Why I feel like Flylady no longer works for me as a working mom…. And that’s okay 🙂

 

Did you just judge yourself for fumbling the ball as you learn and try something new?

 

Unblock Creativity With Mini Essays

 

The most common hurdles to creativity are lack of time, lack of motivation, lack of clarity, lack of follow up ideas, lack of writing skills, which can all lead to a lack of confidence.

Mini Essays are a tool that can help you get over this initial hurdle and move forward with the ideation process. Mini Essays involve attempting to flush out your thoughts in as little as 100-300 words (3-6 paragraphs).

The reason creatives should consider incorporating mini essays into their creative routine is because its design helps overcome procrastination. They force the creative to make their big ideas concise and short. If the creative feels like they only have to commit to a few minutes and a few paragraphs to the idea, they are less likely to feel overwhelmed with expressing their creative thoughts.

Another reason creatives should consider incorporating mini essays into their creative routine is because they help overcome perfectionism. Perfectionism tends to be a killer to many new, budding ideas, that if allowed to be nurtured could turn into something great! Many creative can't get to or past this early budding stage. Since mini essays are so short, they remove the pressure that an idea must be fully flushed out, mature, or complete to start to the creative process.

Mini essays are the perfect tool to bring about that feeling of clarity and maturation to ideas that many creative people so deeply desire. Authors explain that we don't write because we have cool ideas to share. Instead, many profound writers realized that it's though the writing process that they receive creative inspiration and figure what the message really is. Additionally, as your writing routine become consistent, your will develop the skills to fully and more clearly express yourself, which will also aid in clarifying and maturation of your ideas.

In conclusion, mini essays are a powerful way to overcome the obstacles that prevent many creatives from showing up to their creative practice daily. They offer a low time and low energy way to show up, grow your writing skill set, and come up with even more creative ideas.

If you are a creative, you likely have ideas popping into your head all the time. Instead of letting it circle around your head and eventually be forgotten, consider writing a mini essay to see what that idea could be when allowed to be expressed. You never know what new ideas you could generate and ultimately what that idea could be if allowed to be nurtured to its full potential. 

YOU Make the Magic

Last night, I dreamed I was at my grandmother's house. We were sitting at the table. I don't remember exactly what we were talking about. Every so confidently, loving, and proudly, my grandmother clasped both of her hands over mine, she looked me in my eye and told me to "YOU make the magic".

It was almost as if I were complaining or expressing helplessness (which I find I've been struggling with lately) and she wanted to remind me that no matter how much control I think I don't have in this world, I can still chose to show up and to not be passive.

I think about all of the areas where I've been passive lately. 

• I consume more social media that I would like. I consume other people's "magic" and creativity, yet I struggle to produce my own (although I know deep down inside I would very much like to).
• I feel helpless as I learn about genocide and dishonest politicians. There are things that I could contribute to social change, even if it's very small. Yet, I feel paralyzed, helpless, and I find myself just watching.
• I want to grow in my career. Over the last year and a half, I've experienced rejection after rejection. After a while, I started to become discouraged.

The message from my grandma reminds me to have hope and try again.

I think of all the ways that my grandma was a magic maker. One of the biggest examples was during holidays. Holiday's always felt so warm ,cozy, loving and inviting when she was around. Now that she's gone, I struggle to recreate that feeling in myself. I very quickly realized that the holiday's alone weren't that special. It was all the things that my grandmother did for us that made them feel magical. From hanging up decorations, to the fun traditions, to the home cooked meals. I wish I would have cherished those moments more when I had the chance. Without her special touch, those holidays wouldn't have felt as special. Modeling what she did for us, I try my best to be the magic maker for my own family.

To me " YOU Make the Magic," implies co-working/ co- creating with God, our creator. Action on its own can sometimes feel meaningless or like its not making an impact. When I feel like my actions aren't impactful, I find myself asking, "What's the point?" Aligned action with God means we recognize our limitations as humans, and know that God can make that small act more impactful than anything we could ever do on our own. This perspective gives me hope.

This dream was important to me because it felt like my grandma was reaching down from heaven, encouraging me to keep hope alive, to keep going, and to not give up.