“Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are & become it.” – Steven Pressfield

It’s the first in my monthly Rousing Reviews series! OK, it’s technically the second (I reviewed The Renaissance Soul in June of ‘09, so that totally counts, right?), but it’s the first on a consistent basis. Let’s face it, our lives sometimes get in the way, & it’s tough to sit down with a book that you know will do ya a world of good, both for yourself & your fans/readers/followers/clients. So yes, this series is absolutely a structure I set-up for myself to make me accountable to read the books that I’ve been tagging along the way. See, I life coach myself sometimes! And duh – obviously I do this for you kids, too (say it with me: “Awwwwww!”).

I wanted to start off the series with The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield because it’s really a hell of a title. What artist wouldn’t want to go into battle, break through their creative roadblocks, & emerge victorious with the Writer’s Block Vampire’s head on a stick? And while I’d like to say that that’s what this book does, I can’t. Not to say it won’t help slay that Vampire, but it’s more about discovering all the ways the Vampire’s likely to attack you & instilling yourself with the mojo to make it not only not bite you, but to get it to leave you the hell alone, at least until tomorrow.

Let me explain. The War of Art is split into three books: Resistance (Defining the Enemy) Combating Resistance (Turning Pro) & Beyond Resistance (Higher Realm). As you can tell, Resistance is the Vampire here. The long & short of it is that every single thing that causes a creative person to shelve their creativity – whether it’s perfectionism, addiction, procrastination, or the million other excuses a creative person gives themselves to not do – is a direct weapon of Resistance.  For me, Book One was eye-opening, powerful, & worth the price of the book a few times over. When I flipped the page to Book Two, I may or may not have clutched it to my chest & said to myself, “You will be beaten & dog-eared when I’m through with you.” And then I may or may not have kissed it. I couldn’t help it – hearing about all the different Vampires that get in the way of making Art, why, it was a wonder that any Art exists at all! The whole reason Resistance exists is to “shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work” & “the more call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel towards pursuing it.” How evil is that? It’s so evil that the more we discover something that’s authentically us, that’s calling us to do it, the more it attempts to stop us! That is so, so evil that I not only wanted it’s head on a stick, I wanted to chop it up into pieces & then stomp it to double death! Seriously, it pissed me off. (more…)

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! (more…)

All the cool kids have the BYW Friends badge. You can maybe get your own later by keeping your eye on this site.

Today marks the very last day of the month-long amazingly awesome blogging e-course class I’ve been taking, given by the insurmountable, unsurpassable, super-fantastical Holly Becker of decor8. I’ve only been reading Holly’s blog for a few months, but I was sucked in quickly by her pretty pictures, beautiful decor & design finds, wonderful writing, and…well…I can best describe it as “inspiration”. She’s inspiring both on the page (the screen?) & off, and the fact that she lives (& blogs!) her passion is, um, inspirational!

When she announced that she was going to offer a blogging e-course to a limited amount of students, and offered a sign-up form to get notified right away, I had only one thought:

“Duh.” (more…)

As my avid readers (hi, Mom!) know, I’ve been getting organizationally coached by Julie Bestry of Best Results Organizing (and yes, there is a larger post on that to come as soon as I can collect all my thoughts). Because she is awesome, she provided me with a copy of her eBook, Tickle Yourself Organized.

I’ve heard about Tickler Files before, but all that I took away from my reading was that “The Tickler” was a great name for a supervillain. Doesn’t that sound like Batman’s nemesis? A friend of The Joker?

OK, so I did pick up a bit more about The Tickler in my cursory reading of Getting Things Done as well as the productivity blogs I devour, but I didn’t honestly think it would be conducive to my life. What do I need to be reminded about, besides paying bills? I set that up to get an email notification when one was due, so that was that. No Tickler necessary.

Well, it wasn’t until I read Tickle Yourself Organized that the lightbulb appeared over my head (& it was on a crowded subway, so everyone could see it): (more…)