Ep #153: Responding to the Inner Critic

For many people, the moment they start considering a creative dream, maybe something they haven’t allowed themselves before, or they’re midway through and they’re beginning to lose muster, they’re beginning to lose hope, they’re beginning to lose strength, at those times, the inner critic often flies in and says, “It’s too late. You’re too old. Too much has happened. Why bother?” et cetera.

Julia Cameron writes a response to that inner critic that I want to share with you here. She says, “But do you know how old I will be by the time I really learn to play the piano, or act, or paint, or write a decent play? Yes,” she responds, “The same age you will be if you don’t.”

And now, this is sage wisdom from the grand dame Julia herself. And if you’ve ever heard these words and thought, “I get it. I believe it. But what if I put in the time to play the piano, to learn to play the piano,” to learn not only how to write a play, write a novel, complete a painting, but how to create at such a level that you love what you have created, that it exceeds what you ever thought you’d do that you can find yourself in a place where you are truly saying, “I’ve done it. I’ve made it. I can’t believe I’ve cultivated this way of being. I can’t believe I’m able to create these results in my life.”

So, no matter what it is you’re creating, if you’re holding back because you are not trusting that you will grow, that you will progress, that you will evolve, that you will improve, that you will be successful, if you doubt that it will mean anything in the end and that it will leave you feeling unfulfilled or unhappy, if you’re holding back in any of these ways, today’s episode is for you.

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 another episode of The Art School Podcast. Come in, come in. Warm yourself by the fire. Let’s have some fun together. I am having a lot of fun lately. And more on that later. It’s not unrelated. And you’ll probably hear more in upcoming episodes.

It’s not just though an excuse for me to tell you what I’m doing that is so fun or what I’m so excited about. It’s also very relevant to the theme for this podcast and upcoming episodes.

Today, I want to start though by saying, if you’ve never listened to an episode before, thank you so much for being here. And if you’ve listened to a few, thank you for coming back. And to my long-term listeners, oh my gosh, thank you for being here for the long haul.

And you may or may not have heard yet about my moonshot goal, another one in addition to the two-million one that I announced recently. And that is to make it to a million downloads for this podcast.

I so appreciate those of you who have already tagged me on Instagram with how you are sharing. I love that. You can #theartschoolpodcast and tag me and follow me. I’d love to connect with you there. I’m @leahcb1.

Also, thanks to those of you who have forwarded me the inclusion in your newsletters. I am blown away by your responsiveness and your support and your help in helping me reach a wider audience and move the movement forward.

As I mentioned earlier, if everyone that listened forwarded this to five, 10 of their friends, if you want to send a piece of inspiration or something you would think would be relevant to their lives, that would help me smash my goal before even year’s end, which is pretty awesome to think about.

And also along this line – so, I had the opportunity lately – this is part of the fun I’ve been having – to visit with friends in real life, which is always awesome. And I was having a conversation with one of these beautiful, amazing friends who is so talented and is so creative, even if she still argues me on that point. But you know who you are. You’re still listening to the podcast. I’m going to get you yet to own the creativity.

But it made me think again, I assume too often that many of you have been here for the long haul. And so, just let me take this opportunity to say that the Art School is about tapping into the innate Creativity, capital C Creativity that is inherent in all humans. It is about stepping off the common conveyor belt that society would have us believe is how we have to live and how we have to be and we ride that into the sunset like it’s some old horse in one of those good old western movies.

But it’s not. Creativity is making choices that align with your true desires, with who you really are. Creativity too, if you’re like, “I don’t know who I am. I just showed up here, Leah,” creativity too is a way to get in touch with who you really are and what the destiny is that you can craft according to your own values and your own desires.

And there is something, even for those of you who swear to me that you are not creative, I’ll get you yet. And if you haven’t listened to the last podcast with Marci Fehlhafer, please listen to that one. But creativity for me is not just the realm of the arts.

And so, people say, well then why did you call it the Art School. Well, one, I meditated about it, I prayed to it, and it came to me in such an intuitive flash of insight that it was one of those things where I’m like, “That’s it.” And it had the feeling of, “That’s one of these things where it is not mine to question. That’s what it is.” I got it. I saw it. Including the logo.

