Ep #112: The Magic of Impossible Dreams

“Nothing happens unless first we dream,” Carl Sandburg. I know many of you out there listening, you are movers and shakers. You make things happen and I love that about you. And I wanted this episode in particular to be an invitation to you to return to the source of so much of your creative power; the kind of fuel that will fuel seemingly impossible goals and dreams in the coming year and for your life beyond. So, tune in today as I share with you a recent workshop I offered about the magic of impossible dreams.

You are listening to The Art School Podcast; a show for artists and creatives who want to become the next greatest version of themselves. Learn how to cultivate an extraordinary way of being and take the mystery out of making money, and the struggle out of making art. Here is your host, master certified life coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Welcome, everyone, to The Art School Podcast. Happy New Year. I am recording this – it’s a week before Christmas Eve, but I just finished teaching a class. Thank you to everyone that was there for this free workshop, The Magic of Impossible Dreams. It was wonderful to see so many familiar Art School faces and then also seeing so many new faces, people that I haven’t seen before joining the call. So, thank you so much for those that were able to join live and bring your energy and your own impossible dreams to this call.

If you are listening to this later on, down the road, maybe years down the road, it’s probably worth mentioning that I’m recording this December of 2020 at the end of this epic year. And I also, if you’ve been listening to surrounding podcasts, if you’ve been in the Art School, been on any of our free group calls, community calls, you’ll notice a theme in the year, talking about impossibility, talking about possibility, talking about tapping into the power of wonder, of imagination.

Also, spending enough time in this dream time that’s not that malignant fantasy world where you’re deluding yourself into thinking you’re doing something but you’re not. But really, this generative, imaginative place where you are using your dreams to notice where you’re limiting yourself and where you’re limiting how you’re thinking of yourself, where you’re limiting your self-concept, where you’re limiting the role that you are offering for yourself in the epic that you’re writing that is your own life.

Getting into your imagination, being playful, dreaming again is really a way to invite in forces that help break up those places where we get stuck, or perhaps we’re still creating a lot so it doesn’t look like we’re stuck, but maybe our work or our life doesn’t have the same juice or it doesn’t have – it has this feeling of you know there’s something more available to you, you’re just not sure what it is.

So, in this class, it was workshop oriented. I offered a series of prompts and also talked about things that are essential elements in this process of harnessing the magic of impossible goals and dreams. I also talk briefly about what have been some of the life-changing results of me myself having committed to this process and moving through this process.

If you’re new to my podcast, new to my world and you’re not sure what my impossible dream or goal is, I feel like I should provide a bit of an update because it doesn’t feel accurate anymore to call it impossible or to call it a moonshot. It feels inevitable. I am on track. But I will tell you that if you want to learn more about that and about the genesis of this work for me, you can refer to my episode about moonshot goals, moonshot dreams. I believe it’s episode seven.

And that one, I’ll just sum it up briefly for me is, as an artist as a creator, as a coach and mentor, to create two million dollars in a year and in a way that honors my defined creative process, a three-day workweek, one that honors my family values, one that honors how I work best, which is plenty of deep think time as well, as well as a lot of fun and collaboration.

One thing that I’ve really noticed becoming more and more clear in my own goals and dreams and through my clients is when we talk about the things that have impacted us the most and changed us the most, something that comes up over and over again as being both a catalyst for profound change, and also a sense of being profoundly alive and having a meaningful, deep life, and then something that is also one of the greatest gifts is relationships, our relationships.

And so, that’s something too I talk about a bit in this episode when I talk about creative ecosystems. But I wanted to highlight that here. It is a time of year when I do love to reflect. And this particular year, as many of you do as well, I’m sure, there is a lot to reflect upon. And to me, this has felt like a year where we have been through many things that seem impossible. And in my own life, I feel like it’s been a year of manifesting many things that once were impossible goals and dreams.

And I also have ones that I’m continuing to move forward through, and also one of the most important aspect of this for me as I pause and reflect has been, I really feel like this process of inviting in an impossible dream into my life and going for it has changed me in profound ways, as a human being, has made me a quote unquote better human being. And by that I mean I feel like I’ve grown up. I feel like I am better in relationships. Never perfect, right?

But I feel like all of my relationships, I show up differently and with more patience and more compassion and more love. I feel like I am more attuned to the wisdom that being open and engaged in a life experience like having an impossible dream, being open to the wisdom that has invited me to cultivate, earn, through trial and error, through being vulnerable, through being courageous, through failing a lot, through a lot of quote unquote disappointments. It has also illuminated the places where I was limiting myself.

And I did not think at all I was limiting myself until I moved through this process. And it brings them all up. And that is something that I would not trade for the world.

I also have such a strong, now, and deep connection to the greater meaning behind the work that I do, which has also made me ask, have I limited myself there? Are there ways where I’ve limited the contributions that I think I can create or that I’m able to create and give in this life? And also, I will say, having done money work too and created abundance in my life so that it’s – first, I will tell you I first created a mindset that decided my future self is not somebody who worries about money. We are never worrying about money again.

And then I practiced living into that and embodying that and being that. And then, later, my bank account got to a place that I had always wanted it to get to. And then fortunately, I’d been working on my mindset too. So, my mindset was already in a place where I didn’t need the bank account to give me the piece of mind that I had always wanted to just be able to focus the best of my life force and creative energy on better projects.

And now, I have so much more energy for those better projects, so much more energy for greater questions, like thinking about how to help move the needle for my clients. If they have a dream, like, what is it? What is it that allows us to tap into our gifts as a human? What is it that will allow us to unlock ourselves and flow into the world?

The energy, the work to build in the world those dreams that we’ve held inside for so long, to do that soul building work in the process and to also change the world for the better. I love thinking about those questions like that, thinking about – it’s so exciting to think about what are we not seeing? How can I see this differently for my clients so that they feel this sense of woosh, the things that have been holding them back, they now have traction and they’re gaining momentum? And not only are they crossing those finish lines, but they have this deep inner sense of trust and that they can do it again and they can do it again and that they have a true connection to their own strength and that they themselves are thinking, “Hey, I thought this was the impossible goal or dream for me before. It turns out, I can also make that inevitable. What else am I capable of creating? Where can I turn myself to asking greater questions of myself? Where else can I turn my life force and my time here to do the highest good?

