Definition of "Goal"

While reading Dan Miller's excellent book, 48 Days, I once again came across the accepted definition of "goal," which is, simply put, A goal is a dream with a timeline attached. Recently, a coaching client asked me a similar question: Don't all my goals need time determinations?

I've been thinking about that. For a while, I'd accepted that definition, but something just didn't feel right. Today, sitting on the sand in Long Beach, NY, I realized what my problem with it was.

Attaching a time determination to a goal is left-brained, and only half the story.

Sure, having a time for your goals in mind: 5 years, 6 months, etc. and then adding the smaller steps to your weekly and daily list of do-ables is essential. Especially for charting, and for the left brain.

There's a danger, though, in defining a goal as attached to a time limit. What happens when life intervenes and you miss your deadlines? Have you failed at your goals? Obviously, the answer is a resounding "no." If you renegotiate your timeline, does that mean you're redefining your goals? Again, I'd say "no."

So I don't think a timeline is the definition of a goal.

I think the definition of goal is:

A goal is a dream with commitment attached.

Once you have the commitment, the timeline, the do-ables, the actions within the reality of your days, weeks, and months are all tools to use to get there. And commitment is as much a right-brained activity as it is left-brained. Commitment is a whole-brained approach to defining "goal."

I'd love to read your thoughts and responses to this redefinition of "goal."

--Batya

Time, Again

NEWS

Big news this week: Creative Empowerment Celebration launching UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching is happening this Friday, 6-9 pm, at HA Gallery in Nashville, TN. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone there! I’ve written a short skit about conversations between the right and left hemispheres of the brain; we’ll be giving out a lot of door prizes; Shirley Geier’s brilliant illustrations for The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People and the first two for The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People will be on exhibit; products and sayings from cafepress.com/UPositive will be displayed, and lots of great people will be wandering through. And, yes, there will be nibbles to nibble.

TIME, AGAIN

Back to that annoying topic. My friend Heather is writing a truly engaging and well-crafted novel about time travel, which has gotten my brain thinking---and reeling!

My cyberfriend and most frequent poster on this blog, Elysabeth, just assumed that time flows smoothly. As we all assume. But what if scientists just conjured up measures of time in order to pretend control over it? What if time really is more of a subjective type of thing? What if all this clock stuff is one large agreement we’ve all made (especially the Swiss and Germans who are quite punctual) so that sometimes people show up in the same place at the same time?

We all know the difference between subjective time and objective time.

Case in point. Since I’m very much into balancing the right and left hemispheres of the brain I pride myself on scheduling. Last week time got all twisted for me. No matter what I did, it went wrong first, then went right. So I decided to stop fighting it and embrace it. I began to schedule my time to include the SNAFUs.

What happened? I sat in my car for an hour waiting for friends to show up for lunch---because as soon as I tried to have control over the chaos, the chaos tricked me and went away. The only thing that didn’t go right was the not-going-right part of the day. MetaSNAFU.

Yes, we need to schedule our time, because we still live in a world that has an agreement to operate by the clock: factual ticking or not. But we also need to give ourselves a break, regularly, when the clock and our schedules forget about each other and go their own ways.

That said, see you on Friday at the gallery, somewhere between 6 and 9 p.m.

--Batya

More Creativity and Goal Attainment Blogs

Hi everyone!

Yvonne Perry, of www.writersinthesky.com, a brilliantly helpful website for writers of all kinds, spoke at our nonfiction meetup group last night. She mentioned that the more often a person blogs, the more the keywords will be picked up by the search engines and the happier those of us using blogs for our friends, families, clients, and potential clients, will be.

Well, I like being happy. My right brain loves being happy! And, as we all know, when the right brain is happy....everybody is happy!

So, I'm going to try to add a post or two a week. These will be short, and on helpful topics...bliphelps or something.

They will be about Creativity and the Creative Process. They'll also be about Goal Setting and especially Goal Attainment. Breaking through Creative Blocks. Time Management. Right Brain/Left Brain compatibility. And just plain ol' making-it-through-the-day thoughts.

