I was telling a friend about how I know where I’m going and how I’m getting there, and she wanted to know more. I said, ‘I’ll send you the blog post!’ And then realised what I have to say about my values was all scattered in bits and pieces across my site. Which made figuring out what to share today pretty straightforward…
So, here we go! Bringing it all together.
Table of Contents
My values
Where I’m going
Towards
- Autonomy
- Focus
- Joy
These are the 3 ingredients I need for creative flow. I participated in hack week in March 2021 and that helped me figure out this recipe.
Getting clear on. and reconnecting with, goals and priorities is an essential part of the recovering from burnout triangle, so it’s something I’ve been practising lately, alongside doing less and getting support.
Autonomy
I find it nearly impossible to do stuff I don’t want to do. I need stuff to be interesting and important to me. So, that’s where I direct my energy and attention. Autonomy makes the other 2 ingredients accessible to me.
Focus
Sometimes I get hyperfocused on stuff. Sometimes I’m super distracted. Either way, prioritising is critical for me. Identifying these 3 ingredients is part of having focus.
Joy
I’ve been aiming to follow joy for a while now, and I’ve been achieving that sometimes. For example:
- Studying botany. Learning the names of trees in German. Making tree families family maps.
- Learning German
- Drawing, especially sketching plants
- Buying myself flowers
- Lighting candles
There’s literally no reason for my doing any of these things except that I enjoy them. Awesome.
Really grateful to Brooklyn Minds for helping me to reconnect with the importance of having hobbies, and that they have to be totally disconnected from income and work in order to count as hobbies!
First explored these concepts of the destination and compass for this journey in Destination unknown, but I have a compass: Day 1 challenge, then a week later in If my life were a book, what would it be?, and then a week later here. Interesting!
How I’m getting there
With
- Compassion
- Courage
- Curiosity
These are the 3 elements that make it possible to explore, to be adventurous, to launch myself from my comfort zone, to act out of love instead of fear.
Compassion
Roughly this time last year I started practising deep rest meditations with Jaya Ashmore. Jayaji has been so deeply influential in centring compassion in my life, and I am so grateful.
Without compassion, it’s hard to take risks, because the pain of beating myself up over failure is so great.
Courage
Without courage, much of what I do is driven by fear and risk avoidance. Courage makes it possible to do things I didn’t think were possible for me.
Curiosity
This time last year I learned about character strengths, and learned that curiosity is my signature strength. Which means practising curiosity increases my energy and enthusiasm. It’s like a booster pack.
- Boost Confidence
- Increase Happiness
- Strengthen Relationships
- Manage Problems
- Reduce Stress
- Accomplish Goals
- Build Meaning and Purpose
- Improve Work Performance
Research shows that understanding and applying your strengths can help [in these areas]
VIA Character
How I’m restoring my energy
- Playing
- Explored the importance of play last month in Weeknotes: Designing better lives by mining the multiverse 🖌️.
- Resting
- Often preaching about the importance of rest, for example, in Weeknotes: Nurturing courage & compassion: How to be on creative retreat 🎥🖌️
- Here’s another, which includes a poem too: Weeknotes: How to practise resting without guilt, and stop overworking 🎥
- Being, Breathing, Outside
- Many times I talk about the importance of being outside (often I talk about this as going for walks); this is a great one: Weeknotes: Joy of unshoulding on retreat. Birdsong, rest & sleep 🎥
Life is for living, and the meaning of life is whatever meaning you create of it.
LiLi
What I’ve been creating
I explored my creative process a month ago in Weeknotes: What’s your creative process? Here, I’ll show you mine… 🎥🖌️. And I had a month of experimenting with, and creating, vlogs every week, Since then, here’s some of what I’ve been creating:
- Singing, 11 Apr: Weeknotes: Infinite possibilities: Invitation to dance with life (includes audio & transcript)
- Poetry, 7 Apr: Give it the ole frazzle dazzle! Then, wind down
- Love letter, 6 Apr: How to follow creativity, trusting the flow: A love letter (includes audio & transcript)
- Drawing, every day!
On what I’ve been learning
- I don’t think I’ve blogged about this yet, but Toastmasters (speakers club for practising public speaking)
- 5th April: Curiosity-driven learning: Following joy by wandering the web – gamification, Steve Pavlina, YNAB
- 4 April: Weeknotes: My learning plan for effective, joyful asynchronous study — Amplify (creative flow) & Earnable (entrepreneurship & business)
- 3 April: Is it worth studying with Steve Pavlina & Ramit Sethi?— Amplify (creative flow) & Earnable (entrepreneurship & business)
- 2 April: More is less: How to do twice as much with half the effort
What’s next?
Well, watch this space as I have a pretty big announcement to share. Today I was working on a video that explores where I’m heading next. I’ll share that later this week, or next week.