Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

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

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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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

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5 Simple Tips for Your Intentionally Wonderful Weekend

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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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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. 
  4. 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. 
  5. 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

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.

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Subtract Anxiety, Add Peace

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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.

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.

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Discovering Uniquely, Wonderfully You

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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.

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Longing for “The Look”: Encouraging Your Growth

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 I remember when I saw the newer version of the Parent Trap and my favorite moment in the entire movie is how the Dad looked at his first wife (the twin’s Mom) when he was in a romantic clutch with his much younger fiancé.

 I said to myself, “I want someone to look at me like that.” I would feel encouraged to be the best version of myself if someone looked at me like that.” With more reflection, I discovered it isn’t simply about being looked at “like that” from a romantic perspective, but being seen like that from a human perspective.

Being seen as in – accepted, appreciated, and valued, simply by showing up and being yourself. I’m reminded of how I look at newborns or people I am excited to meet for the first time. It is about the possibilities within that person and the pure joy of their existence. This is being seen.

What is it about being seen from transparency and love?

 I could stop this blog post right here and say, “My son looks at me similarly, with pure love in his eyes,” and as being a mother is the most important work I do that is definitely encouraging.

I might  say, “It is not in the way someone looks at me it is in the way I look at them that counts.”

 That isn’t entirely authentic, though, because…well, it is THAT look I am talking about, not just a lackadaisical, “Hey how’s it going you’re looking great and mighty convenient” kind of look I grew accustomed to for much of my life.

When in doubt, ask advice about how to be seen from a friend

 I remember talking to a friend, Adam,  several months ago about how my vision of God is like a dear, encouraging friend helping me to fly a kite. He is running alongside me, coaching me and up the kite goes.

 This would be miraculous because, top secret confession, I have never in all my years been able to get a kite to fly on my own, even with a human side coaching me.

 Adam reflected back to me about some of those things I have accomplished being LIKE flying that kite to God.

When your friend says “take an assessment”, take an assessment to be seen

He is my “kite flying buddy” for other things I have managed to maneuver. If you talk to the average Jane, I have done a lot that many would have thought was impossible.

 Adam said God would look in the way I longed to be seen. Reality check: God sees you and God hears you and furthermore, God is pleased with you.

 Well, Adam didn’t know my fascination was actually how Dennis Quaid looked at his movie first wife, but I knew exactly what he meant when he said that about my kite flying God.

 I can close my eyes and see that exact look. I can embrace being fully seen and heard by God and by other people.

I’m going to hold onto this feeling for a while, because it is definitely encouraging – beyond words encouraging, to think of what I have accomplished that I might not have noticed before. It is also encouraging to know I may indeed find people who will see me as I deserve to be seen now that I understand the concept my clearly.

Now it is your turn: take your “being seen” assessment

Here is a task that would definitely help us in times of feeling “less than”: crating a list of accomplishments others have praised us for completing. We might not recognize the quality of what we have achieved until we fully acknowledge other people giving us “that look” via authentic, heart-felt praise.

If you can’t remember off the top of your head, it might be a fun – albeit courageous job to ask some of the people closest to you what you have done that inspires them or encourages them to be their best selves.

Remember, God is seeing you as a success even now. My bet is your friends and loved ones see you as more of a success than you do.

Tell me in the comments, what is something you did for which you received encouraging compliments?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/bridgetothenewyear/

Join “Bridge to the New Year” – We are a connected community of creatives in a private facebook group. Weekly check in’s, inspiration and an end of the year guided 30 day experience are our capstones. Join us to stay in the flow now and turn on the intensity at year’s end and in the meantime we strengthen one another’s vision everyday. Click here to join Bridge to the New Year!

Portrait of Speaker, Creative Life Coach, Writer and Mom Extraordinaire, Julie JordanScott

Julie JordanScott lives in Bakersfield, California in a house too small for quarantine life. She leads discussions on Zoom and is polishing her most recent memoir and some poetry for soon-to-be publication. If you would like her to speak to your group over ZOOM until travel is available again, she would be happy to talk to you about that OR maybe you are looking for a slightly quirky, very open hearted, compassionate and tender Creative Life Coach. She would love to speak with you soon at 661.444.2735

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Wisdom from Martha Graham to Move You Into Action Now

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“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action…”

Martha Graham

Woman is in a dance pose on one leg in the middle of a field of autumn yellow flowers: the word she is focused on is quickening - which is about taking action because of your unique self

This is important to consider:

Within me there is a quickening

Inside me.