And when my brain was like, ‘But won’t that confuse people?” That you’re not actually teaching any methods of traditional art but instead you’re teaching a creative intentional approach to not only creating anything you want, whether you are in the sciences, whether you’re an engineer, whether you’re a professor, whether you are a lawyer, whether you are an artist, a photographer, a playwright, a performer.

This is about teaching you to be in touch with your innate creative process that will allow you to know whatever you can dream of. Whatever you can imagine, you are built to achieve. And it’s the synergistic process of going back and forth between the dream and getting to know yourself that allows who you really are to unfold.

And as I have said so many times, creativity carries with it the essence of who you are. Your medium, it doesn’t matter if your medium is paint or poetry or classroom teaching or entrepreneurialism or raising children or being a community leader or being a farmer. Creativity is a way of thinking. It is a way of being. It is a way of feeling. It is a way of intuiting. It is a way of showing up in the world. It is a way of getting more in touch with the truth of who you are and then what the expression of you, full out, your biggest fullest life looks like in the world, what flows from you just being you. And what magic and wonder and aliveness and satisfaction and fulfilment and growth and evolution can happen when you do that, when you move through that discovery process.

And creativity, it’s both the door. It’s the portal. It’s the way. It’s the guide. And it’s also in you. So, if you’re drawn to my work and then you also find yourself disqualifying yourself because you’re like, “But I’m not an artist.” I want to give you permission to stop that.

All humans are creative humans and all welcome here. And hang around and I will speak more and more, every week, all the time about how not only do we have permission to be creative, but I do think it’s imperative if you want to experience all there is for you to experience in life. And if you also want to experience having a goal or dream, very likely maybe something you’ve never done before, or something you’ve never seen before or never known anyone else to do. And yet you feel that it keeps coming back and back.

That, to me, it’s like knocking on the door and asking you to awake the sleeping giant within, those inner resources. And again, they don’t have to fit into small boxes, like painting. Not to diminish painting or the arts and not to call them small boxes. Like, I love the arts. I love my own art. And then I also don’t try to fit myself inside the box.

I don’t think of myself as, “Well now I’m being a painter. And now I’m being a mother. And now I’m being an entrepreneur. And now I’m being a writer. And now I’m being a coach.” I think of all these avenues, all these mediums, these things that I love that I’m so passionate about.

I think about the opportunity to help people move dreams and goals that are within them out into the world, move gifts that are within them, and start living from that place out into the world of creating and living in a place where you experience just more self-kindness and compassion and love, for you, enjoy being inside your own mind, including in places that are challenging and that make you play to your edge.

That, to me, is an opportunity for me to be creative, just as much as painting, just as much as creating a business or a podcast. And so, for you, giving yourself permission to look at creativity in a very liberal, large light, all the ways where you can examine what it is that you really love and how you can live more of that and live from that place in your life and move through life not having to conform yourself to outside expectations or ideals, even if in the end those outside expectations are really ones now that you are agreeing to and imposing upon yourself.

But to be free, that this world was made to be free in. And we have so many gifts – those of us listening in free worlds and free countries. And I think not in an obligatory sense, but we have the opportunity to see what we are made of and to explore that. And to me, that is not just the realm of traditional artists. That is the realm of all humans, to see what you can really do, to have fun, to explore, to play your edge, to do it in a way that no one else has ever done it before, whatever that it may be for you.

As I have said before, maybe you haven’t heard it before or maybe it is just one of those things that bears repeating. I definitely think so. We learn by repetition.

The foundation of this work, the heart of it and a keystone is this functional – meaning it works – creative philosophy, meaning love of wisdom and especially how it pertains to creative energy. And that is that we, when we cultivate an extraordinary way of being, which I believe is available to all humans – I believe this extraordinary way of being really points us back to a belief in our strong core, a strong healthy core that even if life has trampled us or beaten us down or warped it, we can come back to trust the strong healthy core glowing within us, like a nuclear core, and that we can return to that.

So, again, cultivating an extraordinary way of being in mind, body, and spirit that makes the extraordinary results we dream of, we imagine, inevitable. So, when I say extraordinary results, I mean, you name it. What do you want to create? Do you want to create a life where you travel three months out of the year? Do you want to create a life where you spend less and less time typing away on emails, more time doing deep work and then moving that out into the world in a way that changes people’s lives? Do you want to have more time available to you to go deeper into a certain area and then come back out and marry that with an application in real life that changes lives, whether it is through the arts, whether you’re a visionary in other mediums, whether you are, let’s say, I don’t know, doing something super creative like a founding a girls’ school in a very beautiful place that has never had such opportunities before.

