step it up! What Happens When You Say That Thing You Always Wanted To I try to ask myself before I respond under pressure, "Is it true?  Is it kind?  Is it necessary?" Most of the time what I am about to say, when my feathers get ruffled, is not any of these 3 things. But this past week I was the lunch speaker for the National Governor's Association meeting and I admit, I realized my answer was yes to all three of these questions, so I said something.  And saying it out loud, worked. Picture this... I'm onstage - not your average NGA meeting speaker. Hair spiked, shoes reflective.  I look out onto a sea of suits and ties.  Mostly red ties with blue suits. That was my experience last weekend speaking to the corporate fellows, chiefs of staff, former governors, and members of the Canadian Parliament at the National Governor's Association meeting in DC.  I am showing them how to use the Snapshot of the Big Picture drawing process which helps you turn your vision into reality. I'm just at the part of my presentation where I suggest to people to use the left side of their vision to reality template to examine where they are in their career or in their life right now. Directly in front of me is a table of very supportive corporate fellows whom I have spent a lovely lunch talking with. Over to my right, similar fare.  But to my left I can see a group starting to shift uncomfortably in their chairs. A moment later, they start to elbow each other, and a few guffaws erupt as someone shows the others a picture they have drawn. In the past, I might have been intimidated by this sea to shining sea of representatives, so much so  that I would not speak my mind, for fear of offending them. They might not "like" me after that. ;-0 Today I open my mouth and before I know it I am saying, "While you might not feel that you need to reflect on your current state, because things are going well, there are others at your table who may need this reflective experience. I ask you to please let them have their own space so that they can examine their current state." Suddenly you could hear a pin drop and everyone was heads down, focused on their drawings. A little parental of a comment, perhaps, but it definitely worked. Afterwards I got to see some of those vision maps from that very table and they were excited about the process and ready to get busy on their vision.(The director of the program, Kevin Silard, was delighted with the results and the feedback from the participants). Sometimes you just have to say that hard thing in a gentle way to shift the room. It was necessary. It was true. I was as kind as I could be under the circumstances and the pressure. All change takes courage and it starts with you. I know you have things you want to say as well. If you want to make change in your life, you have to say those things that are hard to say - outloud. When you do, you may be surprised at how much better you feel.  More present, more alive. It's your life. Live it out loud. Live it now. WHAT'S UP, CREATIVE GENIUSES? March:  We'll be in Portland starting this month. Looking forward to meeting Portlandians! April:  I'm touring through my hometown of Sacramento in April if any of you live down there and are interested in adding your organization to my roster of speaking engagements, please contact my PR mavericks, David Carriere or speaker's rep, Andrea Driessen. May:  San Antonio, TX - more to this story later.
IT STARTED WITH LEE ON THE PLANE Talking to people next to you on the plane can turn your vision to reality.  I met this fantastic corporate liaison, Lee Cowen, on a plane to Seattle.  After a lovely chat, I handed him my card,"If you ever know of someone who needs a speaker..." NGA did. Thanks, Lee!	VISION TO REALITY HOW A SIMPLE PICTURE CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING You can create your picture even if you aren't in a workshop.Watch myTEDxRainier talk and download your free template today.	ON THE SAME PAGE WITH THE PRESIDENT & MRS. OBAMA I always knew we were on the same page.   Just sayin'.

Change Your Habits to Change Your Life Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

