Creativity KAL ~ Week 3
Hi friends. I hope you're making good headway on your projects and enjoying all the time knitting! Today I'm going to talk about one of my favorite ideas - celebrating the things that make you unique (or weird!!!) and leaning into them. I think this is one of the most important things we can do in our lives and I'm curious to know if you'd say the same. I believe our quirks and unique curiosities set us apart and are our most valuable assets. Many of my podcast guests have echoed this sentiment, specifically Vickie Howell and Andrea Mowry AND of course Stephen West, in just the beautiful way he lives his off the beaten path life. I did this unknowingly in my own life. I was curious about hand spinning chunky art yarns- something very outside the norm in the area I grew up in and something super niche. I followed that spark and it served me well. If I had tried to pursue something else that didn't peak my curiosity or light me up, I don't think I would've had any success. In the past year or two I've started to pursue this idea with more abandon. In small ways - I wear my overalls that are pretty out there (but I love them!) and then in bigger ways, I've created the podcast simply because it's something that inspires me so much. It ties into this idea of letting go of who you think you should be from my first blog post and takes it one step further. Yes, you must do that but you also must fully embrace all of your oddities, weirdness and funky interests. They are your super powers. There is one Ted talk that I watched recently that affected me hugely in this regard. Take a look below. She says it so well. You have no competition when you're yourself. Golly I love this one!
The flip side of this is what do we say no to, to create more space for us to be ourselves. This is very hard, isn't it? There are so many demands on our time but I challenge you to say yes to only the things that are a HELL YES. Everything else is a no. I thought I would be a Martha Stewert type mom who did everything with her kids, was super involved in school, cooked homemade food every day and still ran my business. As the boys have grown older, I've realized that my priority is not being involved in the school. Of course, I adore being with my boys but actually being involved in the PTA etc is not what really lights me up, like it does for many parents. I prefer to spend my working hours in my business. It's taken me a while to let go of these things I think I should do, or that I always thought I would do. I say no all the time now. I have so little time to work that when I'm working I just try to make those hours count as best I can because that is what lights me up the most. This is the place where I can be my weird old self and it's all ok.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veEQQ-N9xWU
I went to yoga yesterday and was thinking about this blog post and what to write. It dawned on me that a huge part of why I have my business is to inspire others to do just this, lean into their unique traits and to inspire creativity through making. But not just any creativity, the creativity that comes from within, where you can express your weird, beautiful self and let it blossom in any way. I love that there is a place in the world for this crazy business I have that lets me do this. So thank you all so much for joining me on this knitalong and giving me your vote, that yes, you can do something totally out there and make it work. I want to know what you think about all of this. What things are your weird superpowers/interests/curiousities?
All the love ~ Amy