Believe in your Dreams

Before I begin my column this week I would like to thank John Lister for his email to me this week.  John said (and I quote)

“I am writing simply to share my frustration in the lack of support for the arts from our government, and even in the local media. Glad to know I am not the only person to be creating something who is struggling to find a way to be paid for the effort. Take care, and I do enjoy your column.”

John’s music is excellent by the way and you can hear it on line at www.g-o-d-i.com, if anyone else would like to write me I encourage it and you can do so at – Sandra@studioonecatsquared.com

So let’s move on to my thought for this week, Dreams.  Actually it may be more correct to say the topic is how to fulfill your dreams.  One things for certain, if you are an artist, you are also a dreamer.  You knew from a young age when you picked up your first pencil, microphone, paint brush or stood on a stage that this is where you belonged.  It was about this time we started to conjure up visions of cheering crowds and large bank accounts.  It was also about this time that some well-meaning adult wanting to save us from disappointment explained to us that this was a foolish pursuit. 

A very smart person once said “You will become the very thing you spend the most time thinking about.”  Watch it though, it is a two edged sword.  If you wish to make a living at your art but spend more time thinking about how it’s not happening the way your pictures in your head look or even happening at all, this will become your reality.   The flip side and this is the side you want to be on.  If we think about being the artist we have always believed we could be, it will happen!  You noticed I didn’t say may happen or could happen I said it will happen! This is not New Age mumble, jumble, it is a fact. 

Anyone who has ever accomplished what they truly believed they were meant to do, have done it or are in the process of getting there.  The time it takes to get there is the bumpy road that will make or break you but it has a purpose.  It is there to test your conviction.  With very few exceptions you will find that for every person who is living by their art there are a million stories that tell how they almost gave up but didn’t.  It is usually at that moment the doors opened and the opportunity they were hoping for came along.  Every person who ever made it to their goal knew they would even when others were doubtful.

There is another step to this believing in your Dreams; that is you must move forward as if it already has happened.  Take the words – if this or that happens, someday I might and I hope to be – out of your vocabulary and replace your thoughts with I am going to do this or I am that.  Start to feel in your heart and soul that it has already happened, even when you are still flipping burgers at McDonalds.

Insecurities and doubt must not be in your thoughts.  When they try to pop up shove them away because if you don’t believe in your dreams how could anyone else? 

This is a big topic that will have to be continued next week, but for this week I will leave you with this; whenever I start to speak about this thing that will happen or that in my life and someone says, “How will that possibly happen?”  I tell them quite simply: I don’t know it’s all a mystery.  Isn’t that great!

The Joy of Being Brilliant

The Joy of Being Brilliant
Generally we look at the challenges with being a Creative Soul but all the negative stuff aside we should take time to revel in the sheer joy of being in the top percentile of those who are considered brilliant.
Brilliant! Not me, I hear all your collective thoughts at the idea that you may be just that. So why is this so hard to accept? I know that from the time we were children we were taught not to be to self-absorbed. We were taught that humility was the way to go; pride comes before a fall and all the other cliché phrases to keep us humble. It is a strange world that tells us it is bad to acknowledge your abilities but fine to talk about your problems and short comings.
So starting today I want you to add to your list of things that you are grateful for one more critical item. Your Brilliance! Thank your Mother, Father, Aunt Mabel or whatever higher power you believe in and say it, I am Brilliant.
How do I know you are brilliant? If you create anything and feel the calling of the muses, you are Brilliant. What is more important is that you know you are brilliant. Once you do you will start to shine brighter and brighter and your creative self will become boundless. If you need more than that as an example just do the following: Think about a time when you created something, a song, a poem, you painted effortlessly, danced with wings on your feet or wrote passages that flowed so easily you were convinced you were channeling Hemmingway. How did you feel? Excited, light, joyful, exhausted and happy, definitely happy; you were alive with every nerve tingling. This is brilliance.
We all have experienced it and have the power to feel it daily, but often we don’t, why? I think that all this humility training as children that sabotages our brilliance, so starting today; I give you all permission to accept your brilliance and to start every day saying “I am a brilliant, creative, artistic soul, thank you (insert name) I shall not waist it!”
Once you accept that this is the truth about you amazing things will happen. You will find that the brilliant ideas will flow and brilliant ideas are a little like rabbits once you have a couple of them the next thing you know you have a million of them. Will you have down days? Sure, we all do but getting back on track will be much easier if you are accepting of how great you really are. Will some of your ideas or creative expressions be not so brilliant? Yes, of course. The important thing is to not mistake arrogance with knowing and appreciating your creative brilliance. Arrogant people never accept that they make mistakes or are not perfect. We know we make mistakes but when we don’t – Get out the sun glasses and watch out!!