What if you can’t afford the kind of support you need to grow your dream?

support

This week's question is from a Creative Dreamer on a fixed income who cannot afford the kinds of programs that would give her the kind of support and tools she needs to bring her dreams to life.

Even if you can afford the support you need, most of us do find ourselves in a situation when we think something has to change before we can have what we want.

The important thing to know about this is that there is always a way to move forward now.

And that is what this week's episode of Creative Dream TV is all about:


And here is that video I mention in this video: Your Infinite Creative Potential and how it means that Everything Is Possible.

What if you can’t afford the kind of support you need to grow your dream? Read More »

I Am Happily Creative Journaling

creative journals

I wrote quite a bit about struggling to make a commitment to my daily Creative Journal Magic practice, as a part of my Summer of Dreams project.

I struggled a bit with making the commitment, but now everything has changed.? Now it feels like I am in the commitment.

And inside of the commitment everything is easier.

It creates a structure that supports your dream.

And supports you in the process of growing it.?

So – yay. I am happily creative journaling my way to my prize.

I Am Happily Creative Journaling Read More »

My Monday Morning Ritual: Creative Genius Planning Sesions

I’m changing it up a little this morning with a London Fog latte instead of a regular latte.

But other than that, this is what I do every Monday morning in the coffee shop beside the park.

This week’s planning session is all about Moving Bravely Forward.

Last week I finalized my plans for how I want to shift and change my business to accommodate my new mission: growing truer, deeper + sparklier (not bigger!).

So this week’s Creative Genius Planning Session is all about making a plan to put my new plans into action.

It feels very good to see, clearly, what that looks like and what needs to happen, and when!

Excited!

My Monday Morning Ritual: Creative Genius Planning Sesions Read More »

Recording this week’s videos in a new wig.

I recorded THREE videos today!? One for Advanced Creative Badassery group, one for my Creative With Money course, one for this week’s Creative Dream Q+A (that one will be posted on my blog on Wednesday).

I heart costumes and the way they help me play with different energies and put on my “OH YES I AM CLEAR, FOCUSED AND READY TO WORK” mood.

Recording this week’s videos in a new wig. Read More »

New Purple Chairs for the Dream Loft (AKA How Grief Is An Important Part of Creative Dreaming)

I made purple slipcovers for my pink chairs.

I remember buying these chairs, only 8 years ago.? I spent months searching for the exact-right-chairs in the exact-right-shade-of-pink.

Did you know I have 1/2 a degree in interior design, and an actual degree in fashion design?

I have learned a lot about colour, and design.

I dropped out of interior design school because I already had clients and every one of them wanted me to do the same thing for them: make their homes beautiful just like the interior design magazines.

Bleh.

I wanted to help people tap in to their creative magic, to help them create spaces that would make their souls sing.

Spaces that would nurture and incubate their dreams.

I made a whole program about it.?? I worked on it for months and months and months.

And all my clients wanted was pretty houses, just like in the magazines.? Which is kind of how I would describe hell.

That’s when I went back to school to become a spiritual teacher/counselor/mentor-in-bringing-your-dreams-to-life.

So, I had these perfect-shade-of-pink chairs.

Perfect for me-from-then.

And me-from-now was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with them.? Me-from-now definitely wants deep, luscious purple.

So I made slipcovers.

And they are perfect.

Except for the hard part.

Saying goodbye to the me who loved those pink chairs!

Saying goodbye to her dreams.? Remembering the hopes she had for the life she was creating when she bought those chairs, how optimistic she was about it all and how it all fell apart and how that still hurts.

With each step forward you have to let go of another thing from the past.

The importance of giving yourself time and space to grieve.

If you don’t grieve that stuff it stops you from taking steps forward.? It stops your dreams from growing.

Finally covering the pink chairs showed me how much grieving I still have to do.

We all, pretty much always, have more grieving to do.

Consciously giving yourself time and space to grieve is, surprisingly, an important step in moving your dreams forward.? Sad, but true.

New Purple Chairs for the Dream Loft (AKA How Grief Is An Important Part of Creative Dreaming) Read More »

I feel like my creative dreams have been blown open by love and possibility.

I want to write an update and tell you everything that is happening with my Summer of Dreams project but I can’t.

