Fearless Fabulous Project

As I think about our Memorial Day holiday weekend and what we’ve got planned, it occurred to me that it’s a pretty good mix. It’s also a metaphor or model for moving effectively forward in life. It works whether you’re aiming for a good time or just trying to get things done. I’ll use the screen of this weekend and an upcoming vacation to show what I mean.

Clean Out Clutter

The need to do this is so obvious with the yard sale preparations. We are clearing out the old stuff, so that we can breathe! The belongings we’ve got stashed down the hill in the garage represent past lives and earlier preferences, and provide plenty of evidence of long-abandoned projects. In order for us to get clear to embrace our ”now” and future plans, we’ve got to ditch the dead weight.

It’s equally valid when planning for a vacation. You select the very few things you’ll need to provide comfort and to suit your immediate, short-term needs. You don’t pack things you won’t have time for or that have to do with the very things you left behind in order to relax and explore new territory.

Just thinking about all the stuff takes up space in our minds, and makes it difficult to have new ides and the freedom to be creative and expansive.

Is your current life an extended vacation, or have you moved on to a new phase. Do you really need the albatross of the past dogging your new plans and intentions? Think about how you could lighten your load before you begin your next adventure.

Build Future Memories

On Sunday, we’re going to plant seeds and seedlings in our vegetable gardens and place annuals in the whiskey barrels out by the wood shed. If I can get away with it, I may sneak in a flowering bush or two.

We’re doing this with faith in and anticipation for what we are building: a steady stream of salad and stew parts, pie ingredients, and herbs to flavor our home-cooked meals and to scent our living space.

As we plan our Dominican Republic vacation for mid-June, we’re similarly collecting the good reads, sunny clothes, and warm weather toys (snorkeling, yeah!) to create an experience that matches our vision for relaxation and fun.

I’m a strong believer in always having something dangling out in the future as reward for good work and behavior. That’s why I like tasks like gardening and planning vacations; they are shared and about full-throttle enjoyment.

Learn from the Previous Show

On Monday, we’re spending the “holiday” day learning from what we’ve been doing lately, so that we can improve our productivity and satisfaction from work. We’ve actively been pursuing a lifestyle where we get to work half-time at our passions and half-time in our shared work in marketing and small business development.

Doing and doing with no time for reflection, pretty much assures that we’’ll charge ahead with so-so results and fulfillment from our efforts. We’ll get things done, but may miss the opportunity to fine-tune to do better work and have more fun.

Photographs and other souvenirs collected from trips are useful tools in a similar process. They serve as reminders and evidence of what worked and what falls into the “let’s never do that again!” category.

By considering the full value of past experience, we can plan for more successful projects and trips in the future. We can clear out what failed to work, build in what we think has a better chance the next time around, and then we can carefully observe what happens the next time.

Clean, Build, Learn… and repeat. Works for me.

Think about what it would be like to start a project or plan with this framework in mind. Do you think you’d have a better outcome? Does it sound like more work? How do you go about your work and life?

Let me know what you think or share a story from your experience.

To write a book is the fantasy of so many! To write the Great American Novel or to simply appreciate the heft of the “finished product,” dreamed of for so long.

Andy Wibbels, of “Blog Wild: A Guide for Small Business Blogging” and general small business development fame, is hosting an eight-week class that will meet “virtually” four times to get the dang thing done.
Write a Book in 45 Days Book-Writing Workgroup

Write a Book in 45 Days Book-Writing Workgroup

I’m using the opportunity to write the book I thought I might write in a few years to support my recently piloted—and in July to be launched—12-week Fearless, Fabulous Project coaching program. Before the end of June I need to flesh out the content from my extensive outline form, and thought the first “real”round would provide that opportunity. But then I slapped myself upside the head, and realized, “Gee, I can chase down the final outcome now, and then have more than what I need to run the groups!”

What’s even better, is I’ll be able to pull out the prose in chunks to offer up on this blog, in my ezine and in autoresponders. It will all be at my fingertips, if I kick it in the workgroup.

There are some heavy hitters of the coaching and Internet Marketing worlds have signed up: Molly Gordon and Lorrie Morgan-Ferraro to name just two. I know and have benefited from their work, and they are both gifted writers. So, I know I will be kept to the straight and narrow on fulfilling my commitments. Don’t tell anybody… but I think I’m gonna benefit from their expertise.

?I’ll need to fully develop two chapters each week to keep my schedule and reach the goal: a finished book by mid-June. It’s more than a little scary to put myself on the line this way. What if I freak out? What if I overcome my fear and fulfill this long-imagined goal?

?Can she do it? I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Where in the world did Andrea go? No, I’m not one of those people who started a blog ’cause it was trendy and then ran out of things to say. No one who knows me would ever believe I’d run out of things to say.

Actually, I’ve been busy delivering and learning from my pilot “Fearless, Fabulous Project” offering this winter. I’m about to turn around and offer it to the paying public now…. at least that’s my plan!

I am so lucky and appreciative to the women who signed on to be my guinea pigs… I mean Fearless, Fabulous Females! They have given my great insights into what works, what doesn’t, and how very different and similar we all can be when faced with life transitions or taken by the idea of reinvention. They have given their time and comments generously. They are singly and collectively so insightful, graceful, and funny.

I’m looking forward to this last month with them, and then April when I begin to work with other women who may benefit from a little “Creative Discovery & Reinvention.”

The first nine FFFs, though, will forever be among my favorite friends. And I can’t wait to see what they do next.

June 5, 2006 was my 45th birthday. I consider that about half-cooked in human terms. Thinking that I probably shouldn’t assume that I’ll live beyond the age of 90 (although good health would keep me interested for as long as I get), it struck me that it was way past time to get it together.

If I’m now in the “second half,” I better get to whatever it is that’s been on the back burner…dreamed about but not enacted, planned but not executed.

I had an eventful and varied summer that nudged me bumpily, emotionally, but steadfastly in the direction of my intentions. Although it’s now four months beyond the promise I made to myself, I can see that I am finally incorporating the changes that will make my life better all around.

So, today I formally launch the “Fearless & Fabulous Project: Creative Maneuvers at Midlife.” I do this for my own amusement and gratification certainly, but I believe I am not alone in my view of life at this arbitrary mid-section. If I could help others to create lives filled with passion, fun and fulfillment, I would have honored deep wishes harbored for more than seven years.

I believe many of us hold our collective breath waiting for the perfect moment for our true and bright lives to begin. Today I exhale….

I invite you to play along with me…this is going to be fun.