Take Back Your Life!

Hey fellow wishcasters & other interested parties,

Today’s question by Jamie Ridler: What would you like to embrace? Me, I’d like to take my innate ability to produce idea after idea and create more programs around it. People have always said to me, “You are a great brainstormer.” Despite knowing this in my own heart, I embarked on an occupational journey after college that did not connect with brainstorming. I listened to folks who said, “You can’t make money doing that.” I believed their small-time thinking.

It is only in the last 3 or 4 years that I’ve changed my own thinking enough to realize that, yes, I can make money doing things that come naturally to me, like writing inspirational essays, musing and finding greatness in others. Hey, maybe it’s the small-time thinking that’s all wrong.

The economic downturn presents a good example. So many problems to solve, so many innate gifts, yet we all walk around helplessly looking for others to create jobs that tend to be rigid and often soul-deadening. I wonder where we all learned to be helpless, to not follow our innate talents, to believe that the job categories out there represent what people really need to live fulfilling lives.

Any ideas how we became so helpless?

Muse thx, Giulietta

p.s., I know many of you live out of state. If you want to see where I’m going with combatting helplessness, check out Think Milky Way Big

Hi singers and potential singers,

A new karaoke night started in my town. It’s in the place that used to have karaoke a few years ago. A smaller space with great accoustics and a huge song list. My favorite karaoke combos.

Karaoke has the power to change your life. I know because it changed mine. Most us of think we cannot sing. I don’t know where this comes from, but it’s not true. It’s the rare person who cannot carry a tune and even that person may be listening to a pre-programmed voice that started in his or her youth.

I believe singing comes naturally to humans. During my three summers of eight-week overnight camp, we were always belting out tunes. In our cabins, at our meals, on the bus, on hikes in the woods.

Singing liberates. And it’s free! You can sing anytime you want. If you want to liberate your voice, consider a singing teacher. I can recommend someone great in my town! The lessons liberate that which is already there, that which has been supressed.

I’m forming a karaoke club for people who want to sing but don’t want to venture out at night alone. Email me if you’re interested!

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Already Wishcasting Wednesday again! This week Jamie asks us what we’d like to complete. My mind went in a million different directions! Honestly, I wake up every morning musing with ideas and while some people might say, “Giulietta, focus, focus” I see my cauldron of rich ideas as my greatness. It’s hard for me to be around people and not share the ideas that come to me in their presence.

Kinda like a greatness clairvoyant!

Whatever it is that you do that releases you from the “autopilot” so many of us find ourselves locked into day after day — that is your greatness.

I would like to complete my first info product on finding greatness. It’s been in the making for a medium time! I will offer the product and personal muse time with me. When I download products, I end up skimming through them once or twice, not getting too much out of the experience. My approach will be different. It will take into consideration that humans buy products but need human encouragement to move forward with the product’s content, especially something as personal and emotional as finding your greatness.

I’ve worked with lots of people in small groups or one and one, and it’s always a relief for them to find their greatness. Otherwise, we spend our lives searching, searching, searching … asking, “what am I here for?”

Do you know what your greatness is?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hi all,

For today’s post, I decided to pick a random quote out of my quote book. Landed on some neat words from the psychologist and philosopher William James, “To change one’s life: Start immediately. Do it Flamboyantly. No Exceptions.”

Did some quick research. William is the brother of novelist Henry James (Turn of the Screw, Portrait of a Lady). What intrigues me is that William lived from 1842 to 1910, so even back then people wanted to wake up and change their lives. If you surf the Internet you may get the idea we are the first generation to be dissatisfied with the status quote. Clearly that isn’t the case. Feeling hemmed in by one’s circumstances has been around for a long time. We just like to think we are somehow more emotionally advanced.

Why is it so hard for humans to changes their lives, to live flamboyantly?

Interestingly enough, I got in trouble for dressing flamboyantly at my first job out of college. I wore big earrings and really bright orange and yellow floral patterns, purple, lime green, etc. My boss took me to breakfast one morning and said, “You dress too flamboyantly.” I knew right then I needed to find another job and that the conventional work arena was going to conflict with my personality.

Why are we supposed to tone ourselves down at work? Will that make us work better or make us more controllable? I never quite understood the “dressing down” philosophy.

I’m curious if this quote speaks to you. Are there ways you could live more flamboyantly or would you rather keep your life the way it is?

Muse thx, Giulietta

Hey inspirational renegades,

I just love all the words associated with being a life rebel. We need more folks custom designing their own lives. It’s not even keeping up with the Joneses, it’s following the Joneses. Why do we do it? For the longest time I didn’t even question it. Talk about scary.

It feels good to step out of line, to stop following the pack that’s stampeding over some conformist cliff. Yes, it takes bravery at first, but soon enough it will become second nature or make that true nature, there’s nothing secondary about following your own heart.

Custom designing your own life can start small. Say “no” when you want to say “yes” or vice versa. This will free up time to do things that matter to you. It’s not selfish to enjoy your own life! The planet would be a much happier place if people filled their days doing things they loved. Lots of overt & covert anger out there. That tells me people feel powerless to custom design their own lives.

What one small thing can you do differently today?

Hey out of the ordinary folks and wishcasters,

If you’ve got any kind of blogger’s block, Jamie Ridler’s Wednesday Wishcasting will take care of it. Sometimes it’s easier for writers to write when they’ve got a prompt. I’d like to learn how to see every situation from both sides, to have the superpower of empathy. The Free Dictionary defines empathy as, “the ability to sense and understand someone else’s feelings as if they were one’s own.”

Even as I write this it occurs to me that further developing this emotional superpower will aid me in my oil painting. At the moment, I’m painting a close in shot of several colorful carousel horses (like some other wishcasters, I grew up riding horses and have found them appearing in many of my paintings. Perhaps a longing to own a horse again?). What if I did a painting where I try to paint from the perspective of whatever I’m painting? What is the carousel horse thinking? Or is it me or some part of me? Am I the subject of everything I paint? Are you?

That ability to get inside of anything we do creatively, write, paint, sculpt, craft, collage might take us to a new level of artistic freedom. I’m going to give it a try … How about you?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Nothing like a rebellious Monday to get me thinking in new and varied ways!

You’ve probably noticed that everyone is suddenly talking about authenticity in business. Be yourself. Let your true self out. Be real. Despite all the social media talk, I still feel many folks — even the ones advising others to do it — have one persona for work and one for play. Or even a work one that stretches out a bit for play.

Why have we been taught to put on a business face for work? Is that supposed to get us more business? Get us promoted?

Frankly, even the word authentic feels inauthentic when talking about people. I might use it to find out if a piece of furniture is a real antique, but for people? It comes across as cold. I want warm! That’s what I associate with a human — being real, being alive.

In my twenties I know I came across as cold. That’s because I was scared to be myself, scared a wild, rebellious lass would get in trouble like I did in elementary school. So, I held myself back out of fear, to avoid being punished. It made for a very unhappy decade. Thank god, I warmed myself up through singing in my thirties.

If you want to really be yourself, start being the same person no matter what situation you find yourself in, no matter who is standing in front of you, no matter what his or her job title or income is. Remember, it’s just a job title, it doesn’t mean this person is better than you or smarter than you or more worthy than you or that they want you to act different in front of them. That just divides people: from each other and from themselves.

I’d love to hear from some of you. Do you divide your personality into work & play? Or, if you don’t, perhaps share some of your secrets?

Muse thx,

Giulietta