Have you read any good books recently? I’m always taking recommendations, and the great majority of them are really good! Let me know what books impressed you lately.
Last week I started reading The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. From what I’ve read so far, it’s good. The gist of his book is that starting your mornings off right is the way to hack your own system to the maximum advantage. As an example, here are Hal’s three steps to rise above mediocrity to fulfill your potential. (Mediocrity in this context doesn’t mean how you compare to others, but how you compare to the person you are capable of being — the best version of yourself.) 1 - Acknowledge the 95% reality check It’s human nature to take the easy path, despite the consequences. And 95% of people are not creating the life they really want. We struggle against that easy path in areas of love, success, happiness, fulfillment, health and financial prosperity. If I were to ask you if your current situation is part of your life plan, what would you say? I would assume that your plan didn’t include the current struggles you’re facing. Are you allowing life to happen to you, rather than actively creating the life you want? 2 - Identify the causes of mediocrity Cause #1: Rearview mirror syndrome Are you constantly looking in your rearview mirror? “I’ve never done that before so I don’t want to try it” “Last time I did that, it didn’t work, so I’m not going to do it again.” “This crap always happens to me. I give up.” What would happen if you stopped looking at your past, and started living in the present with your eye on the future? Cause #2: Lack of purpose If I asked you what your life’s purpose is, what would you say? Most people don’t know. This is your why. Getting really clear on your life’s purpose can make all the difference in fulfilling your true potential. Cause #3: Isolating incidents We mistakenly believe that each choice we make, and each single action we take, only affects that moment. But each choice determines who we are becoming, which ultimately determines the quality of our lives. In other words, how you do anything is how you do everything. Cause #4: Lack of accountability Accountability brings out the best in people. When people make promises that they keep, including to themselves, it gives them the leverage and trust they need to take action — even when they don’t feel like it. Cause #5: Mediocre circle of influence Don’t underestimate the importance of the company you keep. If you’re the average of the people you spend time with, are those people lifting you up or pulling you down? Cause #6: Lack of personal development Your levels of success will rarely exceed your level of personal development, because success is something you attract by the person you become. Read that again. What kind of regular personal development rituals do you have in place? Cause #7: Lack of urgency Unless we have some sense of urgency, human nature tends to steer us to put things off for as long as possible — especially the difficult or uncomfortable things. How often do you say, someday? 3 - Draw your line in the sand What are you willing to commit to doing differently, starting today? Not tomorrow, or next week or someday, but today. Draw your line in the sand and declare, “From this day forward, I…” Your entire life changes the day you decide you’re no longer willing to settle for less than you are capable of. Commitment might sound serious and daunting, but what if it’s really a dedication or a devotion — a labor of (self) love? My coach and mentor helped me with all three of these steps. First, he helped me understand that I want more than 95% of the population is willing to settle for, and I’m willing to work for that future for myself. Second, he helped me to see how my own habits were getting in the way of my success, and helped me develop new, healthy habits. Third, he helped me by breaking down the daunting work into baby steps, into a to-do list (which I how I work best). As your coach and mentor, it’s my onus to provide you with an objective outside viewpoint, to show you what I see in you. I help you identify your potential, uncover what’s been in your way, then help you reach that potential. Are you ready for that kind of devotion to your future? I want that for you, too!
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It's been years since I decided to walk away from my 30+ year career as a graphic designer, and become a transformational coach full time. I get asked about this pivot all the time — at least once a week. At first, my main focus was teaching others how to be successful freelancers. It made sense since I'd already restarted my freelance business several times, and I was good at it. But I noticed the people who kept coming to me for help kept showing up with the same larger issues. "How can I possibly charge more for my services? How do I cope with this feast-or-famine rollercoaster? How do I know if this is even the right path for me?" Sound familiar? What they were experiencing were external symptoms, and a direct reflection, of what was going on internally. They were all experiencing internal crossroads in their lives. Are you experiencing this as well? Here are a six signs that you may be at an internal crossroad:
By now, I can safely say that I've become an expert in guiding people when they're at a crossroad. Especially accomplished creatives. That's why I want to share with you three things you must do when you're at an internal crossroad:
But now that you know this, how would you go about actually doing those things? I've partnered up with my own mentor, Peleg Top, who's had 15+ years of guiding creatives through something he developed called Creative High Growth. Creative High Growth is a unique process of deep inquiry, self-expression, and radical self-love that helps you reconnect with your best and most authentic self, and wakes up your creative free spirit, like when you were a child. I've witnessed ( and experienced! ) major transformations as a direct result of this work. I'm so excited to share this process with you today by inviting you to download a Creative High Growth Introductory Session right now! For free! The only supplies you'll need for your Creative High Growth session are a pair of headphones or earbuds, a journal, and a few basic art supplies ( like crayons, chalk pastels or markers ). This hour-long session can be an important step in your own journey of self discovery. Will you give it a try? I'm so excited for you to experience the Creative High Growth process. I'm curious what you'll discover about yourself. Please shoot me a note once you've done the session; I'd love to hear how the experience resonated with you. This session is a small taste of what it's like to be in the coaching program and will give you a chance to experience what it's like to be in the Creative High Growth space with Peleg and me. You may not be at a crossroad right now, but the work you'll do in this session will help you prepare for when the time comes ( because it always does ), and reconnect you with your best self in a deep and meaningful way. That's a promise. I didn’t picture this December shaping up the way it has. I’ll fill you in.
