Yesterday I saw two things that reminded me of an older post I wrote for genuineMIX. I’m following my whim and taking it as a cue that I should share it with you today.
The first thing I saw yesterday was a blog post about following your whims and taking risks written by Tiffany Han on Papernstitch. You know those wild and crazy ideas we get that we push down over and over again? Tiffany nudges us to go ahead and act on some of those. We just may benefit over the creativity that comes with it.
The second was Marie Forleo’s interview with Sally Hogshead where they talked about how to be fascinating. That’s a weird concept, right? My first reaction when I read the headline was, “Seriously? You can’t teach someone to be ‘fascinating.’ What’s fascinating to one person could make someone else lose their lunch!” But then I shook off those initial “eww” feelings, kept reading, and watched the interview. And it was, well, kind of fascinating. It turns out that Sally isn’t trying to teach you HOW to be fascinating, but how to discover what is already fascinating about you, pump up that personality trait, and use it in life and business. As Sally said, “You don’t learn how to be fascinating. You unlearn how to be boring.”
And here’s my post on taking risks, owning your whims, and essentially being more “fascinating.”
Note: The article below was originally posted on genuineMIX on February 7, 2013
My husband and I try to go out for breakfast together once a week, just the two of us, before starting our workday. It’s amazing how hard it is just to have time to connect and have a real conversation, between our toddler, work, and other responsibilities. We use this time to talk about random stuff that we’ve been thinking about, new things that we’ve heard or read about, and ideas and plans for things we want to do.
One of the things we talked about today was my blog post about graphic designer and branding superstar Stefan Sagmeister. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but Sagmeister is seen by many as a risk taker. He’s made controversial moves like announcing his partnership with Jessica Walsh by using a photograph of the two of them naked, using sexual references in his corporate branding, creating a promotional poster for his AIGA speaking event by carving the details into his torso using an x-acto knife, and, exciting voyeurs everywhere, making a live webcam feed of their design studio the home page of Sagmeister & Walsh. While all of these things may seem pretty risky to most people, I’m willing to bet that it’s a case of “all in a day’s work” to Sagmeister.
If you read Inward Facing Girl, you may know that I’ve moved around a lot. This is the fourth time I’ve lived in Seattle. I’ve lived in Los Angeles twice. See how crazy it looks in action. The moves I’ve made seemed risky to some people. Many times I didn’t have a job, or even an apartment, to go to when I arrived in my old-new city. I remember being told how “brave” I was, but it never felt like bravery to me. It felt necessary.
One of Sagmeister’s rules to live by is, “Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.” We all know those people, right? They rant about the things that they don’t like, but never take a single productive step to try to change them. Maybe they think they can’t change it. Maybe they could, but it seems too risky. But where do you draw the line? At what point do the potential gains outweigh the risks? How long do we let the fear of what might happen control our lives?
I got something out of every single move that I ever made. Sometimes I was gifted huge, life-changing wonderful things, like a new husband and an amazing son. Other times I learned more about who I was and what kind of life worked for me. I got lots of new experiences. And you know what else? Everything always worked out. Not always in the way I imagined, but that’s been okay or much better than okay so far.
Are there things about your life or business that you’d like to change? Take some time and think about them. Write them down.
What holds you back from reaching your goals? Ask yourself these three questions.
- Are you afraid of the risks involved?
- What would it take to make those risks disappear?
- What if those risks couldn’t disappear? Is it something still worth doing?
Your answers may be the push that you need to change your life.
P.S. Can’t relate to Stefan? Try Anaïs. “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin