We all have it at times. Many of us have it here and there – like a few olives in a salad. Some of us have double helpings of it, on a bed of self doubt, with an extra side of self doubt to really complete the meal.
When we are lost in self doubt we believe it. The voice of self doubt sounds like ‘the truth’. It is like a fish in water not knowing there is anything other than water.
When we can name self doubt, and know there is more to us than the doubt, then we gain perspective. We realise there is also self belief, inner words of encouragement, and determination. We can figure out what triggers our self doubt and on the other hand what helps us feel grounded and positive about our abilities. We can recognise when we are being hampered by self doubt and when it is running the show.
What I am learning again and again is that self doubt can sit alongside competence and amazing value. Having self doubt doesn’t mean anything about our ability to do things. It doesn’t have to stop us, it doesn’t have to define us, and we don’t have to believe or agree with it.
Tag: Career
We show each other our selves
Some days it feels like it all comes together, like the professional ‘mask’ is aligning quite beautifully with my souls work. I LOVE how my coaching clients keep appearing and teaching more about who I want to work with. They teach me what it is I have to offer, and what it is I want to express. Sometimes I still feel like I’m ‘too much’ and that all my interests and experiences don’t fit together or make any sense…. but even just today I see a new way my experiences dovetail to offer unique support for a certain type of client.
My experiences that saw me facing the world feeling alone and anxious, my perfectionist tendencies that saw me push through challenging ‘head’ work for 15 years and suffer wave after wave of burnout, my transformation and reinvention as an art therapist and coach embracing ‘heart’ work, and now my learning as I go of running a business. I see that ALL the darkness, all the suffering contributes to the empathy I have for my clients who have experienced trauma or burnout. I see that ALL my drive and runs on the board in my old world of work means I can meet my driven, high achieving clients with insight and compassion. I see that ALL my zany hobbies and wild passions for learning and making things mean I can meet people with multiple interests with lived experience of how to give our passions time, how to celebrate our wins, and how to celebrate our multiple facets.
I see that my art therapy work helps me hold the space without fear when things go ‘deep’, and that my coaching work helps us keep looking forward and making sure dreams for the future sit at the centre of our work together.
So despite the pressure to find a niche and specialise in just one kind of client that abounds in this field, I feel more like I am a constellation of knowledge and skills and gifts that can meet clients who also have a constellation of life experience, knowledge and skills and gifts, and maybe we meet somewhere in the middle, or some of our parts mirror each others’ enough to have a useful exchange.
Creative Project – Talking with Aija about The Happiness Jar App
Welcome to the Creative Project! This is the fourth interview in a series I’m doing with people who are working on a creative passion project in their lives. By ‘creative project’ I don’t mean just things related to the arts – but anything that is about bringing something fresh into the world, creating something that wasn’t there before and drawing on your own creative energy to make it happen.
What is the difference between people who get behind their ideas and make them happen and those who are swimming in ideas but never get moving on them? How are people making time for their creative projects and weaving them into their lives?
What can we learn from others who have backed their ideas with action?
I want you dear reader to be able to glean any gems from their experience that might help you with your own creative projects. I’ll even share stories about a couple of my own creative projects, and some of the learning I’ve done myself along the way. So let’s get started!
In 2016 Aija Bruvere created a free mobile App The Happiness Jar based on the principles of Positive Psychology. I stumbled across the app late 2016 when it was just launched and being shared by a colleague of hers in a business group that I’m in on Facebook. I thought it was a great tool and wondered more about how and why she thought to make it. Here Aija describes the creative process, the importance of trusting your instincts, and the next steps and vision for her project.
What is the happiness jar app? Can you explain it for someone who’s maybe not familiar with the concept of a happiness jar or how apps work?
The Happiness Jar is a very simple tool (an app) on the mobile phone to allow anyone to notice, capture, sort and store happy moments. Instead of having a physical container, box or jar where you could put notes about your happy memories (which is also a great idea!) The Happiness Jar mobile app would always be within easy reach, right there on your phone. Keeping track of happiness becomes really easy, you can take new happiness snapshots or go through existing memories adding the special ones to your happiness collection. It is like visual gratitude journal (plus you can add written descriptions of happy moments too). The Happiness Jar is for your eyes only it is your personal treasure chest that does not get shared on social media or anywhere else.
