Am I a Suitcase Entrepreneur? - 30 Day Blog Challenge

I already sorted my label out and it didn't involve a suitcase.  And I don't know I've never really been comfortable with the 'entrepreneur' label.  Why?  Because I equate it with money and sharp suits, and then I think Richard Branson, barefoot and Necker Island - and am forever reminded that there are no rules and stereo types are just that, stereo types.

So I'm getting things in order and taking on the 30 Day Blog Challenge - 30 days to 'create freedom in business and adventure in life.  Initially I'd intended carrying this one through to September and giving myself those 30 days to put it all together.  Not being one to stick with a method if a better one comes along I've decided to do a bit of cramming - I was always good at that - and cram those 30 days into 9.  Which means at least 3+ challenges per day.  I did want this blog to be a chronicle of how I put my business together so here goes the fast track version - starting with challenges 1-4.

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day 1

TODAY’s challenge: Write a post on why you started your blog, who you wanted to reach, what you wanted it to be all about. Then state why you joined this blog challenge and what you want to get out of it.

The first post I published was back in November 2011 where I suggested that it was All Coming Together.  I started my blog to bring all my 'authentic work' together.  I wanted to create a place for like minded creatives to meet, share and connect.  I wanted it all to be about creativity, design and realising that everything we want and need comes to us in the 'perfect' way. And ultimately I wanted it to bring all my creativity together in one place.

So why did I join in the challenge?  Basically because I haven't achieved what I wanted to do with my blog - part of that may be my not realising what that goal really was until I just wrote it down.  Maybe more having lost sight of the initial goal, I kind of got caught up in the connections and drawing inspiration from all the great creative bloggers out there.

What do I want to get from this?  To end the 30 days with a specific and clear journey in progress, having created order, routine and a blue print for the future.  Order and routine are not necessarily ingrained creative characteristics but in order to live my authentic life, in line with my core values, order and routine are key.  Especially with our daily realities.

Originally used in a Sunday BS Post

Day 2 of the challenge

Today's Challenge

1. Write a response blog post to this question:

If you woke up tomorrow and were free to do anything you wanted with your life, what would you do and who would you be?

When I wake up tomorrow I will be free to do anything I want with my life.  This is how every day begins.  Why do I choose to do the things I feel I should do rather than what I (I'm reading Stephen King on Writing and am trying to rid my writing of 'really'.) want to do?

Until now, a major reason for this is that I didn't know what I wanted.  I'd figured out what I didn't want.  I didn't want to work for someone else - yet continue to do that on a daily basis.  I didn't want to sit at the same desk, doing the same thing day in and day out - I may have cut the number of hours and days I do my day job but I still do the desk thing.  Before I beat myself up beyond recognition I will stop here because what I don't want is not what I want and is therefore not the subject, and not on the radar.

Today we are talking about what I want to do.  I want to work for myself.  Now there's a really broad answer.  Doing what?  Being creative. Again with the broad answer? I want to help people find their creativity and leadership potential and most importantly their authenticity.  I want to help those that want to be helped find their authentic fit in life. 

Be the Best You, You Can Be

And as for part 2 of the question, I haven't put all this work in to be anyone else but me.

On to Day 3.

Today's Challenge

1. Write a response blog post to this question:

What’s your definition of freedom in business and adventure in life?

Top Tip: You can carry on from Day 2 and the work you did around clarifying what you could do if you could do anything at all.

Freedom in Business and Adventure in Life are one in the same.  I spent many years in my life playing different roles and keeping part of my life in separate compartments.  I have learned through hours of counselling and finding my authenticity that compartmentalisation is not an option.
My definition of freedom in business and adventure in life
is

AUTHENTICITY

Day 4 - And look how far I've Come

TODAY’s challenge:

1. Write a response blog post to this question:

What is your definition of location independence?

I don't know that location independence is what I crave most.  In fact I know it isn't.  My location independence is not being tied to a mortgage with the option to pack up and move at a month's notice.

This means that I cannot make that rash decision which I will later regret and it means there is time to prepare some kind of plan.  Don't get me wrong I'm all for spontaneity and running off to Paris at the drop of a hat should the right offer arise. (who ever done anything at the drop of a hat?) But my life needs some kind of structure and routine, or at least it does for now.

