Celebrating Each Step on our Creative Path

Welcome to a new monthly space called Celebrating Each Step! This is the first post that explains the story behind 'Celebrating...'.  You will find a Celebrating posts on the first Sunday of every month.

So many of us are coming alive to creative dreams, paying attention to the whispers in our heart which urge us to an authentic, creative life. Some of us have been on that path a long time, others of us have stepped onto it more recently. With the burgeoning of technology we also have the opportunity to express and grow our creative dreams within global communities of connection, bringing a host of 'techie' jobs new to all of us, no matter how long you have been using your hands, pen or voice to create.

I stepped away from a 20 year career in social work into life as a mosaic artist just 18 short months ago, finally giving my my artistic calling the attention it deserves. I duly launched myself into a whole host of projects, initiatives and 'to do' lists to develop myself as an artist and sell my art.

Then, five weeks ago, I began Kelly Rae's Flying Lessons e-course on developing your creative business. The first lesson encouraged us to get our journals out and let the creative dreams and goals unfold. At that moment when my pen was poised, something in me decided to pause and list what I had already done before listing my goals and what I wanted to do. This was a light bulb moment...the list was long and took me by surprise, so little had I acknowledged these landmarks in my determination to get on with the next thing! I decided at that point that I would blog about significant steps I was taking as a way of celebrating them. The following week, my excitement for establishing my business office spilled onto a blog page and I cannot tell you how meaningful it was for me to read the comments of others celebrating this landmark with me. As if to underline the importance of building celebration into our lives, Kelly Rae talked about this very subject in Flying Lessons this week (telling us how she and her husband now make a point of chinking glasses and naming something to celebrate...as there is always something to celebrate, however small).

And so the idea crystallised to create an online space where we can tell others about our achievements - the steps taken, the things done, no matter how small - and have this wonderful online creative community celebrate with us.

(from a wine bottle we drunk tonight...how appropriate!)

So, here's how it works...

On the first Sunday of the month I will write a post called "Celebrating Each Step".

In the comments of the post, you can :

- write about any step taken or accomplishment that you want to celebrate

OR

- write a Celebration blog post on your own blog and paste the link to your blog post in the comments section here (that way, people can visit your blog too!).

I will do this every month. You can come any time you like! You can see old Celebrating posts by clicking on the "Celebrating Each Step" link on the left which you are welcome to scroll through, or just jump to the latest Sunday Celebration and join in! It is a space to help us all step back, reflect, acknowledge what we have got done as a way of balancing the growing list of what is still to do.  It is a space for me and a space for you when you want or need it.

I want to be clear that any step or accomplishment is acceptable, the only requirement is that it is important and significant to you. It can be that you set up a facebook page, mastered online newsletters or a new art technique, did your tax return, ran a great class, booked onto a course to develop yourself, did your morning pages, tidied your studio or craft space, reached out to connect with other makers, gave up your day job, got a commission, sold some of your work, set up your online shop, learnt from something you did wrong on a piece, got some business cards printed, managed to squeeze in 15 minutes of making whilst caring for little ones, coped with feeling overwhelmed, called yourself an artist when someone asked you what you did....

I have a long list (from my journal entry 5 weeks ago!) but I will start - here and now - by saying that I feel great about creating this online space for myself and others to celebrate our steps along the creative path. And I am soooo chuffed about the picture that I made on the beach today to symbolise the heart of what this initiative is about (which will be turned into a badge next week for you to grab and put on your blogs!).

How about you? Stop and look back for a moment....what have you done? What have you achieved? What steps do you want to celebrate?