“Hocus Pocus …. I need more wine to Focus!!”
~ Confessions of a Halloween Witch
This cute little saying accompanies a graphic on a wine glass that I gave to my BFF for her birthday. Of course, on most occasions, a glass of wine isn’t going to help me re-gain my focus … My happy hour cocktail usually signals just the opposite: The end to focus!
It’s with my cup of morning java, my camera, and the sunrise that my focus and creative work begins each day …
Along with this digital journal of sorts, I also keep a handwritten daily dairy. And last year I began writing in a book entitled “The Sacred Journey”. As suggested by the journal’s author, I also began working with a deck of oracle cards: I chose a beautiful set by Steven Farmer, called Earth Magic.
To start each month, I draw a single card, and at each Equinox, I draw what’s known as a spiral set. For each drawing, I establish a sacred space in which I work with the cards, asking my higher self and my spirit guides to aid me in choosing a card(s) and message which will add clarity my present path, to show me what needs to be seen. Over the course of the year, the cards for Focus and Passion began to repeat themselves, almost to the point that it was comical.
I didn’t need a deck of cards to tell me that I’d lost both focus and passion in many areas of my life ….
As the new year rolled around, I knew that I wanted to begin writing again. But I needed to clear space for this time, on many levels: Physically, emotionally and spiritually. In preparing to begin again, I also came across a book entitled ” Manage Your Day-To-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus & Sharpen Your Creative Mind.”
The book was published by the editor’s of Behance, Adobe’s on-line marketplace. Their intent is to provide a “missing curriculum”, called 99U: A curriculum not for helping us generate more ideas, but for empowering us to make good on the ideas that we already have. The book assembles insights from some of today’s most creative visionaries around four key skill sets that must be mastered in order to succeed:
1) building a rock-solid daily routine
2) taming our tools before they tame us
3) finding focus in a distracted world, and
4) sharpening our creative mind.
I’ve read through the book once, and have been meaning to re-read it so that I can jot down some notes and begin to implement some of the strategies outlined within.
To quote the founder of Behance in regards to the book: “It contains a highly concentrated dose of insights that proved both enlightening and uncomfortable. It raised glaring concerns in my own mind about my productivity and mindfulness. Much of my most valuable energy was being consumed by bad habits. My day-to-day practice had devolved to a point where I was at the mercy of everything around me – everything but my goals and true preferences.”
Each one of us is creative in what we do. Over the course of the next few days, I’ll be sharing with you some of my own insights and ideas from this magnificent book. I hope you enjoy it ..
“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”. It’s time to begin honing my passion, my focus and my creativity ….
