Reinvent Yourself: The Small Things

A great journey starts with the small steps. A great change starts with some small changes. A big thing starts with the small things.

And if there were a chance to send a message to my younger self, I would send this. “Don’t wait for anything. Start doing the small things. Don’t wait for better weather, or better times, for better company or better opportunities. Start doing what you can do – now”. If you want to have a garden – start with a single pot. If you want to live one year in Paris – start learning French. If you want to learn a new dance – sign up for that salsa class now.

I believe there is a great potential of empowerment in doing small things and taking the small steps.

A Kick of Inspiration

Thank you so much for the discussion of inspiration under my previous post. It inspired me even more 🙂 To be precise – to think about the places (and some other things) that bring a spark of inspiration in me (I just stopped to think of the word “spark”. While in English it means a small fiery particle, the same word means a “kick” in Norwegian. Which brings me to the words of Manja, in the same comment section, calling it a “kick-yourself-in-the-butt” attitude. Well, yes. While in other countries you can catch a perfect light, as an artist, in the North it is all about kicking yourself up to some action during these dark months :))

While we were talking in the comments about things and places that inspire us, I came to think of a practice from the book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron (aka my favorite book on creativity). She called it the dates with your Inner Artist (also your Inner child). The book is made as a course of 12 weeks, with exercises for each week. But the dates should be done regularly, once a week. This may be anything that your inner artist would love, no other meaning to it. A stationary store, a museum, a walk in the nature – anything that brings you joy and playfulness.

the spring spirit

in the Nordic garden

What would you do for inspiration?

At times I find it difficult to come in touch with my motivation and inspiration. Maybe, it’s the apathetic vibe of autumn, or maybe, I think too much. When I’d hear “you think too much”, I’d always smile (superiorly, of course) – but now I ask myself if this is not always such an advantage as I used to see it.

Sometimes I find myself in this philosophical mood when everything seems just a fuss, with no meaning. For example, when I say it would be good to do more blogging again, there is this voice in me that says: “And what is the meaning of it? Why do you want to do it? To get popular once? We have discarded this idea long time ago. To build a community? And what will it give you? Just to communicate? But there are other options to do it in real life – and you know, you would prefer it in real life”. And then the apathy crawls in, and I think: “Ah, whatever. Really, why bother?” Do you know this feeling?

Summer Blogging Stop

Is anyone else here in the same trouble? It looks like the summer has brought, with its warm breeze, longer days and vibrant greenery, a break on writing. As I go around in my summer businesses, drifting further from blogging, there is also a rising feeling of guilt about not keeping up with this project. And the longer I feel it, the more difficult it gets to sit down and write something.

door into summer

my blogging spot

Why write?

The work is sometimes done when you don’t see it.

When you meditate and try to keep your mind still, you can get frustrated by the thoughts coming and stealing your attention. But the masters say, that the real work is done not in emptying your mind but in that moment of becoming conscious of your thoughts coming and going.

I’ve been feeling bad about falling out of blogging for almost two weeks. I feel like I can’t live up to my simple resolution of 2 posts a week. And the longer I am not writing, the more difficult it is to get on track (though I keep on blogging on my Russian blog, I guess I have developed a better habit there).

Just Share It

Lately I have seen that all the discoveries I was coming up with were kind of obvious things. I would get that aha moment and the light bulb in my head would go “I need to share it!”. But then I would start thinking and suddenly see that my idea is not really my idea, that I have read about the thing before, and I have even known it for a while. I was writing posts on  my Russian-speaking blog, and felt like I was expressing very obvious things.

At first I felt like I hit the showstopper. So what do I do now? Do I sit around and wait for a really original idea? And indeed, are there so many original ideas that are shared out there? I guess, it is just my big ego that wants me to come up with something genial and groundbreaking, but that – instead of motivating me – keeps me procrastinating and stuck.