“To nourish and sustain motivation toward a creative goal, we must not only fall in love with a dream of our future self… but also love the process of becoming that person – including all the unglamorous, everyday hard work.”  Wired to Create by Scott Barry Kaufman & Carolyn Gregoire.

I recently started getting up at 5:30 am a few of days of the week to go to the gym. At 5:30 am when the world is cold and dark it is easy to forget why I’m doing this. Goals like “feeling healthy and vital and good in my body” are so much more abstract than the sweet reality of another few hours in a warm, cozy bed with kittens curled up around me. Yum. No contest. I can start this fitness journey tomorrow, right? What’s one day later when the journey is long and the road is hard?

This line of thinking can apply to any goal, especially those where the distance between where we are and where we want to be is grand.

I want to launch my website and finally put my business on the map! But man, WordPress is harder than everyone says. I don’t think I’m ever going to understand it. I think I’ll do some research instead.

After years of creating, I really want to finally put on my own solo exhibit! Yes! But dang it, it is so awkward calling galleries and asking how it works. I’m kind of embarrassed that I don’t know what I’m doing. I think I’ll watch some Netflix instead.

I’ve always wanted to write a book. I can so imagine myself on a book tour but holy wow, do I ever get restless when I sit down to actually do the writing. This stuff is hard! Maybe I should stick to reading books instead. In fact, I think I’ll make a tea and do just that.

So what gets us to the launch, the show, the page, the gym?

Toughing it out? Discipline? I’ll be honest, that hasn’t worked for me. (If it works for you, more power to you!) What I’ve found is it may keep me going for a little bit but eventually it wears me down. It grinds the heart out of my dreams so that eventually I actually feel pretty good dropping my goal because at least it means the pain will stop. Instead, here’s what I have found works for me. I hope you find something here that works for you too.

First: Look for Love.

I love the quiet of the early morning when most of the world is sleeping. I love watching the sky change colours as the sun comes up. I love a moment to cuddle with the kittens before I go. I love coming home from the gym, feeling like I’ve already accomplished something today, just in time to give Justin a big hug before he heads out to work.

What is there to love right here in this moment?

Second: Channel Mary Poppins!

Remember the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down? Get creative and look for little ways to enhance the experience and make it a joy. With the gym, I’ve taken to buying cheap and goofy t-shirts. (This musical-loving sloth was $1.50 at Value Village.) It makes me giggle and take the whole thing way less seriously.

How can you work your creative magic on the right now?

Third: Fall In Love with Who You Are for Doing It!

It tickles me to think I am a person who gets up at 5:30 am in the morning and goes to the gym. That’s CRAZY but, you know, I kind of like crazy! That makes me beam at myself and feel good about who I am right now on the road to what I am creating.

Fill in the blank, “I am the person who__________ and I love that about myself!

What We Create Creates Us

This isn’t about distracting yourself from the hard bits or being a positive Polyanna. This is about living your dreams and loving your life! It’s about the creative wonder you are right here in this moment. Finding your way to fall in love with the process will help bring each of your dreams to life without you rushing through your life to get there. It’s about allowing yourself and your life to be transformed by creative magic.

Your life doesn’t begin once you have reached your dreams.

Your life is right here right now.

Revel in it.

All of it.

You are a creative wonder.

This post originally appeared on Audrey Press. Thank you to the amazing, inspiring Valarie Budayr for inviting me into this exploration.

How to Follow Your Dreams

What if your dreams weren’t on some distant horizon but rather your best companion, living in your heart, ready to be of service and to help you right now?

Meet Your Dream

So often we are only able to recognize our dream in its full-blown incarnation. It’s the published book, the trip to Paris, the credit at the end of the film. And we suffer so much in feeling removed from our dream. The more distance between us and the dream’s realization, the more despondent and discouraged we can be.

But know this: that little voice in your heart that says, “Write” and “Go” and “Create” is your dream.

And it’s living in your heart right now.

Make Friends with Your Dream

So get to know that yearning inside. Notice its tone, its energy, what wakes it up and what puts it to sleep. Sidle up close and make friends with your dream by simply paying attention. Slowly you can start to feed it too, little bites at a time, with coloured pencils and gathered treasures, a trip to the art gallery or the dance floor, whatever your dream is hungry for.