I'm going to go all new aged here and say, For me Location Independence is more about being able to work in my own space and not in some battery hen like environment.  And my own space is free from any falsely imposed restrictions, a no rules environment.  And my own space is wherever I choose to be.  And in case you didn't get it I like my own space.  It has taken years for me to be this comfortable in my own space and I am not giving it up for anything.  Don't have to, it's portable and I take it with me wherever I go.  The old 'Dirty Dancing' scene comes to mind here 'this is my space'.  It's not necessarily very big but it's home.

In working my way through this blogging challenge I find myself smiling at how far I've already come on this journey.  Since I decided to use what I've got I'm realising just how lucky I am, I hadn't realised just how much I had.

A little deep digging is worthwhile when it uncovers stuff you forgot was there.

Namaste

Catherine

xxx

Perhaps not a Suitcase Entrepreneur
more of
An Authentic Champion

Usual Sunday BS – Checking In / Moving On - What week?

That was the week that was _over a week ago_

Monday 10th I'm creating a procrastination list, I really enjoyed this take on procrastination when I was reading Free Range Humans and would have added this to last week's post but....

Find this and more on the Free Range Human Site

The week’s discoveries/rediscoveries:

Springforest Healing Fest - I started this journey but once again let life take over, I really need to work on that.  The key  things I took from this were that western medicine is a passive healing, it's not preventive and looks only at the symptoms and not the cause of the illness - treating the whole person is the way of quigong.
energy is effected by - emotion - nutrition - changes in weather/season - environment - wrong medication - injury
To experience this healing energy go into the emptiness
keep everything simple
use your consciousness
elements - breathing, postures of body, mind and sound
faith, confidence, call upon the master's energy, visualisation, focus, consistence
love, forgiveness and kindness
Life is for happiness
When it is time - it is time
xoxo
Pinterest I pin to share as much as to remind myself of the idea.  Am I the only one who finds myself going to repin something of mine that someone has repinned - because I like it, still.

xoxo

I'm loving the Intention Video from Apple:

xoxo

Loving these definitions/descriptions:

A great description of meditation:

Meditation, the way he described it, was a way to stop running. You sat still, and watched your thoughts and emotions and desires and aversions come and go, and you resisted the urge to try to flee from them, to fix them, or to cling to them. You practised non-attachment, in other words. Whatever came up, negative or positive, you stayed present and observed it. It wasn’t about escaping into ecstasy – or even into calmness, as the word is normally understood; and it certainly wasn’t about positive thinking. It was about the significantly greater challenge of declining to do any of that.

The importance of routine:

[T]he daily rituals and working routines of prolific authors and artists – people who really do get a lot done – very rarely include techniques for ‘getting motivated’ or ‘feeling inspired’. Quite the opposite: they tend to emphasise the mechanics of the working process, focusing not on generating the right mood, but on accomplishing certain physical actions, regardless of mood. Anthony Trollope wrote for three hours each morning before leaving to go to his job as an executive at the post office; if he finished a novel within a three-hour period, he simply moved on to the next. (He wrote forty-seven novels over the course of his life.) The routines of almost all famous writers, from Charles Darwin to John Grisham, similarly emphasise specific starting times, or number of hours worked, or words written. Such rituals provide a structure to work in, whether or not the feeling of motivation or inspiration happens to be present. They let people work alongside negative or positive emotions, instead of getting distracted by the effort of cultivating only positive ones. ‘Inspiration is for amateurs,’ the artist Chuck Close once memorably observed. ‘The rest of us just show up and get to work.’

Via Austin Kleon

And Danielle La Porte has some pretty profound stuff to say The real you emerges.Because it’s already there — beneath beliefs, and untruths, and fatigue, and wonderful experiments.  DLP

xoxo
 I was especially taken with Seth's making a point:

Seth Godin - 'making a point' via Miss Swiss
"ideas that are free spread faster and ideas that spread win"
xoxo Is it sad that I really want to send myself a Burberry Kiss - 

xoxo

I found the magic of space held by the Yoga Mat via Jamie Ridler I just need to find my Yoga Mat now!

xoxo

I realise this is all a bit 'bitty', it's a reflection of life around here recently.

