Creative Adventures – Creative Life Midwife

Self Care Creativity Retreat: It is easier than you think!

July 13, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife Leave a Comment

There is something about being outside and creating: painters are more known than writers for creating outdoors, but as one who enjoys taking her notebook and journals out into either the countryside or a local park, I know replenishment through creativity is absolutely possible.

Creative Self Care outside in July in the Desert (or humidity or insert your objection)?

Here in Bakersfield, in mid-July, it is hotter than most humans can bear easily and at the same time, getting outdoors in the early evening to write sustains me. Right here, close to home is sometimes all that is out there.

It is up to us to shift our mindset and say “YES! It is enough!”

This extra fun (and instructive) video about a unique “tool” you may choose to put together to enjoy a personal self-care creative retreat – whether it is 15 minutes or 15 days long. Watch the video and below are 4 quick tips for you to consider in planning your next self care creativity retreat.

Mindset Shifts to Create a Pleasant Self Care Creativity Retreat:

You may be raising all sorts of reasons why you can’t do a self care retreat on your own. I understand this more than you know. I am a mom of 3 including a special needs child, I know how difficult it can be to take care of yourself amidst everything else which makes it even more important to find a way.

Here are some final tips:

Keep your retreat basket in a place where it can be seen when you are busily doing your other work. It will serve as continual inspiration.
When you plan for your week, be sure to include creative self care on the list. If you don’t plan for it, don’t expect it to magically happen. You may add it as a reward – and be sure you are confident in reaching that reward or once again, you will never get there.
Sometimes when we have small children, we may practice retreating in parks when they’re playing. See if you can tag-team with another Mom or two and give one another 15 or 20 minute time outs to devote to solo creativity.
Do the best you can – and remember, if you don’t at first succeed… that’s right – try, try again.

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. To receive her email newsletter to be inspired by her transformational articles, essays and videos as well as find out about her new programs, products and challenges, please click here to subscribe.

Fall in Love with Video and Live-Streaming: From Fear to Freedom

June 25, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife Leave a Comment

A screen shot from a livestream video reminds me of the early days when I had more fear than freedom with video making and live stream video. Now, I love live streaming and I hope you will, too!

Not long ago I livestreamed every single day, sometimes more than once a day, for four years straight. I loved livestreaming for many reasons: the friendships that were born, the skill set I built, and the access to ‘instant research’ and “rough drafting” of content I was trying out.

I started wondering why I stopped live streaming, especially since I found so much joy there.

Toward the end of Samuel’s senior year, I became overwhelmed stirred up with disappointment, longing, and grief about the end of this significant phase of my life.

When we dropped him off at UNLV I started falling into a funk which I didn’t recognize at the time, The life that tumbled around me that season and for the seasons after that gives me a clearer perspective of why I stopped.

October 2019 brought me the gift of Valley Fever, a hospitalization that nearly killed me and the start of a long physical recovery period.

Toward the end of my recovery, the Covid19 pandemic and stay-in-place orders started.

A year and a month later, my friend was murdered. Her funeral was the first large group event I attended. Masked. Sitting with a handful of friends and speaking up for the positive nature of her life.

In the days before my friend’s funeral, my father died.

Immediately after that until last week my siblings and I were immersed both in funeral planning and helping Mom decide where she would most like to live.

A-ha: Reflection cured the live-streaming and video mystery.

This is why I haven’t been live streaming lately, but what kept coming back to me has been “I always felt better after I livestreamed consistently.”

I also noted my YouTube channel was much less active. I no longer regularly offered even short YouTube videos and rarely checked in with my previously made videos. I have the skills, but the motivation wasn’t there.

It was like my video – love – balloon had deflated so I put up a tentative new video trial balloon in my private Writer’s Facebook group to see if any of my closest creative friends would be interested in gathering to explore video-making in the privacy of the facebook group.

Enough people are interested to give me the energy to do my best. That is what I am promising: only my best. We will be in this together, collaborating and cheerleading and the intention is to enjoy the video making process.

Let’s Transform Video Creation Fear to Freedom to Make Videos Playshop Adventure Challenge

I am still working on dates because I am still traveling back and forth to Arizona and home to help Mom during her transition, but it looks like it will be sometime after July 4th.