You get to store all the happy photos or notes and you are also sorting them and creating your personal happiness timeline and profile. So after a while it becomes clear if more often happiness for you is about for example Positive emotion or maybe Enjoyable activities Relationships or perhaps Achievement or sense of meaning and Purpose.
What inspired you to start this project? What was your vision for how it might help people or bring benefit to the world?
I remember really clearly when the inspiration came – it was after reading Elizabeths Gilbert’s extremely popular post January last year about keeping a physical Happiness Jar where you would have to put a note in with at least one happy memory every day. At the end of the year you have 365 colorful and beautiful memories to look back at. And then I thought ‘but what about people who travel a lot or don’t have space or time for a physical jar – there surely must be a digital happiness jar?’ But it did not exist! So I decided I needed to create it.
This idea of happiness pathways is taken from a famous theory in Positive Psychology by Martin Seligman, but with this app it is your actual memories and experiences make your classification and the jar very personal.
I believe it is very important to appreciate little daily moments of happiness because that is how happiness and wellbeing is created long term. My vision still is that The Happiness Jar makes the world a happier place one memory at a time, it lets us store and recall small happy moments and ensures that happiness is something of here and now not something forever in the future.
How did this project fit in or relate to the work you already do?
It is very much in line with the work I do. I am a Positive Psychology coach, a Happiness coach. I work one on one to improve wellbeing and happiness as well as give workshops and seminars on Science of Happiness for companies, I teach a Happiness project course at a Business school and I also lecture on Happiness on cruise ships. So The Happiness Jar app is another more practical application of ideas I love to spread and promote.
Do you have a technical background? Had you worked on any app development projects before? Did you feel daunted by the technology aspect?
I do not have a technical background and I have never worked on an app development project before. However this project actually flowed with ease and grace. I feel the key is to create a team of likeminded people who also just love the idea and then create clarity of what is the minimum we have to do for this to be a success.
Who (if anyone) did you team up with to make your project come to life?
We had a very small team of 3 people: Me Aija Bruvere as the creator, author of idea, leader and then the team leader-programmer for technical execution and development Edgards Zvirgzds as well as a designer Liva Asmane for creating the visual aspect of it.
I think the right people attract when the idea is clear and the world is ready for the idea, I had never worked with that programmer or designer before but it was clear the connection and team vision was formed around The Happiness Jar idea specifically.
What did you learn about your own creative process along the way?
That at first there is this one very clear idea and the conviction I have to do this, then there is the expansive stage of more ideas associated with it and how to make it even more impressive and great. So there is this huge influx of related and unrelated ideas at one point. And then I had to ground it, to narrow it down to the minimum simple clear idea again to make it happen within the short timeframe. Team work and discussions are helpful in the creative process.
What stage are you up to now and what will come next?
We have just released the app and done initial push for promoting it mainly through our own networks and on Facebook. So we are still at the launch stage. The focus right now really is the promotion (getting people to know about it but with no budget for promotion) and also on building the version for Android phones which proved more difficult and time consuming than we though. From idea to reality, getting to this stage, took about one year.
My vision for the project is that the The Happiness Jar app will have a second stage that requires building a platform. Luckily we were able to create the app on a shoestring budget, investing a lot of personal time and enthusiasm but to go forward we would need an actual investor who believes in the project to take it to the next stage. So I guess the next stage is not so much about the creativity it is about creating a new business model.
What has been the response so far? How do you feel about the app?
The response from the right target market is very positive – people really say they love the idea and that they love how simple it is. It feels good to have created it in just one year from inception of the idea and in just 4 month from really getting the team together and creating a plan of how we are going to do this. While we have the vision for further expansion and that would require investment, the response from potential investors however has been much more reserved. But I guess our task now is to build up number of users to the point that investors are convinced people love this and it is worthwhile.