Please feel free to participate in the discussion, in agreeing or disagreeing with my posts, in adding thoughts, info, ideas...whatever!

And, Elysabeth---special thanks to you for your continued support and posts to these blogs!

--Batya

Is It Really Time Off?

NEWS

We’re getting closer and closer to the celebration launching UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching. It’s Friday evening, September 19, from 6-9 pm at HA Gallery in Nashville. There’s going to be hors d’ouevres, of course, a skit about right and left brain conversations, motivational art, music, a Q&A period, and lots of interesting people with whom to mingle!

I tried last week, so I’ll just try again this week, to get the e-newsletter out. So far, I have the design of it (major cyber-accomplishment for me) and I’ll be adding copy, hopefully, tomorrow. Look for it by the end of the week. If you’re not already on my mailing list, please let me know, or visit the Website, www.UPositive.com for the newsletter link.

The second book in the series, The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People, should be out by the end of the month. I’m waiting until after the party to finish it up and do the styling. So far, Shirley Geier has done two gotta-see illustrations for it!

Is it Really Time Off?

This was my birthday weekend. I decided I wanted to redo my back patio, as it had accumulated a lot of leaves and displaced dirt patches, and some potting soil bags from the front yard. The patio chairs needed some cleaning, and it was looking a bit neglected. I never spend a lot of time back there myself, but it’s the entrance to my finished basement where the nonfiction and other groups meet. I’d always had plans to plant some shade-loving greenery, like luscious ferns and columbine and all sorts of things, but never gotten around to it.

The patio’s an odd shape. Two triangular corners of soil, two short rectangular strips along the sides, and one long rectangular strip along the foundation of the house. Mostly boring pebble cement and very, very little planting area. There’s one Rose of Sharon tree beside the gate, which provides nectar for hummingbirds just outside the window here by my computer. Love that part!

I spent two entire days doing the physical labor of moving things around, buying and lifting and dragging a half dozen bags of marble stone chips and red lava chips. Another half dozen bags of topsoil. Eight decent-size plants (all on sale this time of year!), garden tools from front to back of house, up and down the hill. Swept the patio about three times. Laid brick as edging along about a third of the area, and put brick down along one of the short sides. Potted three of the plants for the brick area. Spray painted to my heart’s delight. (I love spray paint, but it doesn’t go very far, and always takes twice as many cans as I figure.) Since I decided on white rock with red lava rock as accent, I sprayed two of the plastic chairs a matching maroonish red, sprayed the containers for the plants; sprayed the wheelbarrow and two of the shepherd’s crooks a rust-reducer undercoat; sprayed the ugly blue trunklike storage bin, two ashtrays, and a garbage pail the matching red. Almost sprayed the visiting cat, but he moved too fast! Set white and red rock in two of the triangular corners, and put in one of the two spreading junipers. Tried that landscaper’s cloth, but I’d rather pull weeds.

All this to say: two days of doing purely physical (and enjoyable), non-brain-taxing (and enjoyable) work. Basically, a break for my left brain, which has been working overtime on UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching.

I love working on the business. I totally love seeing my clients. But working mostly from home on the Internet-based products and newsletter and invites and website and eBooks, and having an unending To-Do list (which is true for every entrepreneur), with my office in my home and no “going home” at 5 or 6 or even 7 pm, has been exhausting.

I slept really well the last two nights. And I woke up feeling remarkably refreshed, clear-headed, re-inspired without effort, and ready to go! Doing the opposite, using opposite energy not only lets your usual energy replenish, but gives it the space to readjust to itself, and to re-center from all the activity that part of the brain has been doing.

Take some time to do the opposite. Put it on your To-Do list. You accomplish much more afterward!

It reminded me that sometimes getting away from it all is the best thing you can to do accomplish it all. Gee. I kind of remember that from….oh, wait….yes, my own video!! And my own eBook.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of checking in with your own wisdom and actually listening to it!

As always, thoughts, comments, additional ideas are welcome.

