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.
Our growth can be so slow that it can often go unnoticed. The beginning of a new year (and a new decade, no less) seems like a good time to reflect on and to celebrate all that we have achieved in the year that has passed.
I’m taking this opportunity to celebrate my successes with you. If you feel so inclined, please use the comments to share and celebrate your success of 2009 with me and the group.
With no further a due, my year in review.
What I Wanted to Do in 2009
If you don’t believe that these were my goals for ’09, check out My Goals for This Year: Growing Innerpreneurship in 2009
Begin Meditating Regularly Achieved! I now meditate each morning for 15 min, with some exceptions. It took me well into September before I managed to make this a habit, and I give credit to Jamie Ridler, her awesome book club and the book, The Joy Diet, for getting my ass in gear.
Generate a Sustainable Income from My Business, Elastic Mind Achieved? Maybe? I’m not really sure what the hell I meant when I set this goal as it seems horribly vague to me now. I can report that by June 2009 (approx. 1 year after Elastic Mind’s birth) I started making more money each month than I was spending. Saying that, I’m still a ways off from 1. paying off the debt I accrued from starting my business and 2. making enough money each month to do anything more than pay my costs.
Complete and Launch My Business Website Achieved x2! In March of 2009, I launched the other half of this website, covering how I could work with you. The site was much-obsessed-over and many-times-rewritten from my business conception in June 2008 to it’s eventual live launch in March 2009. I was happy with the site for approximately 3 months before I began developing the new one that launched this past November. Two new websites this past year is a testament to the growth I underwent in coming to understand my value and find my sweet spot. It’s also a testament to my craziness…
Enjoy More Hobbies Achieved! This past year was an important one for me in finding a better balance between my need to engage my mind, my body, my soul and my shadow self. I began practicing yoga at least two times a week, took up oil painting, began tap-dancing, and fed my freaky soul with travel to Nicaragua, France, Spain, Portugal and New York City.
Develop More Daily Structure
Achieved but still a work-in-progress. At the beginning of 2009, I would jump out of bed each morning and run to my computer and sit there all day, often forgetting to move, to wash, or to eat. Yes, I am a dirty girl. By the end of 2009, I managed to clean myself up a bit and include 15 min of meditation each morn, a possible walk in the afternoon and the blocking off of three days each week to stay off my computer and simply write. I’ve still got more work to do in this department as I easily get distracted from this structure I’ve established.
Tame My Inner Critic and Growing My Inner Kudos
Work-in-progress. The vile bitch upstairs seems to be getting bitchier… *sigh*. Anxiety brings out the perfectionist in me and owning a business is fucking scary shit.
Improve and Grow Rise of the Innerpreneur Achieved but still a work-in-progress. In 2009, I had the pleasure of:
meeting many of my readers through comments on the blog, email conversations, phone calls, Twitter chats, and Google/Skype video chats.
being interviewed on Ananda Leeke’s Go Green Sangha radio program.
forming a tiny Toronto in-person Innerpreneur support group and connecting with Nathalie Lussier. Our third meeting is this Monday and I am happy to report that our small group is growing.
\’\’Inspiration for an optimistic and growth-filled 2010. Below are excerpts from Bruce Mau‘s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth — statements exemplifying his beliefs, strategies and motivations. Enjoy and Happy 2010!
There is nothing that drives optimism more than passion with a purpose. Find your purpose.
Allow events to change you.
You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.
Take field trips.
The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic-simulated environment.
Slow down.
De-synchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.
Stand on someone’s shoulders.
You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.
Forget about good.
Good is know quality. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good… As long as you stuck to good you’ll never have real growth.
Ask stupid questions.
Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.
Think with your mind.
Forget technology. Creativity is not device dependent.
_______________.
Allow space for the ideas you haven’t had yet, and for the ideas of others.
Process is more important than outcome.
When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.
