Clarity of Vision

You might be wondering where I disappeared to the past few months. Nothing is ever dull in my life, and the past year has been filled with more change than even I am used to. After a need for some downtime, I’m beginning to resurface.

Recently, I took a five-day road trip from Dallas, Texas to my home in Portland, Oregon. Eleven years ago, I had taken the same trip in the opposite direction. Many things have changed since then, but I realized on the road that one essential thing has not: I have a passion for adventure and discovery, for travel and new perspectives, for learning more about myself, no matter the means or the vehicle.

Writing is one such vehicle, and I haven’t been filling that tank much lately, although I teach my writing coaching clients to use the adventure of writing to discover their true self, to dive deep into their experience, find the pearls that define who they are, and bring a new perspective to the surface. Unfortunately, I had not been doing that for myself.

Just before the trip, I started to write on my long-awaited book, Stumbling Into Grace. In fact, I had been stumbling over what direction to take the book and had been working on the subtitle, thinking that would help me clarify my message. After I returned, I pulled out all of my old journals, looking for some creative juice.

Ironically, what I discovered was a common thread through many years: That I love road trips, adventure and discovery, and I love to write about those themes. What a surprise.

As I traveled down memory lane through my journals, I put some music on, choosing the first album I ever purchased, Cat Stevens’ Tea for the Tillerman.

The first song that came on was “On the Road to Find Out”. The lyrics described me to a “T”, from the first stanza… “Well I left my happy home to see what I could find out. I left my folk and friends with the aim to clear my mind out…” down to the final line… “…pick up, pick up a good book now…”

The universe had gently giving me a roadmap and was nudging me to finish the journey.

Stumbling Into Grace: On the Road to Find Out is the story of my journey to find the essence of living a grace-filled life, despite obstacles, wrong turns, and an occasional collision along the way.  I still have roads to travel, and more sights to see. I hope you’ll join me on the adventure.

I’ll be sharing my writing in this blog. I’d love to hear your feedback. Constructive comments are welcome!

A few years ago, I attended a college graduation ceremony. I don’t remember the speaker’s name, but I clearly remember the story she told. She had graduated with a degree from the college she was now addressing. After a few years of working in that field, she knew it wasn’t a passion of hers.

After months of soul-searching, trying to decide what to do as a profession, she was standing in front of a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf full of cookbooks, picture books of food, and travel books related to eating. Her husband walked into the room and asked her what she was doing.

“I’m trying to decide what to do with my life,” she replied. “I just don’t know what my passion is.”

Her husband rolled his eyes, looked at the wall of books, and suggested that she look more carefully at what was filling her library.

Message received, she went into the food industry and is now one of the leading authorities in her field.

A few weeks ago, after having read The Passion Test by Janet Atwood, I stepped in front of my bookshelf to see if it reflected a direction I might follow. What I saw were shelves of books on spirituality: The Bible, texts on Buddha, the Baha’i, Native American, Jewish, Mormon, Islam, Shamanism, and many, many more. Alongside of those were books on healing and personal and spiritual growth. Almost as many, were books on writing and publishing.

This may be an odd time with the economic chaos surrounding us for me to take a leap of faith, but I am driven to follow that passion.

For the past 12 months, I tried to mold myself into a teacher of social media, then to meld that with writing, looking more at the “business” end of my business (read: follow the money). The result has been a feeling of frustration, emptiness, and regret, all resulting from my fear that using my genius and talents in a way that honors my desires and purpose would be a financial risk.

Ironically, the other path didn’t really bring that much financial return, because it’s hard to attract something you want into your life when the vibration of energy isn’t there.

The recent upheaval in the world due to the illusory picture of the economy has been the final piece that is leading me to move to a business that encompasses healing and spirituality. Ironically, what the world needs more of right now are those who can help bring a message of change to help shift perspectives, reduce stress, and come together as a global community to help make our way through this scary time. It’s a time for healing, personally, in our communities, and in our world.

My vision for years has been that leaders become healers and healers become leaders. I have been inspired by the changing paradigm to stop dreaming about it and take an intentional leap of faith that healing and bringing that message of healing leadership to others is truly what I am meant to be doing in my business.

For those of you who are looking for more information about writing, I am most definitely going to continue to bring that knowledge and experience to my readers and clients. More than ever, the messengers of transformation and healing need to know the strategies and vehicles that will bring their voice to life.

For those of you who are looking for information from me about social media and how to use it to build your business, I will still be using those tools on this new path, researching what works in this fascinating world of technology, and will continue to pass beneficial learning on to you.

You might say it will be an eclectic mix of discussion, information, and sharing of perspectives.