So, all of that is really to prime you for the core of today’s episode, which is this idea that when our inner critic says that – those voices we’ve internalized – when it says, “Yeah, I see that goal or dream, but it’s too late. You’re too old. You’ve had too many bad experiences around it. Or you’ve invested too much already. You haven’t made your money back already. You’ve already poured years of blood, sweat, and tears into it. Why bother? Why do you think the next five or 10 years or the next year will make any difference?”

And again, I love how Julia Cameron speaks to this. She says, you know, to that voice that says, within us that says, “But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano, to really act, really paint, really write a decent play?” And then you answer with, “Yes, the same age you will be if you don’t.”

Now, so often, what I will hear next from people, and maybe you’re right there too, is after they take this in and they’re like, “Ah, true,” then their inner critic comes back with, “But there’s no guarantee, right?” And here’s what I want to speak to about that.

No guarantee of what? And I instead would advise you to not be in other people’s business, not be in God’s business, as Byron Katie says, but to be in your business. And instead of already outsourcing your destiny and your power by saying, “There’s no guarantee that it will turn out well.” Slow that down. Don’t do that. Don’t go that way. And instead, redirect your imagination to, “What do I know I absolutely control?”

Like The Rock says, “Control the controlables.” One of the controlables is who you are going to be in the process. Another controllable that we know of, thanks to Dr. Dweck’s work in Growth Mindset is we know the capacity of our brain to grow and to learn and to evolve. And if that is the direction that you’ve decided upon, “No matter what, I will improve. I will get better.” Like for me, for instance, as I’m nearing – well I’m past a year of having been taking piano lessons again, I am not only learning and growing, but I’m also learning and growing so much around how I learn and grow, like the insights that I have gained from practicing the piano and progressing through the last year absolutely have translated to and I’ve applied them to many other areas in my life.

And I feel like more that I have insights and awareness around how I can have a growth mindset around everything, then the more I can apply it to anything. And here’s what I know to be true. In the moment to moment, it matters so much how you control your attention and what you are giving attention to.

So, one of my sons asked a great question the other day because I was playing this piece that, for me, I’m pretty proud of. There were a couple of pieces. Like there was a Bach Junior piece, Solfeggietto. And then there was a Chopin piece. Things which, a year ago, I was not able to do.

And there’s things yet, I know, there’s so much farther to go. But this was like a great teaching point in a conversation with my son. He’s like, “Well, mom, that’s great, you’ve done so much in a year.” And he asked, sincerely, “Do you get discouraged though when so and so plays…” who is one of his friends, so a 13-year-old boy who plays like an angel. And he’s like, “Is that discouraging?”

And at a different time in my life, it would have been. And now, I know, why would I feed that input to my brain, that there is anything to be discouraged about there? Why not instead, like, marvel at the human brain, including for this young boy, this practice and how his brain has molded and then his body has molded and then his body has molded to be able to do what he is able to do? And then to marvel that I have also a human brain and, fortunately, fingers, the privilege and opportunity to play the piano and that there is, like, so much already that I can see that I’m doing, that at one point I had no clue how to do, no ability in my hands, the connections weren’t being made.

And I’ve moved through the process of stumble, stumble, stumble, it feels like you’re going nowhere, and then things begin to click. And to take that and apply that towards everything, that that is what you’re going to focus on is who you’re going to be throughout.

So, one of the places I decide to focus my attention is I am someone who has a growth mindset. I am someone who knows, if I continually direct my focus to how I’m learning, what is changing, what is different for me that wasn’t there before, and how can I tweak my process, my practice, whether it’s paint or piano or coaching or business. Because I’m informed by this learning process, then that is a joy and a gift in itself.

Here is another point that I really want you to hear if your inner critic is still like, “Yeah, 10 years might pass but that doesn’t mean that my book is going to be published or that my writing is going to be any better or that I’m going to be successful,” here’s what I want you to do with that voice; dialogue. Because right now, if that’s the voice that’s stopping you, it’s just running the show. It’s just a one-way street kind of conversation and it’s like a tyranny. It’s like a dictator.