Some of what will be included:

Basic skills teaching and practice with coaching and feedback geared for creatives, especially those who write or journal.
Foundational clarification of the purpose, mission and reason why participants would like to use video.
Prompts people may use for the videos plus tips on how to take the prompt and relate it back to the participant’s “why” for live-streaming.

It will run for 10 days with 5 prompts and 2 option livestream trains where participants will practice live streaming either in the group or on their own facebook page and we will all join the livestream to support and help one another practice what it is like to have an active, conversational livestream – it helps make it less scary to have friends “in the house.”

I made this short video in 2018 – when I was still going live every day. I look forward to the increased energy and excitement once again.

If you have an interest in participating, head over to the Word-Love Writing Community on Facebook where all the fun will happen. 🙂

By the way, if your knees are knocking at the thought of this, that’s a good thing. Mine are, too, actually. It will be fun listening to the chorus of our knees knocking like a chorus spread out across videos across the world.

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, Writer, Speaker and Mom extraordinaire who loves working with creative entrepreneurs, artists and healers to get their words written on the page, spoken in their videos and shared across social media platforms with confidence. She has learned the power of daily consistency and currently is on day 191 of 377 days of tree hugging!

Wisdom from Emily Dickinson: Lifting Up Ourselves and others.

May 1, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife 7 Comments

What do you think when you hear “rise” or “lift” or “soar”?

The word “rise” and “rising” have been popular lately. There are books by Brene Brown (Rising Strong); Tiffany Reese (Strong Women Rising); and many books honoring the Maya Angelou poem, “Still I Rise” in their titles and messages.

Today in the front pages of the novel, “Keeping Lucy” by T. Greenwood, I found a quote by Emily Dickinson that includes the phrase “called to rise.”

I didn’t believe it could be accurate. After all, she was writing in the middle decades of the 19th century.

What I found was this:

“We never know how high we are

Till we are called to rise;

And then, if we are true to plan,

Our statures touch the skies—”

Emily Dickinson

She did say it!

She even went further:

“The Heroism we recite

Would be a daily thing”

I am starting a blog challenge today – posting daily in May. My initial thought as I sit in my parents’ home in Flagstaff, Arizona is “Are you kidding me? This is so not the time to do a month long challenge. It’s hard enough to finish these in the best of times.”

Yet it may be the perfect way for me to rise – and allow my stature to reach up, touch the sky and write. Write. Write.

I hope you will read, read, read, and see where we come out, a month from now.

I trust in writing – showing up at the page and sharing what I discover along the way – will help us all be lifted up.

Woman writing on the front porch of a brick home, — Write wherever you find yourself.

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creator of the Radical Joy of Daily Consistency Course which helps people practice consistency and completion daily in order to experience a more incredible life experience. She also founded the free, private facebook community for writers and creative people at all levels of experience: the Word Love Writing Community. Join us!

What have you learned from reading so far this year?

February 16, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife 5 Comments

What is the most recent book you read recently because you wanted to experience personal growth? In the beginning of the year, self-help and goal setting and improvement books fly off the shelves and out of publisher’s warehouses.

While this may seem like a simple question, sometimes the books that help us grow may be unexpected. Let’s consider different factors and allow possible answers to surprise you.

This week I finished several books. I finished “The Practice” by Seth Godin and “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead.

When books become friends, they become lifelong companions.

Reading Godin’s book again is like having a reunion with an inspiring friend. I first read him years ago when i was new on the entrepreneurial, transformational creativity path. What I enjoy about his work is he is aligned with me AND he challenges me to think, act and grow better – with purer intention and awareness.

When I finished “The Nickel Boys” a novel about two young men in a 1960’s reform school in Florida completely opened my eyes. I read and actively enjoyed this book so much that I was known to blurt out joy by saying “Oh, this man can write!” or in dismay, “No, I can’t… I can’t keep reading this right now… no,” and walking away for three days until I felt restored enough to face reality.

At the end of the book, I wanted to fill up the trunk of my car with copies of this book and give it away to people who I know would read it because while we – as white people – can use words like “white privilege” sometimes don’t get it because we can’t quite get it clear. This novel helped to clarify not only white privilege, but the heart of Martin Luther King’s message as lived by a group of young men – while at the same time using language effortlessly and not needing to paint violent details.

One book: obvious personal development. Another book, fiction based on history, quieter and also deep in my core soulful personal development.

Taking a moment to move into a political direction: feel free to step off the post AND please tell about books you have read.

