Having Your Big Pink Van Moment

I snapped this shot of a restored vintage Ford camper van when I was at the grocery store this week.

It was like a go big or going home, sort of thing…big Pink van style.

I enjoyed the brash van, and even more I enjoyed what it stood for.

Non conformity.

Today remember this 1 Thing:
• Make sure you have your own Big Pink Van Moment. Maybe once per week, if you can’t handle the good medicine of once per day.

That means, screw convention, and say, “Heck with the norm.” Everyone does things a certain way. We fall in line. We act like sheep in the flock of sameness. We dress with the conventions. Drive a conventional car. Live in a conventional home. Eat conventional meals. Find conventional entertainment. Know conventional people. There’s no rule that says you have to do that. I’ll go further:

Conformity is a threat to innovation and full-bodied creativity. (Click to tweet this adage.)

Conformity becomes an unconscious mode of operation. It’s stifling. We must break out of that, routinely. Otherwise, it’s like we get involved in a slow creative death deprived of the oxygen of innovation.

What did your last Big Pink Van Moment look like?

What dream do you have that falls into this category?

6 Notes on Creativity: A Dispatch from Sparky Pronto

I’m writing as “Sparky Pronto” (my alter ego) who has the wisdom of the Muses to spark your creative muse and give you encouragement.

A few thoughts…

• Ignore insinuations that creating isn’t part of your reason for being here.

• When you make good art consistently, eventually you will be rewarded.

• Only a few people will “get you” and what you’re doing, if any do at all. That is no reason to stop creating.

• If you feel alive when you create, it’s crazy to stop or let it lag. Don’t.

• Creativity is like water. Jumping into a creative flow will be messy. Know that going in.

A Little Birdie Told Me

(This birdie card is an original creation: A Superb Snail Mail postcard I’m sending out to a savvy lover of mail.)

So now that there’s enough interest in Superb Snail Mail to keep me busy, I thought I’d post about the power of birdies.

Like a whisper Twitter started chirping and soon journalists learned to scour the twitter feeds for breaking news. One of the first big breaks was the tweeted death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

Twitter bucked the wisdom of online gurus and what was already working on the interwebs. Twitter simplicity was so elemental that it felt restrictive. Quick tweets (remember “a little birdie told me”) were held to just 140 characters, even for direct messages. It had its critics and could be exasperating, but it worked.

It turns out news spreads well if the message is simple and widely dispersed.

The same thing will work for you. Think of your message and your creative endeavors like a diaspora of ideas. It doesn’t take a loud voice to get the word it takes lots of little birdies…chirping.

Now, think about a message you’d like to disperse. How many little birdies will it take? Start here, and let us know what you’re working on.

Should we spread this message through Twitter? That would be cool. Click the twitter button.

Word of mouth is fine too. I don’t mind being old fashioned.

A Call to the Prophets and Storytellers….YOU

In my recent short book I discuss how creators and communicators have a pivotal position in society.

They are the Storytellers.

They help others seen the vision just out of reach, and remind us who we really are.

They are the modern incarnations (and I use that word to note the Divine aspect) of the prophets of old. The message-bearers. The truth tellers.

Is this you?

I know it’s me.

You can only live into this calling on your life, or run.
The running away is tiring and it doesn’t change a thing.

Read the rest of the Story and what’s involved for the modern-day prophet for free during July: Here (For that particular section jump to page 127).

Need a little shot in the arm from the ancients?

Here’s a passage from a prophet that works well as a call for the prophets…it’s a herald to the communicators to live out our calling.

Let it be your manifesto today.

Oh! If you can read it out loud. Do it. It’ll add some punch and encourage you!

Isaiah 43

6b Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—

everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”

Lead out those who have eyes but are blind,
who have ears but are deaf.

All the nations gather together
and the peoples assemble.
Which of their gods foretold this
and proclaimed to us the former things?
Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right,
so that others may hear and say, “It is true.”

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,
“and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor will there be one after me.

I, even I, am the Lord,
and apart from me there is no savior.

What was your favorite part?

What Quiets You?

Sorry to send you into a sugar coma with the cuteness today!

Today’s question is “What Quiets YOU?”

I was pleased to hear blogging and leadership superstar Michael Hyatt give out some serious props recently for naps and people who take them. I like working late, but my family needs me early. I need my naps. No, I don’t get them regularly. When I don’t something happens. I fall asleep reading. I go right into REM sleep too…as you might imagine.

Except for when I’m exhausted I can only nap when one other thing is in place:

I must feel safe.

If threats loom I am disquieted.

Trust is what quiets down my soul so I can wade through the rest of it, and lay me down to sleep. Trust in God, Trust in myself, and Trust in others.

In finding what quiets our souls we find not just peace, but vitality, and fullness. (click to tweet that reminder)

The hush may come from acceptance, wonder, rest, or satisfaction from a job well done, but it must be found.

Without it we just keep on wandering.

So ask yourself. “What Quiets Me?” How and where am I most settled?

Write down one word to remind yourself, and tape it up somewhere.

It will help you not just remember to find it, but it’ll help you remember who you really are.

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Feel like sharing? What surprising thing calms your soul?