December 2010

There were 14 posts published in December 2010 (this is page 1 of 3).

Are you living your story?

This is the last post for Reverb10. I’ll answer the prompts #29 (Defining Moment), #30 (Gift) and #31 (Core Story) and share some of insights I got from reflecting on 2011.

Prompt 29: Defining Moment

Describe a defining moment or series of events that has affected your life this year.

(Author: Kathryn Fitzmaurice)

{Future tool: The 99%’s How to Budget for an Irregular Income. For the next 3 days as you round out your year, we’ll share one tool each day to help you plan your year ahead.}

If I am to pick one defining moment that affected my life this year, it has to be the moment I saw a tweet about a fund raising event at Ben’s Cafe in early January. I don’t remember what that moment was like, exactly. What happened was that I saw this tweet, clicked the link in it, and got to Ben’s Cafe’s website. My purpose was to learn more about that fund raising event, but in addition to that information I was originally looking for, I came to know that there was a group to read Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way together.

I’ve mentioned this story a few times in this blog. So, let me add something to it in this round.

The reason why I clicked that link to Ben’s Cafe was simply because I was curious about this cafe as well as the fund raising event. I was interested in the event, but more in the cafe that hosted such an event, because I didn’t imagine there would be such a cafe in Tokyo. (I’m sure there are other cafes like Ben’s in Tokyo, but it’s pretty rare, I assume. As far as the vibe of the cafe and the quality of espresso are concerned, I rate Ben’s Cafe to my most favorite cafe in Tokyo.)

What made me click that link was my curiosity. What if I didn’t click it? It’s a pure coincidence I saw that tweet. I’m grateful for that. But, I could choose not to click that link and never learn about Ben’s Cafe. If I didn’t click that link, my year could have been totally different from what it was. I probably wouldn’t have met most of the new offline friends I met this year. I probably wouldn’t have done some of the projects I did this year. I probably wouldn’t have achieved what I achieved this year.

What made a huge difference to my 2010 was that one click. Whether it ends up becoming a false belief or not, it’s better, at least for me, to believe that there are a number of opportunities around here and there and it’s all up to us to notice them. It’s possible that you don’t know what you are looking for, but even in such cases, follow your curiosity and you’ll find yourself in something amazing.

I believe in my curiosity and having curiosity is one of the great ways to experience amazing things in your life.

Do you listen to your curiosity? Do you follow it? If not, why not?

Prompt 30: Gift

This month, gifts and gift-giving can seem inescapable. What’s the most memorable gift, tangible or emotional, you received this year?

(Author: Holly Root)

{Future tools: Lifehacker’s Free Tools to Manage New Years Resolutions and Gretchen Rubin’s Questions to Help You Make Effective New Year’s Resolutions.

Has #reverb10 made an impact on your writing, reflecting and life this month? Consider supporting the HQ team with a donation.}

On December 25th, I received a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) purple belt from my BJJ teacher. Since more than a year ago, I had been told by other people that I should be a purple belt, but since I had no one to grade me before coming back to Japan, I didn’t have a purple belt, and honestly, I didn’t worry too much about it.

All I wanted to do was to become a better grappler. To become stronger. To become more skilled. These belts themselves don’t mean anything, but how much you put yourself forward to the art of fighting does matter.

In fact, I believe this applies to other things in life as well. Don’t be worried too much about a new belt, because it will come when you’ve mastered skills necessary for holding that belt. If you have some time to be jealous about your friend who got that belt quicker than you did or some time to worry that you don’t have what it takes, use that time for training instead. Worrying will never make you get better, but training will.

I’m glad that I’m now recognized as I have reached this level, and I want to continue sharpening my skills. One of my big goals next year is to win my division at BJJ World Championship, to be held in California, in June. This goal gives me a great motivation for the first half of 2011.

What’s your big project in 2011?

Prompt 31: Core Story

What central story is at the core of you, and how do you share it with the world? (Bonus: Consider your reflections from this month. Look through them to discover a thread you may not have noticed until today.)

(Author: Molly O’Neill)

{Future tool: Susannah Conway’s Allowing Dreams} Today is the final day of #reverb10. Thank you for your reverberations this month. Keep an eye on your inbox at the end of January 2011 for something from HQ.}

So, this is it. This is the last prompt of Reverb10. And I’ll make my answer brief and tell you what my central story will be in 2011.

The central story at the core of myself is that I will live my life as my art and as something to celebrate. I will navigate myself in this adventure by my curiosity. I will head east from Japan to the USA for BJJ World Championship and for World Domination Summit in June, and I will head south from the USA to Argentina after WDS. If there are monsters I need to fight, I’ll think about ways to get away without fighting them so I can focus on important things in my life. It’s an open story and desiring to be written down in my history book.

How do I share this story with the world? I can think of 4 ways to do this. I share my story with the world by…

  1. Living that story: Now I have declared this story in some platforms and in person, I’m motivated even more. I will live this story and that will become part of me.
  2. Being not afraid of showing up: But if I’m afraid of sharing my story or don’t believe in myself, it’s possible that I don’t feel like sharing my story. I choose not to be afraid of showing up and telling this story.
  3. Actually showing up: It’s easy to promise something to yourself and to forget to do it. I’ll keep myself accountable about it on this blog. I didn’t mean to write the sentence before this one, but I happened to write it. So, I shall do it.
  4. Getting others involved in this story: For me, my life – my art involves other people, who contribute their stories, visions, sounds and other things to my art. I want you to get involved in my art as well. I want you to be part of my story as well. You can subscribe to this blog to keep track of my journey to Latin America. If you are interested, please join me!

I’m grateful for Team Reverb10 for running this online initiative. It’s been a great way to reflect on 2010 and to prepare for 2011.

Tomorrow, I will share 27 lessons I learnt in my life with you on this blog. Stay tuned!

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If you enjoyed reading this post, please share it with your friends by clicking the like button or the tweet button below. You can subscribe to this blog via RSS or e-mail, too. I’m looking forward to connecting with you!

Photo: Zest-pk

How to keep evolving and celebrate small things in life

This post will answer the prompt 28 (Achieve) of Reverb10. Join us and reflect on your year 2010…

Prompt 28: Achieve

What’s the thing you most want to achieve next year? How do you imagine you’ll feel when you get it? Free? Happy? Complete? Blissful? Write that feeling down. Then, brainstorm 10 things you can do, or 10 new thoughts you can think, in order to experience that feeling today.

(Author: Tara Sophia Mohr)

{Future tool: Gretchen Rubin’s Start Your Own Happiness Project (and be sure to visit the Happiness Project Toolbox!). For the next 4 days as you round out your year, we’ll share one tool each day to help you plan your year ahead.}

Let me start with three big goals I want to achieve in 2011. The first goal is to launch an e-book in April. The second goal is to win at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Championship (Mundial) in June. The third goal is to have a location independent lifestyle in Latin America. There are sub-goals for these big goals, which I will need to achieve in order to get closer to the big goals. Also, while having a healthy lifestyle is not exactly a goal, I want to have a healthy lifestyle so I can get the most out of my life.

Now, if I think about it, these three goals do go under another bigger goal: Keep evolving as a man. This is somewhat tricky, because it’s a constant thing rather than a fixed destination. This goal moves forward, as I move towards it. Although I could take the three goals above as the requirements for me to achive this goal of constantly evolving as a man, it’s also possible to say that as long as I do something that helps me achieve these goals, I am on the right track in achieving this goal as well. The beauty of this goal is that I could achieve it everyday of the next year (or for the rest of my life, rather), as long as I’m clear about this intention and work on it.

Let’s say I achieve this goal and keep evolving. What will I feel? Perhaps I will feel content about my life and feel like celebrateing it. There’s something that intrigues me here. While my achieving this goal will make me feel that way, it’s probably the case that if I feel happy about my life and celebrate my life anyway whether or not I succeed in achieving sub-goals or bigger goals, I will achieve my goal and keep evolving as a man.