--Batya

Expect the Unexpected

NEWS:

The website, www.UPositive.com, is up and running, except for the newsletter signup and refer to a friend links. If you’d like either of these, please email me directly at Batya@UPositive.com from outside the website. Thanks for your patience.

The second set of Creativity Challenge and Goal Attainment Tip videos are up on www.YouTube.com/UPositive, or through www.UPositive.com. Take a look! Let me know what you think!

The first eBook in the series, The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People, should be available by the end of this weekend…August 17. The second eBook, The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People is due out in September.

The UPositive Relaxation and Visualization audio CD is available from the website at www.UPositive.com.

Mark Friday evening, September 19, from 6 to 9 pm in your calendars for the official opening celebration of UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching! More information is coming here and through the first newsletter, which should be going out sometime next week. (If you’d like an evite and the info, or to be on the mailing list in general, please email me at Batya@UPositive.com or UPositive55@aol.com).

The first 9 sayings from UPositive’s Batya Sez… shop are now available for purchase through http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive. The next nine are in the works---I’ll let you know through this blog and the newsletter when they’re ready! It’s never to early to shop for Christmas and Hanukah and Kwanzaa, and it’s never the wrong day to buy yourself a gift!

The Passion-for-Life Psychotherapy practice has a few openings for new clients in Nashville; please email UPositive55@aol.com for more information. We can talk about depression, anxiety, mood swings, ADD, and family and relationship issues.

UPositive’s Creativity and Life Coaching practice is available locally, but also through telephone and Internet-based services. Please visit the website www.UPositive.com or contact me Batya@UPositive.com for more information.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Sorry this blog is late again this week, but I didn’t expect the unexpected and have been preoccupied with positive but time-consuming emergencies. So I thought I’d address the issue head-on.

In goal setting, establishing to-do lists, setting today-ables into planners, managing time, business planning, and pretty much everything else, we tend to work with linear, clock time. It should take 20 minutes to go to and from the corner grocery for a gallon of milk and some eggs, so we schedule 20 minutes. I can write for 15 minutes every morning---no problem! Creating a CD should require about two week’s worth of work, then about two hours in a studio.

And then life happens.

Life happening is not a problem: we want life to happen. If everything we did came in fifteen- and twenty-minute, or even two-hour, tick-tocking segments, we’d bore ourselves to death. So life happening---meeting an old colleague at the grocery store and stopping for a cup of coffee to catch up; finally getting into the secondary character’s head and heart and typing a pivotal scene for an hour and a half without taking a breath; getting to the studio and being treated to a half-hour tour and demonstration of fascinating drums of the world---these are the joys of life. But we hadn’t scheduled them.

Life doesn’t happen in linear time. It scoffs at linear time. Thunder isn’t the Norse gods bowling---it’s the deep belly laughs of the Universe at all the linear-time planning we do. There’s that old adage: If you want to make God laugh, make a plan.

For creative people, getting in the zone is the goal to get to the goal of doing our creative work. The Zone is clockless.

So do we make a big bonfire and through all the DayTimers, DayRunners, calendars, pdas, and Palm Pilots in it? No. Not at all.

We expect the unexpected (sorry for the cliché, Heather, but it’s a cliché because it holds truth). We plan for the unplannable.

The best way to sew a button on something is to stick a pin under where your thread loops go, then take the pin out when you’re done. Why? Because it provides just enough give so that your taut stitches won’t rip at the first tug on the button. The tree that bends in the wind lives through the storm. (ok, old, used, but gets my point across)

When you do schedule your to-doables from your goals list, when you apply time management to your activities, add in some extra time---an hour or two a day.

I can feel the panic. Yours. Mine. But…but…I have so much to do. I already can’t get to it all. Take an hour or two a day to do nothing?

Not at all. Take an hour or two a day to participate in life. To have some breathing space. To take the tension out of things. To talk to a friend you meet on the street. To let a character have her way on the page. To explore a new combination of dance movements inspired by the piece you must get choreographed. To flip through a magazine that catches your eye as you rush to get your research on green insulation for new structures finished.

