Jumping In

In life we have opportunities to put ourselves out there and possibly get hurt or stay safely in our bubble without risk. How do you handle these situations?

I am a firm believer that if you don’t try you’ll never know! Sure you can get hurt along the way, but if you never try and miss out in a way aren’t you hurting yourself by omission?

When it comes to this topic my husband and I have different views, which in some cases is good because we can pull each other in to meet in the middle.  He likes to play it safe and I not only jump right in, I DIVE; leaving my heart on my sleeve.

In some cases my hopes have been high and my expectations were left unmet; in others they were met and beyond. I feel like every experience good or bad just adds another layer onto who we are. We learn, grow and experience a full range of emotions.

Recently (like this past week) I entered my husband and I into a local radio stations contest The New Hot 89.9 Win a Baby. The contest closed yesterday and the top 5 finalist get a call or e-mail today to start the process. To say it lightly I’ve been a bit on edge…lol Do I desperately want to get a call? Yes! Will I be hurt if I don’t? Yes! Will I regret doing it? NO! This contest has brought amazing light to infertility and has been a great push for the government to fund IVF treatment. So even if we don’t get the call :( there will still be something incredible that comes out of this, awareness. Maybe the government will take a hint and catch up with what’s happening to its population and do something.

So even though I may be hurt in the process, if you don’t try, don’t put yourself out there; how will you ever know? 

Take a chance, live life and sometimes don’t just jump in….DIVE!

Lotsa Love,

Natasha 

Procrastination in the name of inspiration

How many times have you said “I’m waiting to be inspired”, or have some sort of a block and just need inspiration to help you through? Now how much credit can we give to “inspiration”, “muses” and how much should we be taking?

I think as writers, artists or anyone else putting your work out there for the world to see, it can sometimes be overwhelming the thought of completing your work. So does our subconscious get in the way? Is it that we just need to give ourselves a nice little pep talk and move on or do we really need to be inspired by someone or something else?

Throughout history you hear of the greats having muses and glorious moments of inspiration, could they have done it without them? I feel that if someone makes us happy, then we will feel happy and if that’s a trigger for us to be creative then we are.  When we are going through life we come across many people and situations that could trigger “inspiration”. But if all it took was a beautiful woman, a sunset or the greatest love of all time to be an amazing artist, wouldn’t we all be?

I think we go through life giving credit to a lot of people and situations instead of giving it to ourselves. I’m not saying to be conceited, or ignore help we get from outside sources. What I am saying is give yourself some credit; yes that sunset may have inspired you to take that amazing picture, but you took it, chose the angel, flash etc…

Once we stop giving all the credit to inspiration, we can also stop blaming it! I don’t know how many times I’ve said ill finish writing my book when I feel it or I need to be in the mood etc… Well I haven’t written in a ridiculously long time and a reminder popped up on my phone recently asking me if I’ve finished my 1^st draft of my book…nope!  Could you imagine telling your boss at work, “I’m not in the mood to write that report” or “I need to be inspired to give that presentation…sorry”; I can’t imagine that going over very well.

So why do we allow ourselves to put it off? I say we need to stop using excuses and get back to it, schedule your writing or artistic time just like you’d schedule work or an appointment. And yes absorb how people make you feel and use inspiration from all the beautiful things and moments you come across in your life, but know it’s all you!

You can procrastinate, you can turn inspiration into magic and you are the only one to get back on the horse and make it happen!

Lotsa Love,

Natasha