Sometimes, when you are doing the impossible (or when it feels like you’re doing the impossible), you need some inspiration.

There’s a lot that has changed for me since August 10th, 2012, my last day at my day job. But one of the most pronounced changes is the fact that, now, I’m always on the prowl for inspiration. Anything that will propel me forward is welcome, in any form.

Luminaries who overcame seemingly insurmountable odds. Performers who found a way to do good with their art, when everyone told them it couldn’t be done. People who kept on going, through battles with addiction, and personal tragedy, and without support.

Because of this search for inspiration, I’ve found a lot of it, tucked into corners both expected and unexpected. I share these things with my clients when they start feeling down in the dumps about themselves, their businesses, their art.

Today I’m giving a talk for the members of Michelle’s When I Grow Up Clubhouse. The topic? How to maintain unshakeable self-worth, regardless of how your business is doing.

I’m going to be teaching the Clubhousers a whole host of different techniques and approaches, one of which is to have inspiration at the ready, all the time.

This post, chock-full of inspiring stuff, is for the Clubhousers. It’s also for you, whenever you need it.

Get inspired by this stuff. Come back for more whenever you need it. And by all means, if you have inspiring stuff to share, please do so in the comments.

. . .

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

Alex has this wonderful piece about what’s possible, and this is something that I share with clients (and friends! And myself!) whenever they start to think things aren’t possible.

Amanda Palmer talks about asking. And about the breathtaking generosity of humans.

From Lisa: Listen to yourself for a change.

Music. Oh my gosh. This is what’s been inspiring me a whole lot lately (well, in addition to Dolly Parton’s book, Dream More). Music. And so I made you a playlist of inspiration. Some of it may be cheesy, but you know what? Sometimes cheese is terribly inspiring.

And here’s the absolute cherry on top of all this other inspiration. It gave me tingles all over.

. . .

♥ Big thanks to all you Facebook and Twitter buddies who helped me curate this list. And please, do add more below! ♥

Today, Adventure Mouse is in hibernation. She’s resting up because, as we talked about in this post (part of my fear series on Roots of She), rest is absolutely necessary in between itty bitty adventures.

Read the post, A Soft Place to Land, right here.

Next week, we’ll be back to our adventuring ways. Feel free to share your stories of adventuring (or rest between adventures) in the comments and/or on your own blog.

Today is Itty Bitty Adventure Club day! Yay hooray!

The Itty Bitty Adventure Club is this thing where I talk about teeny tiny adventures I take. You can read more about it here. I’d love for you to share your adventures, too, either in the comments or on your own blog. If you do so on your blog, post the link in the comments, and I’ll add ya’ to the post so we can all share the adventurey joy.

. . .

The itty bitty adventure in question:

As you know, I’m still pretty new to this whole self-employment thing. Because of that, I’m always trying new things. I must experiment with every part of my business and work flow before I decide on what works for me, and what doesn’t. There’s a lot of trial and error going on. I’m learning. It’s all good.

So when I talked with the oh-so-fabulous Max Daniels about how I was working quite a few hours but not feeling like I was getting a lot done, she made a radical suggestion: cut my work time in half. I resisted. So much so that she had to suggest it twice before I even tried it. But try it I did, because I trust Max like crazy. And so began my radical, and totally subversive, experiment in working for only about four hours per day for a whole, entire week.

The monsters that showed up when I decided on my adventure:

Monster #1: “Oh good god you cannot possibly even try that for one day! You will actually be without a home, clothing, or shelter if you cut one work day in half, much less five! And then you will die a fiery death! Run away from the catastrophe and continue to work eight hours a day, no questions asked!”

My response: Wow, you’re reacting rather strongly to this suggestion, huh? This must feel really scary for you. I’m hearing that you’re about 99% terrified that if you work less, you’ll end up in complete financial ruin, whatever that means.

