How to make your dreams come true

dreamscape watercolor, 7 x 10 inches, $100

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”
—Mark Twain

Put pen to paper.

I KID YOU NOT.

Make a drawing of what you imagine.
Write down what you want to do.
That's how to make your dreams come true.

Every single thing I've created, from a song, to a CD project, from a course design to a website design, from an exhibit of paintings to designing and building a building, from a sketch to a series of paintings, and the list goes on..., has started with an idea, a desire, and then, by putting pen to paper.

If you've worked with me as a student or client (or are a very dear friend), you know that I have a thang for Lamy Safari fountain pens.

In 1996, I discovered my first Safari at Aarts en Co. in Eindhoven and have not gone a day since without using that pen. In fact, I just had two of those early Safaris refurbished.

Why do I have such a thang for these things? Because the Lamy Safari is ergonomically designed, comes in fab colors, is affordably priced and, each year, Lamy issues a limited edition color.

I own a total of five Safaris and have lost only one over the last 18 years. (My red one. I lost it, then found it, then lost it again.) I use my Safari starting with my coffee in the morning and, well, here it is, late at night, and my newest pen is right here by the keyboard. (It's an Al-Star, an aluminum version of the Safari in Ocean Blue.) Love It.

If you want to make your dreams come true, start using pen and paper. Get your flow going.

If you want a Lamy Safari of your own, visit or call up the Fountain Pen Hospital. They'll all take good care of you but you can ask for Adrienne (and be sure to say I sent you.)

“You must go after your wish. As soon as you start to pursue a dream, your life wakes up and everything has meaning.”
—Barbara Sher

2014 See Here Now Course starts in April!

Start from the very beginning with me and build yourself a solid foundation in drawing and watercolor. You don't have to be an artist, you just have to want to learn and remember (how to draw and how to see.)

Click here to read about See Here Now, my online course in drawing and watercolor, and make sure that you're on the waiting list for advance notice.

If you're one of those people who tells others that you can't draw, ask yourself what happened to you. Ask yourself what happened to the child who loved to crayon and draw lines and play with color. How did that child become an adult who proclaims "I can't draw!"?

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Are You Transitioning?

Watercolor, 7 x 10 inches $100

“The interval between the decay of the old and the formation and the establishment of the new, constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty, confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism.”
— John C. Calhoun

Are you transitioning?

I'm writing this post at the New Moon. From here on in over the next couple of weeks, the moon is waxing. She is filling up with light, receiving. But right this minute, the moon is dark, finished waning but not quite starting to fill out again.

This time, next week, we'll have an extra hour of daylight in the evening. The days have been lengthening gradually but, boom, suddenly the light will change. More light is a good thing! Still, we'll have to adjust.

In chemistry, when a chemical reaction reaches the highest form of energy (that cannot be reversed) and leads to a new form, that's called the Transition State. The Transition State leads to Transformation.

The moon waning and waxing is natural, normal. Seasonal light changing is natural and Daylight Savings makes it an event and dramatizes the change with regulation. Personal transformation is a ride that requires intention, action, commitment, courage and support.

Two summers ago, when I was on the central coast of California, I kept meeting women over 50 who, when I asked what they were doing, would say that they were "in transition", after which they'd explain that they just sold their homes and gotten rid of most of their possessions. "Me, too!", I'd say. Not one woman was clear on what would happen next. It felt like an epidemic.

Change is inevitable and, though it can happen suddenly, there's usually some lead time and then an adjustment period. Even if one form becomes another, the lead time and adjustment period are definitely transition states.

If you really want to change, your transition can be rigorous because you'll have to put in the time, the work, the practice, and be willing to be uncomfortable during the adjustment period.

The transition state is a part of all creative endeavors. Whether you're making a drawing or watercolor, starting a business, producing a film, or changing your life. You can't simply snap your fingers and expect a new form appear, or to be a different person. You must go through a phase of transition.

I teach drawing and watercolor not to help people be artists (although that can happen) but, rather, to guide students through the work and discomfort required to create new forms and transform their experience in the world.

Student work, on paper, is almost secondary. It's evidence of the process — the resulting form of the energetic transition within.

It can feel sometimes as if we're always in transition. We work through one phase, graduate, and then transition into the next phase. The transition states can be challenging but the rewards of new form are worth every bit of the challenge.

When students truly take my lessons to heart, they use the opportunity to apply the experience of the drawing and watercolor exercises to their everyday lives.

If you want to use drawing and watercolor as tools to help you transition through to personal transformation, make sure you're on the waiting list for my next course, starting on April 24.

Click here to sign up for notification.

“Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.”
― Tom Stoppard

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How to Lose Your Mind

after Annie Leibovitz
Watercolor and pencil

"Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen - that stillness becomes a radiance."
—Morgan Freeman

The advantage of practice

I have not been able to think clearly for hours. I blame it on a cluttered mind and temporary poor nutrition. And yet, I have work to do.

This is where discipline (also known as practice) comes in handy.

I could not decide what to write about. I could not decide what to draw or paint. So I followed a tried and true approach—

• Quit thinking about it and make space,
• Take imperfect action,
• Do the best you can,
• Let go of the results.

I picked up the closest image to hand (an Annie Leibovitz portrait of George Clooney in his house on Lake Cuomo) and made a quick sketch copy. Then I decided to write about my condition.

Rather than trying to engage my mind to figure it all out, I let go of the mental process and put pen, pencil and brush to paper, and fingers to the keyboard. I let go of any worry about results or perfection.

My muscles and practices are strong enough now after years of daily exercising to take action without over thinking. I might not hit whatever it is out of the park but at least I step up and swing the bat. Anyway, who knows? I might try something new, do something different. Learn something!

The truth is that in order to do any sort of creative work, we have to step out of the stream of thinking, find that space of stillness and then take action while letting go of attachment to the results.

We all have days of muddled thinking and indecisiveness. If our muscles are primed and our habits are well enough established, we can carry out most of our work anyway.

It helps that I've established daily practices, but the most helpful practice has been learning to put my thinking aside in order to take action.

It's no coincidence that yesterday afternoon, a friend mentioned what is sometimes referred to as The Four Fold Way.

• Show up
• Pay attention
• Tell the truth
• Be open to outcome

Not unrelated!

"Spontaneous action is joyful action, and that is true creativity."
—Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

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Join my Tribe and receive ongoing inspiration

• Creative Wake Up eBook
• with bonus song download
• and my Weekly eZine Stroke and Flow

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