Sometimes, people will ask how isn’t it burdensome or overwhelming to have to have an impossible goal or dream? So, I want to clarify, you don’t have to have any goals or dreams. This is something I choose. And it’s also something I choose as the philosophy of I don’t use a goal or a dream against myself. I use it for myself.

And I was really clear early on that the essence of my moonshot, a few of the ways you could describe the essence anyway, freedom, the ability to trust myself deeply, to trust my relationship to the divine deeply, the ability to revolutionize my relationship with myself, the ability to really get out of my own way and enjoy being in flow. And also, I’ll say again, I had this vision of joyous collaborative creative relationships. And again, those have been some of the most rewarding experiences in the last few years since I have started the Art School, colleagues that I have met, really just so many incredible people and souls along the way.

I think various wise people have said the quality of our relationships determines the quality of our life. And I agree, beginning with our relationship to ourself, to our highest self, to if you believe in a higher force than you, the relationship to that higher power, and then the relationship to those in your life, those that are near and dear, your relationship to people you don’t agree with, to people who you vehemently disagree with, your relationship to your neighbors, your countrymen, your global neighbors. That’s such a profound question, I think, for all of us this year is examining the nature of our relationships.

And again, I believe that is one of the – I don’t want to diminish it by saying the byproducts of an impossible goal or dream, but one of the invitations and gifts of following this process of harnessing the magic of an impossible goal or dream is that it will invite you to reexamine and revolutionize your relationships. And that is something that we should all have the opportunity to be invited to and the opportunity to encounter and redefine for ourselves on purpose in this lifetime.

So, again, I’m feeling reflective this time of year. I have this class to offer for you. This is a nice long juicy episode, so again, if you’re listening in real time, this comes out on New Year’s Eve. And if you’re listening to it on New Year’s Eve, happiest of New Years to you.

I think I mentioned earlier that you’ll notice a theme in the episodes surrounding contingent to this one. We are definitely dialing in all of the energy of possibility, removing limitations, harnessing the magic of impossible dreams, following through, tapping into your Creativity, capital C, tapping into your power, your ability to move those dreams from within you and then build them out in the world and build and shape yourself and your way of life in the process.

And there will be a lot more of this kind of goodness coming up in January of 2021. And if you are listening to this later though, never worry, never fear, you aren’t missing out. This is the energy that I love to give and create is offering these opportunities, these sacred containers, whether it is a free coaching call, whether it is a short consult call, whether it is a six-month program with me or a 12-week Art School, creating the space and the ideal conditions, the ideal creative ecosystem, for your genius to grow and to thrive and to flourish and to flow and to give in the world.

So, if you’re listening to this later, come find out for what we’re doing lately because it’s going to be, again, offering these opportunities for unleashing, these opportunities for transformation, not just perfunctory going through the motions, but profound life-changing experiences that you can carry with you forever, offering opportunities for massive magic.

So now, before you get into the episode, I again just want to wish you the happiest of holidays and New Year. I would love to see and hear from you more in 2021 and beyond. I am now signing off for a week, 10 days. I’m going to cozy up with my family. We’re going to have a lot of long cold walks.

We managed to get my children on board. Hopefully it snows and there will be sledding and skiing and nights by the fire. Again, we celebrate Christmas, so everyone here is excited for that. We will have our own little nuclear family New Year’s Eve. I will likely entice my children, potentially my husband into doing vision boarding with me. They like it more than they let on. Even my husband. He is won over because he sees what I have created in my life doing this work.

So, even for the academic, PhD, business school professor, he is a believer. And that, in large part, is again one of those places where that’s just another manifestation of the miracle of doing this work. So, I’m wishing you so many similar miracles, or your own versions of in your own life. And now, I’ll let you dig into this episode, a workshop on harnessing the magic of impossible dreams.

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Somebody had just messaged me to say, “Remind me what that is.” It’s the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker. So, I was looking for music to bring us on, to set the tone for our call today and to start to channel the magic. And also, bringing us back to that state of – and again, not all children have this. So, it might be coming to this state for the first time, but it’s something we call childlike wonder and a return to possibility.

I think it goes without saying, but it has been a year to look back and think, okay, we did that. We did that. If somebody had asked us at the beginning of the year, “Hey, here’s what’s on tap. Do you want to?” Most of us probably would have been like, “Hey, no, I’ll take a pass on that.” But we’ve done it.

And so, to reflect on that – and I know I’ve had the opportunity and the great privilege to witness flourishing and thriving throughout this time, up close and personal, and the work that my clients are doing. And in friends’ and families’ lives and in the Art School. And I do believe that that’s what’s available to us when we tap into this inherent quality that all humans have. And that is Creativity with a capital C, the ability to take our raw experiences in life, whatever comes to us and be like, “Okay, feeling all of this, not turning away from any of it.”

We have the ability to turn towards the pain, not in a masochistic sense, but just life will bring us those painful situations sometimes, in the same way that we have to turn towards joy. And again, reflecting on that and making meaning from that, that’s one of our miraculous creative abilities. And when we do that, whether we reflect on our triumphs or our failures or our pain, we are able to make meaning. We are able to harvest wisdom. We are able to – and this is something artists are wonderful at – create something of meaning and beauty that gives life and light not only to us, and hope, but to others as well.

So, that’s an opportunity that we all have available to us. And I think it’s also such a gift when we are able to do it in community. There is something heartening and encouraging about seeing other people move through adversity with strength, as well as seeing other people, particularly fellow artists and fellow women move through challenges, but then also through success, and welcome that and say yes to their capacity to receive.

