012, earning enough through my creative pursuits to support my family.  (Will you help me?)
6. I have a love for Art
7. I’ll be moving back to my birthplace (Nanaimo) with my hubbie in the summer so he can go back to school and I can get creative

10 blogs worth checking out

So I had to think awhile about this for the newly discovered blogs I’ve come across as I’m always in pursuit of something interesting online so here’s a few for you:

1. RowdyKittens — as Tammy says on here site it’s about social change through simple living and in our pursuit of our simple living journey she’s an inspiration.
2. Sui Solitaire - her story is inspirational with everything she’s worked her way through and her writing is encouraging and challenging at the same time.
3. Sarah Hutchison Nicotra - as she describes herself on Google+ “I beam hope, love and laughter into the interwebs”.
4. Kirsten Ogden — At Eat The Paper she writes about creativity and poetry love her work
5. The Minimalists - Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus write essays about minimalism and living a meaningful life with less stuff.
6. Raam Dev — He simply writes great stuff.

Okay that’s all I could come up with at the moment, so enjoy.  Leave a comment and let me know if you found any of these blogs useful

• Getting outside (preferably early morning) so I can listen to the no noise.  One of my favorite times of the day is that early morning following a snow fall, the outside world has the feeling on of a sound proof room.
• Writing in my journal and capturing some random thoughts — I have a few ideas for some ebooks and new programs so while they’re bouncing around in my brain might as well taking sometime to write them down
• Writing my future — yes that’s what I said — I’ll take sometime to get on paper what I envision will have happened in 2012, so I can check it on my 42nd birthday.  This is a new idea for me, so stick around and I’ll share the results a year from now.
• Reading:  on the current list three books — On Writing Well by William Zinsser, Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Marie Rilke and Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard (all affiliate links)
• Just Being:  I’m going to spend some time just being and see where it takes me.

So I urge you to take a moment or two over the next few days and honor yourself with your own self care.  I’ll let you know how my adventure went when I’m back on-line.

’til then, savor your moments

ENOUGH!

and it essentially knocks you into submission?

You know…you get a cold, you can’t get out bed, you catch the flu, you get a migraine, fill in the blank with whatever it is your body does to you.

Then what happens?

You lay in bed, feeling incredibly guilty for the few days you’re off with all the things you have to do, or you try to “work” through it, which only makes matters worse because it drags out the issue even longer. Maybe you hide away feeling depressed or guilty about what you did.

I know I’ve been there, but I’m getting better — much better at expressing my needs and knowing when I absolutely must say no.

From my own experience I my body is the best indicator of when I need to take a break and step back from any commitments.

How can you recognize if your self-care needs aren’t being met? Here’s a few ideas.…

• Going against your personal values to please someone else
• Giving so much that you forget about those most important to you and have nothing left
• Letting other define you
• Expecting others to fill your needs and being upset when they don’t
• Feeling bad or guilty when you say no to something
• Accepting advances, touching or even sex that you know you don’t want
• Falling “in love” with someone you barely know simply because they were nice to you

On my path I discovered that the first step for me was to take care of myself, acknowledge my need to self-care and make sure that my needs are being met.  Once I did this I discovered I was able to give more, feel more and be there for those that matter most to me.  I was a nervous wreck the first time I turned down a client that I didn’t feel fit my ideal profile, I was shaking in my boots when I said “No” to the pressure I felt to volunteer for yet another project.  How do I decide what I need to do to meet my own self-care needs?

I kept quiet, that’s my personal experience.  I shut out all sounds and even tried to shut out the guilt and ego that kept trying to creep into my brain.  From that point I re-discovered the benefit of writing and especially writing what I’m grateful for most nights.  This year, I’m going deeper with my self-care and I have a new offering, if you’re interested you can read more about it and decide if it’s something that you could benefit from.  Registration closes on Sunday and starts on Tuesday.

For now, take care of yourself and share what is one thing you are doing right now to honor your needs?

*Thank you r0bm867 for the photo

Let the air flow through and around you

Move forward

Embrace

Honesty, truth and freedom

No matter what’s happening

Move forward

Embrace

Feel good, happy, joy

Change your thoughts; Change your brain

Simple idea, hard in theory

Help me

Move forward

Embrace

Had a “tiff” with the hubbie and this is how I got myself back to being present.  Self authored poetry helped me get mindful today.  What do you do to help you stay present and deal with the chaos around you?

By the way, my SelfCare2012: a personal initiative program starts next Tuesday (January 17, 2012) and registration closes on Sunday.  If you’d like to make self care a priority this year I invite you to read about the program on the SelfCare2012 page.

The premise of the book is about becoming a professional and looking at what you do as The Work, which intellectually I do.  He also spends much of the first part of the book focused on what he calls Resistance and even as I write this post I’m discovering how Resistance is affecting my work and how I present it to you.

Here’s some insight, yesterday I had a few things on my list to do and you know what I found ways to keep myself busy and away from doing those things.  Why?  Can’t rightly say, at least consciously.  I think it’s something I have to think about and mull over  a bit before I have the true answer.

But I’ve observed myself over the past few days and here’s what Resistance has stopped me from completing:

• My gratitude journal for the past 4 nights
• Writing my 750 words at 750Words.com each day
• Outlining my idea for The Gratitude Habit offering
• Cleaning up Redhead Business Solutions & letting folks know about my new offerings there

Probably if I wanted to get really granular I could and would find a whole slew of things, but I think you get the idea with the four items I’ve listed.  What about you, what is Resistance stopping you from completing.

So no matter how you look at it whether you call it Resistance, procrastination, avoidance or any other term finding ways to get over your resistance for doing your Work is important.  Since I’m only 81% into the War of Art, I can’ t yet offer any tips on what Steven Pressfield recommends, but I can at least share these thoughts:

• Stop thinking. Start doing. As simple as this sounds often the act of just getting in there and doing is enough to get things going again and get you off the Resistance train.
• Don’t blow it out of proportion. Our brains and our egos are great at convincing us that what we need to do is too big for us, so we take the path of least resistance and just don’t do it.  Refer back to suggestion #1
• Just take the first step. No matter what you are trying to do, just do something.  No matter how small the task maybe, taking action is enough to shift gears and get things going where you need them to.  Refer back to suggestion #1.
• Just make a decision. Any decision.  Similar to number one, but sometimes the idea of making the decision especially when we think we might make a mistake can freeze us.  You know what? No matter what your decision it will be the right one for that time and if in the long run it doesn’t seem like it was the right one you can always change and go in a new direction.  Refer back to #1.

I think for so many of us, we let our thoughts and thinking stop us from moving forward.  So take sometime today to stop thinking and start doing.  Tell Resistance that you’re in control today.  That’s what I’m doing.