Last night I was reading Deepak Chopra (OMG! Reading up in my loft! With the pink sparkly walls and the twinkle lights twinkling! And the cool summer breeze! Perfection!) and he talked about how our bodies need to metabolize learnings before they can become really true for us, before they can change us and our lives.

That’s what I’m doing – metabolizing.

I’m not at the part where I can explain it all clearly, I’m still marinating in it.

I’m still having the most beautiful summer, ever.? I’m still taking my dreams and my creative journals to the beach and the park.

And I’m getting a really surprising amount of work done.

This is the Creative Dream Office I set up this morning:

I’m savouring the lushness of summer and letting the summer-ness of it nourish me and my dreams.

And I’m still working through both Creative Journal Magic and the Creative Dream Incubator.? Slowly but surely.

I feel like my creative dreams have been blown open by love and possibility.

And that’s all I can really say about it right now.

I feel like my creative dreams have been blown open by love and possibility. Read More »

Creative Dream TV: How to handle limiting beliefs, fears & doubts

how to handle limiting beliefs

In this video I dive into a question I received from Louise, a lovely portrait artist who has:

  • lost all confidence in her artwork
  • has a belief that she can't shake off that she can't support herself with her dream

And so she feels frozen and unsure about how to move forward with her dreams.

We've all felt this way.

We've all felt like we can't have what we really want, like we don't deserve it and it will just never happen.

Learning how to deal with this stuff is your Most Important Work, when it comes to bringing your dreams to life.

Watch it now:


This video is from 2012. The kit I mentioned is the Transform your Inner Critics, Fears and Doubts Kit.

Now (in 2014) this kit has been transformed into the Un-Sticking Station, which you get inside the Creative Dream Circle. It helps you transform ANY block you find on the path to your dream. I know that sounds crazy but it absolutely works. You have the power to shift this stuff, you just need the right tools.Click here to join the Circle today.

 

I also mentioned the "Top Posts For When Things Suck", here they are :

 

Creative Dream TV: How to handle limiting beliefs, fears & doubts Read More »

Finding the Right-Fit Support to Grow Your Dream

As my business has been growing, one question that I haven’t been able to figure out is what kind of support to get.

A few weeks back I took a Creative Business Retreat At The Beach.? The purpose of the retreat was to step back from everything, get a better view of where I’m at and where I’d like to be, to explore what it would mean to grow my business truer, deeper and sparklier (as opposed to just growing it “bigger”).

Part of the amazing-ness of a retreat is that it invokes intention and magic and intuition and SOLUTIONS as it shows you everything from this different perspective.

As you know, my retreat did not go as planned.

And it was in the unplanned chaos and working my way through it that I learned something really important about support and what kind/flavour/style of support really works for me.

It’s the kind of support I get from my mechanic.

He sees my car regularly.? He knows my car, he knows me.? When things go wrong he knows exactly what to do.? He already has all the info.

When I called him from the beach, stranded, with no keys, I didn’t have to go crawling around the car looking for the serial number or whatever it is they need to have new keys coded.

And I don’t have to worry about something going wrong with the car and not knowing what to do about it.? I’ve got someone who knows what to do about it.? He’s there when I need him.

I love knowing that.

It’s definitely the kind/flavour/style of support really works for me.

I filed that away under “Good To Know, But I’m Not Sure What That Means For My Business, Just Yet”.

And then last week I broke my website trying to move it to its lovely new home.

I emailed my friend Wendy Cholbi and was so glad she was willing to add this to her schedule and get on it right away.

Going from complete despair of having broken my website and not knowing how to fix it, or if fixing it was possible, to putting the whole thing into Wendy’s capable hands was such an incredible relief.

And then Wendy suggested her Website Tune-up program so she could tune-up a few things that she saw could use help, and then let her handle the ongoing maintenance and updating of my websites.

Bing!

And this felt like exactly the kind/flavour/style of support that I learned works for me and that I would like to have in my business.

(So, thank you, me-from-then, for losing my keys at the Creative Business Retreat At The Beach which led me to clarity about what kind of support I want.)

So, Wendy now handles the maintenance for both of my websites.

Which is relief and delight and support and right-fit and Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

There are so many options out there.

Tech support, virtual assistants, marketing advisers, business coaches, etc, etc, etc, etc.

They all provide valuable services.

