I have a morning routine. I don’t always keep to every step, but I try. Here’s how it goes. Wake up on my own (see where that can go awry?). Start the coffee. Drink the coffee. Read for an hour. Jump on the Peloton for 20 minutes (this is also just a suggestion). Then make sure my boys are up for school and start my day.
I love that morning time to myself, but sometimes life happens. I’m tired. I oversleep. Etc. But I always keep some reading time because I find that's where inspiration comes in.
This morning, I was reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and it happened. She shares how the ancient Greeks used to talk about genius as something that lives outside us. This is freeing because then if you're successful in your creative endeavors, you thank your genius. But your genius is not YOU. So if you aren’t successful, you don’t wither away in shame. You instead hope your genius comes back around the next time.
I can SO relate to this. I sat down with my plan for the week yesterday - blog/email newsletter topic and 5 post ideas – and yuck. I wrote my email and I didn’t like it. It was boring. It was preachy. Yuck. I decided to scrap it and give myself the grace to try again tomorrow. I guess my genius was busy yesterday and I'm OK with that.
But the heart of it is...you have to show up to write (blog, email, posts) whether your genius is there or not. Sometimes he’ll be there (think: little house-elf or tomten sprinkling fairy dust on you) and sometimes he won’t. But either way, you have to send your email and post your posts. Or you can do what I did and just wait a day to see if he shows. But don’t wait longer than that. The world needs to hear from you even if your message is unassisted by your genius on certain days.
XO,
Shannon
p.s. I'd love to help you find your genius if you've lost it. It's still there, I promise.
p.p.s. Have you found me on Insta? Go here and hit follow! I'd love to see you there.
p.p.p.s. That's me below. Sitting at my kitchen counter because I thought a new location would inspire me yesterday, but we know how that went.
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