But how do I celebrate my life (and how can you celebrate your life)? You might feel grumpy today. You might be sick. You might have a lot of worries. Your day might turn out to be the worst day of your life. I occasionally have those days as well, and sometimes it’s hard to feel positive about things and to celebrate the beauty of life when you are facing miserable things.

It’s easier said than done, but I’ve come to think that tough situations can be like tough opponents you need to fight in order to declare your celebration of life. That though opponent throws you a sneaky punch and hits you hard, and it hurts you. You could get knocked out or give up or decide to fight.

Unless you want to get knocked out or to give up, the first thing you could do is to decide that you are going to celebrate your life anyway. Once you’ve made that decision, be aware of things around you that catch your attention. If you get pulled towards the negative side, you might notice a lot of defects and things to complain about. So, don’t be pulled away. Make up your mind and celebrate wonderful things around you; they can be tiny – indeed, you must understand that these tiny things can be significant sources of hapiness.

Let me think of 10 things that I want to celebrate right now, right here – at the time of writing this post and at the place where I’m writing it.

  1. It’s warm here. I’m sitting in Ben’s Cafe in Tokyo. It’s cold outside, but it’s warm in the cafe. I can write this post without getting distracted by the cold weather or frozen to death.
  2. The coffee I had was great. I had a cup of latte and enjoyed it. Ben’s Cafe makes proper latte, which you can’t usually get at the majority of cafes in Japan.
  3. Someone will be reading this post. This is a thought that came to my mind just now. Yes, you are reading it, and I’m grateful that you are spending your precious time reading this post.
  4. I like the vibe in this cafe. There are a number of people right now at the cafe and they seem to be happy. Happy faces make me happy.
  5. I feel hungry and I can have something to eat later on. Eating food is one of the best things we can do in life. I’m not going to eat anything at the cafe, but I will do so elsewhere. Given that there are people who die from hunger, how lucky am I to be able to eat food… delicious food.
  6. I just got a mobile phone message from a great friend of mine. It’s simple, but it makes me happy.
  7. The number 7 is supposed to be a lucky number, and I have no idea what to celebrate right now, which means I will celebrate the beauty of nothingness. Even if you don’t have anything to celebrate, you can celebrate that you have nothing to celebrate.
  8. Celebrating nothing gave me some time to think of things to celebrate next and I only have three things to celebrate, including this one, which I’ve used up now.
  9. I’m listening to my favorite band One Last Wish now. Their songs make me happy.
  10. The guy sitting next to me happened to knock down his cup, but it didn’t fell off the table or it didn’t contain any liquid and didn’t make a mess. It’s like being relieved from a suspense and it feels good.
  11. I can actually think of other things to celebrate now even though my original plan was to write down 10 things. For example, the pictures exhibited in the cafe are pretty.
  12. This cafe has a free wifi connection! (Rare in Japan. There’s usually no connection or you need to pay for it.)

Pay attention to what’s around you, and notice small things. If they catch your attention, maybe there’s something about them that you want to celebrate. It can be trivial like my list of things I want to celebrate.

None of the things above may directly contribute to my big goal of evolving as a man, but these tiny celebrations set me in a great mood and I can feel positive about other things as well. That’s a great achievement. That’s how I get closer to this goal.

How about you? Even if you haven’t paid much attention to previous Reverb10 prompts, you might want to try answering this prompt. Also, make sure to read Tara’s post on what this prompt is all about. (Hint: It’s about achieving your goal today.)

Don’t forget you are living now.
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What’s your thoughts on this prompt? Tell me, because I’m curious. If you enjoyed reading this post, please share it with your friends by clicking the like button or the tweet button below. You can subscribe to this blog via RSS or e-mail, too. I’m looking forward to connecting with you!

