A-Muse-Ing Inspirations: — by Jeanette M. Pintar

Lesson 12

What did you do for your date with yourself? Are you having fun yet?! ;-)

How’s the journaling coming? Is it easier than you thought it would be? Are you finding any comfort or motivation in it?

What one task did you pick from your Master List? Did you do it?

The thing I love about the Master List is that you can put it down, completely forget about it, and then pick it up again and start right where you left off!

One of my personal goals is to get several books published. The one I’m working on right now is a collection of 101 articles I’ve written in the past 7 years. It’s a book about how everyday, normal, people can live more fulfilling lives. I thought it would come together very quickly seeing as all the articles have been written already. But I soon found out it was much more detailed than that. There’s formatting, merging, organizing, indexing, and a lot more I’m not even aware of yet. And I haven’t even gotten to the part about getting it published!

If I focused on every detail, it would be way too overwhelming. So I made a Master Plan that’s broken down into sections and tasks. My tasks right now involved copying the existing articles and placing them into the book. I’ve worked on it since January… on and off. Yes, even I get distracted by life sometimes. After a 4 week break, I picked up the Master Plan, saw exactly where I left off and got to work.

I figured out what I allowed to take up the time I could have been using to work on my book. It wasn’t hard to find some room for improvement… especially if I only had to place one article at a time. That quick check for e-mail, or a game of solitaire, or a commercial break during the hour of TV I watched could all be easily traded for the “copy and paste” function. Because it was organized with a box for checking things off as they were done, I immediately found my place again.

My goal for the week was to place one article per day. Did I do it? Nope. I did, however, place 25 articles last week alone! So I’m pretty excited about it. Instead of getting down about the 4 weeks I didn’t work on my plan, I’m ecstatic that I made such good progress once I got back on it.

Just because we get distracted from following our dreams doesn’t mean we have to give them up all together. We simply find out where we left off and go from there. Sometimes it’s necessary to back-track a little. That’s OK. Chances are you’ll move forward much more quickly because you’ve been there already. Just keep moving ahead, one task at a time.

Sometimes when we get ready to move forward, we’re suddenly bombarded with doubt, criticism and fear… So much so that we’d like to give up before we ever begin. Often we’re not even conscious of these things. We tell ourselves we’ll get started then all of a sudden feel lethargic, distracted, or un-motivated. It takes some digging to get at the root of the problem.

Chapter 8 of The Artist’s Way helps us do a lot of digging! Put on your boots because it gets deep. A lot of folks are tempted to stop here because it unearths all the past criticisms, negativity, and lack of faith in ourselves that’s been heaped on over the years. Allowing all this stuff to be brought to the surface can feel really scary. But it can also shed a LOT of light on our behavior and why we never quite get to where we say we’re going.

Author, Julia Cameron, gives some excellent insights as to the sources of our doubts and fears, including places we least expect it – like from our teachers! She helps us realize that critical voice we often hear usually stems from someone else – and their own doubts and insecurities! She also helps us decipher criticism by looking for the kernels of truth amid the battery and emotional shaming and helps us separate the two. Ms. Cameron also stresses the importance of continuing to move through the rough spots.

If you haven’t done the Early Patternings exercise on page 144-145 and written positive affirmations in response, please do so now. This is a very important step to help break through the blocks.

Congratulations! You’ve come a long way, Baby! And I’m really proud of you for making it this far. You’re well on your way to making those dreams come true. Not only do I know you are going to make it happen, YOU ARE MAKING IT HAPPEN RIGHT NOW. Way to go!

Now onto to this week’s assignment…

Week 12 Assignment

Use your day planner! Begin by scheduling the following:

Read The Artist’s Way—Chapter 9: Recovering A Sense of Compassion, Pgs 151 - 162 . Pay especially close attention to the need for enthusiasm and the section on Creative U-Turns!

As you read, look for the main points and underline anything that speaks to you or sounds like it would make a good quote. (If you’re afraid to mess up your book, use pencil, you can erase it later.)

Write down the 5 steps of Blasting through Blocks, pgs 159-160 and keep them somewhere handy so you can refer to them as needed.

Pick and do at least 3 of the 10 exercises at the end of the chapter. Exercise number 1, reading your Morning Pages, is a very powerful experience! Much of it may feel “useless” but be ready to get some valuable insight. Also be ready to nurture yourself if needed. Prepare a “safe haven” to read them in… Maybe make a cup a hot herbal tea to sip, some fresh fruit to nibble on and play comforting music such as Enya or classical guitar in the background. The important part is to let yourself feel safe and comforted.

Do the Check-In on Page 162.

Schedule, plan and take a date with yourself. Do something different. Do something daring, fun, kid-like, dreamy. Do something just to get away. Do something to inspire yourself. Just do something to let yourself play for an hour this week.

Write 3 pages of long-hand in your journal daily. Even if you’ve just read through your journal, keep writing! No editing your thoughts, either. This is how you get all the stuff out and help yourself connect with your soul. Just keep doing it.

Pick a task from your Master Plan and do it! If you need to update or modify your plan at all, go ahead and do it. Most importantly, do at least one thing to take you closer to your dreams. Just one thing at a time is all it takes. I know you can squeeze it in there. Heck, you might want to even luxuriate in the task and truly enjoy the pursuit of your dreams!

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— © Jeanette M. Pintar

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