I don’t usually get political here on this blog, but I am about to do so briefly. If you do not want to deal with anything political today, I understand and invite you to simply comment about the above material and know if you are curious, this blog post will stay here for you to consider.

On the same day I am writing this, reports from the New York Times are telling us a woman named Amy Cooper fulfilled her judge appointed goals after being a typical “racist Karen” when she falsely reported a black man on a 911 call for threatening her because he asked her to follow the law and put her dog on a leash instead of allowing it to run freely in Central Park in New York City.

After she was arrested, she went to court and the judge requested she attend five sessions of therapy and proclaimed better. The educational course of study was specifically about racial bias.

To read an article that summarizes what happened, please visit this article from the New York Times.

What if the course of study included literature, film, art & heartfelt conversations?

I wonder what would happen if the educational course of study included reading and reflective writing? I wonder what would happen if Ms. Cooper and others read some books and wrote about what the books meant to her and how she would choose to live those books?

Perhaps we could put people who behave like she did with reading a book, watching a movie, looking at an art exhibit and then reporting back to the world how she grew from those experiences and how she will live differently as a result.

What might happen then?

Maybe we could entrust that reporting to her therapist would make a difference.

With well written, topical works would perhaps be influential upon people like Amy Cooper – and people like us witnessing the broken system and help us move one another and the system into a more aligned place – would learn more than just shouting and flailing and constantly standing on one end of the “us vs them” continuum.

Please share in the comments your book & reading recommendations PLUS any relevant conversation.

Why It May Benefit You To Consider Tree Hugging Now

February 12, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife 6 Comments

Why Hug a Tree?

Remember when we used to be able to hug people without thinking about risking our health?

That’s one reason why hugging trees feels so good right now.

I remember in 2019 regularly attending First Friday, an event in Downtown Bakersfield on the First Friday of every month. Art galleries and businesses downtown would be open and artists would line the streets, performers would be out and “my people” would inevitably either be showing their wares or circulating or performing.

I was guaranteed to hug and be hugged, smile at others and smile back, sing and laugh and play and be silly and for now, anyway.

I don’t have that on the First Friday of every month right now.

What is available is plenty of trees to hug, even in cities.

Yes, what I do have is an abundance of trees to hug.

Trees are in parks, they line many streets and parking lots. They are in my yard and in the yards of friends I can wave to and talk to outdoors from a safe distance.

When I hug a tree, I focus on one thing: feeling and experiencing a hug. On any given day I may also focus on healing for myself,for the rest of the world, the specific tree I am hugging, the neighborhood.

Specific health benefits of tree hugging

When you are tired, you allow yourself to feel the reciprocity the tree offers, just like the reciprocity humans offer. It isn’t exactly the same AND it is powerful in its own right.
You may receive positive energy from the tree, enough of this energy to find myself giddy and laughing.
Cardiovascular health and even obstetrical outcomes are improved when we utilize parks, green spaces, and hugging the trees within as noted in this research from Pennsylvania scientists.

In observing the tree, you will also notice how the branches bend and stretch. These may ignite associations in you like they do for me in my business and my life.
The scents from the trees serve as an up close and personal aromatherapy. You can feel myself relaxing as youhug the tree. Stress relief comes.
Matthew Silverstone noted in his book, Blinded by Science, evidence confirming trees and their healthful benefits includes their effect on mental illnesses, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), concentration levels, reaction times, depression, and the ability to alleviate headaches.
“Nature Deficit Disorder is real! Families need nature in urban areas, reports the New York Times . Tree hugging creates a deep connection point for urban nature, especially during times of Covid.

What I have learned in 52 consecutive days of Tree Hugging:

Since I started hugging trees every day for more than 50 consecutive days, I have never walked away from a tree hugging experience and felt worse. I always felt better.

When I focus on what I can do: I am able to hug trees, even with the pandemic, rather than what I can’t do – I can’t responsibly hug people who aren’t in my household. After hugging a tree, I re-discover joy, I open to what is present in abundance, I tune into what feels better.

How to Hug a Tree Most Easily

There are infinite reasons to hug a tree. What is yours?

Welcome: Let the Wind, The Breath, the Energy Guide You

February 10, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife 1 Comment

“Stop the words now

Open the window in the center of your chest

And let the spirits fly in and out.”

Rumi

Strange, for a writer to say “Stop the words now.”

A speaker, a teacher, a purveyor of messages. How is it possible to stop the words now?

