Comfort Zone

 

Comfort zones are wonderful places, couches with fuzzy blankets and hot cups of tea, chairs in the back yard on a hot summer nights watching the sunset. But sometimes, you have to step outside of your comfort zone. Go somewhere new, try new food, fossil hunt, learn a new language, zip line.



Southern Coast of England 

Now, for me, traveling is within my comfort zone. I like to travel. To me, the research is part of the trip and with preparation, traveling is fun. So far, I've visited eleven countries and half the states. I know exactly where my passport is. I have another trip planned in a few weeks and two others on the backburner.

Last year, my sister and I went to England. We had activities planned but one day we just looked at a map, hopped on a bus and went to the Isle of Portland on the Southern Coast of England, also called the Jurassic Coast. We had no idea what we'd find. We asked the driver to let us off near a museum and we wandered around. We walked over a hill and had a beautiful view of the ocean in the distance and a hedgerow of ripe berries beside us. We had a lovely lunch at the Hayloft Café and the proprietor told us about a nearby pirate cemetery. We then made our way down to the rocky beach and I took this photo. 

Leaving home is not leaving my comfort zone. I left my comfort zone when I decided to enter this photo and another in a juried photography show. I had to first enter the show online through something called thatentrything, all new to me and I paid the fees. I am not a professional photographer. The photos that I entered, I took on my cell phone. I risked putting work out there and not knowing how it would be received. I was pleasantly surprised to learn this photo was accepted. But being outside my comfort zone wasn't over yet. Then I had to find out where to have the photo printed and where to have it matted to the competition's requirements. Fortunately, I was able to ask a friend.  I had everything done and turned in to the gallery a week before it was due.
I didn't win anything. I really wasn't expecting to but I have received many pleasant comments. What is important to me is that I tried. I took something important to me and shared it.  

What takes you out of your comfort zone? What will you try? 
  




    

Project: Chalk Paint

The Before Photo

Last year, my word of the year was "Project." It's a word that can be a noun or a verb. I had several projects in mind that I wanted to share with you. However, things didn't quite turn out as I planned. Life is like that. Yet, at the end of the year, I realized that maybe I had not accomplished the specific projects I had planned but I had accomplished others.

This dresser is one. I have had it for years. I don't know where it even comes from. It was boring and slated for a yard sale. Then I heard about chalk paint. Evidently, chalk paint has been around for quite some time but it was new to me. Now, here's something I learned last year.

What you experience in person is better than seeing it in print or media.    

Shortly after I saw chalk paint in a magazine, a local antique store, advertised chalk paint on their outside chalk board. So, of course, I had to stop in. There were several pieces of old furniture that had been given a new life with chalk paint. I loved the colors and the textures. The store also sold chalk paint. The price was prohibitive. So when I came home, I researched on-line and learned to make my own with plaster or Paris, water and paint.

Midway through the painting

The painted drawers and drawer pulls

 The little set of drawers seemed like a perfect project for chalk paint, so I took them outside and went to work. It took just a few hours and the chalk paint dried very quickly. the pale green was perfect. I decoupaged scrapbook paper on the drawer pulls for a little bit of pattern and color.

 

 

Here is the final result. it now sits in my studio full of supplies. I'm glad now that I saw the sign at the antique store. Otherwise, chalk paint would probably still be one of those things that I see and think "Oh, I have to try that someday" and then forget about when I turn the page.

What about you? What difference does it make to your creativity to experience something as opposed to reading about it? Do you regularly go out of your studio, your comfort zone to experience new things? let me know.

Scam or no?

OK, so I'm sorting bottle caps for my retired husband's folk art and my cell phone rings. A man with one of those beautiful, deep radio voices introduces himself as representing an Internet program. Coaching has grown over 600% in the last few years and his company's research department has given him my name. He then asked me a number of questions about my creativity coaching business, always complementing whatever answer I gave. The program he represented was interested in having me on a show and interviewing me about creativity coaching. The interviewer would be a famous TV personality. I'd never heard of him. Thousands of listeners tune into their shows. Was I ready for the increase in business the interview would bring? The staff would work with me to script the interview prior to broadcast and I would own the rights. They would provide me with some copies of the interview on cd to be used in my marketing in any way I chose. And it would only cost me $2000.

"And this conversation is at an end." I told him. But wait! There's more. Because I teach classes as a creativity coach at a local non-profit and I could tell he was looking at their website as we spoke, he could offer it to me for the low, low price of only $995.

I still turned him down. Not that I don't have the $995 in my business account for marketing. I do. No, I turned him down and his fabulous interview that would triple my business because I checked with some colleagues first. One, an internationally known creativity coach, told me that she had been approached by this and similar organizations. They talked the talk but don't walk the walk. She knew of no one who had tried this marketing route to make any notable return on their investment,  especially the kind of numbers hinted at by the representative.

Another friend, an editor with a national newspaper syndicate called this type of thing "advertorial news." Basically, it's an infomercial. You pay, maybe people buy. Again, it's a limited return for little reward. So is it a scam? The fellow never promised, so technically, legally, I'm sure it's legit. Yet, the very calculating way he lead the conversation, the flattery were all directed at selling their product, not mine.

So what were my take-aways from this experience?

• I'm glad I took the time to become a certified creativity coach. My business experience and training helped me make my decision.
• Thank goodness for the coaches in the Creativity Coaching Association  for sharing their knowledge with me.  
• Thanks, J.G. for your knowledge. And to think I remember when you were a dumb kid.

So, what's your take on my experience? Is it a scam? Have you had a similar experience? I'm interested in your comments.