Deep inside all the secret and public places that combine to make me, me, there is a quickening.

Within you there is a quickening

Inside you.

Deep inside all the secret and public places that combine to make you, you there is a quickening.

What happens with the quickening is because

There lives a pulse, a breath, a point of conception and the space where that becomes something because we finally choose, we finally choose to shake things up enough. I finally chose to say yes, you finally choose to say yes, we finally choose to consistently say yes even when things feel off or wobbly or unsettling.

The only real choice is Yes.

Are you choosing yes?

Are you saying yes to taking action, to creating what it is you are meant to create?

I am open to saying yes to this unique form of energy that was issued to me through the divine library that said “it is my turn to be made into form, this one-of-a-kind groupings of biology and theology right here right now this is it.”

I am choosing yes. 

I’m hoping and praying and crossing my fingers you will say yes, too.

That time I almost died, my heart told me to keep showing up. To just be dutiful. To show up and create and prepare to get messier than ever before. 

Because there is an engine, a track, a parachute, wings, and a lot of laughter waiting to happen when you agree, say yes, open yourself. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Because, why, our mission is here and….

There lives a pulse, a breath, a point of conception and the space of quickening that is within you.

Right here, right now, that brought you to read these exact words at this exact time.

Martha Graham said “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action…”

Writing prompt: The quickening inside me is calling me to take action toward….. so I will…. (write for at least 5 minutes, stream of consciousness, free flow style.)

Sharpen Your Writing Skills & Enjoy Writing More in our Private Facebook Group:

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

How would your writing productivity change if you received varied, niche driven writing prompts daily – also fiction, poetry, entrepreneur, copy writing and video prompts are offered, join the Private Word-Love Writing Community on Facebook by clicking here.

Julie JordanScott lives in Bakersfield, California in a house too small for quarantine life. She leads discussions on Zoom and is polishing her most recent memoir and some poetry for soon-to-be publication. If you would like her to speak to your group over ZOOM until travel is available again, she would be happy to talk to you about that OR maybe you are looking for a slightly quirky, very open hearted, compassionate and tender Creative Life Coach. She would love to speak with you soon.

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How Your Next Embodied Moment will lead to a More Fulfilling Life

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How would your life change if you made the choice to open yourself fully to each moment as it happens?

Your first response might be “Don’t I do this right now?”

Maybe and maybe not.

Bombarded with distractions, all the time

We are constantly bombarded with distractions, most of which our mind filters automatically for us. Sometimes we are “playing with our kids” with our computer open and our phone in our hand and we are trying to get our partner’s attention. This isn’t very “in the moment.”

I know people who are distracted so much by a ticking clock they can’t focus on the conversation they are attempting to have with friends.

If you have that sort of sensitivity and you haven’t learned how to focus on the conversation, life becomes frustrating rather than fulfilling.

This goes beyond ticking clocks and flashing lights and startling smells that rise up and greet you as you are walking down your office hallways.

Your entire life experience will become better when you are 100% engaged in whatever you are doing at that moment. This is true no matter what you are doing: enjoying a concert, taking a walk, writing a blog post: the outcome is the same. Better results with better focus.

Embody the moment and rewards will follow.

Our experiences are better when we are fully immersed in whatever we are doing instead of sitting blankly scrolling on our phones, waiting for our boss to give us an inspiring assignment or checking the Netflix schedule praying something might capture our attention.

To experience full embodiment, we allow ourselves to be engaged with our senses as we are living that moment. Still not sure what I mean?

Here’s an example from my own life which could have been another boring everyday moment which instead, became not only sheer delight, it caused me to write a poem.

Ordinary coffee in an ordinary cup by an ordinary notebook or is it? When lifted to the lips and fully observed, embodiment occurs and a poem (or best seller) may be born.

Today I poured a usual cup of coffee into my favorite mug and sat down to drink it while I wrote social media content. Somewhere on the way from the coffee put to my seat here in the corner, I decided to make the experience one of embodiment: completely in touch with the tactile, sensory feelings within my body as I drank the coffee.

Coffee: Ordinary or Extraordinary?

Here is what happened when I allowed myself to be present to the experience of my lips and coffee.

I lower my head, as in prayer

Mug lifts to meet my lips, cold orange edge

rests on the soft yet firm shelf my lower lip offers

tongue meets lip from inside as coffee

pours forth, into my waiting mouth

slightly bitter warmth, pleasure for barely

a moment slides in and down and then

my throat opens and closes and satisfied,

my lips make way for the exhale, while

still heated slightly, while still cozy, while still

pleasantly plumped from the 

liquid invocation of a new day

no matter what arises my lips

and I know. Coffee comes to visit

and temporarily makes all things perfect.