So, I wanted to offer both an invitation to reflect in this call today and steep in the magic you’ve already created this year. Because I know we can think, “Okay, I’ll get around to doing that.” And then life happens and we don’t really get around to doing that.

And it’s not just a thought exercise. It’s something to actually imprint on your heart, to really take that in, what it means to have created something that you’re proud of. Because that is a feeling that then you internalize and it changes you, and it changes you on a level deeper than thought so that subconsciously you become aware that you do have a greater capacity than maybe you previously thought for flowing more creativity. And not to say flowing the creativity and being open to the opportunities, because I like to take kind of the onus off of our ego self, to have to force and strive and work harder, throw ourselves into things and just go, go, go to create, but really to open ourselves up to the possibility that we are more powerful than we can think that we are, that even our ego thinks that we are, and that also we have the ability to tap into something greater than us. And whether for you that is creativity, life force, spirit, God, the universe, or just this collective love, a collective energy and the human spirit.

So, to begin with today, I just want to offer you, since you’re all here at the beginning of the call, to welcome you. Thank you so much for being here. And I hope you have something warm and cozy to drink. I wore my festive sweater. My kids are like, “Mom, why are you so dressed up?” So, to gather together and take this moment to reflect on things in the past year that are – I’ll give you a few minutes here, but at least one to three things that you’ve received this year that you didn’t have to work for, just blessings, good fortune. And then also one to three things that you are so incredibly grateful for yourself for having done, having moved through.

It could be a failure, right? It could be you put yourself out there. It could be something that led to a success. So, I will see if I can find more of my Nutcracker music and then let you write on that for a couple of minutes. This is going to be a very workshop-oriented call. I’ll teach and then also give you an opportunity to respond. And if you’d like, you’re invited to share in the chat. And at the end as well, if we have people that have questions or would like coaching, we’ll leave some time for that as well.

Okay, well I’ll give you a few more moments to maybe make some shorthand if you’re not done writing and return to this. I love seeing how many people were writing. The other thing that I would invite you to consider as you write this is how that feels, to really let yourself steep in the feeling of is it joy, is it satisfaction, is it pride, is it this underlying trust that – it can be something like equanimity. You’ve seen that things can go up and things can go down and then you look back and think, “Oh, I was okay throughout that whole time.” That could be the gift as well, so it could be this sense of centering.

So, the theme of today’s call is the magic of impossible dreams. And Carl Sandburg the poet said, “Nothing happens unless first we dream.” And that really is the energy of today’s call. I’ve done other workshops and calls and I will offer those too that are more planning-oriented. Today thought, I really want to invite you to immerse in the energy of impossibility and the magic of that.

Because at some point, while we ostensibly encourage children to consider their potential from this place of, well your potential is limitless and they’re allowed to define their potential only by the limits of their imagination or the future, which we say is limitless, somewhere along the way, we cross over a line where we begin to be conditioned as adults that we are allowed to consider possibilities that are defined within the realm of realistic considerations based on what we’ve done so far, based on our education, maybe based on people that we see around us. Again, a lot of it is based on prior performance.

And the thriving creative life really needs this time to again, like, return to wonder, return to limitless possibilities and not only is it life-giving. It is life-giving. It is soul-nourishing. And also, there is a very pragmatic consequence, positive consequence that happens when you allow yourself to dream this way, there is a new energy that floods your work. Rather than becoming drudgery, you have access to joy again.

And then also, you have this delicious opportunity to question your limitations, to ask who do I think I am? Hope Dunbar, who is one of our Art School Masterminders recently said on a podcast interview that we did, she said, “In other places, the question who do you think you are is a red light. In the Art School though, it’s a green light.”

So, I have a series of prompts and exercises for you today that I hope begin to generate again, help you connect to your imagination, to the sense of the limitless possibilities for you, for all of us. And connect to that joy again.

And then I also have – let’s see, I think I have five elements that I consider to be – it’s always hard for me to drill it down just to a single number, but I know that this is an hour long. So, for today, there are five elements that I really wanted to share with you that go into how I love to approach an impossible dream.

I think too, there is the hazard that we can get to the point in our life and I know I have the honor of having met many of you. Not everyone. So, welcome to those of you I haven’t met personally yet. But I do know many of you and I know you to be high-achieving, intelligent, successful, high-functioning women who have created a lot of incredible success in your life and do amazing work in the world and for others.

And I know many of you have also experienced patterns of, “Well I can get anything done, but I also know I can really burn myself out and I can overwork and over-function.” And I am here to say you can build your thriving life, and I want to build that thriving creative paradigm, coming from a different place, not from over-functioning, but from flowing from our innate natural power.

So, one way I talk about this often is understanding the difference between survival mode, where we can create a lot, we can get a lot done – you can be creating amazing art, have an amazing life, and you can have plenty of money in the bank and have a beautiful life, but feel like you are in this place of not really living or burnt out or something is suffering, likely a value you hold dear, if not your health or relationships or peace of mind.

So instead, to shift over to a creative mode where you’re relaxed, you’re settled, and you’re able to flow that inherent creative power within you and create a lot of results, create powerful results, create stunning results. And again, without over-functioning. It’s from a place of deep health and also creates, you know, you meet your responsibilities in your life, and more. And that’s always the concern.

But I don’t want to just become irresponsible and end up in a box. That’s actually not a thriving artist paradigm. So, what I want to share with you today is my approach to impossible dreaming and it is coming from this creative place. And something essential in achieving this – and it’s not achieving so much as practicing. It’s ongoing practice. I for sure have not perfected this. I would not say I have achieved or made it. But I definitely have learned and grows so much and I am so grateful for what it has given my life and given to the lives of people that I love and my clients is approaching it as a process, as a soul-building life-enhancing, community-enriching also world-giving process.

And that is versus, like, forcing things and grinding and throwing yourself into something and making it happen. Like, coming into alignment with the creation of it. And coming into alignment, there is a lot implicit in that short, but I think beautiful phrase, and it does imply a passage and it does imply a passage of time, a rite of passage, a journey. It does imply a process.