So, instead, to answer it, to dialogue, say, “Why would you say that? What would be the reasons that we wouldn’t grow? That we wouldn’t be successful?” Because for every obstacle that it tells you about, you can turn that into an opportunity. And then here’s what else I would do. I would make a list, then. That’s the left-hand side of the column where it’s telling you all the reasons it’s not going to work, and then on the right-hand side of the column, I want you to direct your magnificent gift of an imagination, your creativity. Because it can create dismal, depressing non-outcomes. Or you can turn that creativity on and in the direction of creating constructive, generative alternatives, actions, and solutions.

And then making a list of, what things can I undertake? How can I set myself up for success? What could I do to make success inevitable? And one of my favorite questions, what could I do, being so radical with your creativity, thinking about being so radical with your self-love and self-care and with setting yourself up with an ideal, supportive, creative ecosystem, what could you do so that it would be harder to fail than to succeed?

And I will say, one of those things that for all of us humans, any kind of education, creative education on the right-hand side of the column, like what will set us up so that it’s harder to fail than to succeed? Is an education around developing our mindset, developing mindset skills, and developing emotional skills and emotional fluency and intimacy with ourselves, developing an amazing rapport, loving, warm relationship with ourselves, developing an extremely high self-regard that is not based on fluff or smoke and mirrors and fooling yourself, but that is true and deep and sacred and intimate so that you know you are always with you. Because you are, for the rest of your life.

You are with you. It is absolutely worth cultivating this intentional, loving, kind relationship with yourself. It is a creative skill. It also will lend itself to your creative power and to your ability to be efficacious, your ability to self-actualize, and the skillsets of mindset and emotional fluency, I think too, are things that belong in every creative human’s repertoire, and allowing that to be part of your intentional education and business plan and wellness plan and the way that you set yourself up for success.

I really think that of we learn how to care for our central nervous systems, if we really learn how our brains work so that we are the kind and loving master and not the servant, we don’t know what we could do.

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “The sky is not the limit; we are.” Or our thinking is. And that’s great. So, then it’s the question of, “But why?” How can we make it so that those aren’t the limits? And I really know that it’s through this cultivation of understanding, of a deep relationship, a meaningful relationship of cultivating the skills around having a growth mindset and cultivating the ability to be with yourself through all kinds of emotions.

Because if there is negative emotion we don’t want to feel then we can’t just open the valve and experience the good ones. Conversely, a lot of people shut down around emotions that feel too good, that that’s where they are artificially holding themselves back.

So, the final point that I want to share with you in today’s episode is that the time is going to pass. The time is going to pass regardless of whether you go all in and go for that goal, that dream, that life you want to live, or not. And whether you are 25 listening to this, in 10 years you’ll be 35, 10 years 45, 55, whether you’re 70 now and in 10 years will be 80, like, God willing, we all have that time, that time is going to pass.

So, the question is, how do you want to live along the way? And a lot of people will assume that because they’re really going to go for a big goal or dream, that they’re going to be miserable. Because there will be difficulty and there will be heartbreak. And if you’re really going for it, it’s going to bring up so many growth opportunities.

And yet, no one else gets to decide for you who you get to be through that process. You get to decide that. You get to say, “Hey, there’s my star. That’s what I’m creating. That’s what I’m going for. I’m not available for anything else.” And then along the way, you get to decide how to be with yourself and with what flair, what style. How do you want to show up? What do you want to experience along the way? Especially on the inside?

That is something that is within your control as a creative human; what your experience of it is on the inside and then out. It’s really moving that work, as below, so above, as within, so without. So, 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. Know that if you don’t just consume this information but you take it in, you make it your own, and you implement it in life, you make a different choice, you have already changed.

Let me say that again. If you make a different choice, even if that choice is to think differently, you have already changed. You have already changed your life, already changed your destiny, already rearranged the atoms in the universe. And what is life but this series of moment after moment after moment and so many choices within those moments.

So, in this coach with me, I want to ask you, what is it that you would love to create? Anything, in any medium, whether you are an entrepreneur, a parent, an artist that’s a visual artist, a playwright. Do you want to write a play on Broadway that wins a Tony? Do you want to finish a novel and then publish it, and maybe not only publish it, but see it on the bestseller list, and better than that, have people write to you and say, “You’re my favorite author. I love this book.”