I welcome you to join me. Please enter your comments at the bottom of this post. Leave your information, so others can find you. Let’s connect. That’s what the internet and social media is all about – the coming together of like minds to share information. And remember to subscribe to the RSS feed so that you know when a post or comment is made in response to yours!

Thank you for letting me take a moment of your time to share my path with you. “As Gandhi said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” It is my renewed intention to follow that wisdom.

I hope you will stay tuned!
Sincerely,
Marilyn

The first advice I give potential writers is the most simple, and quite often the most difficult. And that is, to expect to write. And I mean write. You can’t just talk or read about it. The more you write, the freer you become. Nothing I say in my classes and writing programs works unless you write. And write. And write.

Whether you are writing for the web, writing a book, or writing on a blog, expect to write—a lot. And to rewrite, then write some more. I call it diving for pearls. Some days you will write 10 pages and come up with one sentence worth keeping. Other days you’ll write two pages and every word is perfect.

Recently, I went to a book signing by Ursula Le Guin for her new novel, Lavinia. When an audience member asked Le Guin what her writing process was, her reply was that the real work was not the writing, but the refining process. What makes a work stand out is how it’s polished, how the words are shaped and formed. Writing rarely means one draft and you’re done. Sometimes, to truly get the full impact, it may take a dozen rewrites.

There is a story that Earnest Hemingway rewrote one sentence of the Fisherman and the Sea 100 times! He wanted to get it perfect.

Your writing probably won’t take 100 times to get right. However, you can expect that it will take more than one go at it to get it right.

Look closely at the layers of paint that make up some of the great works of master painters. Those layers cover up creative attempts that didn’t work. And this is sometimes after years of study and effort. Nobody becomes a master without traveling the path of learning and trial and error. To become a truly great writer, you will need to write!

Yesterday, I wrote about one type of Creative Curse: the belief that the genius of creativity is not a good thing to have. Today, I’m writing about an entirely different perspective that can also be called a Creative Curse: Lack of Focus!

Yesterday I was on a call as a member of the advisory board for SmartWomensCoaching.com, a site dedicated to helping women who are in transition in life. We were talking about the new technologies that are available and what I would be sharing on tomorrow’s webinar: The ABCs of Social Media: How to Make Writing Online Easy, Fun, and Phenomenally Effective. Some of the coaches on the call were very excited about the prospect of writing for the web, using video, audio, blogging, and social networking to promote their businesses, while others expressed their feeling of overwhelm in all of the possible mediums available to use. The question came up, “What works best for you, and how do you do it all?”

That question comes up all the time in my work with writing coaching clients. Whether you are creating your strategy, writing an article, or painting a picture, it’s easy to go off in several directions. How DO you choose what will work best? That’s the curse of creativity. There are so many possibilities, so little time. And yet, there’s often excitement about the prospect of every one of those possibilities.

What do you do?

Focus your intention and attention on one at a time – the one that fits your brand if you are developing your strategy, or the one theme if you are writing an article, or one subject if you are painting a picture. Creatives tend to want to go down one path, then veer off on another tangent, then they see another possibility that looks even more exciting. Ultimately, they don’t get anything done because they are trying out all of the different things, spreading themselves too thin, and therefore, never completing a task.

What Are You Doing That Leads You to Your Destination?

The best thing to do is to always ask if what you are doing in this moment will lead you to your destination the most direct and simple way? If not, then set it aside for now and look at the next choice. Ask again. If it doesn’t fit with your current objective, DON’T DO IT. If it fits, but is not your passion, build a team so you have the time to do what you truly love. No matter how enticing or how much adrenaline you get from the idea, learn to refocus your attention on what’s most important in that moment to reach your vision.

One of the hardest parts of being a creative is to learn how to delegate. But once you have the support you need, you will accomplish so much more. You’ll be doing what you love, and the energy you will start to have as a result will allow you to create works of art by following the passion of your heart.

Last week, I attended a lecture by the bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert. The book uses the author’s true gift of storytelling to relate her year-long journey to recover from divorce and find her true love. Gilbert’s writing is irreverent, humorous, touching – everything I love my writing clients to emulate.

In her speech, Gilbert talked at length about what has happened to our view of creativity and using one’s genius based on societal and cultural changes since the Renaissance. Because I’ve been writing and coaching about the topic of creativity for years (see A Guide to Getting It: Creative Intelligence), she had my complete attention.

The creative curse is the term I use to describe the social belief that being creative is a bad thing, that being a creative will not earn you the money, status, or ease of life that you would have if you just settled for a secure job. By placing this belief on children, by discouraging it in yourself, you are denying the world your genius. By not using your genius, you are saying to God, “I don’t trust that what you had intended for me is right.”

So, tap into your creative genius, learn how to explore what that looks like in your life. Move beyond the belief that being creative is a curse. You’ll be amazed at the changes you’ll see in your life when you do.