Playing Big: I want to save the world and I don’t know how. But I do know where to start.

The Dalai Lama said, “The world will be saved by the Western woman,” and he was right. We are the ones in the best position to do something about the problem. As Tara Mohr puts it,

We in the West we have the financial resources, political power, education and access to technology that is needed to relieve the tremendous suffering in the world. An who in the West is going to do that work? We women have the hearts, the empathy and the collaborative capacity to do it. We also have the talent, the wisdom and the brilliance needed — though we often doubt it.

The problem is, I don’t know how, and I suspect you’re in this boat with me. I know that I’m capable, despite the voice in my head that tries to convince me otherwise. I know that I have the ability to help in a real, tangible way. I know that you have the ability to help in a real, tangible way.

But how do we do it?

A Social Media Guide for People Who Hate Social Media

The other night at a networking event, I leaned over to my husband and whispered, “The next person to ask me about my social media strategy is getting a swift kick in the crotch.”

Of course, as fate would have it, I had to eat my words only a few moments later. Someone brought up the dreaded subject and I realized that, while I could probably execute the kick itself in a dress and heels, the running away afterward bit would be hard to manage. So I swallowed my pride, grabbed another glass of wine, and tried to change the subject.

An Authentic Mess

This morning, browsing through my daily blog feeds, I came across this nugget of advice from Seth Godin:

If you’re not getting paid what you’re worth, there are only two possible reasons:
1. People don’t know what you’re worth, or
2. You’re not (currently) worth as much as you believe

The first situation can’t happen unless you permit it to. If you’re undervalued, then you have a communication problem, one that you can solve by telling accurate stories that resonate.

A Farewell to Winter

Yesterday, the temperature slipped above 32 degrees for the first time in months. It stayed there all throughout the night. Today, it hit a glorious, sunny, windows-down-and-music-blaring 37, and I could not have been happier. Seriously. I was doing an all-out car dance to the new Strokes single and I didn’t even care that the old lady in the car next to me was getting annoyed.

But that was today. Yesterday, as the signs of the thaw first began to show, I was anything but happy. I found myself unready to let go of the cozy familiarity of winter, surprisingly sorry to see it go.

Calla Lily Love

This weekend my husband and I went up to Michigan with my folks to spend a few hours running amok in the woods on snowmachines (snowmobiles to you non-Alaskan folk). We had a blast, except for one minor mishap that resulted in a rather large impressionist landscape painting suddenly appearing on my body.

Creating Action – Part Three

Today we’re picking back up with the Creating Action series. For the last week, I’ve been blogging through my experience with Tara Gentile’s 8-part course, Creating Action. If you missed some or all of the earlier posts, catch up here:

Creating Action – Intro

Creating Action – Part One

Creating Action – Part Two

Today, we’re on to:

Assignment 3: What can you accomplish today?

Creating Action – Part Two

As many of you know, I’m blogging through my experience with Tara Gentile’s 8-part course, Creating Action. If you missed some or all of the earlier posts, catch up here:

Creating Action – Intro

Creating Action – Part One

Today, we’re on to:

Assignment 2: Action is Dirty

Creating Action – Part One

A few days ago, I mentioned that I had signed up for Tara Gentile‘s Creating Action course, as part of my ongoing effort to get myself and my business wrestled into some sort of manageable order. It’s a 3 week course involving 8 “assignments”, and today we begin the journey:

Assignment 1: What’s your Goal

Creating Action – Intro

Today, I signed up for a 3-week course offered (for free!) by Tara Gentile, editor of Scoutie Girl. Scoutie Girl has become one of my favorite and most-relied on blogs, thanks in large part to Tara’s generous and accessible wisdom, so I’m excited to see where the next 3 weeks take me!

The course is called Creating Action, and to my understanding it’s basically just what it sounds like – a series of exercises and challenges designed to help me put my goals down on paper and start making them happen.

Of course, the first step to any of that is actually creating some goals, which I suspect will be the topic of the first lesson. It can’t come soon enough! My dreams for my art and business have been vague and undefined for far too long – I’m never going to get anywhere that way.

Anywho, the point to all of this is to inform you that I’ll be blogging my way through the experience. Hopefully this will allow you to take something away from it as well, as I expect most of the exercises will be just as applicable to personal goals as they are to my business-related ones.

So, here’s to turning our dreams into goals and finally making them happen! We begin on Monday. I’ll see you there.

If you intend to join me on this journey, whether wholeheartedly or just in part, leave a note in the comments section – we can cheer each other on.

The Lady Who Couldn’t Purl

I recently had a rather odd encounter with a woman at the local knit shop that I frequent, and it taught me perhaps one of the most valuable lessons of my professional life.

I was loitering after an instructional class, enjoying the chance to just sit and knit and chat with the other regulars who happened to be in the shop at the time. On the other side of the table was a woman I’d never met, knitting away patiently at a garter-stitch scarf (which is a scarf composed entirely of knit stitches  – quick and easy, but incredibly tiresome after a while).