Coffee, writing and poetry are beyond the ordinary.

Rarely does my own poetry make me laugh, but this one did.

Embodied writing can be playful, deeply moving and sacred. It can be all three. 

I may rework this poem but for now, I am sitting back admiring the moments I had drinking the coffee, taking notes while I drank, and now being brave and silly enough to share it with you here.

A Master Class in Embodiment and Your Richer Life, Right here

Last week I blogged about sharing ordinary moments as extraordinary. Today may be seen as the master’s course in the same subject.

Do me and your reading audience a favor: fully immerse yourself in any given ordinary moment. Take notes. And then write something from it, anything. I wrote a poem, you might write a sales letter. It doesn’t matter WHAT you write, it simply matters that you write this way.

FIND A SUPPORTIVE WRITING COMMUNITY in a Private FACEBOOK GROUP:

How would your writing productivity change if you received varied, niche driven writing prompts daily – also fiction, poetry, entrepreneur, copy writing and video prompts are offered, join the Private Word-Love Writing Community on Facebook by clicking here.

We look forward to writing with you!

Julie JordanScott lives in Bakersfield, California in a house too small for quarantine life. She leads discussions on Zoom and is polishing her most recent memoir and some poetry for soon-to-be publication. If you would like her to speak to your group over ZOOM until travel is available again, she would be happy to talk to you about that OR maybe you are looking for a slightly quirky, very open hearted, compassionate and tender Creative Life Coach. Text or call her at 661.444.2735 She would love to speak with you soon.

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Welcome, October: am I Ever Grateful to See You!

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Autumn is my favorite season and October is my favorite month within that season.

This honest delight adds to the poignance of October 2019 which I wasn’t able to experience. I look back at this time last year and I had a doctor appointment where the primary plan was to get a referral for a podiatrist for the bunion I have been dealing with painfully for the previous eight years.

The only problem was I was sick when I got to the appointment. I had a fever, a rash, a generalized discomfort which the doctor thought might be valley fever or some random infection so I was sent home with anti-biotics and a follow up appointment where we would dive into the podiatrist referral more fully.

Less than a week later I was at urgent care, the emergency room and the intensive care unit with a fancy combination of illnesses including sepsis which caused many of my organs to fail.

Playing in the pumpkin patches in Tehachapi is a family favorite. Here, four children find the perfect pumpkin.

There was no apple picking, no wild baking, no pumpkin patches or decorating. I was home from the hospital in time for trick-or-treating which I did by sitting on the porch with a big bowl of candy on my lap.

I have never fully explored that time and the healing from it, so here in my blog this month during the Ultimate Blog Challenge, I will share my experiences of those days, the aftermath and the creative lessons gleaned along the way.

I will also share some of the 100 Days of Wonderful Words which we’re using to explore writing in many different platforms and forums in my free community, Word-Love Writing Community on Facebook. If you love words and would benefit from community and prompting, we would love to see you over there. Request membership by clicking here.

I will be posting here daily in October so hold onto your hats, get ready to be inspired, connected and challenged to think newly as we explore health, healing and intentional connection through creative action here at the Creative Life Midwife in October.

Julie JordanScott is the Creative Life Midwife. She fuels creativity in others using artful methods aligned with intentional connection, purposeful passion and soulful rituals. Follow her on social media using the links above.

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Moving Ahead During Uncertain Times with MicroGoals

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Micro-goals will help you be more successful. This blog post shows you how.

How do you want to feel about your life – your work, physical health, role as a parent of adult children living at home, role as a community member, and content planning at the end of the next two weeks?

Easily stated, I want to feel better than I feel right now. I want to feel more satisfied with this situation, even if we are still being asked to stay at home and wear our masks in public.

What are Micro Goals: aren’t they just goals?

Micro-goals are classified as a certain type of goal. They amplify the present moment and reward you for being productive in a way that suits your personality and aligns with your vision and values. They are simple and short term rather than complex and long term. One of the keys to success with micro-goals is with their length: you may quickly experience success and naturally feel compelled to continue with that goal or leverage that micro-goal into a bigger part of your plan or vision.

Micro Goals work because they offer fast results and easy success. Check marks in boxes make us happy.