As you care for your dream in these early stages, you’ll start to notice it begins to grow. You might even discover that it has a name like “Me, the Dancer” or “My First Photo Exhibit” or “My Own Business”. Let yourself call it by name, that way s/he will recognize when you’re talking to him/her.

Let Your Dream Be Your Guide

As your communication grows, you’ll discover that your dream can give you all sorts of signals about what it needs next to grow, whether that’s space or challenge or gentleness or company. All you have to do is listen.

Listen to Your Dream

One way to do that is through Intuitive journaling. Begin with addressing your dream directly and then go ahead and ask questions. Try asking in one colour and letting your dream respond in another.

“Hello, my beautiful book. What are you needing from me today?”
“You know, I’m feeling really confused about why Drusilla is in the story. Could we spend some time with her today?“
“Absolutely. Is there anything else I can do to support your growth?”
“I think we need to get out more. Maybe if we worked in a coffee shop this week we could get some ideas, see some people, hear some words. I just feel like I need to be more connected to the rhythm of people, you know?”
“I love that idea. I’m super busy this week but how about we go on Monday?”
“Okay, that sounds good. But don’t forget about Drusilla!”
“You’ve got it!”

Take Action

And here’s the thing. You have to actually do something about what your dream tells you. I mean, think about how you would feel if someone asked what you needed and then didn’t respond! You’d lose trust big time. The more you don’t follow up on what your dream tells you, the smaller and quieter your dream will become.

But what if your dream asks you to do something you’re afraid to do? Tell your dream that too. Have a conversation. You are in this together!

“Hey, beautiful book, I totally hear that what you need next is for me to figure out how to approach a publisher. I find that really scary so it might take me a while. Any suggestions on what might make it easier?”
“I know it’s scary, especially talking with people! Why don’t we start with doing some online research? I bet lots of people have written about how to approach a publisher. Let’s get grounded in some info and that will give us a place to start. Sound good?”
“Sure, I can do that.”
“Okay, but remember, getting to a publisher is where we’re headed. We can do it. I know you’re scared. Me, too. But I promise to believe in you if you promise to believe in me.”
“Deal.”

Enjoy the Adventure

Take time to enjoy each day with your dream. Remember when you were a kid and you read stories about heroes and little girls and birds that went on adventures? Almost all the best bits of a story happen before they slay the dragon, get back home or find their mother! It’s the same with our dreams. Take the time to enjoy each discovery, each friend made, each challenge overcome, each skill learned, each landscape explored.

Following our dreams is the adventure of our lives. Don’t miss a single minute.

In all my years as a creative living coach and in the hundreds of interviews I’ve done as the host of the Creative Living with Jamie, the one practice that creatives tell me they return to again and again and again is journaling.

This simple practice of putting pen to page allows us to discover our truth, express our self and hear our own voice.

This simple practice can transform everything.

This simple practice is magic.

Here are 9 reasons for you to begin or refresh your commitment to a journal practice.

9 Reasons to Journal

Journal to Know

One of the greatest blessings that we can give ourselves is the gift self-knowledge. All of our decisions, our dreams, our creations come alive when imbued with the power of our true selves. A journal can help us discover, recover and remember exactly who we are.

Journal to Discover

One of the magical properties of journaling is that it reveals to us all sorts of things that we didn’t know we knew. As our hand glides across the page, we begin to hear our own truth expressed in brand new ways. We come face to face with intuitive insights, unexpected ideas and unexpressed dreams. As we discover what lies within, we are able to guide our lives by our inner compass.

Journal to Express

Your journal is a safe place for everything that is within you. It is a place where you are free to fully express the real you without inhibition or second-guessing, without judgment or fear. In your journal you can say, do and be exactly who you are.

Journal to Explore

Your journal is like your studio. It’s a place where you can explore options, play with possibilities and dance with ideas. You are free to imagine, envision and invent. Follow inspiration wherever it leads and you never know just where you’ll end up!

Journal to Create

Your journal can be a conduit for creation. Drawings, stories, poetry, songs, designs – all of these things and more can come to life on between the covers of your journal.

Journal to Think

Your journal is the perfect place to work things out, to wrestle with questions and to plot and to plan. Use your journal to think things through, to wonder and to question. It’s the perfect place for brainstorming, for mind-mapping and for all manner of lists. What seems a confusing jumble in our mind can often become clear on the page.

