You’re already designing a life where you can express your beliefs and values in your work.
“What if we looked at the world as a design project – how might we begin to make it better?” – Bruce Mau
Try looking at your world more optimistically. Seek possibilities for improvement. Let yourself dream of ways to make it better. Be a designer of your world.
“Criticize By Creating” – Michelangelo
Ask Why? Ask the dumb questions. If the answers don’t work for you, opt out. ‘Should be’ and ‘suppose to’ aren’t reasons to do anything.
Do it your way. There’s nothing you ‘have to’ accept. This is the new economy and it’s puzzle pieces are just starting to take shape. Get off the trail and see where it takes the world.
People pay you money to do the thing that you love to do. What if, just one time, you did your thing, and instead of you receiving the monetary value, you asked your client to give it to a charity doing relief work in Haiti?
What if you shared your act with the people you know and inspired them to give? What if you shared your act in the comments below and inspired us to give?
I want to give my value to Haiti. Help me.
I’m offering 1 hour of strategic coaching for free to the first person who pledges to give the monetary value they receive from our session to the Red Cross in the form of a donation.
Email me and help me give my value to Haiti. [This offer was snatched up on 18-Jan-10 at 12:17 PM EST]
If you’re a blogger… The Help Haiti Blog Challenge.
Kelly Diels (with inspiration from Danielle Laporte) has created the Help Haiti Blog Challenge to help spread the idea that WE CAN HELP HAITI BY GIVING OUR SELVES, OUR VALUE in support. Kelly is urging us to use our blogs to raise awareness and support for Haiti and spread the Challenge to our people.
\’\’Please sign up here and do what you can to help.
That’s what lead you down my “rabbit hole”. You wondered about something that lead your curiosity to here. It’s so like you. Always asking questions and expanding your mind. Why can’t you just accept the norm, the conventional, the accepted? Why must you ask WHY?
Doing it your way.
It’s your thirst for learning, your curiosity at the world, that makes you just that little bit of weird. You want to grow, you work to grow and you do it by consistently exploring your Self and your world. You’re a Cultural Creative (or an Integral, as Ken Wilber coined) because of it.
Ask me a question. Ask us a question. Get answers.
To honour our need to explore, I’ve added a new page to the blog called ASK in replacement of the forum (UPDATE: This page has now been removed as I couldn’t facilitate it without using a buggy and problematic plugin). There you can ask me a question by leaving a comment. The rest of the troupe can benefit from our discussion and add to it.
The longer the question, the better the answer. Make it a good story. Including more personal detail in your question will add to it’s clarity.
Ask your Self a question. Get answers.
Have a question on which You need advice? I learned this cool exercise for “dropping down the rabbit hole” for quick guidance and stress relief, and possibly to create a shift of focus, from Julia Cameron in The Right to Write.
Set pen to page and run a little Q&A on your Self. For example, write your question down:
Q. Why can’t I come up with a sample question?
Next listen for advice, and write down what you hear.
A. Because you not confident in your abilities to be engaging.
Don’t be surprised if your answers are hardheaded and practical. Your guidance will often seem simpler and wiser than your normal thinking. Try it next time you need a little perspective to find a solution.
This article was inspired by Shane McSimov’s new blog TheSquab (where he has an ASK page for his readers) and by Samatha Brightwell, who challenges me to embrace my writing, and has encouraged me to read Julia Cameron’s work. Thank you to both of you for your fabulous minds and ideas.
I’ve been talking about Innerpreneuring more and more lately… and it’s got me excited and it’s got me thinking. It’s helping me to focus on my purpose and ask a tough question — how can I best support our movement and the people behind it, AND realize my goals?
I’ve concluded that spreading the word, inspiring the people and supporting the businesses behind the movement, is my single-minded purpose. It’s the way that I know how to contribute best. It feels true to Me, and it prevents me from being something I am not. I’m not forum manager, or a community animator, or even a community lover. I add value to the world in different, but just as valuable, ways.
So, I’m taking down the forum and focusing on…
Talking with and writing about Innerpreners.
Because this is what I enjoy and dream of doing more of. It is what I am passionate about.
I add value by speaking about and with Innerpreneurs, as I did on Saturday with The Get Real Girls on FM107 in Minneapolis. My first time on the radio!
I add value by exploring and promoting Innerpreneuring here, and with other publishers, as I did with Life Coach Ana Ottaman. She published my 4 article series, introducing Innerpreneuring to her community:
Introducing Innerpreneuring — looking within to find the career that is right for you
What it takes to build your dream business — exploration, commitment, and belief
Using your voice to shape your dreams — expressing what you care about; your passion is your brand
Doing the work to realize your dreams — strategically choosing your future one day at a time
I add value by connecting one-on-one with Innerpreneurs through my coaching, our Toronto meetups or via almost-real coffee dates, like the one I had with Michelle Franco over Skype video last week. These personal, offline interactions are what feels good to me.
Making a difference, and making a profit, by supporting and pursuing My goals and dreams.
I’m sharpening my focus on what I do best, and dedicating my time and energy to growing these talents. I’m cultivating my one track mind in support of my goal to write a book, to make cool things of value, to improve as a coach, to connect with and support Innerpreneurs, and to explore the world.