Examples of Micro Goals:

This morning I worked on my monthly walking goal. I am using steps to measure success and building up to an end-of-January goal: a fourteen mile walk from Ojai to Ventura. 

I have recently restructured this goal because I am speeding up my training, so this micro goal will be increased every two weeks. 

Each day I will aim to meet my standard step goal. If I walk 1,000 steps more, I will reach my “Stretch” goal. If I walk 2,000 steps more, I will reach my “Damn Girl you are a superstar” goal.

I have made an ordinary short term goal fun, humorous, and in chunks is time limited. I have a reward at the end I find ridiculously fui and right now in September, slightly unreachable.

Today, I am helping to motivate myself to continue with other daily tasks as I stride my way into my two-week-goals so that I may more likely reach my next level in my walking goals.

Other micro goals may be trying meatless Mondays throughout the month of September, learning the basics of a musical instrument, writing an instagram post, a story and a reel every day for two weeks. Short, fun, fast success or not. You get to try it out (beyond the “first time”) and decide to continue or modify your goal based on results and data.

I have also found there are often times barriers because I just don’t feel like taking the extra steps, making the additional phone calls or emails, cleaning that drawer out today, fill in your task you don’t want to do here.

A women looks frustrated: she doesn't believe she has to do this task. She doesn't want to do it! Everything is NOT do-able!

For those times when you just aren’t “feeling it” – and yes, they happen more than we might think during “these uncertain times.”

After I finished my morning walking today, I took note of the extra benefits to walking that don’t relate directly to the number of steps I have taken. I wrote this write into the notes section of my phone:

Because I walked farther than I wanted to, the rewards were plentiful:

  1. I smelled freshly mown grass (a favorite smell)

2. I heard a birdsong I had never heard

3. I got closer to the end result I’m aiming for

4. I built more self trust

5. I feel better about myself

6. I was able to say good morning to a man working in the park, cleaning trash.  I imagine he is often “invisible” as he works, I wanted him to be seen and to receive a happy, grateful smile.

7. I prayed for children past, present and future who will play here.

8. I walked on a baseball/softball field, something I haven’t done in years. The simplicity of this made me feel grateful and content.

9. I hugged a new-to-me tree. 

10. When I get home I will write, I will publish, I will scoop up dangling threads, I will choose to be happy.

Trying on a goal is like trying on shoes and clothes and rearranging the furniture. Micro-goals are one way to do this successfully

A-ha moment, in the writing!

I just realized while I didn’t know it at the time, writing an occasional list of celebration when I achieve my goals unexpectedly is a great idea!

Also, when I got home, I did do those tasks. I finished some graphics, I posted to two of my facebook groups, I am now finishing up this blog post. And I have been cheerful the whole time, even making plans with my sometimes reclusive son for this afternoon.

End Result: I felt incredibly accomplished and ready for the next item on my agenda. I have gotten more and more accomplished today – this morning – than I did all day yesterday.

Creating a Successful Micro Goals is as easy as starting where you are:

One simple way to consider what to use as a micro goal, I like to “look out over the future” and ask what I want to see in the next week or two weeks. Then I reverse engineer my way back to the present – and this is where many of my micro goals come into being.

I want to be able to look back at my calendar and say “I wrote my haiku every day, I marketed my business on these social media platforms every day, I made a list of ways to generate income with the skills I have right now.”

A row of palm trees at sunrise is one of the haiku photos I have taken during 2020. Poetry and dailiness has made a big difference for me with Micro Goals.

I started getting serious about the effectiveness of micro goals when I started writing haiku every day. It is a micro goal because the daily task is so small. The length of time, however, isn’t micro at all.

I started writing haiku again and used it as my first goal in a long time because I asked myself this question, which I ask you to ask yourself as well.

What is it that used to make me feel better in the past?

What short amount of time and energy activity has been known to lift you from sadness to joy or at least “an improvement”?

You can go back as far as childhood: recently my daughter has started jump roping again and is having a blast at it – something that brought her alive as a child will help her reach her health goals as an adult AND she is still having a blast!

What do you like to do that will support how you want to feel in two weeks that utilizes what you have at your disposal where you are right now?

Take your time before you answer – and when you do, it would be great for you to join the Bridge to the New Year facebook group where we discuss goals and micro goals all year long as you create your most satisfying, creative life.

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Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, A Social Media Whiz and a Mother of three. One of her greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. 