REALLY WANT SOMETHING?  START BY CHANGING YOUR HABITS Reading is awesome, isn't it?  (Head nodding is appropriate). This week I read a superb and useful book that I believe has helped give me immediate tips: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. It is not only very well researched, it is also SUPER interesting, once you get over feeling weird about all of the habits you have in your life. Here are a few keys I pulled out of it: You can change your habits by noticing them and understanding how you have set them in place. Then, by simply replacing one piece of the cycle of a habit, you can begin to change it.  According to author Duhigg, the habit cycle starts with a cue of some kind. Let's pretend it's 2:00PM and you are feeling the mid afternoon slump. (CUE)  To reward yourself and give yourself a "pick me up", you have developed a (ROUTINE) of eating a piece of candy. That delicious morsel results in you experiencing a nice little sugar high. (REWARD) You go on with the rest of your day,feeling super perky, that is unless you are prone to sugar crashing!   What started as a simple thing in the weeks leading up to Halloween, now has grown into a habit. Since Halloween is over and the candy has disappeared, you have brought your own little candies that you keep in a bowl in the break room. While you love having that little reward in the middle of the day, you know you want to lose some weight, so this habit needs to GO! You wonder, how can I change this? You could imagine yourself super svelte, but that's not quite enough. According to Duhigg, you'll have sustainable success if you replace that habit with something else. Maybe when you find you are in need of a "pick me up", try having a cup of coffee instead of a sweet treat, or drink a big bottle of water, or go outside for a brisk 5 minute walk. You are replacing the routine of eating candy with another kind of routine - hopefully a healthier one. As you begin to lose weight you might post the number of lbs you've dropped on a post it at your desk (GREATER REWARDS) or even drop a note in the candy bowl. ;-0 The second recommendation that Duhigg makes is that you find someone to partner with you on replacing that habit. Talking about it with someone else has been shown to give you an even greater edge on achieving success. The New Year is coming. What a perfect time for you to take a look at your current habits and identify those that you want to change. I'll be writing in the coming weeks about how to apply these techniques to your 3 BOLD STEPS on your Snapshot of the Big Picture map. In the meantime, check out what we've been up to (below) AND remember to send me your success stories with your map so we can feature them in 2013. I'll be circling back with you to see how it's going and post pics of you with your maps! RADIO INTERVIEW CONVERSATIONS LIVE WITH VICKI ST. CLAIR If you didn't have a chance to catch our interview last week, check it out here. Our chat begins at 1215 into the podcast. MBA WOMEN IN BUILDING 2012 CONFERENCE OMGOSH I can't say enough great things about this group, amazing, amazing, amazing. These women, mostly entrepreneurs, rocked this mapping session (and it was only 35 minutes long). Woot! PENCILS & PIXELS CLOSING SESSION I got to illustrate the final session of this magnificent conference which is looking at how to make higher education utilize the best in the old and new technologies. Great job!

Copyright © 2012 Up your Creative Genius, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you joined at our website! Our mailing address is: Up your Creative Genius 2400 NW 80th Street #138 Seattle, WA 98117 Add us to your address book Contact us: patti@upyourcreativegenius.com

Remodeling Yourself & Your Life

This spring we broke down and remodeled the kitchen. Wow. It's almost summer and still going on.  They tore out the walls, redid the plumbing, electrical, hvac...you get the picture.  Both of us vacillated between excitement and pure exasperation.   The walls were replaced with two big beams.  In desperation one day, I wrote on them in a fat felt tip sharpie:  LOVE.  TRUST.  ABUNDANCE.  GRATITUDE.

I wanted to make sure that whatever I put on those walls would stay imprinted in the house as a reflection of the values that matter to us.

One day they discovered that the floor didn't match between rooms.  They said for $1400 they could match the floor.  It would be cost more for the demolition. I volunteered to take it out to save some cash.  The contractor gave me this big huge and very heavy crowbar and said, "I brought you a tool to help."  "Uh, thanks,"  I muttered.

I could barely pick it up but once I got the hang of it, 45 minutes later it was done - floor gone - check!  Who knew the remodel would take us down to our sub-floor?

While it's going on, you can imagine, I have my own "remodel" happening.  Change is good and I love it and abhor it at times.  But once again I am using this time to up my creative genius.  I imagine myself getting a "self-lift" - focusing on building a more physically fit body through workouts and diet.   Balancing my mental self so I'm slightly more resilient and solid in my contemplation/meditation practice to stay tuned in.  Even my work life has a new roadmap as we finish up the edits of the book and projects wind down and new ones start up.

And interestingly enough, the garden is flourishing.  Well why not?  We can't really stay inside since our main floor is inaccessible, so weeding is a delightful distraction.

If you are looking to remodel any part of you, here's a few great books I found tips in that might help you getting your own self lift:

Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki
Younger Next Year by Chris Crowley & Henry S. Lodge, MD
Mojo:  How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It by Marshall Goldsmith

I am also happy to create a personal map for you so you have a clear vision and plan.

Happy Summer Here It Comes!
Best to you,
Patti