In grad school, I studied with a voice and speech teacher who changed my life. His name was Barney Hammond, and he taught me two essential lessons:
#1: There is nothing wrong with you
#2: You are the director/producer of your life
I will spend my life attempting to live these lessons, and they are so fundamental to my own soul’s curriculum that they have formed the bedrock qualities of how I approach life and creative process: wholeness, benevolence, and sovereignty.
I also forget them all the time. I forgot them this week. And the week before that. But then I remember them and summon the courage to believe in them and I feel my creative life force return. These two lessons disrupt what the culture teaches us: that everything is wrong with us and that our job is to respond to others’ directions and visions.
To see ourselves as whole and sovereign requires a leap out of conditioning and into possibility. When we stop viewing ourselves as problems to fix (#1) and step into authorship of our lives (#2), our ambition and vision have no ceiling, and become the regenerative (not hustle-culture exhaustive) qualities within us they are meant to be.
Our lives unfold as a series of creative leaps — not to prove our worth, follow a prescribed path, or make up for some kind of inadequacy we may have been taught to believe about ourselves, but to bring forth who, and what, is within us.
Invitation #9: Leap
It is the act of leaping — not the result of the leap — that defines your identity as a creator. But self-improvement and growth culture vastly undervalues and underemphasizes the act of leaping, instead prioritizing linear approaches like goal-setting, 10-step plans, and guaranteed results.
For your consideration, here are three ways (+ journal prompts) to reclaim the creative leap in this season of reflection and transition:
1. Honor the leaps you’ve made
True reflection feels benevolent, regenerative, and possibility-generating. Evaluation disguised as reflection that can often occur at this time of year reinforces the cultural conditioning that we are not doing, being, or accomplishing enough. Look at your year through the lens of creative courage, rather than looking only at the results.
Most of us undervalue our progress and this depletes our energy and courage for what’s next. This practice of honoring becomes especially essential if you, like me, tend to underappreciate your efforts, constantly be disappointed with your results, or have a hard time owning your magnificence and good work.
What leaps can you celebrate? What wisdom is being revealed?
2. Identify the leaps of your next era
Deciding to leap reorganizes us. Different from making a resolution or setting a goal, clarifying and deciding on our next leap can often shift our inner being and outer behavior even before we make the leap. When we invest in the idea that a leap doesn’t make us any more whole or worthy, we free up our imagination and vision to show us the leaps that will take us into our next era.
For those of us in midlife/career, when responsibility multiplies and leaps feel more scarce, identifying our next leaps becomes vital for our sense of aliveness, fulfillment, and creative health.
In this next era, what do you want to create? What leaps are calling to you?
3. Leap now
The hermit/shy girl in me really doesn’t want this to be true, and would like to live my one wild and unapologetic creative life without having to summon the courage to face the unknown. If this speaks to you, I write more on this in Invitation #1, but sometimes leaping now is exactly what our creative ecology needs. Before the new year officially starts, before we’re ready, before we have our ducks in a row.
What happens if you leap now? If anything were possible, and you knew you couldn’t fail, disappoint anyone, or burn yourself out, what would you let yourself go for?
I’m so grateful for your presence, spirit, thoughtful words, and every single reply and note you send. It is an immense privilege to be here with you.
If anything here resonates, or inspires a question or thought, I’d love to hear about it. Sending so many blessings to you and yours.
Here’s to your next era of creative courage,
Love,
Liz
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Reading, Listening, Sharing:
✨ Watching: Author and Embodiment Expert Prentis Hemphill on the undefended self (the truth in this video stopped me in my tracks) | Liberation (this play is still haunting me) | Buena Vista Social Club (obsessed and want to go back 100 times)
🎧 Listening: Rosalia’s LUXE (OMG) | Green is a Bridge Too Far with Chase Strangio and Imara Jones️ (trans activists on why WICKED matters and I love it so much) I’m Not Disappearing: On aging with Michelle Obama and Jane Fonda
⚡️Action for us: Join the We Ain’t Buying It Boycott and withdraw support from the big corporations supporting the Trump Administration. (Instead, support small businesses and independent creators nov 27-dec 3 and also FOREVER)
Quotes on my heart and mind:
Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.
–Agnes DeMille
Clouds never make mistakes… And if you will treat yourself for a while as a cloud, you’ll realize that you can’t make a mistake whatever you do. Because even if you do something that appears totally bizarre, it will all come out in the wash somehow or another. Then through this capacity you will develop a kind of confidence. And through confidence you will be able to trust your own intuition.
— Alan Watts
