I recently read two books by Steven Pressfield called Do the Work and The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles and they were both rather amazingly awesome sauce. I highly recommend getting one or both of these books if you are a writer, an artist or hope to become a writer or an artist someday soon. Heck these books are fabulous for any kind of entrepreneur who needs to get past a road block and get their business rolling again.

In the books Pressfield talks about his idea of Resistance and how that, not fear, is the reason we don’t make our creative ideas reality.

Resistance is procrastination.
Resistance is your family.
Resistance is your inner monologue.
Resistance is your shiny object syndrome.
Resistance is that OTHER really great idea that you just HAVE to make happen right this minute.
Resistance is your fear.
Resistance is anything that keeps us from doing our life’s work.

“Rule of Thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.”

- The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle

These books could not have dropped in my lap at a better time. There is so much change and so many scary things on my plate right now and I am excited about each and everyone of them now! It scared the bejesus out of me to drop down to a part-time work load but once I made the decision it was like a weight was lifted off of me! I’m scared and nervous about auditioning for a play next week but I’m going to do it anyway. I realized that I was scared of these things because there are the right decisions for me, and I just need to do them.

It also goes for writing and creating in general. The manuscript isn’t going to magically complete itself even if you stare at it REALLY hard. This is not Bed Knobs and Broomsticks and although magic IS real it doesn’t work like that. Creating is hard but it’s not impossible, Resistance just makes it feel that way sometimes.

So, how can you start “doing the work” instead of always battling Resistance?
Here are some things that have helped me so far:

• Find a kick ass life coach. I have worked with several amazing coaches and each one has given me a new tool to use. Two that I highly recommend are Michelle Ward and Lisa Hunter. Two very different coaching styles but they are both equally awesome sauce!
• Take some time to sit and rediscover yourself and your passions. I had no idea I missed acting and musical theatre so much until I started working out what my passions really were and music and performing always popped to the top of the list!
• Decide right now that your project is a priority.  Wake up in the morning and start work on it even if you have other important things that need to be done. Feeding your soul is the top priority from now on.

Oh and I have a bonus for you this week!
Here’s a video where Mario Forleo interviewed Steven Pressfield about his book and about how to deal with Resistance!
(Unfortunately the book giveaway is over but I still HIGHLY recommend getting the book or books!)

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”

- Steven Pressfield

Weekly Questions:

• What is scaring the pants off of you that you need to see through?
• What passions are you putting to the side that deserve to see the light of day?
• How can you overcome your fear and make your dream life a reality?

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This past week I was perusing my Feedly blog feeds, checking in on my favorite blogs and I saw this post from Wil Wheaton about The Bloggess.

Did you click through to watch the video? If not, (lazy people….) click on the video below to watch the video.

Oh, but be sure you put your small children in another room…. it’s awesome and hilarious but not too safe for the tiny ears.

Don’t worry, I’ll wait…

The Art of Being Furiously Happy

Would you have joined in on the fun or would you have been like me and stepped to the side, secretly wanting to jump into the madness? Even if you don’t approve of her use of fabulous curse words I hope the idea hit home for you like it did for me.

Being furiously happy is not something that other people have, it’s something everyone has the ability to find. 

For me, being furiously happy comes down to leaving room in my life for my passions. I took some time to sit with myself, work through a workbook and made a plan of attack for my happiness. I get so caught up in work and family and doing things the way I “should” that I had to really spend some time this weekend and remember what my true passions were.

Here’s the start of my list of ideas on how to become furiously happy in my own life.

Feel free to borrow one or more of these because I know they’re all pretty awesome.

• Try out for a community theater play/musical.
• Start leaving inspirational quotes everywhere I go.
• Get dressed up in full vintage style everyday (or at least throughout the work week).
• Finger paint with my daughter.
• Dance in the middle of a store with my daughter more often.
• Start a blog about one or all of my passions (music, movies, books, weight-loss tips, crafting, spirituality).
• Start a video channel on YouTube that is just me singing in the car to the radio.
• Take up belly dancing.
• Sit outside for at least 10 minutes a day.
• Learn how to sew a swing dress.
• Create a meditation space.
• Always keep a fantastic book on my Kindle for emergency reading sessions.

to be continued…

That video switched something on inside of me and I hope it switched something on for you as well!

Weekly Questions:

• What do you think I should do first that’s on my list?
• What do you think should be added to the list?
• What did you put on your list?
• What are you putting off that scares the pants off of you?
• How can you start to invest some time for your passions and make them a priority again?