And if, at the end of the day, you haven’t used up your extra time, take a bubble bath, read a book, put your feet up and just breathe…that’s right…get the air into your body and feed yourself some extra oxygen! Catch up on sleep (the way to do that properly is to get to bed earlier, not to sleep late in the morning), if nothing else. You’ll have more energy and clarity the next day, so you’ll be more productive in the time you do schedule your work and creative endeavors.

--Batya

Catch-Up Days

News

The www.UPositive.com website is definitely up and crawling. It should be up and running soon! Please visit and send me any suggestions or comments for improving it---or just congrats on having it out there (finally)!!! (The subscribe part of the e-newsletter signup isn’t working yet, so if you’d like to be on my mailing list---once every two weeks plus breaking news on rare occasions---please send your email address to me at Batya@UPositive.com from your email---not from the website. It should be fixed soon.)

Look for an announcement soon about a UPositive opening celebration being scheduled for September or October. We’re actively looking for a room, and a date. It’s going to be fun, with door prizes and comedy-relief included! I’ll post the time/date/place here as soon as I have it!


Catch-Up Days

No matter how much visualization, planning, organizing, and scheduling we do, life has a habit of jumping up and grabbing our time and attention. Things take longer than we thought, steps show up we hadn’t thought of, and distractions arise that turn into either needed breaks or necessary additions to our goals lists.

After a week or two, when we review our to-do lists or goals outline, it’s natural to wonder where the time went. Didn’t we plan right? Didn’t we choose the right steps? Are we out of sequence? Where did we go wrong?

It’s worthwhile to check ourselves and correct any mistakes or miscalculations we’ve made. Think of goal attainment as sailing…you don’t get from here to there in a straight line. You tack from side to side, using the weather and the wind to power your journey.

Sometimes, though, it’s not what we’ve done but just life itself that “gets in the way”---and not necessarily negatively. Trust me, if Robert Redford knocked on my door I’d throw my entire to-do list for the week away in a heartbeat, invite him in, and take as long as possible to have a really deep conversation. (Of course, that conversation is on my goals list, it’s just not scheduled into my DayTimer this week.)

So what do we do?

Expect the unexpected. An old adage with a lot of wisdom to it.

What does that mean? For me, it means scheduling in what I call a “catch-up day.” I try to do it every two or three weeks, before the “leftovers” from my DayTimer turn sour or proliferate to overwhelming proportions. Knowing I have the space and time to catch up also releases the stress from seeing leftovers on my to-do list.

A catch-up day is on the schedule with nothing much else around it. I might take a break to go for a walk, or to the gym, but that’s about it. I take out my daily planner, and my goals lists and spend some time reviewing where I’ve been, where I am now, and anything that might be missing. I add and subtract items from the goals list. I go through my to-do lists from the past few weeks and make a list of things I didn’t get to do. Then I schedule those into the next week or two. I update my calendar.

Usually I take the time to re-visualize my goals. Closing my eyes, returning to my relaxed state, I pull up the visualizations of my life five years from now, then three, then next year. By then I have re-energized myself, and I’m ready to get going. This also serves to shortcut the guilt trip I might otherwise pull: “Oy, I should have done that last week”; “How could I have forgotten to call my friend?”; “The meeting was two weeks ago and I haven’t sent my notes yet---why bother, they’ll have forgotten me anyway.” I, like many of you, can go on and on with that goblin-voice in my head. Re-visualizing quiets that voice. Excitement is always more powerful than worry.

After all the organization of my catch-up day morning, I might spend some of the afternoon making some calls or sending some emails that were lost in the rush. Do the follow-up from networking. Send thank you notes. Send great-to-meet you notes. If there are small, quick tasks that fall by the wayside, I might do a few of those, just to check them off the list.

Often, after a catch-up day, I feel refreshed, reorganized, re-inspired. And I try to remember the goals listed under “mental health/relaxation/replenish my mind-body-spirit.” Catch-up days are great for the bubble bath or manicure I’ve been putting off because I’ve been running around too fast trying to GetItAllDone.