Photo: D Sharon Pruitt

On jumping, eating and breathing

This post will answer the prompts 25 (Photo), 26 (Soul Food) and 27 (Ordinary Joy)  of Reverb10. Join us and reflect on your year 2010…

Prompt 25: Photo

Sift through all the photos of you from the past year. Choose one that best captures you; either who you are, or who you strive to be. Find the shot of you that is worth a thousand words. Share the image, who shot it, where, and what it best reveals about you.

(Author: Tracey Clark)

{Future tool: Soul Biographies: Thoughts Become Things. For the next 7 days as you round out your year, we’ll share one tool each day to help you plan your year ahead.}

This photo on the left was taken by Fernando Ramos in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Fernando gave it a name – “Jump for Life, Joy and Everything Inbetween”, and I think this title describes this jump very well. I jump for life, joy and everything inbetween. I jump even if no one is jumping. I jumped because I wanted to jump.

What do you do when you are happy? Do you jump? Or dance? Or sing?

By the way, Fernando runs a photo meme called SnapStory1000. The most basic rule is that you take a photo, write a short story based on the photo, and display them online. If you are interested, check out his SnapStory1ooo page here.

Prompt 26: Soul Food

What did you eat this year that you will never forget? What went into your mouth & touched your soul?

(Author: Elise Marie Collins)

{Future tool: Sark’s MicroMOVEment Support Sheets. For the next 6 days as you round out your year, we’ll share one tool each day to help you plan your year ahead.}

I love food. I love cooking as well as eating. But when it comes to soul food, I’m inclined to think what really matters is who you share the food with, because that person or those people can make the dining more enjoyable and the food will be more memorable if not tastier.

What do you think?

In any case, sharing food can be what I’ll do more next year.

Prompt 27: Ordinary Joy

Our most profound joy is often experienced during ordinary moments. What was one of your most joyful ordinary moments this year?

(Author: Brené Brown)

{Future tool: Tara Mohr’s The Next Steps After Vision… For the next 5 days as you round out your year, we’ll share one tool each day to help you plan your year ahead.

I’m grateful that my life is filled with such joyful moments. I can pretty much be happy and feel joyful about being able to breathe.

I practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and choking techniques are part of the core techniques of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. So, when I’m good, I choke others. But when I’m playing with people stronger than me, I get choked and I tap.

Since I practice this style of martial arts and choking has become an ordinary thing for me, it didn’t occur to me how people rarely gets choked in their daily lives. If you practice yoga or something that teaches you the importance of breathing, you know breathing gives you positive effects. But do you know how amazing it is that you can breathe? You will know, if you’ve been in a situation where you can’t breathe even if you want to.

This very simple realization that I got by reflecting on what I practice makes me appreciate the fact that I can breathe. It’s joyful.

If you want to be able to appreciate these tiny moments more, be curious about what’s happening around you. Also, it helps to imagine what would happen if you couldn’t experience those moments at all.

This prompt’s author Brené Brown gave a great talk for TEDxHuston. This talk is one of my favorite talks that I’ve ever listened to. Make sure to check it out (I wrote a post in relation to her talk. Go to that post and scroll down to the bottom of the post for a clip of the talk.)

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What’s your thoughts on these prompts? Tell me, because I’m curious. If you enjoyed reading this post, please share it with your friends by clicking the like button or the tweet button below. You can subscribe to this blog via RSS or e-mail, too. I’m looking forward to connecting with you!

Photo: Saitama-Rama

Cheshire Cat and 3 lessons of the year

This post will answer the prompts 23 (New Name) and 24 (Everything’s OK)  of Reverb10. Join us and reflect on your year 2010…

Prompt 23: New Name

Let’s meet again, for the first time. If you could introduce yourself to strangers by another name for just one day, what would it be and why?