Julie is also one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Join us now in in Bridge to the New Year to reflect, connect, intend and take passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2021

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How to Create a Simple Intention that Will Change Your Life for the Better Even During these Uncertain Times

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I confessed to you in yesterday’s blog post I had one of the largest blocks of my lifetime last Fall after having a near-death experience. It wasn’t only the almost dying that shut down my creative will to make things, it was the unsupported recovery.

In the perfect world, I would have had numerous caretakers hovering nearby ready and able to be at my beck and call but in reality it was Emma and me… and since I never trained Emma to “adult” – my mom never trained me, I just became an adult from about age eleven and increasing as I grew older – so there I sat in my corner recliner doing nothing except walking to the restroom back to my chair and walking to the kitchen and making myself not to terribly healthy meals and back to my chairs and at the end of the day, I would either sleep in the chair or wander to my bedroom.

I had friends swing by and take me places, doing the best they could, but no one really knew what my life was like inside my house.

I wasn’t about to tell them because that would make me a creative failure, a wannabe, a nothing. After almost dying, I felt so lackluster that being “a-nothing” was where I hovered the most.

I would look at the computer, but wouldn’t use it. I wouldn’t go on the internet and scroll, I would look at the turned-off screen, not interacting with the keys or watching videos or anything.

I would hold my notebook in my lap, but I wouldn’t move my pencils or pens or crayons.

In retrospect, there were two necessities that were far from my experience. I needed an intention and I needed someone to give me a bit of a believing push.

I needed someone to say “I believe in you. Your work is important to the world! It’s time to love and live an inspiring question because you love the people in this world and sister, they love you, too.”

I existed through November and early December, normally exciting times for me. I slowly started feeling better.

It wasn’t until a December sunrise shortly before I went to visit my daughter Katherine and her husband, Donald, that my creative will started to move through me with any sort of consistency.

What made this shift happen? I decided to live and love a question while keeping my heart open to the forward flow of intention:

“What is it that I used to do that made me feel better that might make me feel better now?

Some possibilities that rose up were good, but I couldn’t do them without the help of others. I love karaoke, but my lungs and voice didn’t feel ready. I knew my recovery would take at least six months. I would adore being on stage again, but same challenge – PLUS I would need to have a director who really wanted to cast me. I couldn’t imagine that happening anytime soon.

I chose writing haiku which combined writing – which I have always loved – with haiku – which was a very short poem and therefore, an easy idea to put into motion. 

I also knew if I failed, it wouldn’t be heartbreaking because… it is only a short poem once a day. Besides, no one would be paying very close attention. I made it even easier because I said “Must complete in the morning,” which meant I didn’t have a long time to think about how much I really didn’t WANT to write a haiku. 

I didn’t have time to think about how much I didn’t want to do anything but sit alone in a corner.

After a week which included quite a bit of family travel which is wonderful and stressful and tense, I realized my question, “What will help me feel better?” changed everything when I loved the question, was patient with myself in allowing the response to find its way to me, and I took a very small baby step every day.

Interesting to note it was that same week when I insisted I was going to visit my parents in Flagstaff sometime around my birthday, an idea and an intention I had been holding for over a year but other people’s needs and my own lack of planning continued to interfere with the actual implementation of my plan.

I will forever be grateful I visited my parents in the middle of February. It was only a few weeks later a simple visit with them would be impossible due to Covid-19.

A simple question: “What would make me feel better?” and a contemplation of which activities were do-able yet also a bit of an inspiring stretch, has changed my life in ways I never expected.

It is important to make considerations as to what you are willing to…. do or be or accept or let go of in order to feel better or do better or be better. You may have to let go of your perfectionism or be willing to get up earlier or be willing to drink more water or take something out of your schedule or you might have to be willing to make people angry.

In the long run, none of those small annoyances – or what may feel wildly uncomfortable now – will compare to how great you will feel by consistently aiming for what it is that will make you feel better. You have the wisdom within you right now to determine what that is.

I believe in you. I look forward to seeing your “what’s next” with a little extra nudge of intention added to your experience.

Even with the challenges of 2020, I am more alive and more connected and more compelled to make a difference than I have been in years. Often during my visioning work, I imagine 5 or 10 or 500 or 25,000 people feeling better, too. I imagine the impact that would have on our planet.

Do you have five minutes to write in response to this prompt and others like it? It’s all waiting for you to simply say yes. Thank you for reading.

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Portrait of creative life coach and creative life midwife Julie JordanScott

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, A Social Media Whiz and a Mother of three. One of her greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. 

Julie is also one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Access the visionary prompst from the mid-2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, intend and taking passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2020. 

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