Sun Spray by ablaze

Well, I’m off to spend the long weekend with my Dad for his 60th birthday & my BFF for her youngest daughter’s 1st! While there won’t be any Wreck This Journal update this week (I did a scholarship AND a newsletter AND went away this past weekend - I just didn’t have it in me), I’ll be back on Monday with some Motivation, Tuesday with a Tough (Question), more great posts, & maybe even a super top secret announcement (maybe).

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th filled with fireworks, frankfurters, friends & family. Oh, and fun!

my heart says follow through by kerryandhercamera

I know this is going to sound like a schmaltzy Oscar speech, but I hope you’ll take this for the sincerity it is when I say: Thank you. Thank you for applying for my scholarship, or for passing along the information to someone you knew who needed it. Thank you for opening yourselves up & confiding in me the pieces of you that are both scared & hopeful. Thank you for your honesty, your kindness, your vulnerablity & your passion. I want to let you know that each of the applications touched me deeply, & that it was just a ridiculously tough decision for me to pick a winner. I think I sighed at least three dozen times yesterday.

And, while yes, there is a winner, I wanted to let everyone who applied know that I’m going to be reaching out to every one of you personally within a week’s time. You’ve enabled me to see what you need, & how I can offer you a part of me without making it a financial burden on you. So, if you’re really serious about bridging the gap between where you are & where you want to be, then keep your eyes on your Inbox & get ready to take this ride with me.

But now, without further adieu (I’m not even breaking for commercials like they do on stupid American Idol), the winner of the scholarship is: Sarah Ivie from Austin, Texas! Sarah, I’ll be reaching out to you today so we can get this ball rolling. Yay hooray!!!!

This review originally appeared in my 2nd newsletter, released on June 2nd. If you haven’t seen this before, sign up here & be part of the cool crowd that doesn’t read book reviews a month after they’re written. Because nobody cool reads old book reviews. Y’think Prom Queens read old book reviews? Hell no.

Are you a Renaissance Soul? To find out, answer the following questions with a “Yes” or a “No”:

1. Do you find a lot of different things interesting/worthwhile?
2. When you really understand how something works, where it fits, &/or how to do it, do you lose interest?
3. Do you hate that there’s an expectation for just one answer to the question, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”
4. Do you find it almost impossible to describe what you’re going to be doing in 5 years in singular?
5. Do you have a tough time choosing?
6. After a year or two at working in one place, do you get the itch to move on?

Answered “Yes” to at least 4 of these questions? Then you’re a Renaissance Soul - just like me & a ton of other Creatives! Read the rest of this entry »

…and I got some deciding to do! So, no Tough (Question) Tuesday today (everyone together: “Awwwwwww!”), BUT I will have a post up in about 2 hours reviewing The Renaissance Soul, which’ll be new for you blog readers but not for you newsletter subscribers. So c’mon back then, & make sure you apply for the scholarship before midnight tonight or else you’re totally screwed. I probaby won’t offer another scholarship in, like, forever.  Click here to find the deets (including a way for you to get 30% off my services with a super secret password) & here to enter.

Break some legs!

created by Wordboner

You can read the rest of the Motivation Monday installments here

GUYS! GUYS!  IT’S MY 200TH POST! Holy crapballs that’s a lot. I wanted to arrange for it to rain balloons & streamers & ice cream cake in the homes of all my readers, but I just didn’t have the time. So, I picked a new, exciting, awesomely awesome way to celebrate - a  video of me! Talking & chewing paper! At the end of this post! It’s just like ice cream cake, right? Right? Right.

I’m getting so into the book, it’s been kinda sorta taking over my life. In addition to all the pages you see below (& the video! Eek!), I have started 3 or 4 more pages that aren’t quite done yet. I am loving this process & am constantly thinking about what I can use for the book while out & about in the world. I’m also taking the Perfectionism Vampire & punching him in the face, while embracing my inner 6 year old & allowing myself to play for playing sake. This group is filled with amazing artists, & while I love seeing their creative, beautiful, inspiring work I have found that I’m not comparing myself to them anymore (as in “They know what they’re doing/are amazing & I don’t/am sucky”). My pages are my pages. They’re there as a showcase of me, & if they aren’t as creative or beautiful or inspiring as the real live artists in the group, well…they are, because they’re mine. It’s a really nice feeling, letting go of this competitive streak while allowing the pages of others to inspire me.

The big disappointment this week is that my journal wrecking date at the High Line with Magpie this week was canceled due to the rain. I read in an article dated June 19th that NYC has gotten double the amount than usual, & the month was still 11 days from ending! I’m putting my sights on July for Magpie + When I Grow Up wreckage!

So, without further adieu, the damage for the week:

Notice the end all the way at the top? That’s when my pen decided to commit page suicide: Read the rest of this entry »

(Said with Goonies accent or not) Hey you guys!

I was so excited to learn today that I’m the featured coach of the week on RoSoGo, the Coaching Social Network. They call the feature “Coach on the Couch”, but that sounds like I did something dirty to get there. There are no coaching couches, people! And if there are I don’t know about ‘em.

So click here & read the interview, will ya? Super many thanks!

Ooh, and make sure to come back here bright & early tomorrow for my 200th post - my week 3 wrap-up of Wreck This Journal & a special surprise! Geez I’m old.

found via kind over matter, but originally uploaded by .naa.

I’ve taken some time this month to clean out my Gmail, the main goal being to have a completely empty Inbox. I went through each email one by one, adding it to my Gmail Task List and/or archiving it away, until I got to the very last entry. It was  labeled “journal” & dated 12/14/06.  I knew it was there for me to print & tape into my actual journal (which I never write in unless things are bad/sad/confusing & I need some clarity), but I don’t think I’ve looked at it in all these 31(!) months.

In December of 2006 I was dating Luke for almost a year, & we were living together, & things were both hunky & dorey.   But while I was in this amazing relationship, and at a “grown-up, non-sales, getting-my-full-paycheck-all-the-time job, my 9-6 or 7 or 8 job” that, at the time, I liked despite my “condescending micro-manager” of a boss (who would eventually get so condescending & so micro-managing that I I once dry heaved into the trash at the Union Sq subway station on my way to work, only to feel fine the second I was on the train heading home).

The confusion I felt was in regards to acting - my passion, my dream since I was an Annie wannabee. Here’s what I wrote: Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone is a Star by 3LambsStudio, found on their Photostream

People! There’s just 1 more week until I close the scholarship survey! Hurry up & enter, will ya? I don’t want any crying on July 4th weekend. That weekend is for freedom, not regret.

That was deep.

I WANT TO BE A SUPERHERO by InLoveAndWar

So you have a challenge you’ve been facing lately & you can’t seem to find a solution. Sure, you might have tried a few things, but nothing’s clicking. The puzzle piece just won’t fit. When you want to be zigging, you end up zagging.

So, ask yourself:

What would your hero do? Read the rest of this entry »