It’s really hard to know what is the right solution for you.? As far as I am concerned, the only way to go is to explore support itself, get a grasp on how support feels for you, what kind of support you want and how you want it.

Once you’re clear on how it’s going to feel to have it, you’ll be able to recognize that right-fit support when it shows up.

Finding the Right-Fit Support to Grow Your Dream Read More »

Monday Morning Creative Genius Planning Session

I am sharing a photo on my blog every day for the month of August, as a part of Susannah Conway?s August Break.

Today’s photo, on a sunny Monday Morning:

This week’s Creative Genius Planning Session is all about schedules, routines, rituals, containers and support systems.? All the invisible stuff that supports me in living my magic and bringing it to the world.

Monday Morning Creative Genius Planning Session Read More »

Going for an early morning walk

I know that every part of me – mind, body, spirit – feels best when I walk for at least one hour per day.

And I haven’t been walking one hour per day.

I’ve been hardly walking at all actually.? And I feel like I’ve been hardly walking at all lately and I don’t like how it feels at all.

Last night I gently asked myself why.

Why have I been driving to a coffee shop every morning when really I would love walking there?

And the answer was surprising!

It’s not that I don’t want to walk it’s that I like being in the bubble of magic that is my little red beetle.? I like being in my space, not public space.? Especially in the mornings.

For a lot of reasons, being in my own space is especially important right now.

And as soon as I knew that that was why I wasn’t walking, I knew what to do about it.

With energy work and intention setting and the-putting-on-of-headphones I created my own bubble-of-my-space to be in.

And I happily walked to get coffee this morning.? And it was perfect.

And every part of me, mind, body, spirit, are cheering YAY! WALKING!

Today’s?August Break photo: early morning sunshine.

Going for an early morning walk Read More »

Goodbye ABCcreativity

I am sharing a photo on my blog every day for the month of August, as a part of Susannah Conway?s August Break.? A little late with today’s photo because my! blog! was! broken!

And since you are seeing this now you know that my! blog! is! fixed!

And not just fixed but moved to its new home: www.creativedreamincubator.com

I have had abccreativity.com for… I’m not sure how long!? I’m guessing 7 years.

I remember that I didn’t know what url to pick.? I discussed it with my friends at SARK‘s message board (which recently closed down) and my amazing friend Knoxy suggested ABCcreativity based on my username at the SARK forum.

And we played with how I could change the meanings of the A, B and C.? Like:

Astounding
Beautific
Courageous
Creativity

and stuff like that.? It felt good, it felt like a FIT.

At that time, I was doing live workshops and in-person spiritual counseling.

I had been doing my creativity workshops for a while, and wanted to get a website where I could post the dates of upcoming events. (I also wanted to start blogging and I did start a blog, and then deleted the whole thing later because it was embarrassing.)

At that time I had a part time job and was over-the-moon-blissed-out that I had time and space and money for all the things I wanted to do.? (This was after many years of being a starving artist)

I was not thinking about online workshops or leaving my part time job.? I was very happy right where I was.

And that’s where things stayed for a few years.

This post tells the story of when I realised that it was time to let my real work get bigger and let go of my day job and how I made that transition in 6 months.

That was just over 2 years ago.

I have grown exponentially in that time.? I know more now, so much more!?? About business and about vulnerability and courage and about how my real work is being who I am and living what I teach, not teaching what I teach.

I have grown exponentially and ABCcreativity doesn’t fit me anymore.

It hasn’t fit for some time.? When I see people refer to me online as Andrea from ABCcreativity I cringe a little because it feels off.

But I didn’t know what to do about it.

And now I do.

So, goodbye ABCcreativity. You have served me well, so well!

You were there when you were just 1 page announcing workshop dates and locations, you were there for my first (failed!) blog, you were there when I started to experiment with bringing my live workshops online and you were there when I decided to do this, for real, as my full time gig.

You’ve had about a zillion makeovers.? And tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world.

Thank you, ABCcreativity.com? I could not have done this without you.

And I’m not leaving you, you’re coming with me!

Starting a new blog would have been easy.? Moving you, with your massive files of juicy content, is why this move was difficult, that’s why I broke my blog trying to move you.

AND IT’S WORTH IT.

xo

Andrea

PS: GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO Wendy for fixing my blog and getting it settled into its new home.

Goodbye ABCcreativity Read More »

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