Yesterday I launched a new initiative called March Inspired… You can read more at this link, I’d love you to join us. I have decided to write my next book everyday for 30 days of March. Finishing on the 31st of March where I will be speaking at the Perth SPARC event. I thought I should start to brush up a little more on my biggest weakness in writing.
My grammar!
There is a new website that has been recently released called ‘The Hemingway’ .
It is a very basic website, that analysis’s your writing and suggests changes that make your writing more efficient.
You paste your piece of writing simply on the page and watch the colours denote the area’s of error and improvement required.
A simple but brilliant tool for speeches, blogs and writing.
I love creative writing but am terrible at grammar. I am more excited about new ideas and thoughts, than the pain of going back and editing my work.
If I am going to start calling myself a writer though, I don’t have a choice but to improve this area of my work.
My friend Elaine Fraser from Beautiful Books, uses this tool with her writing from Microsoft word, it is called Readability mode.
Hope this inspires you to write often and write well.
March is an amazing month, to refocus and reset your goals. Everything is back to normal after the silly season of Christmas and the New Year. Life as you know it has a little more routine. There is no time like the present to commit to bringing change and inspiration to your days.
What would you like to commit to doing for 30 days, to bring inspiration, innovation and creativity into your year?
You could write, sew, paint or draw. Also you could make cards, pot plant, knit or exercise. Do you need to read more, bake for others or Cook through a recipe book? You could have coffee with 30 inspiring people, Pray, Meditate, Stretch or Walk… the options are endless.
It takes 30 days to form a new habit. 30 days of doing something is a powerful change tool.
At the beginning of 2014, I started drawing in my visual diary every day for the whole year. I have been posting them here and on social media it is called #inspire14 and some other creatives have joined me on the journey.
Also, March marks the month where the season of Lent begins. Lent is the 40 day period leading up to Easter. It begins on the 5th of March and ends on the 20th of April. Lent is an amazing time, to reflect and sacrifice and bring perspective on area’s of your life that you need to bring change to.
What I want to encourage my readers to do, is to commit to doing something inspiring every day for 30 days in March. (you could carry it on through lent if you wanted)
March inspired
I want to encourage you to first of all do a word brainstorm like this one I have done below.
1) Say yes!
2) Print out this worksheet for March Inspired and answer the questions to prepare yourself for the 30 day journey.
3) Send me an email on amanda@amandaviviers.com for accountability and encouragement towards your 30 day journey. I will commit to skyping or online chatting with you at some point during the journey, if you would like that.
4) #inspire14 with your journey through facebook or instagram.
5) Start March 1st.
6) If you are in Perth I am speaking at a SPARC gathering at the cheeky sparrow on the 31st of March and we can celebrate together your accomplishment.
This year I have committed to publishing two e-books. 1) YESTEMBER– a 30day guided journey for singles 2) Curate- 30 days to cultivate creativity. (both of which are my very loose working titles.) So I need to commit, before baby number two arrives to write. So for the month of March I am writing each day for publication 1) Yestember.
I wholeheartedly believe, when you reflect on what you want to do and then you ask someone to hold you accountable to it, the likelihood of committing to it is so much higher.
A little while ago the most delightful children’s cartoon burst onto the silver screens. Touted as a new Christmas classic, I was excited about its arrival. Ever since it has been released, one of its songs has been on the charts and has stayed there. The song is called ‘Let it go.’
Recently I popped to a friends house for a quick cup of tea and her little girl, had her iPad to her ear, was dancing the living room and singing this song gallantly.
There is something about the words of this song, whether it be a little girl and her iPad or a big girl and her iPhone, the words ring true and encourage us to let go of that which holds us back.
Flicking the web a few days ago I found this version of the song and as princessy’ and girly as it is, it really inspired me.
http://youtu.be/N91cREpgd74
What are you not letting go of?
What is holding you constricted and contained?
Is it a conversation?
Is it a friendship gone bad?
Is it unforgiveness?
When we find ourselves stuck creatively, emotionally, friendship wise…There is often a very real reason.
Sometimes we just need to let it go.
We can’t fix it, we can’t change it, we just need to find a way to let go.
If you are struggling to let something go, I have found in the past if I do something visual it often helps me. For example if it is a person I need to forgive or let go of, that I write their name on a smooth rock, I pray a simple releasing prayer and throw the rock into the sea.