Do you want to see your paintings mirrored back to you through the Instagram photos of people who have them in their homes and they are like, “Oh my god, I love having your art in my home.” I will interject here for a moment. That is so sweet. Do not hold back on goals and dreams like this. Because I will tell you, I’m going to cry, it is so good. I’m not going to apologize and try to be falsely humble about how awesome that is.

There was once upon a time when that was my dream. I knew I wanted to paint and then I was like, “But do I really get to say other people love my work and they send me pictures of my work in their home?” And I was, like going for it, totally going for it. If you’re going to ask for something, ask for what you really want.

And then, even just today on one of our Art School calls, I see my work in the background and then people messaged me and said, “Oh I was just on Society6 and I bought this print and I bought this mural.” And so, I just wanted to interject that bit of personal color and permission to really go for it and, yeah, it might be – I don’t care. It’s not un-PC. I’m going to say, unapologetically state what you want. Don’t hold back. State how much fun you want to have along the way. How many dollars, how many stamps on your passport, how many memories made in amazing locations with loved ones, how many letters from fans of your work, how many glowing testimonials about lives changed, how many stories told later where people said, “You know that thing you did in my community years ago? Well, because of that, I did this, this, and this.”

Make it rich and make it real. This is a way to dialogue with that inner critic part of your brain that likes to just be a Debbie downer and catastrophize and instead let yourself move your imagination in the direction of, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if… what if it was even better than I envisioned?” Keep aligning yourself with that energy. Because when you do, that is the energy from which you will create. That’s the energy that you will move into your home, into your relationships, and most importantly into your relationship with yourself.

So, what is it that you really want to create? Fall back in love with that dream. If you’re mid-stream and you find yourself flailing and sucking for air and lost energy, it’s okay to rest. It’s okay to say, “Hey, wait, how can I infuse this with more life?”

And part two of the coach with me, an excellent way to do that is to say, “Hey, this time is going to pass. My life is going to pass. The next six weeks are. The next 10 years are. So, what kind of time do I want to have along the way? What do I want to develop within myself along the way? What do I want to experience? Particularly, what do I want to experience inside my own heart and mind?”

And to that, I really want to say again, know that if it’s not to your liking right now or if it’s highly unpleasant in there, that can change so much. So much, it will make your head spin and take your breath away. It may not happen overnight. It may not happen in a month, six months.

Stay the course though. Stay the course. Keep realizing the energy that you want and keep moving towards that and surrounding yourself with that.

Sometimes, I tell people in the Art School, “Hey, right now, just stop telling that negative story. Listen to me. Paint a possibility for your future. Listen to me talk about how you’re going to carve a pathway to that possibility. Hang out in this energy for a while. Just don’t contradict it. Let it start to create some positive momentum and snowball for you.”

Because I know, if I can get them in that space and energy for long enough to sustain it without contradicting it, by arguing for their limitations or arguing for how their past is going to dominate their future and direct their future, if I can have them hang with me in this energy of not airy-fairy possibility, but this is how it is done when you are living as a capital C Creative, I know if I can strike that chord long enough, if it’s going to resound with that inner knowing inside of them, with that strong, healthy core that is the reason that they got in the room with me, so I can speak the message their soul has been wanting them to hear.

And part of the At School and part of the work I do is creating a space to hold that energy long enough so that it feels more and more real and less like the dismal picture that they’ve been painting for themselves, and that maybe it looks like the rest of the world reinforces. But as I have said, we are creating a new paradigm in here.

This is a movement and it’s on a person-by-person basis. And so, for you again, what is it that you would love to create? What are you dying to live into? Begin it now. Begin it again. If you’ve lost the magic, know you’re hearing this because you’re meant to hear, “Oh, that can change like that.” Stay the course, that can change. So much can happen in a year. And decide, the time is going to pass, so I’m going to decide, how do I want to live along the way?

A couple of examples recently from the Art School – I didn’t plan it this way. It just came up. This is the podcast I had planned. And so, of course, people bring up very relevant examples. So, one of our Art Schoolers, who is one of our non-traditional creatives and still very creative, she is a highly successful doctor, has a longstanding beautiful, illustrious career. And she’s creating a lot of changes at a point in her career when people say, “Oh, you can’t do that. What are you doing? No one does that as a doctor. No one switches gears like that.”