I turn on my timer not to create a sense of urgency, but to create a container for the window to open. Window, open.

Window.

Open.

A part of me wants to rush to my earlier writings about windows and doors and architecture and spaces where wind moves in and out and creates mini-zephyrs where the curtains blow freely, creating a fabric dance so that spirit takes form so I may see, so I may understand.

I don’t mean to rush in, but I remember saying to a group I gathered to write beside the river, “If you think the wind is invisible, look – there on the hillside – where the wind is taking form in how it moves the grasses, the song it is making for us. Look and hear and feel the invisible take form.”

Window.

Open.

Invisible, forming. Becoming tactile, tangible, when we open the window in our chest and invite it to show us, show us, show us.

I echo Joy or Jo have briefly forgotten and I don’t want to look away yet. I am echoing the poet laureate, Ms. Harjo in her poem. Today. On that podcast I stumbled across.

Stumbling isn’t failing it is finding.

Window.

Open.

Spirits.

Fly.

Breath in and out.

Inhale. Fill. Exhale, Release.

Feel how perfectly the body works.

Am I ready to accept the perfection of my body, even as it is in this uncomfortable unknowing space, that space of a mass – tumor – whatever it is attached to my ribs and reaching across my sternum?

I can’t call it by a specific name: is it a window, is it a door, is it an inhale is it an exhale, is it simple an “is” – a mass, a tumor, a growth.

I realize in continuing to write I might give it a name like I gave my melanoma a name before I knew I had melanoma. I think I called her Nora. I allowed myself to get wrapped up in fear but calling her “Nora” it was like calling my elbow an elbow.

In this being with Rumi how could I have forgotten “Guest House”? It goes like this:

Translated by Coleman Barks

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

=======

Perhaps these words are to be my constant companion for these next two weeks, as I wait and as I experience my next stage of being with all aspects of this body of mine.

Welcoming and being grateful? Is that what I am meant to be?

I may be tired of this role I have been given, and that doesn’t mean I am to turn from it and turn inward entirely. I may take my time with sharing and maybe I will share in the moment.

Presence often waits until we are willing to be silent, take a moment or two for gazing out the window.

That’s where I will sit and stand and inhale and exhale and yes, open the window for now.

Julie Jordan Scott is not only the Creator of the Radical Joy of Consistency Course , she also hosts the free writing community on Facebook – the Word Love Writing Community. Join us now as we’re preparing for a brand new 8 day challenge and a new book club. Request your membership now here:

Word Love Writing Community:

The Radical Joy of Daily Consistency course helps people practice consistency and completion daily in order to experience a more incredible life experience. She came to this conclusion after almost dying and coming back to true healing by writing 377 consecutive haiku… and a lot more along her way to building that streak! To find out more about this program, visit this link, here.

When Showing Up Isn’t and IS Enough: Try This On

February 6, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife 3 Comments

Sometimes I don’t manage to do all I would like to do and yet, I am always grateful when I show up and when I try. It reminds me of what Brene Brown says, “The willingness to show up changes us, it makes us a little braver each time.”

I have a long history of giving up before I start, so showing up and following through has been infinitely important as I have been soldiering through lately, trying to keep my chin up and my eyes high even when I would rather close my eyes and lean back on my recliner as if there was nothing else to do.

For this lunar cycle I made up a fun affirmation I plan to continue into the next one: “Following through is flowing through and I deserve to flow where I am going.”

What I have found is when I stop showing up, I have forgotten I deserve to feel good.

Somewhere along the course of not showing up, of showing up for others and not myself, of showing up with one easily removed toe-dip into the water I decided to agree with the lies I am unworthy.

Usually these “You aren’t was worthy as you think you are!” lies get loud as the day wears on and it is obvious I won’t come close to reaching my tendency-to-be-high goals and aspirations for myself.

Today, I remembered the potency of such lies – and while I remember “Following through is flowing through and I deserve to flow were I am going,” I also recognize lowering my expectations and showing myself a healthy dose of compassion is sometimes much more important than powering through or ignoring my desires at all.

Showing up and not quite reaching our own expectations is NOT letting ourselves off the hook, it is allowing our humanity to show.