(Author: Becca Wilcott)

{Future tool: Chris Guillebeau’s How to Conduct Your Own Annual Review. For the next 9 days as you round out your year, we’ll share one tool each day to help you plan your year ahead.}

Hi, my name is… Cheshire Cat. There’s already a group of people who refer to me as Cat. I believe the reason why they call me Cat is because my name is too long for them, even though Masa, the shortened version of my name Masafumi, has only two syllables. ‘Cat’ has only one syllable. So, I can understand they are desperate in saving their breath. If that’s not the reason, I bet it’s because I look like Cheshire Cat from the famous Alice in Wonderland. I can smile and disappear, leaving only the smile in the air.

But why would I want to use it as my new name?

Perhaps it’s because I want to be a representation of curiosity. Curiosity is what makes the cat’s life awesome. It doesn’t kill the cat. Also, I want to be able to disappear while leaving my smiles out there. I want to ask you delightful questions. I will do them in the new year. My new year will be a year of curiosity.

Prompt 24: Everything’s OK

What was the best moment that could serve as proof that everything is going to be alright? And how will you incorporate that discovery into the year ahead?

(Author: Kate Inglis)

{Future tool: Gwen Bell – How to Create Your Personal Manifesto. For the next 8 days as you round out your year, we’ll share one tool each day to help you plan your year ahead.}

I can’t think of any single moment that would apply to this prompt. However, I can think of some lessons that I learnt from living in the moment. Let me mention three.

  1. Each step gets me closer to the top. I climbed Mt. Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan, in August. It was raining hard. Although it was still climbable and not life threatening at least until we got to the top, later on I heard that even expert climbers thought it was a bad condition. Even in such a bad condition, however, each step got me closer to the top of the mountain. It’s a great lesson to apply to life in general as well. What’s small enough a step you can take to get to where you want to go? Figure it out, and take that step.
  2. I have enough resources. I’ve mentioned in previous posts, but working on the Artist’s Way was valuable in the sense that I realized I have enough resources already if I change the way of thinking. What you have doesn’t change by changing the way you think. However, if you look at it from the abundant mentality rather than the scarcity mentality, you are likely to realize that you do have enough. Is the cup half full or half empty?
  3. It’s great to wake up. Things like traveling to save money and realizing that I could travel to Latin America mostly by land from the USA were big shifts of thinking for me. It’s similar to #2 in the sense that it’s about looking at things from another perspective. In the moments when those realizations hit me, it feels like waking up in the sunlight. It’s amazing to know that you can turn your dreams into reality, by simply waking up and figuring out how to make them happen. (Hint: Throw away assumptions that you can’t do this or that, at least unless you actually do think about some ways to make it happen.)

Vision Board

Prompt 23 links to Gwen Bell’s phenomenal post on making your own manifesto. I especially recommend you to make your vision map. It’s a great way to visualize your dreams by making a collage of pictures that remind you of your dreams. I made my first vision map with Cheney of everyonebutsix.com at Tilley’s Divine Cafe in Canberra, Australia. We had a great time making vision maps together.

By the way, Gwen suggests cutting out photos from magazines, but I prefer to search images online and use them for a vision map. You might lose the joy of running into random photos in magazines this way, but you are more likely to find photos you actually want to use and in alignment with your vision too.

If you are based in or near Tokyo, you might be interested in Soness’s workshops. She runs workshops on how to make a vision map according to Feng Shui principles. If you find Feng Shui appealing, you know who to get in touch with. Her website is here.

I will be making another vision map before the end of the year and it will be fun. I want a new reminder for things I want to achieve in 2011! I feel like I’m accelerating now and I believe I am indeed. I know how I’m going to make my 2011 a great year, and that feels terrific.

How about you? What do you want to do in 2011?

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What’s your thoughts on these prompts? Tell me, because I’m curious. If you enjoyed reading this post, please share it with your friends by clicking the like button or the tweet button below. You can subscribe to this blog via RSS or e-mail, too. I’m looking forward to connecting with you!

