Monday Post ~ October 31, 2011
“Honor your goal to create a world by burning with desire.
Be incandescent — or else nothing will happen.”
~Eric Maisel
What are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic goal or a milestone to reach for. A goal as simple as “I will be creative for 10 minutes every day” or “I will gesso three canvases” is what it’s all about. Share your goal(s) as a comment to this post, and let us know how things went with your creative plans for last week, if you posted to last week’s Monday Post.
Suggestion: When you’re deciding on your creative intentions, it’s a good idea to think about WHEN you’re going to write those 2,000 words or paint that canvas. Try to schedule the time slots in your calendar (if you keep one), understanding that flexibility may be required. If things don’t happen when you wanted them to, that’s OK. Give yourself a gentle push with one hand, but pat yourself kindly on the shoulder with the other if you don’t reach your goal for a given week. Sometimes it’s easier, sometimes it’s harder. Ride whatever you’ve got.
It’s also useful to have a sense of your minimum requirements (come hell or high water I’m going to write 100 words) while keeping a lookout for sudden opportunities to do more. You know, the day that the baby takes a monster nap or your partner takes the kids out to run errands and you find yourself with an unexpected “extra” half hour. Grab that time for yourself. You can catch up on the dishes and the laundry later. If you keep something creative in the back of your mind for those sudden opportunities, you’ll be more likely to use them to your advantage — rather than squandering your precious bonus moments on Facebook or vacuuming out the sofa cushions.
Studio Mothers: Life & Art 
Have had no power since Saturday, and school still cancelled (I’m working from the library), so not feeling confident about making ANY plans, but here goes:
Last week’s goals:
* Preparations for third workshop Sunday [yes, but workshop was postponed due to storm/power outages]
* CCA homework for one class plus reading [yes]
* Draft newsletter [yes, done]
* Write guest post for Bliss Habits [yes]
* Journaling [yes]
* Begin promoting holiday workshop [no]
* Yoga x 3 [2 x]
This week’s goals:
* Begin Art Every Day Month project [daily, with posts]
* CCA homework for one class plus reading [Th]
* Journaling [daily target]
* Begin promoting holiday workshop [Sat?]
* Yoga x 2
wow! here i was missing the snow, and everyone i know up north has been out of power. but you just keep going, miranda!
last week’s goals: main thing: get back to normal activity, carefully. my 2x/mo tues writing group postponed to thurs. definitely writing there, will try during preschool hours, too throughout the week, i have a ton of laundry to do, too. ~ breathing is normalizing….laundry back on schedule, my edits last week went “steady as she goes” – no bad blocks during my 2 sessions.
this week:
1. nano has started, which iinspires me to tackle the end of this manuscript’s edits a little at a time as i can steal it, which i did this morning. 🙂 20 pages of rewrite to go!
2.blog more regularly.
3. be more attentive positively with the kids. my head is in novel land too much when i’m with the kids.
Yay Cathy! How’s the NaNoWriMo coming? I look forward to your next report….
i’m not starting a new project, just trying to use other wrimos’ work as inspiration to stick to mine a little better. last week, not so good. I got some work done, but forgot that i do really need to get out of my house if i am going to write effectively. i did get a poem though! and my baseboards are free of dog an cat hair. lol
library ho! (this week)
Back from the blackout – I have to say I really liked the lack of electronic distractions. There are some reasons to love electricity – like starting my gas boiler, or the oven, or (most importantly) the Vitamix – but lack of it is a really useful reminder of need vs. want/habit.
Last week:
– Run 2X [YES – 4X]
– A.M. time w/ son 2X [YES]
– Make herbal lozenges or clay-oak-leaf-felted-acorns project w/ kids [YES-the latter]
– Decluttering 2X [Can’t remember!]
– Halloween: finish costumes for kids [YES. That was anticlimactic, considering trick-or-treating didn’t happen.]
– Homework for Minerva Project class [YES]
– Email best friends [YES]
– Call someone {YES, 2 people]
This week:
– Run 3X
– A.M. time w/ son 2X
– Make herbal lozenges (since we’re all getting a cold)
– Continue clay-oak-leaf-felted-acorns project w/ kids
– Decluttering 2X [Bathroom cabinet]
– Homework for Minerva Project class – can always do more!
– Write a blog entry
– Call someone
Looking forward to your next update, jlcm — hope you’re feeling well.
Still no power- but I’m still pretty pumped about the Art Everyday Project. I’ve been doing quick sketches everyday. Embarassed to post them, but I will anyway. That’s really a goal for next week. For the remainder of this week my only artistic goal is to draw every day. The pose this month is Ustrasana, the camel pose. This week and next I’ll work on sketches and rough ideas, with the concept of completing a multimedia painting during the final 2 weeks of November. I’m thinking of another goal of writing an article for Elephant Journal, and I bought the Right Brain Business Plan book and have been reading it in snippets. That’s the best I can do for this week- mostly in survival mode, but the ideas keep coming.
What a week! Nothing like being thrown completely off the grid to reassess everything….
Looking forward to hear about how it’s going with the RBBP!
Thank you for sharing your AEDM blog below — I feel a little funny about posting work in progress that I don’t necessarily feel that great about, but I know that this is an important hump to climb over. Thanks for being a compatriot!
Art everyday- started new blog for these posts as a way to kickstart my creative practice. Will post there on http://www.deborahsantoro.wordpress.com.