I am human and sometimes that means I don’t reach the heights a super-human might reach. Comparing myself to impossible to reach goals is as harmful to comparing my swimming speed to an Olympic medalist.
I tried – and while some sage characters in popular movies may assert, “There is no try, there is only do” there are many ways trying – showing up and taking action – is doing.
Being a “winner” may mean the bar is set too low. Try that one on for size – and open your arms and heart to continuing and starting and continuing and starting and continuing.

Doesn’t it feel better to be compassionate with yourself by looking at the reality – it is fantastic to have inspirational goals – and showing up even if they aren’t reachable yet is sometimes the very best action possible.

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creator of the Radical Joy of Consistency Course which helps people practice consistency and completion daily in order to experience a more incredible life experience. She came to this conclusion after almost dying and coming back to true healing by writing 377 consecutive haiku… and a lot more along her way to building that streak! To find out more about this program, visit this link, here.

5 Simple Tips for Your Intentionally Wonderful Weekend

February 5, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife 5 Comments

A woman is sitting on a sofa, looking relaxed as she is intentionally creating a restorative weekend for herself.

Has it been a long week for you, too?

How to Intentionally Create a Weekend that Will Nurture a Better Next Week

I am sitting on Friday eve as I write this, thinking “please, God, I would love to have a better week next week than this week,” and while prayer is often the best medicine, prayer alone won’t do much if I am not actively collaborating with the Divine.

Before you let go of the Friday workday (or early Saturday morning) there are a few steps you may take to insure a fruitful, restful weekend to be a foundation for a marvelous week-to-come.

5 Do-Able Tips for Weekend Rest & Rejuvenation

Include mindful conversation with people outside your usual circle of companions and co-workers. Pay attention to listening without an agenda – simply listening because it is the foundation of good relationships of all kinds.
When possible, spend time outdoors – even if it is standing outside your front door for five minutes. No matter how cold, it will be invigorating. No matter how warm, you will activate your senses in a new way.
Move your body differently than you’ve done during the week. Take an extra five minutes for playfulness at the end of exercise. Have you wanted to try some new form of fitness? Try it, briefly, and see if it fits for you.
If you have been spending more than four hours watching television or movies, try reading a book instead. Try reading aloud to yourself to see how it changes the experience.
Leave adequate time for “should-free” planning. Look at the week ahead after exercising a bit more, mindfully conversing, re-connecting your senses and unplugging for a bit and notice what shows up differently. Express gratitude for what you have discovered and uncovered. Instead of lamenting the start of the new week, recognize what you would prefer to experience more of and set your plans and intentions accordingly.

This weekend, lay the foundation to start your week off with loving kindness for yourself.

Julie JordanScott enjoying time in nature during a mindful, intentional, wonderful weekend. — Sunday afternoon, in the park, restored by an intentionally wonderful weekend

Subtract Anxiety, Add Peace

February 4, 2021 by jjscreativelifemidwife 4 Comments

I wrote a poem today.

I wrote into my phone, in the driveway. It is perhaps more a “pre-poetry jot” then a full fledged poem.

It felt good to write no matter what “it” is.

A tall cottonwood behind a chain link fence at sunset. Title is "Learning from Transition Into Dusk. Staying Calm even when it isn't easy)

Last night I took a sunset walk at the Panorama Vista Preserve. I wanted to walk and I wanted to take photos like I used to, just for the joy, and I wanted to experience the transition from light to darkness.

It was during this walking time I wrote bits of a different poem in my head.

Experiencing natural transitions are soothing and make transitions I am experiencing with my health feel more normal as well. The transition from feeling healthy, full speed ahead to “something is going on but I cannot label it or know what’s next” uncomfortableness would very easily drive me into a higher level of anxiety – which isn’t good for my body and healing in any way.

I sat on a bench facing east during sunset, which is strange for me. Usually I stare at the sun as she moves out of sight, but I was enjoying watching birds fly as dusk settled. Birds whose names I don’t know who prefer low to the earth shrubs, a hawk cruising for a meal, and two loud ravens flew past. As the sun disappeared under the horizon, the burned dust smell of the Southern San Joaquin Valley rose once again making me wish I had an adequate way to capture it in words.

I’m still working on holding “scent of dust” or a better way to say it is I am waiting for the words to reveal themselves to me. Even better than that is the scent of dust is working on me rather than me working on it.

As I turned to leave the preserve I thought, “hmm. No rabbits are out yet.” In 2020, rabbits were a nearly constant companion on my walks here.

I also noted the gorgeousness of nightfall with a grand cottonwood tree, fenced into the yard beside the preserve.

