A Mistake I've Made

A Mistake I’ve Made

A mistake I’ve made in the past was thinking I was an “all or nothing person”.  I was all in or not in at all.  I was a runner, or I wasn’t running.  I was an artist, or I wasn’t an artist.  And when I wasn’t running I was really not running taking more than two weeks or a month off at a time.  Or when I wasn’t creating I’d completely ignore anything creative in my life.  There were years where I didn’t really journal or didn’t make any art.  Thankfully that would feel completely wrong to me now. 

Somewhere along the line, my mindset shifted, and I realized it didn’t have to be all or nothing.  I could simply choose to do things differently, I realized I could dabble, take baby steps instead of jump right in, I could let myself play.  This change in my thinking really started last year when I gifted myself a permission slip to play with watercolor.  It reminded me of what Elizabeth Gilbert says in big magic, where she encourages people to have an affair with their creativity. It did feel like I was doing something sneaky with my creativity!  It felt like I was having an affair with watercolor painting.  It started as a stolen lesson once a week, but then I started to fall madly in love with painting and would allow myself a whole Saturday of nothing but painting.  Sometimes a week would go by and I didn’t have time to paint but I now trusted myself. I trusted that I could take a week or two off and know that I would come back to the play, the practice of it.  For the first time in my life, there was something I loved and did often but realized it wasn’t all or nothing experience.  I could paint when I had time, then put my paints away when I didn’t have time, and know I would come back to them.   

Where in your life right now are you holding the belief that it must be “all, or nothing”.  Who would you be?  Who could you become if you allowed yourself to dabble, play or steal moments?  How would life change? 

Do you want to learn how to change your mindset? Are you ready to embark on a love affair with your most creative self? Then schedule your free discovery call with me to see how coaching could work for you.