Embody the Possibilities....in 2012

As we approach the end of the year, it's natural to begin taking a personal inventory of the previous 12 months and what we accomplished, the goals we met, and the challenges that remain before us.

The challenges that remain before us often wind up as bullet points on our New Year's resolutions lists, to (hopefully) be crossed off sometime before the end of NEXT December 31st. I've always scribbled my own New Year's resolutions as bullet points on paper which I then usually tape up somewhere that I know I'll see them on a regular basis (next to my bedroom mirror is good) and be reminded of the promises I've made to myself about my new objectives for the upcoming year.

Generally that works--I'm a list-maker, anyway--and I like crossing off whatever I've accomplished. It gives me a sense of forward-motion, a sense of satisfaction that I'm taking myself seriously, honoring my own wishes, and taking steps to achieve the goals I've set for myself, no matter how modest they might seem to others.

This year, I'm trying something different. As an artistic/creative type, I respond well to visuals and I've always liked making vision boards to visually clarify my objectives. Typically, vision boards require poster board, glue, scissors, loads of old magazines, and a lot of patience (as well as great spatial relations!) I love these sorts of day-long dreamy artistic projects, but don't always have the time to sit and do them. So I researched online vision boards and came across the "O Dream Board," an offering on Oprah.com which I currently use and enjoy.

I've made two vision boards so far, both of which I've exported to my computer as jpegs that I then set as my computer desktop photo; this way, my Dream Board pops up to remind me of my goals each time I turn my computer on. Below is the first one I made:

Health, romance, creativity, financial abundance and animals (lots of them!) are all a part of my life's vision for myself, and creating a Dream Board is just one (creative) way of manifesting my goals and clarifying my New Year's resolutions. If you're visual, it may be something to experiment with to welcome your own heart's desires in the new year.

So Happy & Abundant New Year! What are your own resolutions/goals/dreams for 2012?

Got to be Real

You may've noticed, in perusing this blog, that I only semi-regularly update it. Part of that pattern is due to general busy-ness. As I mentioned in the last blog post, I still also work a day job while I've been lovingly growing my Life Coach business, which is beginning to sprout actual legs and take off--if not quite running, yet, then briskly walking--but definitely quantifiably and certainly in the right direction. But perhaps a larger part is due to authenticity, something we coaches are pretty keen on.

The purpose of this blog, really, is so that (potential) clients and the general casually-reading public get to know me a little better--just me, Caitlin, not necessarily "Coach Caitlin" (which, while this moniker is certainly a significant aspect of who I am, it's still only a facet of a larger, holistic identity).

There is a playwright, Marsha Norman--perhaps best known for her play "'Night, Mother," and a faculty member at Juilliard--whose reported approach to playwriting involves a certain amount of internal noodling, mulling, plotting and dreaming before finally, ultimately putting pen to paper.

As a creative person myself (I have an MFA in playwriting and a background in fine arts), I was familiar already with a certain amount of dreaminess, but the external messages I seemed to internalize (which can often become crippling Limiting Beliefs that may keep us from actually producing any measurable outcome, especially if we're creative) dictated that "work" (even creative work) was something measured only by doing, and "doing" meant constant output. I developed the belief that just being still with an idea and quietly chewing on characters and plot and dialog must not be "real" work. So when I first read that--this notion that, in stillness, actual creative work was being done, I was, I think, changed. I felt affirmed and considered my process validated by a writer whose plays I admired.

Granted, some artists are remarkably prolific, churning out novel after novel or painting after painting. But others of us need to honor the "inner landscape" and let our projects "bake" for a longer while until our work--sometimes very nearly in its finished state--is ready to burst out of our psyches and be presented in a more lasting, perhaps physical manifestation to the world at large. It's how I, as a writer, and many other creative types (including clients of mine) have expressed that they themselves work.

I now know that when I honor my creative process and give myself permission to write this way--undeterred by external influences or expectations--my writing comes from a sharper, more emotional place; I like it better, because it's most authentic. And in the case of this blog, the nuggets feel more useful, more meaningful, and offer a truer glimpse into my own system of beliefs. It's more real.

It's more Caitlin.

Will my output increase when I'm no longer working a day job? Possibly, although I'd still never force it, no matter how much "extra" time I find myself enjoying. I always want to believe in what I produce; I always want that authenticity.

Perhaps the challenge is to trust that this endless river of creativity will yield at its own unique, organic pace, with the understanding that the time to dream is valuable preparation for what is to come.

How do you create?