It reminded me of my mass (tumor, growth). I can feel it, I can see it on the outside of my body, but I can’t get close enough to my own interior to know the impact it may have on my life.

I didn’t fall into worry or anxiety with these thoughts, I simply admired the cottonwood and with great self love, gave myself more moments of compassion. Stepping back into my car, I smiled softly.

As I drove toward home, a rabbit sat beside the road. She didn’t hop away, didn’t appear scared, she simply sat as I drove past as if to say “We’ve got this. No need to be afraid.”

I wrote to my primary care doctor and received a response. Today my personal challenge is to call the surgeon and check on the referral for the MRI. Keep the energy moving toward healing. Continue to assemble to the team with love rather than fear.

In my mind’s eye and deep in my heart, I will stand with the cottonwood in admiration without the need to get too close yet.

Discovering Uniquely, Wonderfully You

December 9, 2020 by jjscreativelifemidwife 4 Comments

I’m re-reading Randy Pausch’s book “The Last Lecture.”

I am sad to report I didn’t remember much from it beyond his brick wall quote that goes like this:

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.”

A brick wall image with the quote by Randy Pausch about why brick walls are here - the quote is also in the essay,.

Brick walls and the creative process

I don’t remember him writing his thoughts about his creative process or making of his famous lecture. I hadn’t realized a driving force behind his script came from asking himself what he saw as his personal uniqueness.

He didn’t want his lecture to be about his cancer and his pending death. That wasn’t unique to him, he mused. Instead, what made him unique was his approach to reaching his goals which came about because of who he was as a child.

I found myself recalling the many times I have asked people about their own uniqueness and an almost equal number of times people cannot put a finger on what makes them unique. They might share their circumstances – survivor of cancer, holder of a skillset they share with many other people, owner of an interesting turn of phrase or rare accented language.

All of those traits on their own are sared by others.

The Challenge of Seeing Ourselves as Unique

A group of unique people are gathered, honoring the Margaret Mead quote about every person being unique and special.

What is unique about you includes how you look at life, specifically blended with the actions you have taken over your life. Your uniqueness adds perspective on any given subject: the pandemic, the recent election, where you live with whether you like crunchy or creamy peanut butter.

We are on the verge of a New Year. There is no other time so perfect for a fresh exploration of your uniqueness.

Mix up some of your qualities and begin to see the narrative of your uniqueness rise up. I have started this process myself, but I realized as I started to make diagrams I needed more time for insights to rise up as well as using a variety of different strategies.

The first responses I list are usually very familiar and actually not very unique at all. I’ve noticed the same pattern with my coaching clients: their first attempts may be lackluster and dull.

Take a piece of paper and write the qualities you possess. You don’t need to use a list format, you may instead use a mindmap or simply write words and doodle images in random placements.

Don’t immediately proclaim your uniqueness. Take a day or two to consider as many qualities as possible so that you may determine which are stand-out qualities. Think about the subjects you talk about that make people perk up and want to know more: sometimes it is these things which seem everyday and ordinary to use which are most fascinating to others. Consider childhood scenarios where you were recognized as special by your teacher or peers or by a coach.

Uniquely me, in process. Where will it go? I am not sure AND it is so important to practice with different methods and processes.

Like Randy Pausch, I am going to look back into my memory for what made me feel alive as a child. Immediately I think of the “television network” I created in my basement, “WJAJ” where I had my own show – a cross between “The View” and “The Tonight Show” with one host and many guests (all portrayed at the time by me.

Be sure to jot down what comes up, too. Then step away and let your thoughts sit overnight. Return the next day to your list of qualities with fresh eyes.

What do you see now? What do you feel now?

Name and Claim Your Uniqueness

Amy Gentzler shares her story like this: “Only recently have I realized that being different is not something you want to hide or squelch or suppress.”

Experiment with naming your uniqueness. Then leverage it to make a positive difference in the world.

Guidance through life coaching would will help you gain clarity about what makes you unique as well as clarify your life purpose. I would be happy to hop on a phone or zoom call with you – simply go to my Facebook page and click on “Book Now” so we may arrange at time to connect. +

Julie JordanScott helps creative entrepreneurs transform from decent and “fine” into a shifted, remarkable when they choose to make one small shift to inspire a renewed life of fulfillment, hope, satisfaction and whatever their desire may be underneath their previously ordinary life.