So take a day every two to three weeks and play catch-up with yourself!

Do you have your own version of catching up with yourself? Please share it with us along with any other thoughts about this post!!

--Batya

Approaches to Life

Reminders
The Nashville Goal-Attainment Meetup begins Tuesday, May 13 a 6 pm. Please sign up for this empowering group at http://self-improvement.meetup.com/279/. I'll be guiding people through a supportive process of getting to the goals they've already chosen. This is the Getting It Done! chance for success! Creative and everyday goals are welcome. If you can’t make it on the 13th, we’ll be meeting every Tuesday---it’s an open group: come when you can!

Time Management for Creative People will be presented at the Songwriter’s Guild of America in June. June is soon, people! Please go to www.songwritersguild.com to sign up. I’ll be presenting the seminar over two evenings: Thursdays, June 19th and 26th. First step in Time Management: put it on your calendars now! We’ll be talking about organizing, scheduling, and a lot more than that! As usual in my workshops, I’ll be addressing the special issues creative folks face in accomplishing left-brain activities such as managing time. We’ll be doing some fun right-brain activities, too. Conquering time management (yes, wear your chain-mail outfits!) leaves you more time to succeed with your creative endeavors! So, what are you waiting for? Seating is (really and truly) limited, so reserve now. Kimberly’s waiting to hear from you!

Website News
www.UPositive.com is still in the works…closer…ever closer. My videos will be on YouTube also, and might even be there before the Web is up. My Web-designer/mistress Debbie Gordon (www.digiroo.com) is still waving her magic cyber-wand and promises…soon! Trust me, I’ll let everyone know when www.UPositive..com is up and running!


Styles of Tasting Life

One of UPositive Life Coaching’s clients voiced concerns about all her interests and often coming to a standstill because she can’t decide among her many choices. I’ve heard this so many times, especially from creative people. Barbara Sher, in her book Refuse to Choose writes extensively on the subject, and if you or someone you know often faces this ‘problem,’ I highly recommend reading the book.

I truly believe that people have different ways of being in the world. I don't think one way is right or wrong.

Some have one narrow path: they are here to follow it, know what it is, and do it. My nephew is like that. Brilliant, wonderful kid. He knew as a junior (maybe earlier) in high school that he wanted to be a lawyer...he joined the debate team, did all sorts of things related, took relevant courses in college, will be entering his final year in law school in the fall. It's his single passion. Unfortunately, he considers himself too single-minded, and is now looking at developing interests outside law and school---and it's very hard for him to do that. He's like a friend of mine with one or two restaurants the prefer to dine at, where they always order the same, favorite dish. They're happy doing that.

Other people have a multitude of interests. They’re here to sample as many restaurants as possible. They enjoy going to a buffet of life. A taste of this, a bite of that. What happens for them---because of the culture and time we live in, I think---is they appear to be undecided. There's a myth that we're supposed to choose something and do that, and stick to it. But if everyone followed just one path, we wouldn't need maps or AAA or Mapquest. There's an excitement for those who are made this way in experiencing a whole lot of what life has to offer. Loving the smell of fresh-baked rye bread; then kneading up some Challah just to smell the difference when it's baking. Filling one vase with only roses, the other with one of each flower in the garden.

Why force yourself into a style of life that isn’t natural for you? Why not congratulate yourself for your multiple interests? Or for your single passion?

I’m always fascinated by the diversity of how human beings approach life. That’s a large part of what drew me to my first Master’s degree in cultural anthropology, and to my second in psychotherapy. We’re such an adaptable species! A Native Philipino up at Akwesasne (Mohawk reservation, upstate New York) once said: “We take the similarities [among people] for granted; it’s the differences that we celebrate.”

What’s your style in approaching life? I’ve only mentioned two here…there are bound to be others.

--Batya

Juggling, or Time Management

First of all, sorry for the late posting.

UPositive News
Drollerie Press has accepted my short story, "Mr. Wolffe's Side of the Story," for publication in their Little Red Riding Hood anthology! Check out their website, http://www.drolleriepress.com/. I'll let you all know pub date when I get it.