Bonus Challenge:

Go out and do something off of your list.
Go out and do something ridiculous.
Go out and do something that feeds your soul.
Go out and do something that will make you furiously happy!

*Super Special Pimping Out Section*

If you are looking for an excellent way of finding your passions I highly recommend Michelle Ward’s workbook, Creative Career Cheer, (review coming soon!) as well as her up coming ecourse,The Declaration of You!

I did the first installment of the course last year and it was fantastically wonderful and really helped me see how I wanted to build my business and my life to reflect my passions. Plus, this year they have a music video!! How awesome is that?!

Registration is going on right now, AND if you’d like an extra $20 off the ecourse use the promo code THESTORYOFPIERRE.

Your welcome in advance for all of your epiphanies and awesomeness.

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This has been around for a year or so but I just watched it today and loved it. Get a drink or a snack, it’s about 20 minutes of pure wonderfulness.

I have to admit that I haven’t read Eat Pray Love yet, and yet is the key word because it’s on my list after watching that talk.

I love the idea of separating the genius from the person. Who wouldn’t want a magical fairy or an invisible house elf there to help you through tough creative blocks or even pick your spirits up when you were down. I don’t think for one minute that I haven’t done the time or put in the work to make my business work or my family happy, but it’s nice to think that if things aren’t going picture perfect sometimes it’s just because Dobby the house elf is sitting down on the job.

I know that I have sat in the presence of something more than myself when it comes to my creative life. Unfortunately it hasn’t come in the form or an international best selling book but it did show up one night at a band concert. It was as though everything aligned and I couldn’t play a wrong note even if I tried. After that night it was hard to realize I wasn’t going to go on to make millions in an orchestra because the next day I was back to my regular mediocre self.

That moment on stage was a special moment but it was just for me. No one else knew what I was feeling and probably no one noticed that I totally rocked that concert! Having those moments to yourself is important because it boosts yourself up without relying on anyone to do it for you. Just knowing that for one minute I was capable of perfection has pushed me to try new and great things.

I took away from that the realization that there are moments in life that define who you are and there are moments where you are more than what you thought you were to help push you forward. Being motivated from within (with or without Dobby the house elf’s help) is important to moving forward with those big projects you have on the horizon. Being motivated doesn’t take the fear away or the what ifs that creep into your thought process when you’re working on a project but it definitely ads a bumper.

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Have you ever wondered what happened to that rebel who wanted to start their own business and live the life they wanted? Maybe they got crushed by other people’s opinions or maybe they wanted to blend in and make their business just like everyone else’s because that’s what they thought they had to do (That was me…).This week Johnny B. Truant and Lee Stranahan have put out a new program called “Question the Rules” geared exactly for that purpose; to help you bring that crazy dreamer/rebel back and focus on making your business kick ass! Both guys are hilarious and genius in their marketing so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that this program is awesometastic!

Over the past few months I have been undergoing a transformation of not only my business but my mindset as well. As you might know I started my business as a Vanilla VA and planned to work with anyone and do anything that would bring in the money.  It took some time and some help from my coach to realize that I wasn’t Vanilla and I was not being true to myself. I am a wild and crazy awesome quirky person who also happens to be a kick ass Virtual Assistant! I chose to bring that to my business by rebranding and reexamining my marketing to include my quirky side in a professional way!

I am SO much more aware that what I think is “professional” – boring and stuffy – is fine for some people, but not for me. It took some times but I have gotten away from comparing myself to everyone and just living in my truth that I am a . This program has really cemented my philosophy that people will want to work with me because of ME not how many yellow highlighted text areas I have or how many cold calls I make! Of course you philosophy could be completely different and that’s ok; that’s kind of the point!

Johnny and Lee’s program takes it a step further though and goes into how to set goals that will actually work with my beliefs instead of focusing on what I “should” be working towards. My favorite section though is on networking outside of the box and how you can network yourself and your business without feeling like a creepy salesman which is my ultimate fear when surrounded by people at a networking event!

Right now they are launching the program at a crazy price break of $97 and after Saturday (5/1) it’ll jump up to its final cost of $397. So if you are ready to start putting some F-U-N into your business instead of boring and stuffy check out Question the Rules and starting running your business the way you want to! Being yourself and not playing by the rules could be the thing that makes you stand out and be memorable and ultimately get that sale or that new client!

Full disclosure, some of the links in this post are affiliate links but that doesn’t mean I’m a slimy salesman; I really LOVE this program otherwise I wouldn’t be telling you about it here!

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