And she’s doing it because she’s owning this capital C Creativity. So, she has a lot happening in her life in the next six weeks, lots on her calendar and plate. And some amazing life transitions and opportunities, including some things that will be goodbyes to situations that were wonderful and therefore emotional.

So, she was talking about, okay, how to wrap my mind around how I want to be throughout this. So, we talked about this. That these next six weeks are going to pass. And she knows everything will be done by the end of these six weeks that needs to be done, including the selling of a home, including a cross-country move, including saying goodbye to one career, starting another. There might even be a few weddings in there.

And so, it seems like a lot. That’s what the brain would say, and that we should be overwhelmed and exhausted and tired. But to instead pull back and be like, “Wait, I know I want to make the choice to move from point A to point C. So, along the way, through point B, are the infinite many points along the way, what I want to experience.

Do I want to dread this? Or do I want it to be remarkable and do I want to remind myself, “Man, look at all of this that I get to live. And how do I want to live along the way? How can I, instead of dreading this, how can I turn the dial up for fun, for rest also along the way, for deep nourishment, for meaning, for joy, for a sense of fulfillment and, “Oh gosh, I’m living. And I’m high-fiving…” this is essential, I think; high-fiving those in your life along the way.

So, we were talking about this for her and I was speaking in some sports metaphors, because I love them. And I was thinking of how much I love watching – and when I used to run them – running road races. And now, I get to watch my children do cross-country.

So, there is the race. And it’s one thing to run by yourself. And I love that. It is another thing when you’re running and people are cheering for you as you go and you’re fist-bumping your teammates or you’re getting a cowbell from the spectators as you go along. The race is going to be as long as the race is. Let’s say it’s like a 5K. The 5K is the 5K. The distance is going to pass. The kilometers are going to pass. The time is going to pass. But what do you get to experience along the way? And who you’re high-fiving and what you’re on the look out for, you know, the scenery, that awesome cowbell around the curve, just the feeling of being inspired by other people who are strong and also running a similar race. You know, extend this metaphor to whatever your application is.

It’s not about beating one another, but it’s about getting out there and doing the thing. So, remember, that is something that is within your creative control. Who are you going to high-five? Who are you going to uplift along the way? How can you turn the dial up on your flair, your style? What makes it meaningful, restorative, nourishing, fun for you? How can you use it as a way to access gifts and strength that you did not know you had?

The time is going to pass. Who are you going to be along the way? What are you moving towards at the end? Thank you, everyone, for listening to another episode of The Art School Podcast. Thank you so much for being here. I know I’ve shared with you how important your presence is and also your support by actively sharing, also by subscribing. So, if you go to iTunes, subscribe, that helps me tremendously. As do reviews. And so, for those of you that take the five minutes to go and leave a review, I appreciate that greatly. I also wanted to let you know about some fun things that we have coming up yet this fall in the Art School.

So, the best way to stay current with everything is to hop on my newsletter list. You can do so by subscribing at www.leahcb.com. I really want to create extra value for those of you that opt into that newsletter list because it fits in really nicely with this overall mission, vision I have that I described earlier.

I fi can create a container and create an energy of possibility for you that, again, is not a groundless, airy-fairy one, but one that gives you real skills. The mindset skills, the emotional skills, also gives you things to think about in a way you’ve never thought about before. Because if you can’t see something, you can’t become it. And I want to continually give you opportunities to experience real possibility through other people’s stories, through the sharing of the latest in neuroscience.

Man, I could geek out. If I could spend all day every day thinking about, learning about, practicing on myself, working with clients at an area which is the intersection of human potential, spirituality, neuroscience, creativity, oh my gosh. To use an Iowa farmgirl slang, I would be as happy as a pig in slop. Happier, actually.

And that’s the kind of writing, that’s the kind of empowerment and information and inspiration that I want to share through the newsletter, again, making everything – offer an invitation, a portal that helps you move the needle in ways that are most meaningful for you.

I know those of you listening are brilliant, successful, high-performing, capable achievers. And I want you to not only blow the lid, take the roof off of what you think is possible for you. I especially want that to be accompanied by being so astonished and dazzled by how life can be on the inside, of how really your heart can change, your mind can change, and then your whole experience of life and living changes.