I swear, I swear, I swear, UPositive.com is almost up and running!

My CD, UPositive Life Coaching's Relaxation Technique, is hot off the soundboard! It'll be available for $9.99 (download; plus mailing for hard copy snail mail) on the website. After using the process a few times, your body will remember the relaxed state and you'll be able to reach it in seconds! Thank you, Tom Roady (http://www.tomroady.com/) and Big Bang Theory Studio for the excellent job and friendship!

With the expert help of Lance Yelvington (http://www.cybercountry.com/), the first two videos will be ready for the Website about when it goes live. Each month www.UPositive.com features a creativity challenge (with prize) and a goal attainment tip (May: fun). I hope you'll visit the Website more than once a month, but come by at least that often to enter the contest!

Juggling
Elysabeth, my favorite cyberperson and great support---if you've read comments on this blog, you're familiar with her---just challenged me to address the issue of time management, or, more artistically expressed, tick-tock juggling. And a very timely topic it is (couldn't resist). In June, I'll be presenting a two-part workshop through the Songwriter's Guild of America (http://www.songwritersguild.com/) on Time Management for Creative People.

I'm not going to give it all away here---not enough time, and I want you all to come to the workshop! But I'll chat a bit about some of the balls that we keep in the air (or try to) and add some pointers. Anything you would like to add, suggest, ask, challenge...please feel free to post your comments!

Similarities between juggling and time management: (1) We all want to juggle lots of balls at once; we all have busy lives, with family, friends, career, hobbies, free time, creative pursuits, health, mundane tasks, meals, sleep, TV, and relaxation (I'm sure I've forgotten things, like dancing and gardening and jousting and Aunt Millie's 80th birthday). (2) We need to start with one ball in the air, then add the next, then the next, then the next....not throw them all up at once and expect them to stay airborne immediately. (3) Sometimes a ball falls to the ground, usually through no fault of our own but due to the force of gravity and the weight of lots of objects.

Differences between juggling and time management: (1) We are human and balls are different from people, responsibilities, and dreams. (2) The people, responsibilities, and dreams we try to juggle are of different weights, or importance; it's much harder to keep unequal objects flying around than to juggle balls of the same weight and size. (3) Sometimes something falls; with juggling balls, that's not catastrophic: with our lives, sometimes it is.

One of the essential keys to time management, and juggling, is to learn your own rhythms. Do you gain more momentum and accomplish more by getting small, easy tasks out of the way first, building success that then fuels the 'big jobs'? Or do you never get to the big jobs if you start with the small ones? Do you accomplish more by tackling the biggest, most pressing task and getting it out of the way when you're still fresh in the morning?

What time of day is your most productive? When do you have the most energy; when is your mind most awake? (This can change over the years, so don't expect it to be same for you at age 21 and then at age 52.) Try to schedule the priorities during that time.

Are there annoying steps that you need to tackle before getting to the good stuff? Can you set up a reward for yourself so those are accomplished? Everything has a sequence; if you're tackling the end of the sequence before you accomplish the middle steps, you're not managing time very well, and you'll end up spending more of it cleaning up the mistakes that are made.

Are there days when you wake up ready to tackle long lists of numbers and other days when adding two plus two scares the bedoodles out of you? Can you take advantage of these variations in yourself and grab the tasks you're in the mood for? (Be careful of objective deadlines---those have to be met first.)

There's a lot more to be considered in managing time, juggling the clock and all the to-dos of attaining your goals. Hopefully, these thoughts and questions will improve how you're already using time!

Comments, thoughts, questions, all appreciated!

--Batya

Happenings and Wonderings

Announcements
A weekly goals support group begins May 13 at 6 pm. You can sign up and get the details at http://self-improvement.meetup.com/279/. This is a group for people ready to get past setting goals and move on to achieving them. You don’t have to have creative dreams to participate, but creative goals are very welcome. Please read more at the link.

