Thursday, August 21, 2014

A Simple Way to Reinvent You or Your Business


A SIMPLE WAY TO REINVENT YOU OR YOUR BUSINESS

ask.
When I hit Broadway I thought I had made it.  While our show lasted only five short months, during it’s run, Largely New York was seen by everyone from Kate Hepburn to Spike Lee and the general public in between. It was awesome.

I was a performance artist, and after our show closed, I wanted to continue to write and perform my own material. An off Broadway house featured one of my pieces, which got good reviews in NYC, so I took it back to Portland, where it completely bombed.  "Can't sing, can't dance, can't write - don't bother!" read the headline in the Sunday arts section. Decimated by that review, I thought, Why am I in a career whose success is determined by what other people think?! In that moment I realized it was time to move on. I abandoned my acting career and literally left town – moving to the Bay area.

When I got there, it hit me. I had spent the first 30 years of my life as an actor, so if I wasn’t going to act anymore, who was I? And what in the world was I going to do next?

Time for reinvention.
Yay and super ick.
I had to let go of who I thought I was.
Then brainstorm who I wanted to be – neither of these things were all that fun. #meanit

How did I make the process of reinvention easier?
I asked the universe for help. Literally when I'd get out of bed, I would step out into my little garden, open my arms wide, close my eyes and whisper, yell, or sob (out loud), "Show me...what I am supposed to do next?! Please, I need your help."

Then, and here’s the hard part, amidst worry, fear and the distractions of the internet and life, I forced myself to…LOOK FOR SIGNS.
The universe sends you and I stuff all the time.  Even you, Mr. or Mrs. CEO.  But our eyes have to be open to see those tips. Sometimes I would make myself pretend I was dreaming and there was a symbolic GPS wayfinder that I'd have to decode. Your innate decoder works too, and it will work better as you continue to work with it.  Put on your inner 3D decoder mindset and get busy! As you decode those messages, take action on what you get. If it doesn't make sense, ask to get it again, and again until you are ready to do.

This is the best leadership tool you can teach yourself or your team. Listen to the clues around you to help you solve your dilemma.

In my case, it wasn't long before one of my new friends in my new town heard my story and happened to be going to graduate school where they had a program that he thought I might be interested in. Sure enough I went to the informational interview, found out I was interested, and the rest is history. (for that chapter anyway!)

Whether you are facing a major change, mid-life crisis, or a leadership challenge and you need to know what to do next, the best resource for your next step is right here, encoded in the world around you.

Time for some reinvention?  Ask your question, look for and decode the signs, and then get busy and do.


CREATIVE
GENIUS
TOOLKITS

4 ARE COMING!

We are committed to helping you be the creative genius in the room with our new toolkits:
  • Designing an Dynamic Workshop
  • Changing...the Game
  • Drawing Solutions - Visual Thinking 
  • Vision to Reality, Snapshot of the Big Picture of You

Toolkits coming soon!  If you are interested in being part of our early bird pricing signups, email us atinfo@upyourcreativegenius.com

VISUALS
HELP YOU THINK BIGGER

GET UP & SKETCHNOTE YOUR MEETINGS

You don't have to know how to draw to begin to engage your team with a visual. Just get a pen and get up there. When you draw a picture, synapses fire, new ideas come forth and a shared picture means you are on the same page - literally. If you don't know how to draw, even better, you'll give people the chance to take more risks too.

SHOUT OUT

THIS FAMILY ROCKED OUR RETREAT

Every so often you meet a family and you think...wow!
Shelly was the guest speaker, and her husband, El, did the 6:15 AM workouts (ouch).  Their two children were an awesome addition to our youth program line up. I debuted a new Creative Genius Storytelling game = super wow stories.
                      

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