And I think already, there is a kindness in using those words and approaching it that way, versus I’ve got to go out and make it happen. I think too there’s a great wisdom in coming into alignment with it, because to me, it also implies that there is this process through which you’re going to change. You’re going to change from the inside out.

And there will be the work, the outer work you do. I do think the work we do out in the world also builds our soul, builds our interior. And also, there’s that inner work that’s this constant exchange and conversation, that inner work that we do that they also helps us create and build what we’re going to create and build in the world.

So, coming into alignment versus forcing and making it happen. Sometimes, I love to use the phrase make it happen because it’s fun. Like I love to make dinner happen sometimes, things like that. But I think you know what I mean. It’s coming into alignment versus sort of that force, grind, survival, hustle mode.

And so, within that, today I have six elements that I want to share with you. And the first we already did. And essentially, it is that reflection, that harvesting process, to look back and take notice, harvest, reap the magic that you’ve experienced, the good fortune you’ve experienced, the miracles you’ve experienced, the miracle of you that you’ve experienced. Take stock and really hold dear and let it count your strength and your achievements.

Beware of this almost silent subconscious tendency that many women and artists have to think, “I’m starting from zero. Every day I start from zero, or I begin a new project and now I’ve got to build myself all over again.” No, let it all count. When we let everything count and really take it in, then we avoid discounting ourselves.

And when we haven’t done this harvesting part, we can just unintentionally subconsciously discount ourselves. And that unfortunately flows downriver to our results. If we discounted our value or capacity for bringing value, our capacity for channeling great value, then a lot of times, we will dilute and diminish the impact and the value and the results that we are able to create in the world.

So first, gratitude. And not just the perfunctory, “Check, I’m grateful,” but the feeling it, like really feeling, moving yourself. You know you’re doing it when you are moved.

And then the second element is to dream again, and to dream from a place – this can be kind of the tricky part. But you can be onto yourself by first not confusing a dream for a means to an end. Because some people are like, “Well, I dream of that job.” But is that job really the dream? Or is that job really just the means to, like, the ability to travel, the ability to work with people of a certain high caliber, the ability to have access to different minds, or is it the ability to have a paycheck which then facilitates something else that’s actually the dream?

So, many of you might know what your impossible dream is already. And if so, write that down here. We’re going to do a few exercises. Some of these are adapted from the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, the chapter on reclaiming possibility. I love that book. I’m creating a recommended reading list for the Art School and that book is definitely on there.

And so, we’re going to do a series of exercises today with the intention of helping you tap into that juice of possibility and magic again. And hopefully maybe bypass the hyper-responsible prison guard adult in your mind that’s like, “But what are we going to do with that? What are we going to do with that degree? What are we going to do with that retreat?” This is a place you have permission to be deeply at ease and relaxed and dream again.

So, I have a series of prompts for you and the best way to do this is just fast. And the other thing that I always find with these, there’s what I do fast and I write it down. And then, when I do this process, then so much will occur to me later in the day, driving to pick up my kids when part of me is lightly focused on something else and then, like, boom, there’s the really interesting answer. Or the next day in the shower phenomenon.

So, don’t judge anything you write down today. This is also part of the process of just trusting whatever you write down and knowing that answers will also continue to come, the answers that you’re meant to receive. So, the first question that I have for you is what would I try if it weren’t too crazy? Just five things.

And we’re going to do these kind of rapid fire. And you certainly don’t have to, but if you’re ever super-excited about something that comes up, you’re welcome to share it in that chat, or surprised, what would if it weren’t too crazy? What would I try – here’s the second one – what would I try if it weren’t too selfish?

And then here are some rapid fire. These are just ones of my own. And I’ll do these over and over again because sometimes they get very different answers. So, first, five places I’d love to go if COVID were no issue. The next, five things I’d love to do. And then the next, five things I’d love to give. Next, five things I’d love to receive. The next, five things I’d love to buy.

And now, here’s one. Sometimes I separate out these two elements, but for the sake of time today, I’m going to combine them. If money and time were no object, I would… If money and time were no object, I would…

And as you’re doing it, it’s just interesting sometimes to notice if the sensor is right there, huffing and puffing, trying to keep up as you write fast. And you might want to – sometimes, I’ll just jot down in the margins what the objection tends to be. Because over time, if I see it’s the same objection over and over again, I’m like, that’s a pretty boring objection. It’s actually kind of baseless a lot of times too.

Oh, that’s excellent, Zoe. Zoe would add in a prompt, if gatekeepers didn’t exist, I would. So good, Zoe. So, another way of saying that would be saying if middlemen, middlewomen didn’t exist, I would… If I didn’t have to be granted access or permission, I would…

So Emily asked if I would put the prompts in the chat. I’ll send out this recording so you’ll have them. I would put the prompts in the chat, except for then I would lose my train of thought and this would become a very disjointed call.

So, just trust that part of going quickly is that it does make it hard for the analytical part of your brain to keep up, so there’s no wrong way to do this Just get down what you can get down. And I guess that can’t be overstated. There is no wrong way to do this. that’s part of this exercise, is that it is liberating. And I think we need more spaces like this in our creative life and in life in general, more space where we’re like, “I can do no wrong here. I cannot get it wrong. Whatever comes to me is absolutely perfect, even if I think I’m missing half of it.”

So, just trust that you’re right here, right on schedule. And also, you will all get a recording of this so you will have all of these prompts too.

Okay, and so, now, moving from those prompts to a different one, I want you to think of five imaginary lives for yourself, five alternative realities for yourself, completely different. So, this really helps just quiet down that hyper-rational over-functioning part of our brain that’s like, “No way can I be a ballet dancer now,” for whatever reason. Just five alternate lives, imaginary lives.

And you can also, like, this imaginary you, it could look completely different from what your life looks like. That’s the beauty of this exercise. And so, any shorthand to finish jotting those down, and so, again, just to underline, like, why do we do this?

