Let's face it: I don't live a structured life. And I like it that way. When I was a kid, and I was asking those kinds of "what do I want to do when I grow up" questions, I got all sorts of well meaning suggestions from the adults in my life who really didn't know any better. They suggested things like medical assistant and secretary.
I have to admit, it was a bit shocking to hear such advice from folks who absolutely did not live inside a box. My father was a professional jazz musician! I won't tell you what my mother did, but it involved lots of shady people...certainly not inside the box living.
What I knew was that while I had some talent as a vocalist, I didn't have the confidence to pursue it. And I could have gone in my mom's direction, but I knew that way was paved with dragons that I had no desire to encounter any more than I already had. And quite frankly, the thought of working in the same place every day, with the same people, doing the same things, gave me the heebee Jeebees. I ended up running away in the middle of the night, driving to San Francisco with what I could fit in my little sports car, getting a job as a waitress, going to college and eventually, after much soul searching, knashing of teeth and years of an undeclared major, becoming a photojournalist. I did that work for about a year, and I loved it. But then the bottom fell out of my life. I had to go take care of some personal things, and there went the photojournalism career. When I finally surfaced again about a year later, feeling very fragile, I knew it was once again time to find work. I got a job as...wait for it....a secretary. It was the only thing I could find. But after a few months of that, I had muscle twitches, high blood pressure and I was going crazy. The doctor wanted to put me on blood pressure meds, I said no....what I was going to do instead was quit my job and start a photography business. I still couldn't live in that box!
So I started my business and my blood pressure went down. It took about three years before that business was fully supporting me year round, but it ended up supporting me very well for about 25 years. I did different things every day, went to different places every day, and met different people every day. I loved it.
Then things began to change again, and I realized that it was time for me to redefine what I did for a living. Today, I still don't live a structured life. And I still like it that way. I do different things every day, I see different people every day, and I go to different places every day.
And I'm noticing something: there are a ton of people out there who also don't want to live in a box. These are the people who are selling things like candles, oils, diets, home decor, skin products. These folks usually have day jobs, but they are doing everything they can to support themselves in other ways, with the ultimate goal of quitting their day jobs. These are the people who work to bring home a paycheck, who don't like what they are doing, but don't know how to get out of that box. There are other folks too, who work part time at something: the world is filled with part time photographers, part time coaches, part time widget makers, part time widget sellers. These folks all have one thing in common, they want to live outside the box, but they don't really know how to go about doing it. So they spend their weekends and nights, selling their widgets.
And I want to see those people succeed. I want to see them be able to quit their day job! I want to see them fly high and WAY outside the box! I think it is time!
This is why I do the work I do. If I can make a good full time living outside the box, so can you.
This is why I created the Creativity Retreat. You see, living outside the box requires some skills and some beliefs and more than a little bit of faith, primarily faith in yourself. It requires some creative living. This is what I will teach at the retreat.
Take three days and I promise, you will have the skills needed to be more creative in your life. You will learn how to live outside the box, and make a good living at it.
You will learn:
- About the connection between your body and the rest of you, and how that physical issue might just be a way of trying to get your attention to live differently.
- About the power inside of you that you can draw on anytime to live the most fulfilling life you can dream of.
- And you will learn tools and skills that you can take home with you and apply to every area of your life, to always live the way you want!
Sign up now. Block those days off in your calendar.....get the registration paid for, and get yourself to Virginia City on October 15, 16 and 17. If you can't swing the registration in full, call me and put a deposit down to confirm your registration. You will be glad you did, because it is the first step in a whole new way of living!