How do you feel about yourself as a creative person after making the app?
Manifestation of a creative idea does have a certain sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. There is for sure an aspect of Happiness in it that is associated with Meaning and achievement. I guess the creation of The Happiness Jar can go into The Happiness Jar as something very positive that has happened for me in 2016! (laughs).
What tips or suggestions do you have for someone else with an idea who wants to make it happen?
Ideas that take you out of your comfort zone have a huge creative potential.
It is paramount to find the right people who can help make the idea into reality.
Trust that inspiration and idea that comes to us also comes with certain responsibility and we have to be grateful that it has come and can also make the world a better place by helping it manifest.
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About the interviewee:
Aija Bruvere is a coaching psychologist and business consultant currently living and working in Sydney, Australia. Besides having a degree in Economics and Business Adminstration as well as Masters degree in Social sciences Aija has obtained her Graduate Diploma in Coaching Psychology from University of Sydney, with particular focus on applied Positive Psychology. Aija Bruvere is passionate about sharing scientific research and making it applicable. Aija is the owner and founder of ABM Consulting, a firm specializing in executive coaching, workshops and seminars. Since 2008 Aija Bruvere has prepared and facilitated series of personal development seminars and workshops that focus on leadership, goal attainment, transformation, success and happiness. In 2015 and 2016 Aija has run seminars and retreats in Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore and Latvia.
More about Aija Bruvere: http://aijabruvere.com
More about the free mobile app The Happiness Jar: http://thehappinessjar.com
About the interviewer:
Jade Herriman is a Sydney-based transpersonal art therapist, Barbara Sher coach and facilitator. She works with clients to help bring more creativity into their lives, plan for their professional development, manage big life change and go after their dreams. She works with groups, individuals and online to deliver workshops and help support people work towards their dreams. She brings a playful, flexible and creative approach to serious issues, and draws on many years of experience working in organisations in project management, policy and research roles to bring practical solutions to her clients. To work together one on one or find out more about future workshops contact her HERE.
First year of business – Systems overload
So many freaking systems.
That’s what I remember from my first year of business.
So many decisions about software and so many process that I realised I didn’t have, and so many records to keep.
Imagine the most horrified emoji face you can muster. Yes, that’s how it felt.
After all, I just wanted complete freedom and flexibility and creative potential, regular income, great coffee and inspiring collaborators and no paperwork whatsoever. Is that so much to ask??
Apparently here in the real actual world, yes.
So what did I do?
To start with every time I found yet another system or process that I didn’t have that it seemed everyone else had I died a little bit on the inside. ‘Seriously?? More things to do??” I wailed in my inside waily place. Mostly I wrote them down somewhere and lost the list and found it again with pangs of guilt weeks later. I would have these moments of elevated hope, when talking with someone who actually had and uses these systems – hope that I would do the follow up work and that I would somehow become a new person who was excited about tidy completely efficient systems. But this would usually wear off within a few hours and I would return to my usual lumpish disinterest in such detailed admin things. Once I learnt about them I could see their benefit and how they would help me. Sometimes the concept of it all excited me. But hand on my heart the doing or setting up of them never ever excited me. Each time it would sink to the bottom of the to-do list like a marble in a fish tank.
I prefer to fly by the seat of my pants, random and messy.
Part of the avoidance came from not knowing. It’s super hard working in a vast wasteland of unknowns and risk. Not knowing the territory it can be tempting to to venture out. What? I have to get out of my comfortable chair and walk though the potential for confusion and regret?
But what I learnt over time is that it settles down. At first I honestly thought there were ONE MEEEELLION scheduling systems for me to choose from. Eventually it felt like just 3. Eventually I just chose one and when that one felt not quite right I chose another one.
Same as an invoicing and book keeping set up – I just ended up choosing one because my coach had worked with it. And it will do for now until I move onto the one that costs more but I plan to master soon.
So know this.
A) If you don’t super love this stuff you are not alone.