These feelings are totally legitimate. It can be terrifying to intentionally take actions that contradict our conditioning, and your conditioning around work and money is some deep-seated stuff. As such, we’re going to proceed with caution. We don’t have to do these half days for a full week if we don’t want. We can try one day, or two or three. We will choose days when we’re already needing recovery and so might not even be physically able to be productive for eight hours.

We’ll also remember that this “complete financial ruin” scenario is a large generalization. It’s simply not realistic thinking. Remember, you have savings. You have family and friends to support you if things ever do get financially wobbly. But right now, you can absolutely afford a few days of experimentation.

Monster #2: “What will people SAY?! What will people THINK?! You cannot tell ANYONE, ever.”

My response: Sounds like you’re very afraid of how people will perceive you. You’re afraid they’ll think you’re not a hard worker, or that you’re not trying, or they might even be jealous of you if you do this experiment for yourself. That makes sense. There’s a whoooole lotta cultural messages out there about the merit of work for work’s sake. And true, you might come in contact with people who also espouse those messages. Remember that that’s their stuff, and their stuff is for them to deal with. What’s for you to deal with is how you react to their stuff.

You seem to be afraid of rejection, which I can understand. You want belonging and love. And you know what? I know you know that the kindest, most loving people in your life will support this experiment. They’ll even support it if they happen to be dealing with their own challenging reactions to it, which don’t pertain to you. What’s more is that you don’t have to tell everyone (or anyone, actually). Nobody needs to know when you’re working and what you’re working on. Or how leisurely or rapidly you work. It’s your responsibility to do what works for you. If that includes telling people, fine. If that includes keeping this private, that, too, is fine. You’re in charge, which means you get to do what’s best for you.

How it all went down:

After Golden Ticket, I was just too pooped to work full days, so it was actually perfect that I had these four-hour days planned. In fact, I’m fairly sure that the first few days of the week, I worked even less than planned, because I was so heavily in rest and recover mode. A week of half days was just what I needed. In fact, I think it was entirely necessary to maintaining my self-care.

I’ll admit that I didn’t feel I “got as much done” during this week as I usually would in a week. I felt a bit behind, a bit like I wasn’t completely present in my business. So that’s something to note, good data to use as I continue to experiment.

But it felt good. It felt good to give myself the rest I needed, and trust that it would be the right decision for me and my business. It felt lovely to have several coffee dates with friends and colleagues later in the week, and to know that I could enjoy those instead of feeling like I “should” be getting work done during that time.  It felt good to have major rest, relaxation and self-care be the main goals of my days.

The side effects:

This is definitely something I’m going to continue to work with. I want and deeply desire more play, pleasure, and fun in my life. And that means more time outside, more time with friends, and less time at the computer. I’m keeping in mind what Leonie wrote earlier this week, and playing around with ways I can shorten my working time while making the quality of my work even better. I’m wondering how sublimely great self-care will lead to even more clients coming in the door. I’m curious about how play and vacation mind might spark dozens of new, better ideas each day. And I’m gonna keep at it (playfully, of course) until I find out.

Mischief managed!

What other Itty Bitty Adventure Clubbers are up to this week:

Erin had an epic weekend away with friends. In-credible!

Do you have any itty bitty adventuring to report? If so, please do share in the comments or on your own blog. If not, grab a badge in the sidebar to the left, then join us next week!

Photo by the radiant Hannah Marcotti, with my modifications

Today is Itty Bitty Adventure Club day! Yay hooray!

The Itty Bitty Adventure Club is this thing where I talk about teeny tiny adventures I take. You can read more about it here. I’d love for you to share your adventures, too, either in the comments or on your own blog. If you do so on your blog, post the link in the comments, and I’ll add ya’ to the post so we can all share the adventurey joy.

 . . .

The itty bitty adventure in question:

Oh, dear heavens. Since last we spoke on the subject of adventuring, I have taken many, many adventures. So many, in fact, that I was a little bowled over by them last week. Adventure Mouse and I were completely, utterly tuckered out. Since then, we’ve been resting. Lots. As I shared in a (shockingly timely, for myself) guest post on Roots of She, there’s a lot of resting that needs to happen after you push yourself outside your comfort zone.