After my mother-in-law passed away in October, and my husband was gone all of November going through all her stuff preparing to sell her house, I figured that in December things would mellow out and level off. 🎄 But as you know, the best laid plans can go wildly astray. Sometimes life throws you a curveball or two and you just have to deal. That’s what started a few weeks ago. Curveball #1: My son (the proud commercial plumber), has been living on his own for a few years. His apartment lease was ending and he had a new apartment lined up that somehow fell through. A new apartment has yet to be found, so he’s now living in our spare bedroom. This isn’t a big deal, but we have noticed a big difference between having a child living with us and having an adult child living with us. While I thoroughly enjoy seeing him more frequently, it’s a massive change from our empty-nester status. Who knew we’d get used to it so quickly?! 😬 Curveball #2: I just got back from giving a talk in Dallas. Me traveling is usually pretty low stress. I usually leave plenty of time for security, I hydrate, I enjoy flying, etc. But on the way back, things kind of unravelled. Google sent me to the wrong location to drop off the rental car. I had to load up again and drive to a different location for drop-off. I plugged in the second address, and was taken to another wrong location! I finally just started driving around, following the signs I saw. This was the first delay. Then, I was in line for security for about 45 minutes. This was the second delay. I could see my gate from security with its signs that showed, “now boarding” and “final boarding” and “boarding complete.” I saw my window of opportunity to make my flight close. Then for the third delay—and this is the real kicker—as I lugged my suitcase up onto the conveyor belt, I realized I completely spaced out and forgot to check my bag! I knew that it had liquids in it and could not go on the plane with me! (My mind was elsewhere, but more on that in a bit.) I told the woman the truth, that I didn’t know what I was thinking, that I wasn’t thinking, obviously, and I asked for help with what I should do next. I was escorted out of the security area, back to the place to check my bag onto the flight. Helpfully, this is also the place where new flights can be arranged since I had officially missed mine. 🙄 Curveball #3: A friend who I lived with in high school has passed away from Covid. She left one adult child and one teenager behind, as well as her mother. This was devastating news. Her services are this coming Sunday so I’ll be traveling again, this time to California. This is where my mind was while I was in line going through security, on the loss of someone so kind and good. Trying to think through my travel plans, trying to deal with such a tragedy. 😭 Throughout these curveballs, sure there were a few internal swear words, and more than a few eye rolls—mostly at myself—and a few unshed tears. Mainly, I just shook my head and keep uttering the phrase my mentor passed onto me, “Everything is always working out for me,” and trusted that it would. Throughout all this chaos, my internal world—my center—was calm. I didn’t feel frazzled or overwhelmed or out of control. I recognize that curveball number one requires patience, daily. Curveball number two required humility. Curveball three will require compassion. I observed my thoughts, acknowledged what I was feeling, and did my best to cope. Because of the work I’ve done on myself, the inner work, I knew I’d be ok. I know that now I’m home, I need to prioritized self-care without fail, and I’ve acknowledged that I need to be patient with myself. But overall, I’ve got this. 😌 If these things stress you out just by reading about them, and you’d like to have a little slice of inner peace, consider some self-care, some true rest, and maybe a conversation with me. Perhaps I can help. This will be the last blog post from me for the year. I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season. Take care of yourself, give yourself a big hug from me, and accept this dose of virtual good juju. 💖 See you next year! (Let’s hope 2022 has its own plans and doesn’t follow in the previous two years’ footsteps!!) My mother-in-law Jody passed away October 23, and her funeral was last Thursday. She was 88 years old, so she did have a good long run. But her last year or so was pretty rough. Dementia had started to set in and her physical health was also failing (I think the two were related).