If it is a situation that I just can’t move on from, I write a letter to myself, the person, the organisation and then I burn it, tear it up, flush it down the toilet…I do something that symbolises letting it go.
Confession to a safe friend is also a great way to do this. You can tell them, that you need to let something go and you just need to tell them about it and then together ask forgiveness and let it go.
Somedays we just need to dance naked, shake off the things that hold us down and find a way to move forward.
My little man max turns two in one weeks time and at the moment he is a learning sponge. Today as he walked up the stairs at the beach across the road from our little shack he counted the stairs from one to ten, all by himself. We hadn’t taught him specifically to count, aside from the 1, 2, 3; you are in trouble if you do that again march.
Today out of nowhere one to ten, he counted with pride.
One of his greatest loves at the moment is stars. He see’s them everywhere. We have a bowl full of shells in our lounge room and he pointed out to me today star, star, star… It took me a while to find what he was talking about and it was there hiding at the bottom of the bowl, a lonely little starfish.
Max see’s stars everywhere, so often I miss them.
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
Pablo Picasso
To find new inspiration we need to stop looking at life through our adult cynical eyes and start to live through the eyes of a child.
If you are in a stuck place creatively, maybe sit down with a child and draw something together.
If you are feeling a little flat take time to sit on the floor and see things from a new perspective.
We are all artists, the problem is how to remain one whilst living in a very responsible, grown up world.
One of my dear friends Tim Bain, turned 30 on the first day of this month. His ever creative wife Bek, set 30 of his friends a challenge. Every day of February, we have each been allocated a day to encourage, inspire, hang out with, do something to celebrate Tim.
I met Tim over 10 years ago in Sydney (I have a feeling we may have met in Perth, in a speakers lounge at the Challenge Stadium, when I dropped a plate on the floor and he laughed at me ferociously.) But officially yes in Sydney. Fast forward the clock, he is now married, living in Perth, with two delightful children, leading a creative arts team brilliantly.
My ode to Tim for this 30th year of his life, is to encourage him to watch my top 5 TED video’s at the moment for young creative leaders. If you are a leader in the creative arts maybe you too could write a comment of your greatest tips in leading creative people to bring change down the bottom of this post to inspire and encourage other leaders and mostly tim.
Hope you are inspired by these videos Tim. Happy Birthday. My 30th year was one of my favourites ever. Own it. You are an amazing musician, leader, teacher, encourager, dad, husband, friend. Grab a coffee and a little treat and I pray you are inspired to live the next decade with the noblest of pursuits leading people.
Drew Dudley: Everyday leadership
An amazing talk that shows simply how to redefine leadership so that you empower every person in your team to lead. I completely agree, that we make leadership so unattainable for people. The reason why you are struggling to find leaders, is you have made it impossible for people to believe that they can lead. Check this out. Stay humble, stay accessible, stay authentic. The best leaders are those that are everyday ones. Leave the titles behind, lay down the priveleges and hang out with the people. You will be a better leader for it.
John Maeda: How Art, technology and design inform creative leaders
To lead a creative team, we need to learn how art, technology, design and leadership marry together to change the way we communicate. Tim my favourite part of this video is when John talks about the old and the new combining together to speak a new language. It is easy to look to the old, the way we used to do things and traditionalise them, making them seem like that was the good old days or some leaders take the new creatively and throw away the old in pursuit of fresh innovation. I believe the best creative communicators, take the ancient and the modern and combine them to build a bridge to lead both old and new generations to a new space of inspiration.
Seth Godin: The tribes we lead
If you want to bring change, you need to create a tribe. If you are not leading change, I believe in the culture we live in you are not leading. Be bold and bring change. Ps- Im sorry for the balloon animal section. (Smile)
Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion
I have found in my leadership experience is there are many people who are a part of creative teams, who long to be acknowledged, who long to be encouraged. The creative innovator often brings their ideas and best in the midst of much vulnerability. So we need to be the greatest cheerleaders of our teams. Creative people need to be championed. If your people have stopped creating, then maybe you have stopped encouraging.
Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity
One of my all time favourite speakers. His teaching and books on creativity and education are profound. Even though you are not a school teacher, you are a teacher. If you are leading you are teaching. Teach in languages that your people understand. Teach creatively. Communicate with stories. Live inspired. Lead and teach the next generation in a language they understand.
