A gentle close to the week
A gentle close to the week
And a bit about the ceilings we create for ourselves / Issue 1,172
Oh, hi friends!
Maybe it’s because I hit my 10-year “freelance anniversary” a few weeks ago (yay to a decade of working for myself!), or maybe it’s the New Year reflections bouncing around, but I’m thinking a lot about ceilings.
The ceilings we create for ourselves.
We invent ceilings regarding our $$$ rates, job titles, the types of audiences we court, the courses we invent, the editors and publications we pitch, people we connect with, the number of words we can write in one sitting, and so on.
But why is your ceiling that high or that low?
Maybe you sought clearer boundaries, and needed an aim.
Maybe you created it years ago. And then forgot to raise it.
Does your old ceiling reflect your current self?
Or does it reflect the you from 10 years ago?
(This might be an uncomfortable question; it is for me, too.)
If it feels like you’re constantly bumping your head, can you raise your ceiling?
Starting today?
(Signora Naccarelli pats her husband as if he has just swum the English Channel, so great was his translating for the Priest.)
From The Light in the Piazza, music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, book by Craig Lucas.
While reading this musical the other day, I was struck by this small stage direction, set in a parenthetical. A delightful and telling detail. Every word matters!
A Two-Minute Exercise for Your Creativity
I used to have a “10 idea” habit, a creative exercise where each day I’d write 10 ideas for all kinds of things: 10 opening lines of a novel, 10 inventions that would improve a cat’s life, 10 travel pitches, 10 ways to make money this month, etc.
Some were goofy, some were useful, all were fun. And got me thinking outside the box.
That is, in fact, the point. To go outside the box.
I just took two minutes and came up with 10 names for new Crayola colors. (One was Sunday Scaries Puce lol.)
If you’re feeling a little maintenance mode today, dream up 10 ideas and see where your mind goes.