As the family begins to clear out her house—she still lived in her tiny house in Branson, Missouri, up until the end—we’re amazed at how much STUFF she had. As a child, I think she often went hungry; the amount of food she hoarded was mind-boggling. We counted 19 bottles of pancake syrup, 12 bottles of juice, and 19 bottles of barbecue sauce. Jody had the curious habit of writing on each item the date she purchased it and how much she paid. Flats of canned corn, and on each: 39¢, September 9, 2014; nail clippers $1, July 7, 1997. She made meticulous notes on everything: the amount of lime she used in her vegetable garden in 2003, where she purchased it, how much she paid; the flock of Canadian geese she saw fly overhead April 23, 2007; who was pictured in this faded black-and-white photo from May, 1938. She saved bread bags, twist-ties, dozens of plates from frozen microwave meals, photos, cards, song books, and gifts she didn’t want to use or give away with a note “gift of love from Roger & Michelle.” We’ve found nine gallons of bleach, at least five bottles of hand sanitizer, and literally thousands of pony-tail holders and bobby pins. Several times she apologized to her kids, saying that they’d have a hell of a time going through all her stuff when she passed. I remember her telling me in anguish, “I can’t throw it away!” She wasn’t kidding, she really couldn’t. Whatever her reason, it was too painful for her. I’m telling you about Jody not to poke fun at her—she had her faults, but no one loved bigger and louder than she did. When I first met her, over 30 years ago, I was blown away by how much love I felt from her. Helping to clear out her stuff made me think about how much I’m still hanging onto. Sure, books and photo albums are easy to rationalize keeping. But what about those boxes in the back of the closet, the ones I know I need to go through. Eventually. Or that stack of stuff on the corner of my desk I still haven’t done anything with? Separately they seem inconsequential, but each item has its weight, and collectively they can weigh heavily on my day-to-day mind. If my expiration date is tomorrow, my family will have to deal with all this stuff. It’s motivated me to get busy. This feels a lot like the transformational inner work I did a couple of years ago, with the 100 Days of Creative High Growth program. The process of cleaning your inner “house” and letting go isn’t exactly comfortable, and certainly isn’t easy. But man-oh-man does it feel good when you’re finished! Lighter, brighter, more peaceful, free. I’m honored to be teaching this course myself starting January 21, but only to a cohort of 6 people maximum. You might be ready; you might not. I’m here for you if you are. In the meantime, what are you hanging onto still, that you really don’t need? It might be time to clean house. The departing flight to Santa Fe this morning had been delayed by almost two hours. Nothing could be done about it; the pilot called in sick and the new pilot was stuck on the runway in Chicago. I was in the last boarding group so I knew I had time to visit the ladies’ room before I got on the plane. (Premier member of the “itty bitty bladder club” here.)
I went straight out of the stall to the sink directly opposite, and reached for the soap. “Excuse me. ExcUSE me! EXCUSE ME!” Almost from a distance I heard her. I kinda wondered who she was talking to. I’m just going to wash my hands, surely she’s not talking to me. Wait, she’s talking to me…? I froze, my hand hovering under the soap dispenser, eyebrows raised, not knowing exactly what was happening. The woman to my left was upset about something. I turned to look at her. She pointed, “That’s my sink!” My eyebrows went a little higher. Really? “It’s just a sink. It’s ok.” “It’s MY sink!” Even her posture was indignant. She was somehow upset that I had stepped in front of her sink. I don’t recall ever having someone claim a sink in a restroom before. Maybe she’s not all there, and this is a big deal for her. “My humble apologies.” I moved aside to the next sink over. As I washed my hands, I thought about the possible reasons why someone would behave so possessively toward a sink in a public restroom at an airport, and drew a complete blank. Drying my hands, I tried to make my voice as soothing and calm as possible. “I really hope your day goes better.” She muttered a retort that I didn’t quite catch. I left the drama in the restroom with her. I learned a valuable lesson awhile back, to observe and don’t absorb. In the past, the previous version of me would have jumped with both feet into her sticky, contagious anger and absorbed some of it for my own. Perhaps I would have just claimed the sink I had begun to use and ignored her protests of ownership. Maybe there would even be a snarky or heated exchange. I think I would have judged her harshly for the ridiculousness of her comments in the situation. I would probably replay the conversation in my head, thinking of better or meaner retorts. It could easily have made the flight delay feel like torture. I would have definitely soured my mood for the day. In the past. But because of the work I’ve done on myself, the deep inner work, I didn’t. In the moment, when it could have all gone south, I paused and leaned into the curiosity I felt for her. I allowed the question to form in my mind: What would make her react so strongly and fiercely? So often we forget that we have the choice how to respond to any given situation. It’s not that your mood determines your reaction. Quite the opposite, actually. Your reaction determines your mood. There’s about one-fifth of a second where we get to decide how we want to be, who we want to be. It doesn’t seem like a very long amount of time, but for your brain, it’s plenty of time. This means you get to choose—ahead of anything happening to you—how you want to respond. Choose ahead of time who you want to be, how you want to be. In the small and especially trying moments—like a woman claiming the sink you were about to use in a public restroom—choose to test-drive the best version of yourself. See how it feels; see how it serves you. I left the restroom still puzzled, sending her a little gift of good juju, sincerely hoping her day improved. I didn’t absorb any of her anger. Nor did I try to make her day any worse. It felt nice knowing that this version of me is becoming more and more my default. (I mean, I’m not perfect, so I do forget sometimes.) But I’m a better human being than I was before because I chose to start noticing. The first step of any kind of growth or improvement for yourself is to notice. So, please, choose to notice. Then choose love. Thanks for reading! Good juju to you! —Cami Your Inner Critic: Enemy or Ally?