Journal to Remember

Your journal can be a place where you gather the moments of your day, where all the things you want to remember can be lovingly tended and kept. From your to-do list to all of your dreams, from your doodles to your gratitudes, your journal can be a snapshot of this moment in time.

Journal to Ground & Release

A regular practice of journaling allows us to release excess energy, emotional steam and burdens we might not even realize we’re carrying. It allows us to connect with ourselves and remember who we are, giving us ground to stand on and allowing us to release what no longer serves us.

Journal to Be

Your journal is your journal. You can be, say, do anything you want on your pages. There is room for all of you – the brilliant and the blasé, the moody and the motivated, the heartbroken and the enraptured, the grateful and the grandiose. Whoever you are in this very moment, however you are feeling, all you have to do is show up to your journal and be.

Here in the studio we are starting a Journal Club this Friday, April 1st. Join in and along with these 9 gifts experience the additional bonuses of creative community, encouraging support and insightful leadership from an experienced guide!Find out more and register for Journal Club here.

Ever have those times when you’re noodling something non-stop? Maybe you’re trying to figure out your life purpose or choose the best model for your business. You’re trying to decide whether to stick with your day job or go back to school. You’re trying to uncover the limiting beliefs that get in your way or parse out the big themes in your dreams.

Whatever it is, it matters. A lot. And so you’re giving it all you’ve got.

You’re like a dog with a bone, trying to figure it out this way, that way, grrrr, grrrr! You’ve made lists. You’ve asked friends. You’ve hired consultants. You’ve bought books – and read them, complete with highlighter in hand. You’ve journaled your heart out. You’ve cried your heart out. And still, nothing.

You’re exhausted with the effort but still, you’re committed. If you could come up with one more exercise, one more perspective, one more conversation, you’re sure the clouds would part and there, finally, would be the answer.

In the meantime, sometimes you just want to shake your fist at the Universe for not giving you a direct message. You’re showing up – every day you’re showing up. Why hasn’t the answer come through?

I’ve done this a million times. Probably a million and seven.  Here’s what I’ve learned.

What To Do When (Despite Your Best Efforts) You Don’t Know What To Do

1. Stop asking your brain to figure it out. Let another part of you have a shot.

No wonder you’re exhausted. Your brain is on a treadmill working overtime when it’s actually someone else’s job to tackle this one. If your brain could solve this problem, it would have. Stop noodling and give another part of you a chance – your gut, your heart, your body, your intuition. You have plenty of other resources to draw on. Let your poor brain have a rest.

2. Take Action

Do something. Anything. Take the smallest step you think might make a difference and do it. Or take the bravest step or the easiest step or the one step you can take right now. Just take a step. Reminding yourself that you are capable of moving forward breathes fresh life into the situation and the feedback you get from taking action will give your brain more information to noodle!

3. Move Your Body.

All that percolation creates excess steam that can keep things pressurized and stuck. Move your body to release that pent-up energy and encourage flow. It’s amazing just how often we go for a walk or to a yoga class and seemingly out of nowhere the answer or the next step arrives. Our bodies are wise.

4. Change Your Environment.

Get outside. Take yourself to lunch. Sit under a tree. Walk a different road. Go to a coffee shop. Shift something external to shift something internal.

5. Listen.

Thinking all the time is a bit like talking all the time. Perhaps the reason the Universe hasn’t offered up any insights is it’s waiting for us to pause long enough for it to get a word in edgewise. Indulge in quiet. Meditate. Sit with your journal and let the Universe guide your hand. Turn your dial from “transmit” to “receive.”

6. Wait.

Almost all the times when I’ve struggled the most with over-thinking I’ve been trying to find a solution whose time simply hadn’t come. As frustrating as it is we can’t bulldoze our way through the big questions. Sometimes we have to grow a little more or a situation needs to develop or another player has to step into the game before the doors open to the next level.

7. Surrender.

Accept the simple and obvious truth: you don’t know what to do. Stop fighting it. Not knowing doesn’t mean this is the end. It might mean you wing it. It might mean you wait. It might mean you let someone else decide. It might mean you flip a coin. It might mean you “Let go and let God.” You’re allowed to not know.  In fact, sometimes you’re not meant to. Yes, it would be so much simpler if we always knew the right step, knew exactly where we were going and how we were going to get there. It would be so much simpler but it would also be far less of an adventure.