We don’t know the limits we place on ourselves because we are so accustomed to thinking that we know who we are and we know what we’re capable of that we don’t even start to notice our rigid patterns and structures that are keeping us limited. And it can be so clear from the outside looking in.

I know, if I meet with a potential client for the first time and I can tell where the things that to me seem so clear that they’re capable of doing, I can feel then where they pull back a little bit. And I’m sure you’ve had that experience yourself in your life where you know somebody and you see so clearly what they’re capable of. And yet there seems to be some sort of invisible block or barrier.

So, all of these exercises are really to help. We don’t have to always bust the barrier down. But if we just do some of this wiggle room and release some of the energy of the impossible and let that potential flow back into our lives, a lot of times, that has the ability to have an effect in our lives. It is not necessarily understood by the rational mind. But is nevertheless just as real.

So, I think also, we are always making these great demands on ourselves. Sometimes too, if we’re doing a dreaming exercise or impossible goals or dreams, people will automatically shift into survival mode, just thinking right away into the how, “But how am I going to do this?” And automatically shutting down and already automatically limiting what’s available to them. And that’s just good to know that we have that tendency.

What we can do about that though is build in opportunities, like this workshop, to get back in touch with radical possibility, with magic, with wonder, with what that whoosh of possibility feels like. I was just reading an article in Rolling Stone. The issue is musicians talking to other musicians. And Margo Price was talking to the woman from – oh gosh, she’s incredible and her name escapes me now. She was in the Alabama Shakes and she’s now onto her own.

And when they first moved to Nashville and were kind of in their broke musician mode, they were good friends back in those days and they reminisced in this article, reminisced fondly about how they would get together and stay up all night talking about their dreams and if they would make it someday.

So, giving ourselves that kind of energy, those kind of conversations, where we get to exchange with one another, it’s wonderful to do it yourself, but I think there’s a kind of magic too that happens when you’re in the presence of other people and you are acknowledging dreams and acknowledging wonderous possibilities that you’d love to invite into your life. There’s great magic and great power in that.

So, in all of this process of harnessing the magic of impossible dreams and goals, I believe we stated it in some of our communication materials, but having space on your calendar, physical space in your life is vital. If it’s not there on your calendar, if there’s not a desk cleared, a notebook dedicated, an hour of the week or the day or in Art School we have our 90-minute artist dates every week devoted to what’s sacred and essential to your creative life, we think it’s going to happen but it’s just so hard to make it that consistent devotion that really creates the magic in your life, having some kind of community or relationship around it.

It could be that girlfriend that you stay up talking all night with and then you also write music together or your business partners. It could be a mastermind. It could be peers that you get together with, creative or entrepreneurial, some kind of support. And then also nourishing yourselves.

In the Art School, we talk about serving the non-rational. So, I know for many of you, creatives that you are, it’s like beauty, giving yourself things of beauty, giving yourself the kind of inputs, inspiration that to other people might not see essential but to you are, whether that’s music, whether that’s nature, whether that’s silence, whether that is the hustle and bustle of a city, but not discounting that either, but knowing that that also directly affects your ability to feel fully alive and also you can talk back to that analytical part of your brain that says it’s nonsense. It really does impact the results that you’re able to create in the world.

And I wanted to emphasize that having an impossible goal or dream, I talk about one of mine in, I think it’s episode seven, an earlier episode called the Moonshot, my moonshot goal. And once going to the moon was – that’s where it came from – was an impossible goal or dream. And so, the one that I shared in there was making two million dollars a year as a creative and as a coach and also defining my process in which I would do that, a kind process that supports all of my values, family values as well as values as an artist and values as a teacher and a coach, person in general.

So, this was not about just a grind and finding someone else’s formula and plugging myself into it and getting it done. But truly, like, a heuristic example of tapping into and trusting my own creative instincts and intuition and guidance and letting that be more than enough to create a dream like that in the world.

And the thing that also happens along the way is that so many things, it’s that process and passage that I talked about before, that coming into alignment. So much beauty has come of that. And we all hear it, about it’s all about the journey or it’s not just about the goal or the destination, it’s about the journey.

But really, I started to, in thinking about the coming year and this workshop with all of you and talking about impossibility and possibility on the podcast and in the Art School, I’ve been doing my own writing and reflection about all of the things that have come into my life or how my life has been enriched, how I have grown as a person because of having an impossible goal or dream. And it’s way too much to share here.

But some of the highlights are my relationship, my marriage is better than ever. Family relationship, relationship with my children, I have definitely grown so much as an entrepreneur, as a businesswoman, as a coach. My relationship with myself, I think that’s one thing where I can just say it has definitely grown and deepened my relationship with myself, my relationship to creativity, my relationship to power, my relationship with other women as well, and my relationship to my idea of who I think I am.

Because what was my moonshot a couple of years ago is now just – I shouldn’t say just – is part of my plan. It’s in that, “That’s happening,” inevitable stage which then lets me think, what else can I do? And it’s definitely married with this process though and a commitment to the intention that I am kind to myself throughout this process.

And the times when I don’t want to be kind, the times when I want to fall apart, or want to be really hard on myself, that’s grown incredibly too because I just insist that this is a soul-building process, not one of tearing myself down or tearing down any other part of my life. This is a goal or a dream, a process that you do for yourself and not to yourself.

And by using the word, the concept impossible, it deliberately just signals to your brain, I know we don’t think this is available to us. And we’re just going to try anyway. And we’re just going to really go for it anyway. And that invites in all kinds of opportunities, all kinds of opportunities. But I know that the biggest gift is that it also evokes, within you, strength and gifts and capability that you either were discounting or you just didn’t even think you had.

I have been through some things this year that a few years ago I would have been like, “No.” I mean, I like to think I’m a pretty calm, steady person. But I definitely, having done this impossible goal, I saw how I was kind of hanging out strategically. Like, I will take on all sorts of things and I will be a steady rock for people. But I don’t want to have to deal with that kind of adversity.

