I am treasure-mapping my way to growing my business, and sharing the honest actual story, AS IT HAPPENS, as I fumble along this path with creativity, heart and soul. If you want to follow my adventure:
- Part One is here: What no one tells you about marketing + creative business
- Part Two is here: Be open to the adventure of being where you are
- Part Three is here: The Path to creative business success.
- Part Four is here: A plan emerges from the treasure map
- Part Five is here: Why I’ve been stuck, plus exploring EASE and JOY
I have to admit I didn’t know what to do with this and it got frustrating.
Ease is the ticket.? Ticket to what?? Do I need to figure out what it’s a ticket for, or do I need to figure out where to find it?
More than once, I wished my Treasure Map would speak in English instead of in Riddles.
I did the only thing I could think of: I explored ways to bring more ease in – everywhere.? What is the most ease-filled way to get groceries?? Where can more ease fit into my day?? What happens when ease is my guiding light?
And I learned a lot of cool things but was no closer to understanding what Ease Is The Ticket meant.
One morning I did yoga and then meditated on Ease Is The Ticket.
I looked back on the journey so far and all the other squares on the map.? Once I linked them together I could understand ease a little more clearly and then in a flash of light it all came together.
It’s like the plan is a train trip.
And there are 2 different tickets: Work Hard and Ease.? Even though it looks like they both get you onto the same train trip the journey is different with each.
And at some point the Ease car detaches from the rest of the train, rolls into a secret passage which is invisible to everyone who doesn’t have the Ease ticket and ends up at an entirely different destination.
Ease has to be my approach.
Not because easy is better than hard – sometimes things are hard and that’s ok.? And it’s not like I should be able to get what I want without working for it, or anything like that.
Ease has to be my approach simply because the path with the most ease is also the path with the most genius.? Things feel easy because the are in alignment with genius.
So: Creative Genius is the ticket.
But Creative Genius is a hard approach to take because it gets complicated – understanding what really is your genius, and how that is different from what you wish was your genius, and where you shy away from your genius and where you’re listening to what other people are telling you your genius is….. a little complicated.
Ease is simple.? (Shhhhhhh….. Ease is like a secret shortcut to genius.)
So, with every decision I have to make as I work, I ask myself: which direction is the direction of ease?? And then that’s where I go.
And, slowly, things are coming together.
Tangible, workable ideas are coming to me out of these inner explorations.
This is something that I want to be really clear about: this inner work stuff does lead to actual outer work.? There is a flow there that translates into Dreams Come True.
Focusing just on the outside stuff doesn’t work.
Focusing just on the inside stuff doesn’t work.
It’s that flow, starting inside, flowing outside in it’s own time, that does work.
On Friday I hosted a Facebook party where I answered people’s questions about creative business.
A few themes that came up:
- Your INTUITION has your answer.? Pay attention to how things feel and follow the juiciest feelings (even when this is the opposite of that “The Experts” say to do).
- EVERYBODY fumbles.? There is no way to build something totally new without some trial and error.? The one way to do something without ever fumbling is to do a paint-by-number follow-the-plan kind of thing, where you’re not really creating.
- If you are a coach/healer/helper-person-of-any-kind: Be your own best client.? So often coaches are not doing the things they’re telling their clients to do.? Walking your talk is always the smoothest path to success.
I’ll be going back to my Treasure Map this week to see what it has for me next and I’ll report back…
PS: YOU GUYS!? EXCITING NEWS!
I’m going to be a part of the 2014 21 Secrets LIVE (Streaming Video) Art Journaling Workshop!
You can get in on the earlybird discount this month only.