Reframing Our Possibilities Part I

Today I'm trying something new. I'm starting my day not with reading emails, or even news online, but with doing something creative, writing this blog. I'm trying this because I want to bring my creativity and story telling skills to a new level, and I have been putting my creativity-for-creativities-sake last on my list of late.  So last night, when I read Zen Habit's blog "The 5 Principals of a Profound Work Day" I thought, "Aha! What could happen if I start with creativity first?"

You see, I'm getting ready to start on two new writing projects. One is working on the "Creating Charismatic Communities" training programs and manuscript with Charlie Gandy, and one is remapping a novel I've been working on (but had put aside for over six months) and both need me to be at my creative best. What could happen, I wonder, if I started to put it first? What if I reframed my priorities and thus reframed my possibilities?

It has been a great summer work-wise as my associates and I prepare to launch a marketing project we've been working on for about a year, but a tough summer health-wise. In mid June I came down with a fierce case of food poisoning that ended up throwing off my system for the rest of the month, all of July, and crept a little into August. That of course set off the migraines and thus yours truly spent even more time than usual resting and reading. And that's where the glimmers of magic opportunity began. Oh the universe is crafty that way.

A few weeks ago I was meandering around a Barnes & Noble while waiting for Charlie to finish buying supplies at REI for his John Muir trail quest (I'm happy to share he was successful in the completion). My eyes caught a bright yellow cover with the intriguing title "The Art of Possibility." The hair stood up on the back of my neck. I read the very glowing on the cover from Dr. Christiane Northrup and knew I had to have the book. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that this is one of the most important books I've ever read in my life. This elegantly written but to-the-point book is all about how we can reframe what is possible in our lives.

And I was in need of reframing. Along with the backward slide of my health my attitude had slid right along with it. Here I was so close to launching one of the most important projects of my life to date, and yet I was feeling resentful and frustrated. It had been a tough project to get started and it had been stalled many times along the way, and in ways, my associates and I had very little or no control over. Other opportunities glimmered but they were wrapped up in dances that felt like forward-back-back.

I knew in my heart that while I was projecting all of this negativity outwards it was really my own house that really needed to be put in order mentally, emotionally and physically. This was my year of "allowing" but I was having a very hard time allowing at the moment. And so I began to read. From the very beginning the Zanders state that the book offers practices that are "transformational."  They state:

"The history of transformational phenomena - The Internet, for example, or paradigm shifts in science, or the spread of a new religion - suggests that transformation happens less by arguing cogently for something new than by generating active, ongoing practices that shift a culture's experience of basis for reality."

Hmm. Isn't that exactly what had happened to me when I gave up my car? It wasn't until I was too tired and too poor to deal with non-existing parking and a car on its last legs that I noticed my city offered very good public transportation over four years ago. Once I spent more time riding and walking I noticed a lot more people on bikes than ever before, and my interest in bicycle advocacy was sparked. But it wasn't until I met Charlie that I realized a bike could be right tool for transportation for myself as well. I didn't feel judged because I wasn't ready to ride yet, but after about four months of knowing him I did feel "enrolled." And that is a key ingredient in the Zander's practices - enrolling and enaging others rather than preaching from the podium.

It's not overstating it that my life has been transformed by not owning a car. Fascinatingly not at all in ways I had imagined. Had you asked me over four years ago if I thought it was possible my most exciting career opportunities would blossom because of it I'm sure I would have laughed. Becoming a communications specialist for walking/biking and public transportation advocacy never entered my mind. Indeed I'm not sure they existed as careers options at all.

This summer I've had the great pleasure of meeting writer and editor Alissa Walker who has also had her life transformed, or reframed as it were, by giving up her car. And I've become an avid reader of the Communicatrix blog and the 50 for 50 project. I'll share why these two women are such an inspiration for me tomorrow - when I yet again start my day with creating!