Still, over the next week I intend to get organised, get things in order, finish stuff I've said I'll finish and move on.

Here’s to another week
And to using up lots of stuff

Catherine xxx

Happy Birthday To Me

This weekend I created a new board on Pinterest - Building My Wall. I was looking through a Creative Journal I created when it was suggested on my first reading of Simple Abundance and came across a wall I'd drawn.  I created a wall of wishes, the idea being I'd colour in each brick as my wish came true.  Some of the wishes were small - (go to cinema) - and some were a bit bigger (Get an Audi TT).  I've coloured in some of the bricks - still not got the TT and to be honest not sure I want it anymore.  The point I'm trying to get to is I've decided to create a new wall.  Today is my 48th Birthday so the new wall will be 50 wishes I'd like to come true before I'm 50.

As much as this authentic path has made for my increased appreciation of the simpler things not all my wishes    are simpler - the TT is now an M Class

I know I Like Pink but not sure I like it this much...

Looking forward to completing my Free Range Journey

Perhaps not 'completing' but undertaking.

Catherine

xxx

Checking In - The Usual Sunday BS

Checking in - that was the original plan behind Sunday BS - checking where I'm at and where I want to go - for the next week at least.  I tend to get a lot planned out doing this.  It is one of the things that works, when I do it.

Looking forward to meeting up with my Storytelling Group

So, this week started off well with me posting here Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday although I must admit that by the time Wednesday came around I was starting to struggle.  There have been a few 'sleepus interuptus' nights and I guess I didn't have my reserves backed up as much as I could've.  So, I've been taking it 'easy' this week where producing anything is concerned.  Has anyone seen that magic wand - it must be my turn for it soon?

I am still working on my 'Free Range Life'. When I confronted the 'oodles of experience' I thought  I didn't have I was amazed to find just how 'spectacular and relevant' my experience is.  As Marianne says "when you are free range everything about your life counts; nothing is thrown away.  The very things that make you different might well be your edge."  I always wanted to have 'edge'.

Creatively if there were some way of getting all of the stuff in my head onto paper and out into the world - again with the magic wand!


Watching/Listening to: Creative Mornings - especially loving his 'bending the truth'.

Just one of many inspirational talks to start the day with.

Reading (still) 'Be A Free Range Human' by Marianne Cantwell and getting my 'free range' on

Crafting (excuses and) a great idea for my House of Pinheiro International Craft Swap - this WILL DEFINITELY be completed this week.

It may not look like it but I'm almost there....

Pinning - I've been doing a bit of pinning this week and added a new board this week 'Building My Wall', more about that tomorrow. Pinterest is becoming more and more popular in the craft world - why wouldn't it? Who wouldn't love a virtual pinboard - saved so many trees already.  The Making Spot and Craftblog UK have listed some great crafters on Pinterest.  I'm sure I'm going to be doing a lot of Pinning it Forward as highlighted by CBUK this week. Really must remember to use that hash tag #PinitForwardUK.  Is there no end to the wonders of the Internet and the connections created by all the lovely folks out there/here.

From Austin Kleon

Here's to a Productive Free Range Week
And lots of fun

Catherine

xxx

A Perfect Day - Wednesdays are for Wishing

Working on recalibrating my GPS when asked about my favourite day one of the first things that springs to mind is Wednesday.  I love Wednesdays because they are 'my' day - Wednesday is the day I get to focus on me and on The MacsX - no 'day job' influence.  It's also the day for wishes, Jamie Ridler offers prompts for Wish Casting Wednesday (not this week because her mum's not well - so let's send all those wishes of love and healing her way today) and Alex Loves often  shows Wednesday Wish Lists (loving the orange over there today).

So if Wednesdays are for wishing, today's wish is for me to work my way through Free Range Human and get this Authentic Abundance Centre up and running.

Making This my Pin for Today

Recent Feedly Finds

(recent highlights from my Feedly Feeds)

Callie at Createavity recommended Craftsy which has been added to my research list for this week.  Also with Carly I'm looking forward to Storytelling for Change - really looking forward to getting my story together and learning about everyone else's.

Wynona Ryder looks as haunting as ever on her Interview Cover over at Trend Council.  I really want to see The Great Gatsby.