When you feel that kind of limitlessness, I think that’s when it gets really exciting. That’s when the magic really starts happening. So, I have been intentionally – I’ll talk more in other episodes – weaving that into how I am working with my community through my newsletters.

So, if you are not yet on my newsletter list, again, you can subscribe, www.leahcb.com. Also, I love to connect with you on Instagram and I have been doing so many more Instagram Lives, which are like tiny little podcast episodes.

Oftentimes, I hop on right after an Art School call or a client call when something very relevant and fresh is at the forefront of my mind. And I’ve got amazing feedback from hat because I know, if something has been just very useful for a client in the Art School or a private client, what is most personal is most universal.

So, if I can basically distill that information, obviously not sharing or violating anybody’s privacy, but take the wisdom, take the empowerment, take the nugget of what worked from that call and share it with all of you through video, through audio, Instagram, I’m really excited and have really been enjoying doing that too and connecting with many of you there. So, my handle there is @leahcb1.

And another exciting thing we have coming up, Betsy Pearson, the one, the only, the brilliant Betsy Pearson is coming back this late October and early November with her amazing Dream Analysis Masterclass. This was a highlight in past Art Schools and I am opening it up again this year. It’s included for my current Art School clients and I am also opening it up for anyone who would just like to attend these two classes a-la-carte.

So, you will find information about that in the link to this class in the show notes. And also, I’ll be sending things out in my newsletter and posting on Instagram. But it’s the perfect time of year to delve into your psyche and into your dreams, into those wisdoms, those ways that parts of us speak to us in our nocturnal state. I feel like October, November, there’s an enchantment and a charm, a magical mystery energy to this time of year that makes it such a fun, perfect time to feature a class like this. I am certainly looking forward to it and I would love to have you join us for that.

It can enrich your creativity in such fun, effortless ways. It could be that energy that gives you the spark that you’ve been looking for, if you’ve been feeling a little crispy or parched.

So, I want to close today by adding a little nugget onto the end here as a bonus for those of you who stay with me until the very end. And that is a different way to think about going all in. And here is how it pertains to this topic today, this idea that the time is going to pass anyway.

So, what are you going to do and who are you going to be? Because oftentimes, we could have been involved in an endeavor for a long time and then come to find out that we’ve kind of been holding ourselves back from going all in because we had been maybe traumatized by our past experiences of having to go all in. And it was so exhausting and defeating and not soul-building that we’re really reluctant to open ourselves up and give it our all again.

And then we get to a point where we realize though, not going all in doesn’t really serve us, not living with an open heart drains so much mor energy and life force from us and drains our life of so much richness and joy and meaning.

So, I wanted to offer you here at the end – invite you really – to think about, what is it that you’re going to do? In five years, what is it that you want to create? And when I say, “Go all in,” if that sounds scary to you, perhaps it is because you haven’t considered this other element that I’ve been talking about. It’s what I call the third way of doing things.

What would going all in, but from a place of radical self-care, radical fun, nourishment, joy, love of life, what if that’s what going all in meant? And what if you went all in on that big, beautiful dream of yours while also going all in on dialing up the fun, dialing up the soul care, the way you are going to take care of your psyche?

So often, if I ask people, what would you like to create in a year, in three years, in five years, in 10 years? And if I get them to tell me what they really want oftentimes I find out, if they’ve been holding back, it’s because they are fearing what the creative process is going to be like. And that is where I want to say you get to take back your creativity. Not only do you get to create that end result. But you get to decide, you get to create how you are creating it.

So, why not create something that is fun, that you look forward to each and every day that doesn’t squeeze every last drop out of your bank account and your soul and it’s exhausting and depleting, but one that is soul-building from a place of not just the sort of, “This builds my character Here’s another growth opportunity, AFGO…” but one that you’re like, “I love this. This is so much fun.” Embedding that kind of energy into the process where you know you’re going to be so well taken-care of, it’s going to be joyful. It’s going to be fun. That is going to give you the kind of strength and resilience you need also through the times that are harder.

If you know that in the end, it’s not only about what you are creating but it is about developing this beautiful, fun, glorious beyond your wildest dreams experience of life and relationship with yourself. Have a beautiful week, everyone. I know you will because the week’s going to pass either way. I’d love to hear what you make of it. So, reach out, support@leahcb.com and otherwise I will look forward to talking with all of you next time.