There are many itty bitty adventures that I could tell you about this week, but I’m going to choose the biggest one. Over the weekend, I recorded a five-minute video about my work, in front of a live audience. It was the most terrifying thing I’ve done in a very long time.

The reason I was there, in Manhattan, recording a video, is that I participated in Tanya Geisler and Michelle Ward’s incredibly fabulous I Want a Golden Ticket program. For the culminating, live event that ended the program, all the participants traveled to New York to spend a day together and film brief videos about our work, some of which were a little like mini-TED Talks. And that is how I ended up in front of a camera and a room full of supportive faces, sharing what I do, trying not to get too tongue-tied.

The monsters that showed up when I decided on my adventure:

I think it would be quicker to tell you what monsters didn’t show up on my adventure. But here are two of the big ones I met along the way:

Monster #1: “You shouldn’t even do this. You’re going to mess it up, anyway. Just say you’re going to bow out of this part of the program.”

My response: I know you want to protect me from the extreme discomfort of doing something that’s totally unfamiliar and terrifying to me. You want to save me from something that could feel really traumatic. But I promise you that we’re safe no matter what happens. I could get up there and be unable to speak, and all the people there would be SO kind about it. Or I could get up there and burst into tears, and they still wouldn’t think any less of me. This is an immensely supportive environment, and this is the perfect place to do this scary thing.

Monster #2: “You can’t memorize things, and you can’t talk off the cuff, so what. the heck. are you going to doooooo?”

My response: You, too, are trying to protect me, huh? You don’t want me to experience all that frustration of trying unsuccessfully to memorize something. You also don’t want me to feel like I’m just reciting a speech. And I think, most of all, that you don’t want me to experience the anguish of feeling embarrassed if I get tongue-tied or my mind goes blank when the tape is rolling and people are watching. I’m going to try to have a general idea of my talk in my head. I’m going to try to memorize it. And I’m also going to practice deviating a bit from the “script” if I can manage it. I’ll do the best I can to prepare, and I’ll remember the essence of what I want to convey: permission and compassion. If nothing else, I can radiate those qualities and summon some trust that all will be okay.

How it all went down:

I arrived early at the clean, white box of a theater where the day was to take place, because I was also photographing the event. I felt relief upon arrival. I was among friends, both those I’d met before and those I was just now meeting for the first time. I also had the added bonus of being occupied by getting good photos, which meant that I couldn’t be bothered with worrying about my talk. I trusted that my preparation had been enough, and I did my photographing thing.

When it was time for me to do my talk, I messed up. Both in rehearsal and in the “real thing.” But it was actually okay. I was so proud of myself for getting to that point where I was up in front of the room, on camera, that it almost didn’t matter how it turned out. I don’t know if my video will be a good representation of who I am and what I do. I do know that the next time I need to give a talk or be on camera, I’ll have a lot more faith that I have the ability to do so. And that will mean that I’ll be less afraid, even if only slightly.

The side effects:

I felt truly transformed by this experience. In this one day, I remembered the fact that, on some level, I like being in front of people. After all, I used to act and sing in front of audiences. The fact that I don’t do that right now doesn’t mean it isn’t intertwined, still, into who I am.

I also felt really, really loved and seen that day. My fellow Golden Ticket participants were so incredibly kind, and so generous with their praise. Several of them shared with me that my presence that day was calm, assuring, and compassionate; and I truly could not hope for anything more than that.

This terrifying experience allowed me to inhabit those qualities a little bit more than I already was. That, to me, is priceless, because it means that I can share more of those qualities with the people I serve and teach.

Mischief managed!

Do you have any itty bitty adventuring to report? If so, please do share in the comments or on your own blog. If not, grab a badge in the sidebar to the left, then join us next week!