B) Overwhelm is a self-perpetuating panicky thing that really you could better do without. If you are learning something new and drowning in options try not to compound it by shrieking things at yourself like ‘Oh my gosh everyone else knows what they are doing! I must be a complete loser! When will I just make a decision! I have to make a decision! I can’t make a decision!’. Find some way to take the pressure. Unless the wheels are falling off today from not having it, give yourself permission to not think about it for 3 months. Maybe you have too much other stuff going on and not enough information to make a good decision just yet.
C) You don’t have to be using every cool app and all the best most efficient software to also be offering something of value to the world. I have worked with some AMAZING coaches and empathetic, generous, insightful healers who use less tech than me. Did I get any less from the session just because there was something old skool in their bookings system or they aren’t all over social media? Not at all.
D) So what if you’re messy. I am: I really really am. I often wish I wasn’t (because I dream of being somehow more slick and stylish and having vast tundra-like surfaces and spaces with lots of artful throw rugs) but plenty of time I barely even notice because I am just a happy little fish swimming in creative mess. YOU CAN STILL RUN A BUSINESS if you are messy. YOU CAN STILL OFFER VALUE if you are messy. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO have a bare desk, or shiny laundry, or straightened thighs or skinny hair or posh to-do-list like the woman you read about in the Sunday paper to make a go of things. You really don’t. Books have been written in tracksuit pants and policies drafted with baby food in hair. You can have chipped and shitty nail polish and still be strong and awesome. You can not know what the heck to do about X or Y this week and still know a lot about Z.
E) You’ll make a decision when you need to. When it becomes more of a pain in your butt to have no system, or the time you are spending doing something manually starts to do you head in – you will change!
F) Decisions don’t always happen how we think they should. Sure I know all about ‘proper’ decision making. I could bore you senseless with talk of cost-benefit analysis and multi-criteria analysis and deliberative valuation. I could! But I wont! because we’re friends and friends don’t let friends do MCA. Just joking. What I would say is this: we are not robots and we rarely make decisions the way we actually think we do. So it might be that after WEEKS of telling yourself you ‘should’ read all the fine print on three different online options for doing something very fancy and necessary in your business, and that you ‘should’ then find three different people who have used each one and interview them and make a table listing all the… whatevers… what you ACTUALLY do is wake up one morning and absent mindedly watch a you tube video about one of them while eating a piece of toast and then think ‘oh that doesn’t sound so bad’ and then download it while you sip your tea and watch a youtube video about a turtle that is friends with a kitten and then kind of sort of make an account and give your credit card details. AND THAT’S OK. If you start using it and it was better than before and it cuts all the anxiety and you can always stop and use another thing later – BLOODY BRILLIANT.
So that’s my wise words on overwhelm from tech choices. Basically just: ‘yes, you might have it, don’t worry I did too. It kind of goes away if you ignore to long enough. And maybe you kinda know the answer already.’
(Don’t worry, that’s not how I do MCA’s.)
Creative Project – Barbara talks about making creativity at the heart of her life
Welcome to the Creative Project! This is the third interview in a series I’m doing with people who are working on a creative passion project in their lives. By ‘creative project’ I don’t mean just things related to the arts – but anything that is about bringing something fresh into the world, creating something that wasn’t there before and drawing on your own creative energy to make it happen.
What is the difference between people who get behind their ideas and make them happen and those who are swimming in ideas but never get moving on them? How are people making time for their creative projects and weaving them into their lives?
What can we learn from others who have backed their ideas with action?
I want you dear reader to be able to glean any gems from their experience that might help you with your own creative projects. I’ll even share stories about a couple of my own creative projects, and some of the learning I’ve done myself along the way. So let’s get started!
Today I’m speaking with Barbara Courtille about her art making practice: how it fits into her life and how she recently approached developing a website to share her work. I’ve known Barbara for a number of years and her consistency in her art making practice, the way she weaves the threads of what is most important to her into her life, and the pragmatic way she approaches work really inspired me. She also once told me about her regular practice of giving away pieces of her art stealthily in a public place… which inspired me to do the same and led to me discovering the Art Abandonment movement.
Tell us a little about your journey with art making? When did you start? What have you done over the years?