And I have dealt with all sorts of adversity this year that I definitely would not have signed up for had I known. But it was exactly what I needed, the exact curriculum that I needed to really grow and to really feel like I have a stronger life and I’m living a deeper life because of having this impossible goal or dream. And that is truly one of the greatest gifts and why I’m so passionate about talking about it here.

Not to push an impossible goal or dream on any of you, but if you’re here because something is calling you, just to give you some tools and energy and beginnings of a framework and structure for how you might go about creating your own impossible goal or dream.

So, I told you about – we did the exercises. That is part of giving yourself that element number two, dreaming again. Give yourself dream time. Give yourself deep dream time, deep dream space. Give yourself playful dream time. Give yourself dreaming buddies. Give yourself community that’s not afraid to spitball about big dreams and you root for each other.

Like, Zoe is on the call here. Zoe introduced to the Art School and the Mastermind the concept of snapping. So, when anyone in the Art School is celebrating something, it can also be like celebrating, you’re declaring something that before you were afraid to declare in public. And snapping is a way of applauding and affirming without interrupting the flow of the person we’re celebrating.

So, having that space, giving yourself that kind of energy and that kind of expansive permission to dream and support to dream. And then, okay, so the third element – and this is a more precise practice, and this is one you might have heard me say before, and it’s one I use myself. And that is ask in the evening, if you have, you decide you’re onboard with inviting in the energy and the magic of the impossible goal or dream, you having this practice of asking in the evening any sort of questions that come up around it. It could be around this impossible goal or dream. It could be around anything.

You can write it down in your journal, ask the question in the evening. It’s helpful to write it down. Otherwise you will forget, when the answer comes, that you asked for that precise answer. So, ask in the evening and, again, a Julia Cameron practice of in the morning you write the morning pages. You just write stream of consciousness, three pages without stopping, no censor, not lifting the pen, not slowing down, not trying, not overthinking, not over-functioning, just flowing.

And you might also use those morning pages as a way to jot down any dreams that you had in the night, because a lot of times, those answers can come in the form of a dream. Betsy Pearson, who is another one of our beloved Art Schoolers offered an amazing class this last session, dream analysis class. So, that can be a great way to dive into the answers that you’re receiving.

Because a lot of times, in dreams, it’s not what it appears at first blush. And I know there is, when I do this process at the beginning, it was even right before I publicly announced my moonshot goal, I did this ask in the evening, write in the morning. And I had jotted down a dream and I was talking to a friend who is quite intuitive and very observant. And she’s like, “That’s a very striking dream. That seems like a very important symbol for you.” And I was like, “Really? I just thought it was a very vivid dream.” She’s like, “No, that seems like a symbol for you.”

And I went back and I looked at my journal and I had asked a couple nights before for a symbol to help me create, manifest, guide my way forward. Because my question was around I believe that I have a self-organizing intelligence. I believe that I don’t need to force everything linearly and rationally and force and figure it out. I do believe that there is something within all of us that is self-organizing and so wise and genius beyond anything that our relatively small or analytical minds can accomplish. So, I want a symbol for how to work with this, or a framework for how to cooperate with this self-organizing intelligence.

And I had asked for a symbol because I like working with symbols. I like the way that they can mean many different things, and as time goes on you turn them this way and that. It seems like they are a potential for giving you a meaning. And just the many dimensions to interpretation are limitless and have served me well in other places.

So, I went back and I’m like, “Yeah, I did ask for that and it’s interesting that I happened to mention it to this friend and she noticed it.” So, that one particular symbol I have used this way and that. I couldn’t explain it to you. It would make no sense to you. But it has created so much and been such an ally and a guide for me, and also I don’t think it would be worth your while for me to tell you because you have access to your own wisdom and infinite self that will give you a symbol that will mean nothing to anybody else. But to you, it will have infinite potential in what it’s able to help you unlock.

So, the process, asking in the evening, writing in the morning. The writing part, there’s the asking, and then the writing is actually receiving. So, there is a bit of guidance that Julia Cameron offers that is very important regarding morning pages. Because if you are a writer, she says writers often try to write morning pages. Morning pages aren’t something you write. Morning pages are just something you do. So, just allow yourself to do the morning pages. And that’s very liberating as well.

Okay, so fourth element, and I touched on this a little earlier so I won’t spend much time on it, but give yourself the ideal creative ecosystem. You each have the seed of genius within you; who knows how many seeds. You each have that inner genius and you each have these – I think of them as God seeds within you.

And you all, I’m sure, are very good at working and creating in the traditional sense, making things happen. And what I find so often though, when people are feeling burnt out or they’ve been burnt out and they’re like, “No more dreaming for me. Tired of being disappointed, tired of being heartbroken, tired of being exhausted, tired of it ruining my life.”

A lot of what’s missing is this part of not having sustainable, sufficient, abundant, creative nourishment, having a healthy creative ecosystem in your life. And that’s an inner creative ecosystem and an outer. So, if you think about a particular seed, you know that like an acorn has the potential to grow into a tree, but if you keep the acorn in a jar on your shelf, it’s not going to happen.

And there’s then different environments you could drop it in outside, you’re taking your chances with whether it’s going to happen, versus putting that acorn in its ideal environment and then tending to it along the way. And that environment, again, can be your inner environment, so your mindset, your emotional health, spiritual health, physicality, your physical wellbeing.

And then the outer environment, your physical environment, that matters. So, caring for anything that you come into contact with in life and letting yourself allow higher and higher energies in with everything that you bring into your life, whether it’s information that you consume, conversations that you have, being in nature, or whatever fuels you, giving yourself that.

It’s also your community. It’s also, are you trying to do it all on your own? Or do you allow yourself – and we won’t spend a lot of time on this, but here’s something that’s essential for an impossible dream or goal; writing out, describing your dream team. What would be your dream team?

Because that makes you realize that an impossible goal is never all on you. So, your dream team could be comprised of amazing beings both physical and nonphysical. Your dream team could be, like, accountants, lawyers, copyeditors, interns, all very physical and traditional.