Photo: Chris Halderman

My future self would point at Latin America

This post will answer the prompts 21 (Future Self) and 22 (Travel)  of Reverb10. Join us and reflect on your year 2010…

Something about Reverb10

Before answering Prompts 21 and 22, I want to make a quick note about Reverb10. In short, it’s been helpful for me to reflect on my year 2010 and to prepare for the new year. I can’t quite figure out what’s behind the order of the prompts, but I do feel there’s a significant pattern and how they are put together helps me significantly. You don’t need to publish your answers on the web, but you can simply take a look at the prompt page of Reverb10 and answer the prompts in your free time. I believe it will be valuable to take some pause and make some reflections about your life.

Prompt 21: Future Self

Imagine yourself five years from now. What advice would you give your current self for the year ahead? (Bonus: Write a note to yourself 10 years ago. What would you tell your younger self?)

(Author: Jenny Blake)

What advice would my future self give to my current self for the year 2011 (apart from this advice)?

  • Keep evolving and keep rocking.
  • Believe in yourself and show up.
  • Chase dreams and follow your heart.
  • Do what makes you feel alive and nothing else.
  • Bring that punk rock attitude back in you.
  • Do travel to Latin America.
  • You are ready to bloom in 2011.

What would I tell my younger self? As I think about it, I’d probably tell him the almost same things as above. If I were to tell my 80 year old self something, I would tell these things, too. How simple. But I believe my 80 year old self wouldn’t need my current self to tell those things to him, because he would be a kick-ass, punk rock man still chasing his dreams.

Prompt 22: Travel

How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?

(Author: Tara Hunt)

{Future Tool: New Year’s Goal Questions for No-Goals Creatives from Jeffrey Davis. For the next 10 days as you round out your year, we’ll share one tool each day to help you plan your year ahead.}

Although I didn’t travel much this year, when I did travel, it was always great.

But I will travel more next year. In the previous post, I wrote that I’d go to Buenos Aires. Earlier today, it occurred to me that I could go there via the USA. If I compared a flight from Tokyo to Buenos Aires with a flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles, the latter would be much cheaper. The same result would hold if I compared a Tokyo to Los Angeles ticket with a round the world ticket.

So, I thought, instead of saving money to buy a round the world ticket, which would cost me about $4000 for the cheapest option, I could simply fly to the US, start heading south by land (whatever that means), and aim to get to Buenos Aires at some stage. This may sound counter-intuitive, but I’d probably save more being on the road to Buenos Aires than living in Japan anyway, provided that I have a location independent source of income, which I kind of do, although it’s not in its ideal state yet. Not only saving money, but also I’ll get great experiences on the road as well. So, why not heading south?

Now… when would be the best time to do it? Oh wait… I will happen to fly to the USA in June for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Championship and for World Domination Summit. World Domination Summit would be a great start for this trip.

So.

Yes.

I’ve decided to start a trip from Portland and to head towards Buenos Aires in June 2011.

What’s great about making this choice and letting people know about this plan is that I have a greater focus on what to do. I’m really excited and happy about this choice. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I’ll work on making it happen.

Am I simplistic? Yes, perhaps. But I don’t think it’s necessary to make things difficult when they can be nice and simple.

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What’s your thoughts on these prompts? Tell me, because I’m curious. If you enjoyed reading this post, please share it with your friends by clicking the like button or the tweet button below. You can subscribe to this blog via RSS or e-mail, too. I’m looking forward to connecting with you!

Photo: Tambako the Jaguar

On trying, healing and going beyond avoidance

This post will answer the prompts 18 (Try), 19 (Healing) and 20 (Beyond Avoidance) of Reverb10. Join us and reflect on your year 2010…

Prompt 18: Try

What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did/didn’t go for it?

The following things came to my mind quickly when I thought about my answer to this prompt. Some of them are concrete, and others are abstract.