I’ve been making art as far as I can remember. I was one of those kids who could stay quiet and absorbed in the creative process for hours.
After high school I worked as a graphic designer for a few years, at the time I thought it may be a creative job but it wasn’t so eventually after a set of synchronistic events I found myself at art school in my mid 20s. I really thrived in that environment, it was so liberating to be surrounded by other artists and to be making art each and every day. After art school, a group of us got together and set up a studio space from which to work and we began to exhibit as a collective and separately. It was a very fertile creative time but eventually we all wanted to broaden our horizons and went our separate ways moving to different cities. I continued to paint full time and exhibit until poverty and the tax office prompted me to find a ‘real’ job. And so like many artists, I continue to juggle the work/art balance, always looking for ways to increase my ‘art’ time and to reduce my ‘work’ time. It’s a dance that I continue to refine.
What does art making do for you? What is your relationship to your creativity?
It’s a huge part of my experience and I really can’t imagine life without creativity. It’s an integral part of my being, I don’t view it as an external thing that I do, it’s just a part of who I am.
Art seems intimately linked to your spirituality and emotional wellbeing, specifically your yoga practice. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Art, yoga, spirituality and wellbeing for me are intrinsically linked and one of the same. I experience asana practice as an art form using breath and body as the medium. I bring creativity and ritual into my teaching of meditation and making art is a form of meditation in itself, it’s being totally absorbed in the present and in the process. It’s the best place to be!
What do you hope to communicate with your artworks? What ripples do you hope they make in the world?
I like to inspire people to make art in whatever way they enjoy whether it’s the traditionally recognised art forms of painting, music, dance, writing etc. or in the endless ways that humans are creative such as cooking, gardening, dressing up etc. Many of the activities that we partake in can be approached with the intention of creativity and that makes all the difference between a fulfilling (and for some spiritual) experience or one that is routine and mundane.
Let’s talk about about your recent projects: creating a dedicated website to share your work. Were these challenging steps to take? What were your fears, or what challenged you about these steps?
It was never my plan to have a dedicated website for my work, it’s something that happened slowly and organically.
I resisted having my own website for many years as I feared that it would be yet another admin task that would use up too much of my creative time. As it turned out, I really enjoyed designing my website (yoginithreads.com) and instead of seeing it as another to-do task, I approach it as a creative project in itself. The website remains a work in progress and I enjoy tinkering with it. I have lots of ideas for its growth in the future.
What did you have to learn to get these steps done?
For me it was about removing limiting beliefs (I don’t have the skills to do it, it’s too hard, it will take up too much time etc. ) Like all big projects, it’s a good idea to take it one small step at a time, focus on the one task in the present and try to not get too overwhelmed by the enormity of the desired outcome.
Any final words to leave us with? Anything else you’d like to say?
I believe that if you bring creativity into everything you do it can significantly transform your experience. Treat each moment with reverence, learn, grow, be brave and most of all, be yourself. Don’t compare yourself to others, you have your own unique essence which makes you special. By being yourself and allowing your creativity to shine, you can also inspire others to do the same.
About the interviewee:
Barbara Courtille is a French born artist working in Sydney Australia. She is a dedicated yogini, meditation teacher and founder of Yoginithreads. Her work is heavily influenced by yoga philosophy, feminine power and ancient wisdom. See her work at: www.yoginithreads.com
About the interviewer:
Jade Herriman is a Sydney-based transpersonal art therapist, Barbara Sher coach and facilitator. She works with clients to help bring more creativity into their lives, plan for their professional development, manage big life change and go after their dreams. She works with groups, individuals and online to deliver workshops and help support people work towards their dreams. She brings a playful, flexible and creative approach to serious issues, and draws on many years of experience working in organisations in project management, policy and research roles to bring practical solutions to her clients. To work together one on one or find out more about future workshops contact her HERE.
Journaling tool – the ‘Thank you and yah me!’ list
You may have heard of the idea of keeping a gratitude journal. I have tweaked the format and finally found a style that works for me. It focuses not only on the external things that you feel thankful for and appreciative of, but also the things you did that you are proud of and happy about. It doesn’t require filling in every day, and you don’t have to think up a set number of things.