Episode 4 was recorded during a live online workshop I led with ADPList participants from all around the world. Join me and my guest, fellow coach and creative, meditation instructor and ordained Tibetan Buddhist, Ericson Proper, as we dive into the subject of your inner critic.
What is your inner critic, and how can you change that critical inner voice from your enemy to your creative ally? You will learn to identify that critical inner voice, identify self-limiting stories, and learn a powerful meditation technique to help transform that inner voice your creative ally. Get comfy, grab some paper and something to write with, and prepare to dive deep. Choose Love.Becoming conscious of your inner landscape is no easy task. Shifting from unconsciously moving through the world to creating the life you want can be hard work. After all, that's what I help people do with my coaching. I know it's hard because I've already done the work, and it can be a bitch. It's admitting your bad habits, your biases, your laziness and your responsibilities. And then being open to and willing to change. At the very core of my coaching—my philosophy so to speak—is to be able to look at and live your life through a lens of love instead of fear. Living your life from fear will never benefit you, will never serve you, and will always prevent you from reaching your potential for happiness and success. But identifying that fear is the first step. I created this diagram to further explain and to help comb out the hairball that is your emotional state at any given moment in time. Let's go deeper in, shall we? Looking at your life through a lens of fear, you're focused on that which you DON'T have. This is also known as a scarcity mindset or a fixed mindset. Looking at your past, you feel shame, and hope that no one finds out about that thing. You feel resentment or bitterness for not being given opportunities others may have had. You feel disgust when you remember how you behaved that one time.
These things do not build confidence for your present moment; they undermine it. You feel insecure in where you are, in who you are, and how you interact in the world. Looking toward the future, you realize that this year (this month, this week) could potentially be worse than last year, and you dread what's coming. You're frustrated at how things aren't shaping up for you. You're worried and anxious about what could be lurking just around the corner to really screw things up for you. Again, all this stems from focusing on what you don't have. BUT… You can CHOOSE instead (and it is very much a choice, moment to moment) on operating from a base of love, focusing on all you DO have. This is also known as an abundance mindset or a growth mindset. Looking at your past, you see everything that's happened to you has gotten you to where you are right now in this moment, so you can be grateful. You clearly see all the obstacles you've overcome; you can have pride in yourself for your tenacity and resiliency. You're so much smarter and wiser now than you were before; think of all the wisdom you've gained. You can look around yourself and be content, knowing this life is a direct reflection of what you've committed to in the past. After all, if you had committed to something else, you would be leading a very different life. (More on this in a different post.) These things naturally build a sense of self-confidence for your present self. You move gracefully and effortlessly in the world. Looking toward the future, you have more compassion for the body you live in (as well as for the people around you) and you allow yourself to need what you need without guilt. You are patient knowing that good things are on the horizon for you, and you let yourself get excited about it. Here's where the magic starts to happen, when you can look through a lens of love at your future and your future self. When you lead with curiosity and start asking questions like what if, and I wonder you start creating the life you want, instead of being just a recipient of the life you were dealt, buffeted along with whatever comes your way. That's why this part of the diagram has exploded beyond its borders: it cannot be contained! Studies show that if you can create, and consequently occupy (preferably daily), the emotional state you'd be in when you get to the top of that next peak (when you get that new car, that dream job, that awesome relationship, etc.), you can not only get there faster, but you are more likely to enjoy the ride! Further studies show that happier people are more successful, make more money, are healthier and actually live longer!!! This, my friend, is a magic recipe for success that's firmly grounded in science. If this is what you want for yourself, let's have a chat. Perhaps I can help you get there. Thanks for reading, and good juju to you!
In this episode, join me and my special guest Sonya Reece as we tackle dealing with imposter syndrome — something all creatives face. You'll learn how to reframe the thoughts that come creeping in unwanted, discover tips for silencing the gremlins, and create new thoughts to help you see what a creative powerhouse you can be (and probably already have been)!
Back in October of 2020, I was honored to pair up with ADPList and Creative Mornings San Francisco and give this Field Trip workshop. It was the first time I had shared any of the trauma I experienced as a child. Based on the comments I received privately afterwards, it struck a chord. I'm so happy to be able to show up in service to others in this way.
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