Your dream team could be, you know, allies, friends that really get you, mentors, trainers. Let yourself have the sky as the limit on who would be on your dream team. And if you write down, “Well, I’d like to work with Lin-Manuel Miranda, write it down. Because if that’s what comes to you, there’s something in the essence of that. Like, okay, maybe, I hope for you that you have that collaboration. Do it.

And then in the meantime, what does that mean? Does that mean you want to sit down with somebody who is operating in that caliber and you speak the same language? What is the essence of that person on your dream team? And write it out and then we’ll get to something else about that in a little bit.

But number four, give yourself the ideal creative ecosystem. I think it came out yesterday, a podcast interview I did with Susan Hyatt. She talked about the concept of a grand gesture from Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work, and about how when she just was struggling to get the last part of her book done, she hired her favorite writer, copyeditor, friend, Alex Franzen to come into her lake house for a week and they holed up for a week and got the book done.

So that is a grand gesture that can be part of your creative ecosystem too. But the thing that I wanted to say, the last thing I want to say about creative ecosystem is that it will involve change. And change never feels like it’s the right time for it, unless it’s crisis.

And so we don’t have to wait for crisis in order to change, but if you are not going to wait for crisis, just realize that you’re going to have some internal feedback. And making decisions, only making decisions that you’re comfortable with just likely leads to nothing changes.

And also, if you don’t change on behalf of this impossible goal or dream, the results you get, it’s pretty predictable. They’re going to be continually the same, whereas starting to make decisions that are aligned with an impossible goal and dream really starts to invite some magic and possibility and change into your life. And that’s the kind of energy that gets things flowing and moving and unstuck.

So fifth element, I think of this as the 10 to one ratio. So 10 to one of spending time in what gives me the sort of energy to create what I want to create, and the one being the how. And me following through on the how.

And I do quite a bit, I create quite a bit, and I have also created within myself very strong follow through, completion powers, and the ability to get a lot done without being overwhelmed, which I also wanted to say has been one of the most tremendous gifts of this impossible – that’s a whole ‘nother workshop, of this impossible goal and dream process is it became clear to me that I would not either move forward with my impossible goal or dream or would do it and just run amuck of all my values if I did not revolutionize my relationship with overwhelm.

I realized that the woman who had created my impossible goal or dream, when I spent time with her, which is something I do in this 10 to one ratio process, when I talked to my future self, when I worked on being her now, I realized that she was creating a lot of impact and she was not overwhelmed.

And she was not working 80-hour weeks, she was not a stress ball, and yet, she was creating massive results. And so like, how can that be? And so that just led me to well, she’s trusting herself deeply. Well, she’s really grown up certain aspects of herself, she’s really changed how she handles and encounters different kinds of adversity. She has really expanded her ability to work with her mindset and her emotional mastery, and she’s just not somebody who does overwhelm.

And that’s not to say that I don’t still sometimes get overwhelmed, but it is – just for inside looking out, I feel like a different person in that regard. I can see how before I was really holding myself back from different opportunities and really slowing my own roll subconsciously because I had an inner dread that of what would happen if I encountered something and I’d be overwhelmed.

I was like, already being overwhelmed by the potential of overwhelm. And so making that commitment to myself that I would radically change my relationship with overwhelm, to the point where I’m like, I just don’t do overwhelm, I’m a person that can be steady and I don’t need to rearrange the world outside of me in order to maintain that steady and peace.

That for me has been a very powerful inner goal to have, an inner process to have. So in that 10 to one ratio, what it can look like, and I talk about this on a podcast that will come out next week, use your imagination for how to steep yourself in the energy of this impossible dream coming true, what lights you up, what feels like magic and really go there.

So one of the processes that I share on next week’s podcast is walking yourself into the dream. Everyone in the Art School hears me talk a lot about how many long walks I go on. I’ll go on long walks to focus on a single idea, sometimes for weeks, until I really get it into my being and this is an essential part of this process. This is so important.

That the person that creates this impossible goal, for her, it’s not impossible at that point. For her, it’s just natural. For her, it’s just part of what flows from what she does. So I will go and walk and walk and think, but also feel, and imagine what is it like to be somebody for whom that’s not a stretch, that’s not impossible. What is it like to be someone for whom it’s just natural for her?

That’s just part of what flows from who she is. And what she thinks flows from who she is, what she feels flows from who she is, what she does. And so is she grateful for that life? Yes. And she’s also not feeling like it’s a strain or that she’s barely pulling something off by the skin of her teeth. That’s also how I came into this well, she’s clearly not overwhelmed.

So that way it’s getting into that energy of who she is and how she thinks and how she feels then changes how I think the rest of the time and how I approach decisions that I make. And it just changes the energy of who I am on a daily basis.

So that’s another great gift of this impossible goal or dream. Spending time in this 10 to one ratio where I’m not just throwing myself into frenzied action day in, day out to make this thing happen to prove it. I am really giving a lot of energy and I do it through writing too and meditating, including practicing it in all areas of my life, being coached on it. But I wanted to bring up the 10 to one ratio because a lot of my own self-coaching and process happens behind the scenes.

And so I think it’s helpful to know how much time and energy that I really do invest in this part of my process, and that it is an essential part. And having been very fueled by this part is then what I have seen has made the actions that I do take have so much more potency. I’m doing a lot of the same things day in, day out, that I did several years ago, and I truly believe it’s this impossible goal and dream and spending 10 to one, the amount of time in this energy of having done it, having been that future self now that has given so much greater potency to what I am able to create and the results I’m able to create.

So that is number five. Number six I wanted to share is mindset. I pulled that out from the creative ecosystem. It’s part of your creative ecosystem that I wanted to pull out and share. This one thought in particular. This may or may not resonate with you, but I wanted to share it anyway because one, it may resonate with you. Two, it also just illustrates the process of you don’t have to do thought work all day long. A lot of times you just need to find the thought that fuels you and it could carry you for a few weeks, it could carry you for a decade.