A bit like the concept of yin and yang, this version of the gratitude journal allows space for being grateful for the active and the passive – things that happen to us and the things we made happen. It can be particularly powerful if you tend to focus on your shortcomings rather than celebrating the wins, or you struggle with feeling powerful. It reorients you to celebrating the small and kind or brave things that you did as well as noticing the abundance and good fortune in your life.
For example:
Wins this week:
– I’m really pleased that I called Susan back even though it was a hard call to make
– Proud of myself for sticking to my plan for writing my book
– I was super patient with the kids even though I was tired
– Self-care – went for a massage! Yah me!
Grateful for this week:
– This beautiful sunny weather and an afternoon spent in the park
– The gift that arrived in the mail from Aunty Dorris – she is so sweet to always remember our birthday’s
– Clean water – that documentary about those kids made me feel really sad and made me realize how much I take for granted
– That woman who gave me her seat on the bus when I had all the shopping bags to carry
Practical tips:
· Try to focus just on those things that come up with clear feelings attached to them – don’t let your mind make a lit of everything you ‘should’ feel grateful for
· I do it in a small journal dedicated to just this, and use the LHS for ‘wins’ and the RHS for ‘grateful for’.
· I use a double page spread each week and just jot things into it when I get a moment, or am moved to.
· I keep it in my everyday handbag
· Those spare moments before your drink arrives at a café, when you’re early to a seated event, or while you’re waiting for a friend to join you – fish out the gratitude journal and fill it out rather than reading social media. Take a few breaths before you start writing and cast your mind back over the day or week.
· New week = new double page spread
· Weeks with very short lists will remind you to reorient yourself towards filling it out more often.
Over time it subtly shifts focus towards recognizing the supportive elements in the world that helped you do what you set out to do, and the inner attributes that also contribute to your good fortune.
Good for: increasing a sense of abundance, building self-confidence and overall appreciation
If you would like more tips for journaling please download my free e-book ’25 fresh ways to get your thoughts and feelings on paper’. Click on the image below to access.
Messy and OK
I want to talk about embracing our imperfections.
I have gone a long way from my early days in consulting where I thought I needed to ‘know’ everything and was terrified with not knowing the right things.
It felt like there was a vast and ever changing set of technical areas I was meant to be across, and for my highly creative, highly intuitive brain that doesn’t like memorising that was hard. Layer onto that anxiety and my inability to ask for help and I was a hot mess of fear on the inside while I continued to deliver more and more work at the standard I expected of myself. I frequently felt out of my depth and frequently worried that I was not ‘enough’.
Fast forward ten years and quite a bit of therapy later – and here I am running my own business in a completely different field. I have worked through and grown out of some of the old fears (thankfully) and life is far more peaceful now as a result. However I still notice a set of ‘shoulds’ emerging in my brain around work.
For example, I sometimes catch myself judging my messy desk and non linear way of working and thinking it is a ‘flaw’ – some deep character flaw that if I fixed would make my life better. I can feel anxious (not about the mess, I’m quite comfortable with a messy desk) at the thought that I am a messy person. There is some script that says ‘oh no! You’re not good enough like this. You need to change and be more tidy, predictable, ordered, and less exuberant’. And sometimes I believe this script and makes me feel despair. Because how am I meant to change this way that I am most comfortable in the world? And if I need to change this part of myself to be ‘successful’ what does that mean for my life?
So instead of running with these thoughts I notice the script and practice reminding myself that in fact I am fine as I am. I am happy as I am. I’ve achieved a lot as I am. I am intuitive and deeply connected with my energy levels, whims, opportunities and this is just as valid a way of working as being very orderly and linear.
I try to create more encouraging inner scripts that say things like ‘hey that’s ok, I have a super orderly mind, that’s why I can handle a bit of chaos on the outside’ or ‘oh well creative people are often messy’. I remind myself of my mentor Barbara Sher and how she says that you can be lazy and in a bad mood and still get what you want. That you can outsource the bits you suck at and focus on what you rock at. These gentle, encouraging messages help chip away at the old beliefs that I need to be ‘perfect’ (whatever that is) to be ok.
