by Tara Joyce | Mar 1, 2010 | My Journey | What's On My Mind
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I feel more joy being less connected.
A web presence… me using the Internet to communicate to the globe… sometimes, I wonder what I have gotten myself into. I question if an online life is truly sustainable and if I truly enjoy it. Do I really want to be connected and online, daily, for the long term?
Being online, on a computer, doesn’t feel nearly as amazing to me as being in nature, or meditating, or writing, or traveling, or trekking does. I love it, but only in moderation. It’s too easy to get lost in.
I want to be online only sometimes. I don’t want my computer, or my connection to it, to be my life. I am more empowered and centered when I spend my time being connected to my Self, and to nature.
Yet I’ve chosen a career that revolves around being online…
Often I am asked, by people not submerged in the online culture, how I balance working on the web. They mention how addictive being online is… how time seems to disappear… and it’s fair for them to assume that, as I ‘blogger’ and web coach, I must promote a tweeting-emailing-publishing-surfing-updating kinda’ life. A life lived online.
My computer is my tool, not my life.
I don’t promote a life lived online. I use the computer, and what it allows, to create easily and communicate globally. But me, as you see me online, can never completely express my life, nor do I want it to.
My writing is my life, not my tool.
I’ve tried writing to satisfy the belief that regular, scheduled blog postings are my duty, but it doesn’t work for me. Obligating myself into writing has proved rather uninspiring.
The problem is, this blog is for me to practice my writing, and I work best when I practice because I love to. I write for me. Just as your art is for you. It’s your choice to click and read me, but your reaction, I can’t control and can never know. I can only ever know what my words mean to me. I am write for my happiness.
I’m choosing to believe that my only duty to you is to love what I do, not to publish x times a week, on y day. I’m choosing to believe that if I like my words, You‘ll like my words, and, for that reason, You‘ll return to read them. Call me crazy if you like.
photo credit: DigiDi
by Tara Joyce | Feb 23, 2010 | My Journey | What's On My Mind
I can’t believe how easy it was to shift my life in Toronto into low gear for the last 3 weeks. Sure, it was “stressful” before I left, but only because I made it so.
Being away and unconnected for such a nice chunk of time showed me how overinflated my sense of purpose had grown and how I was lacking perspective. Publishing, responding to emails, helping clients, spending time with family and friends, all of it doesn’t have to happen now. Though I had fooled myself into thinking it did. The world isn’t waiting for, or depending on, me. I’m not saving lives. I’m not that important. Time keeps on moving, whether I am racing to keep up or not, and this truth feels so good because it makes me feel so small.
“Hay más tiempo que vida” (There’s more time than life) – Nicaraguan saying
What is the big rush? Why do I hurry so? Why have I bought into my culture’s belief that there is never enough time? Does it make me feel more important and inflate my sense of purpose to believe that I MUST GET STUFF DONE TODAY? Why do I buy into the story that life and business are a race to a finish line, unseen?
It’s bullshit, and the sane part of me knows it. I’m not racing anyone or anything, I’m just trying to keep up with the silly rules I’ve created for myself out of fear. Somewhere down the line, I agreed to believe that the words slow and doing nothing were dirty, especially when it came to my business. I had agreed to believe that it was my necessity to make something of myself, to do more, to be known, that my life required others attention in order to be meaningful.
I was forgetting that all I’ve ever wanted are two things — to be happy and to make a difference — and I already have them. Seeking and striving for more makes me unhappy as it over-inflates my sense of purpose. My life, as it is right now, is my dream. And I don’t need to be afraid of it slipping away if I don’t move fast enough.
Slow and steady is beautiful and effective. Leaving the fast life and calmly observing the natural progression of time made this clear. Everything I do, it needs to be for me — and not to satisfy the fears I hold of not being good enough and fast enough. I’m tapping into, drawing up to the surface, and abundantly expressing my uncrazy side. And my life and my business are going to be a hell of a lot more fun because of it.
by Tara Joyce | Feb 2, 2010 | My Journey | What's On My Mind
For the Next 3 Weeks
My husband, Daniel, and I arrived yesterday afternoon in Costa Rica, in celebration of our 2nd wedding anniversary, where we are spending two days at Volcan Arenal — in hopes of seeing some molten-hot magma — before heading North to Nicaragua and the border crossing at the Rio San Juan.
The whole area surrounding the Rio is a tropical rain forest and, apparently, the bio diversity there is spectacular. The Rio San Juan is know as one of last ‘wild’ rivers as it is surrounded by nature reserves, and strong conservation measures are taken, to keep civilization from intruding on the natural wonders of the area. All along the river we can expect to see hundreds of different bird species like: Chestnut Toucans, Harpy Eagles, Boat-billed herons, Great Egrets, Jacanas and Cormorants. As well as other species such as caimans (crocodile), turtles, monkeys, red arrow frogs.
After travelling the Rio, we will head North to the gorgeous colonial city of Granada and then morph into beach bums for our last week, and enjoy the sun and surf of San Juan del Sur. My husband and I traveled to Nicaragua for the first time last year and instantly feel in love.
Feeding My Soul… But Not This Blog
I will be writing the whole time I am gone but, technology has it’s limits, and I’m expecting internet access to be non-existent along the wild Rio. If I had my shit together more I perhaps would have written a ton of posts before I left, and pre-published them, but, alas, I am not that good. So, expect for my publishing to be spotty over the next three weeks as I feed my freaky soul, and take a sojourn from my wonderful business and work.
I wish you much joy and peace. Thanks for reading.
by Tara Joyce | Jan 24, 2010 | Cultural Creativity
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.
by Tara Joyce | Jan 20, 2010 | Innerpreneurship
Sometimes, as business owners, our fear gets the better of us. It’s inevitable.
Running a business is fucking hard. It’s especially brutal on the self-confidence.
We can’t acknowledge our progress. We want to feel more sure. We want someone to tell us our answers.
There are so many unknowns, and we are risking a lot. What if WE are wrong?
No idea what to do.
When I feel “the questions” weighing me down, I remind myself that my business is no different than my travels.
When I trekked the Annapurna Circuit through the Himalayan Mountains, it was scary, exhilarating, empowering, crazy. And, like with my business, I had no idea what I was the hell I was doing.
I knew where I was starting, and I had the confidence and support that I could get to where I wanted to end up. And that’s about it.
The rest of the journey was the amazing, life changing experience of simply putting one foot in front of the other and discovering where it took me.
And, if you’d note, I’m not dead. So that strategy has legs.
Embrace the ride.
It’s cool if you have no idea what you’re doing. No one does.
Just do the next thing that feels right.
photo by: me!
I took it on the Annapurna Circuit.
