Power out, power up

Wild weather and the power’s out here in town this morning. The lack of being able to do anything – make coffee, cook breakfast, wash clothes – reflects how I feel here in ‘Transcending’ at the moment.

I know the lights will go on again and the charge will surge through, but all is strangely flat and without spark after what felt like a strong start in a new space here. So, to regroup.

I wrote about ‘The Value of Howling into the Wind’ early on and the value of writing and getting out there and moving, even if it seemed no-one was watching or reading. My last post was about getting to back to basics on ‘Transcending’, the word, the concept and what it means to me.

‘Transcending’ defines the connection of so much and is my modus operandi: my work life, my personal life, my creative life and the need to cut through, strategise, climb across and rise above.

The tools for me:

writing, poetry

family history

strategy, planning and goal-setting

creative connection and reading

music and the right song at the right time

the words of songs

a perfect image that sings with how I feel

symbols, associations, metaphors

story, narrative

time alone

a walk on the beach

connecting fully with another

the synergy of good conversation

twitter and reading and connecting via blogs

What’s not working for me:

difficulty in finding time to write

no time to myself

no time to plan next steps here

The ‘no time’ business is not something I normally say; I know no-one will give me any more time. I am with Chris Guillebeau when he says in a recent post: 

My strategic plan is: say yes to everything.  The tactic is: get up early and stay up late.

I said to myself a while ago ‘no more either/or’ after reading Danielle LaPorte’s great post on the suck factor of life balance. No more waiting till you get time for writing; no more thinking about waiting till you retire or get some leave, write now.  But it is a fact that my time is squeezed at present and the special time for recharge is what is scarce.

So a resettling now of finding this precious time to recharge, to climb across and transcend, to find the power source. Being an introvert who spends all day with people, it will be powering up through this room, this space, this candle, that cafe, that beach, that song and this white page I can find a space in to shine through.

Send some encouraging thoughts and tell me what you need to do to power up. It might help spark some quiet action here…and maybe elsewhere.

Image, Candle by Nick Merzetti from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license with thanks

 

Gems #6 Encouragement, kindness and resilience

Some recent gems shining a whole lot of light…

If you haven’t read The Manifesto of Encouragement on Danielle LaPorte’s White Hot Truth, rush over for the best injection of inspiration and encouragement you will have felt for a long time. Danielle’s initial post is pure light and genius. Then hundreds of people have added their words from their precious angle. It’s a string of pearls you can wear around your heart to protect you and make you shine. It also opens you up to what you might be missing around you or what you might aspire to. I hope one day it becomes a book I can carry with me every day.

Recently, I wrote a post about twitter and my positive experiences connecting up with like-minded people and the kindness and reciprocity I had found. I had just finished writing and posting, to then find Jean Sarauer’s post on Virgin Blogger Notes on a related theme: How to grow your blog with kindness. Jean provides a personal story and some excellent examples of how kindess and adding value in blogging and twitter can enhance the experience and outcome for all. Jean encourages us to ‘practice shifting your focus from what you want to get to what you can give’.  This post helps you appreciate how you can contribute and how ‘As the analytics of your heart show upticks in kindness, encouragement, and support, the analytics of your blog will also improve.’  The ‘Manifesto of Encouragement’ is a great example of this.

I only caught up this week with the July 11 ‘Creative Penn’ podcast interview by Joanna Penn: ‘Inspiration For Authors On Resilience, Accepting Criticism And Being An Introvert With Clare Edwards’.  It was excellent – one of the best of Joanna’s interviews I’ve listened to – probably because it chimed in around some personal keywords: resilience, introversion and writing. I loved the way Joanna opened up in this interview about her own experiences as an introvert with doing interviews and developing a speaking career. I related so much, being at the far end of the introversion spectrum and interacting with people all day, every day, in my work role, often standing up and speaking to many people. I have learnt to manage this but this interview provided more insightful tools for balancing between the inner and outer worlds. There is also a strong focus also in the interview on tips for resilience and staying present in the moment.

Three overwhelmingly positive gems to take us all forward with encouragement, kindness and resilience!

Image, Mother of Pearl by Westcoastrobin from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license with thanks