I am loving all of the wonderful wisdom over at Tiny Buddha and loving the idea of scheduling Simple Pleasures at Creating Space, Mindful Living.

May all  of your Wishes  come to fruition

In the best way, and at the best time

For You

Catherine

xxx

May The Madness of May Stay With You

The 7th of May will always be May Day to me.  For nostalgic reasons, I already covered here last year, I'm holding on to May Day and holding out for the sunshine - because it will arrive. I Believe.

Looking back to last year I had just launched my 'Green Room' on my website - I done away with my website not long after this as I wanted to work on the whole concept of The MacsX without spending any more money and using what I have, and can, for free.  And here I am 12 months later finally getting round to doing just that.

Continuing on my Free Range Journey I took the personality test at .. and found out that I am an INFP, an Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving.  And loving Pinterest as I do I decided to add a Personality Board to my collection.  I can't quite decide on my favourite...

I'm enjoying the the whole 'No Rules school of business' concept of Free Ranging - and feel like I'm getting somewhere.

Booking a table at the North Kelvin Meadow and thinking about going to Say it Aint Sew at Hillhead Library tonight are two of the actions I've already taken, already getting my Pet Projects under way.  Thinking about going to a craft group is the first step to joining an meeting like minded folk - the follow through is the next big step.

Namaste and Happy May

Catherine

xxx

Free Range Life - Starting with What I've Got

As mentioned in yesterday's post I'm finally working through Free Range Human and trying not to be too hard on myself for clearing the crap and realising what I already have or had.  Sometimes the whispers need to be spelled out or stamped on my forehead before I actually listen to them.  Other people's whispers I can hear at any level but the ones meant for me, they seem to get caught up in some kind of interference - usually caused by me.

Austin Kleon's version of putting a lot of work into getting back to where you already  had

I have found a lot of great counsel via some wonderful blogs, collecting many gems via Evernote, Pinterest and lately Feedly (which I've used to replace Google Reader).  Somehow in collecting all of this great advice I've gotten a little lost and overwhelmed in the volume and lost direction.  Granted there have been other things going on in my life and all I seem to have been doing lately is collecting data and not doing much of anything.  It's a hard habit to break but I'm working on it - Yes, I do seem to be working on a lot at the minute.

But big 'A-Ha' here, it's all toward the same end. It's all toward my living my Authentic Life and so I embark on my first 'pet project' writing Authentic Fit.  And so, it would seem, living Free Range is as simple as just starting from where you are.  And I am reminded of this each day I see my screen saver found via the lovely Oh My Handmade Goodness.

Happy Holiday Monday

Looking forward to completing my Free Range Journey

Catherine

xxx

That was the Week that was - aka the Usual Sunday BS

It's been quite a week.  This was meant to be the week where we got a final diagnosis at the children's hospital and would finally get our lives in order - or so we thought.  Strangely enough I'm sitting here smiling (no alcohol inducement) I guess because I've finally learnt the art of 'letting go', of recognising what I have the power to change, realising what I've got  and saying 'thank you'.

Listening to Gavin De Graw and relaxing.

Reading 'Be A Free Range Human' by Marianne Cantwell and getting my 'free range' on

Crafting a great idea for my House of Pinheiro International Craft Swap - this WILL be completed this week.

Thank you so much Vanessa for your beautiful gifts and your unending patience
I'm loving your craft room over at Simple Fibre Life

Shopping - Is it sad I have been searching for these shoes forever? (used to have a pair just like them)

 

Marks & Spencer Outlet bargain

My Etsy shop still remains closed - I have been watching the Glasgow Etsy Team from the sidelines and am aiming at attending the June meet and getting back to creativity.   I am working in the background and through the teachings of Marianne (above) I'm looking at relaunching bigger and better.

I am planning on bringing everything together here at When At The MacsX in the not too distant future - dates have been pencilled in my planner.  I am working on being a Free Range Human or should I say freeing my Free Range Human and documenting my journey - I feel some fibre being added to the framework here.

And going full circle I am looking forward to putting my dreams out there and 'Letting Be'.

by Catherine at WhenatheMacsX

Thank you to everyone who’s helped me through this week

(you know who you are

– and if you don’t believe you helped, you did).

Here’s to a Great Week

It starts with a holiday- who could ask for more.

Catherine

xxx