In two hours on two Thursday evenings in June, you can improve your getting-things-done-in-a-24-hour-day skills. The Songwriter’s Guild of America has invited me back to present a second seminar: Time management for Creative People. Details and early registration are through calling Kimberly at (615) 742-9945 or email her at nash@songwritersguild.com.

Individual coaching sessions are available in May and June. You can email me at UPositive55@aol.com for more information.

www.UPositive.com, I am assured, will be up and running in the foreseeable future. There’ll be a celebration party at Starbuck’s in Belle Meade when that happens. Invitations forthcoming.

I’m Curious
I'm wondering if there isn't some parallel reality where all fictional characters, past, present, and future live: to write, all we need do is reach up into the storyether and grab someone, then sit them on the keyboard and let them tell what happens.

I’m not sure how else it happens---the magic of fiction. Where does the dream that evolves into a murder mystery originate? Or the character that grabs onto your awareness and refuses to let go, following you to Kroger’s and insisting on Cheddar cheese instead of the Gouda you usually buy? How are you suddenly watching a love scene on the wall of your shower when only a moment ago you were rinsing shampoo and reaching for the conditioner?

It isn’t only words or characters, either. I once attended a piano recital in Lincoln Center and found myself watching a 24-person cast of classical ballerinas dance an entire love story on the domed ceiling. I don’t even know how to begin choreographing this, and can only imagine that those who do know how experience this glory regularly. How wonderful to watch a tulip in the breeze and translate it to human movement. Or to smell garlic simmering in Aunt Katerina’s kitchen and translate that into an abstract sculpture.

Creativity is endless. There is always something new under the sun.

So I wonder why some people are open to these creative intrusions, or ready to reach out of the everyday into the imagination for them?

There are some who wander with connections to imaginary characters and are diagnosed with schizophrenia; others awarded with grants and prizes. What makes the difference?

What do you think?

--Batya

Updates, Monday Monday

Well, it's Monday, and here I am blogging. Yes, I do try to keep my word.

First, some News and Updates:
I won! I won! First prize in Seven Outrageous Writing Resolutions for 2008, on http://www.coolstuff4writers.com/Contest/Pastwinners.html. You know I can always create a list of goals, right? It's not up yet, but it should be there within the next few days. Guaranteed to give you a chuckle or two!

UPositive Life Coaching will have a table at The Turner Center's Alternative Health Fair, on Saturday, February 23, from 9 to 2, at the Bellevue Y (Hwy. 100, just before Chaffin's Barn). Stop on by to say hello!

UPositive.com is moseying its way into existence...almost there, almost there. I'll be sending out an email to friends, clients, and family to announce it's actual day of birth.

In the meantime, some thoughts for this Monday.

I'm preparing a new seminar about Time Management for the Creative Person. Basically, there's a lot of conversation needed between the Left and Right Brains in this process, especially because the Left Hemisphere functions on (maybe invented) linear, clock-and-calendar time, and the Right Hemisphere functions on non-linear, cyclical-sequential-mood-go-with-the-flow time. The challenge is to overlap those two functions in the same realm of action: our actions.

There are tricks, of course. Time-expansion, which I'll teach at the seminar, works wonders, but can't be overused. Right-Brain/Left-Brain Communication is essential.

Maybe it's time to finally write my book: How to Get Everything Done Through Procrastination. I've got the title page and intro down, but I seem to get distracted by other activities....

Personally, I'm finding that after doing my goals visualizations, and my goals lists, and my goals outline, and my chart----that a running list of (almost 200) To-DoAbles helps. This won't work for everyone, but it might be worth a quick try. I hang it behind my computer, where my eyes (and hands and butt) spend most of their time---so I can't miss it. That way, there's no "I don't know what to do next" voice in my head with any validity. Sometimes I pull the list down, close my eyes, and just point. If I don't do that DoAble, I can always do the one above or below it (hey---who's looking?).

I do have some other ideas/points/tricks ready to go for the seminar, but I was wondering: Do any of you have ideas for time management that has worked for you in relation to your creativity---either getting down to creating or just making time for it in your busy schedule? Please feel free to share in a comment here.

--Batya