Do you have parts of yourself that you despair at and judge? Is there a more accepting way you could speak about them to make room for them?
Are you messy and OK like me? Or maybe super clean & tidy and OK?
Loud and OK?
A procrastinator and OK?
A bit of a control freak and OK?
A bit anxious and OK?
Kind of grotty and OK?
Forgetful and vague and OK?
Shy, a little bit awkward and OK?
Let’s celebrate all our OK-ness together!
Creative prompts – ideas for your next blog post
Blogging is one area where many of us can get stuck for ideas, I see this especially with busy small business owners, therapists and yes, even coaches that I work with!
Sometimes they are wanting to begin writing regular blog posts, and I work with them to develop a plan that is tailored to their key messages, their personal style and their audience, as well as identifying and overcoming their personal barriers. Having a plan and structure for your writing can definitely help, but sometimes all you need is a fresh idea to get you writing again and sharing something useful for your readers.
Here are 10 quick tips to kickstart your practice if you get stuck.
Prompts for blog posts if you are feeling stuck:
1. Have you created a ‘why I do what I do’ post?
2. Have you shared a turning point story about you? When you first discovered X or began Y?
3. What was the last tip you emphatically told a client, novice or friend? Could this be shared more widely in a post?
4. What was your biggest personal ‘aha’ from the last great counsellor / therapist / healer/ / trainer / coach you worked with that might be relevant to your audience?
5. Is there something beautiful that inspires you? A place or product or sound or colour? Is there some way to share this with your tribe?
6. Can you interview someone who has similar values to those you blog about?
7. Is it time for a list?? 10 ways to solve problem X? 7 of the best ways to begin regularly doing Y?
8. Can you share your go to resources that are relevant to your readers: e.g. best apps for bloggers, fave self help books, best websites to learn from, go to authors for inspiration…
9. Morning routines or efficiency hacks – everyone loves them! We are all nosy and infinitely fascinated by the minutae of how people arrange their day and productivity. Want to share yours?
10. Why do you do what you do? Share the founding principles or core beliefs or professional practices that you ALWAYS seek to embody, or never leave home without. Not only does this help someone starting out in your field but it helps your readers connect with your work and what drives you.
Remember to mix up using words, pictures and video too, as different people have different attention spans and preferred way to receive info.
Good luck!
Have fun!
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Work with me
And if writing is a project you’d like to kickstart, get in touch! If you’d like someone to help you create a tailored plan for your blog/ book/ essay/ written application please do get in touch. Using my ‘kickstart your project’ coaching package I can help you whether it is for your business/ side hustle or great hobby /passion. I’d be happy to lead you through a clear process to help you identify your key messages, core themes and preferred voice; and by the end of our sessions have you set up with a plan, clear next steps and support structure in place.
10 daily paradoxes
noun par·a·dox \ˈper-ə-ˌdäks, ˈpa-rə-\
a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true; a self-contradictory statement that at first seems true
an argument that apparently derives self-contradictory conclusions by valid deduction from acceptable premises; one (as a person, situation, or action) having seemingly contradictory qualities or phases
- The love of happy clutter and the joy of clear surfaces
- Being positive and hopeful and just being as I feel even when it’s neither hopeful nor positive
- Persisting and the value of going with the flow and non-forcing
- Discipline and the emergence of whim and interest to guide me in my attention and outputs
- The joy of connected communal life and the the bliss of time alone
- Knowing and doing
- Fierce commitment to reuse and the love of the shiny and new
- Both delight in the beauty and fragility of things and pain in the beauty and fragility of things
- Wanting desperately to contribute something ‘meaningful’ and grand to the world, and to know I have flexed my muscle of being and given my all, and the fierce internal defence of a quiet life lived with peaceful nothingness and joy in the ephemeral and humble daily things
- Wanting to create for the beauty and honesty of it, the release, and wanting to share for the applause and admiration
Jade Herriman 