  • Running a location independent business: I’ve been learning about running a location independent business for a while. I haven’t quite made it though. It’s partly because I’ve been struggling to find what my strengths are, and it’s partly because I didn’t do as much as I could to get this location independent business project going. But next year, I will get something going. Yes.
  • Being a minimalist/maximalist: If you’ve been reading my recent posts, you’ve probably noticed that I mentioned about minimizing stuff and maximizing experience a few times. I will do these things next year. The idea of maximizing experience fits in with my mission of making the world more romantic, too. So, I will write more on minimizing stuff and maximizing experience on this blog. If you want to read more on minimizing stuff, Far Beyond The Stars by Everett Bogue is a good place to start.
  • Focusing on creating: Focusing on creating is one way of maximizing experience for me. This year, I reclaimed my creativity. I got it back. So, I want to show up in the world fully with my creativity next year. In order to focus on creating, I will need to minimize stuff as well as other unimportant things.
  • Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Championship&World Domination Summit: In June, I will go to the USA for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Worldchampionship to compete and to attend World Domination Summit. Chris Guillebeau and his team of awesome people organize WDS, and I’m excited to meet Chris and other world changers in person.
  • Moving to Latin America: This is another way of maximizing experience. It occurred to me that living in Latin America would be fun and exciting a step to make. Given my interests in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Argentinean Tango, I believe it’s a natural move to make as well. After all, the average cost of living in Latin America is lower than that in Japan, too. So, let’s get this location independent thing going next year… in Latin America.

Now, things I wanted to try in 2010. I’m sure there were more, but three things came to my mind. The first one is Argentinean Tango. I happened to find great teachers and lessons were reasonable and affordable; I gave it a go and I liked it. The second one is being creative. To my surprise, I had written about my desire to be more creative in the beginning of 2009 and completely forgotten about it when I started working on the Artist’s Way in 2010. But I remembered this desire of mine and I was successful in regaining my creativity. The third one is running a location independent business. I mentioned it above, but I think I could do more effectively to get this thing going, but I didn’t. While I didn’t die from not trying hard enough, I surely didn’t make as much progress as I wanted to make. But next year, I will do my best.

Prompt 19: Healing

What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?

I’m not sure if this is something we can categorize as “healing”, or if I really get what’s meant to be “healing” in this prompt, but I’d say working on regaining my creativity was a great healing practice. It was a gradual evolution, and I’m happy about it. Creativity has become a big theme in my life.

I now believe that we are all creative. Likewise, I believe that we are all attractive, and that we are all awesome. Seriously. Well, maybe not absolutely everyone of us, but I’m sure most of us can make choices about what we want to do and we are capable of learning and getting closer to who we want to be. I know you are. But, sadly, we are often led to believe that we are not creative, we are not attractive, and we are not awesome. When we are led to believe these things, we get wounds and perhaps “healing” is something to remove these wounds so we can believe in ourselves again.

I might have some wounds left unhealed in me, but I know I can stand up and fight this battle against mediocrity – mediocrity that keeps telling you that you aren’t worthy. I don’t know much about healing, and I’m not sure if I want to be healed or to heal others. But I think I am interested in empowering you, if that’s what you want. I’d be interested in teaching you how to do a triangle choke on mediocrity.

Prompt 20: Beyond Avoidance

What should you have done this year but didn’t because you were too scared, worried, unsure, busy or otherwise deterred from doing? (Bonus: Will you do it?)

I will repeat myself a bit, because I’m going to mention a location independent business again here. But, perhaps, instead of running over the same thing again, let me say a thing or two about the concept of location indepent business, for those who have never come across this concept.

When you run a location independent business, you can work from anywhere, hence it’s a location independent business. Your product is either something digital like an e-book or a service that can be delivered via online like consulting.

Since I’m a freelance translator, I am, technically, running a location independent business to some extent, because I can work from anywhere. However, this freelance style of working still gives me some restrictions, because I’m dependent on orders from my clients instead of creating value that I want to share with people who believe in me and who I believe in. Also, my schedule depends on these orders as well. When there’s an urgent order, I need to adjust my schedule to it instead of focusing on creating what I want to create when I’m most productive.

So, I want to run a location independent business that sells digital products. This style requires less maintenance, compared to the freelance style location independent business.

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Photo: pjan vandaele