And this is one that has carried me for the last few years. And it dovetails perfectly with this impossible dream work. And that is my thought about creating this is, I just do it. And it’s the energy behind that that is so important. That thought came to me during one of these walks, and it’s that I just do it.

Because your mind will be like, but how? But how? And if you share this dream with anyone in the world, they’ll be like, but how? But how? And who I wanted to become was somebody who could just look myself straight in the eye or anyone else and just say, “I just do it.”

I didn’t want to overcomplicate. I didn’t want to overthink, which doesn’t mean I leave my intelligence at the door. But it just means at the end of the day, I’m someone, if I say I’m going to do something, I just do it. And that really – that’s the antithesis of overwhelm and that also – the other reason I wanted to share that with all of you is because I think as women and creatives, we’re subconsciously conditioned that that kind of power is off limits to us.

And that is another invitation of the impossible goal or dream is to reclaim that. That within you, you don’t have to rationalize, nobody else has to understand why you think you’re the one to do this thing. You don’t have to make it seem convincing or logical to anyone else. All you need is the ability to tap into something deep in your belly, in your heart and soul, and say hey, I know it might not make sense to the rest of the world, I know it may seem impossible, but I am somebody, I just do it.

And I think that is a powerful aspect of yourself to reclaim, and it’s available to all of you, to be someone who, I just do it. And again, one of the places where I see people get so hung up is but how? But how? All of these smaller distractions, they can all be quieted in one moment with the I hear you, noted, and yet at the end of the day, the most dominant energy in my life is still me. I am the creative leader in my life and I know myself to be someone who I just do it.

So that is the sixth and final element that I wanted to share with you in this magic of impossible dreams, impossible goals today. I really wish for all of you just to – not just, but open up again and enjoy the fun of dreaming. In a way, go into the place where it just lights you up, it feels fun and exciting, and you have the ability to just let yourself saturate in the joy of dreaming again and in the joy of possibility, letting that come back into your life, nourishing that, knowing that that is sacred.

And also, playing with this, huh, what would it be like to be someone who’s like, I just do it? That’s what’s available to everyone so the not impossible part of today’s workshop, and that’s really my underlying theme here is to help you stay in that energy of welcoming in things that you may have thought off limits for you before and throwing up all the windows and doors to let that magic and wonder back in, and also tapping into that fierce, that determined, that deeply loving creative force in yourself, that force of nature that you are that says I have that dream and I’m just going to do it.

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This brings me to the part of the podcast where I want you to do more than just listen. I want you to lean in and really work with me, coach with me. So you might have guessed, I already offered so many coach with me opportunities via the prompts in the workshop that you just listened to.

So your coach with me is that you don’t just listen through to this episode, but you listen through once and then if you have not already, you go back, pause the recording, I was going to say pause the tape, giving away my 80s child self. Pause the recording and write your answers, write your responses.

Make sure you do the work. Coaching works, but you got to work the coaching. Miracles happen, but you got to work the miracle. And also invite in the magic.

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of The Art School podcast. If you’ve loved this podcast, if these episodes have been meaningful for you and have helped you move the needle in your own life, the best thing you can do to pay it forward is to share, is to subscribe, and is to go to iTunes and leave a review.

And when you’re ready to take this work deeper, the Art School is the place to be. We are already enrolling students, clients for the March 2021 session for both the 12-week Art School and a 14-week version of the mastermind. Now, if you’re listening to this recording, which I recorded in mid-December, as of this time, there are only handful of spots remaining for the March 21 14-week mastermind.

So if that is something that you want to be a part of your 2021, please send us an email, support@leahcb.com and we can direct you to the application. You can also find links on my website, links for information about the mastermind and also links to apply. The mastermind is application only.

Also available for both the mastermind and the Art School is if you would like to schedule a discovery call, an enrollment call with a member of our team, that is also available to you. You can schedule one of those by writing discovery consult in the subject line and emailing support@leahcb.com.

There are also advantages for enrolling early, including bonus calls that we have in January and February, a week-long immersion program that we have in January, the possibility immersion is included if you enroll early. Also for early enrollees in the Art School, the 12-week Art School, there is an early bird pricing tier that is available through mid-January.

In both the Art School and the mastermind, we take all of the concepts that you hear on the podcast plus so many more that I don’t have the time to share on this podcast, and we take them all more deeply. And we apply them to the individual’s specific life, their specific creative project. And this is not just a course that you sit back passively and take.

But it is very engaged. You receive personal individual attention, you receive within the group setting individual coaching on your particular topic, your particular project, whatever your particular needs are, are met and exceeded.

Again, my belief is that by creating an ideal creative ecosystem, that which is within you will grow and thrive and flourish and you will have a renewed appreciation for the depths of your gifts, your strengths, and it’s a perfect place to bring both a goal that is within reach and you want extra support and help and you also want the benefit of an incredibly uplifting, extraordinary, empowering, encouraging, generative, positive community, and also laser insight, master level coaching. It’s also the ideal place to bring your impossible goals and dreams.

And if you’re wondering which one is the right fit for you, again, email us, support@leahcb.com and we will answer all of your questions. We can send you additional information and you can also sign up for a discovery consult with a member of our team.

To close today, I want to share with you three words. They are three words from a poem by the poet William Stafford, who I’ve talked about on this podcast before. I even did an episode about him. And trying to speak about anyone who has been a great teacher to you like this is always going to feel abridged and like it doesn’t do it justice.

And these three words of course don’t even do justice or convey the meaning of this entire poem, but they were the words that kept coming to me when I thought about closing energy thoughts that I wanted to leave with you today and this particular podcast on impossible dreams and as you enter the New Year, or whatever new beginnings you are considering for yourself at this time in your life.

And these are the words. “Imagine the world.” Imagine the world. I’ll let you think of that what you will. Imagine on that for yourself and take it into your life and make whatever it is that you are imagining and that is near and dear to your heart, make it real. Thank you so much for being here everyone. I love you guys. Have a beautiful week and I will see you next time.