Starting the Fire

One of the reasons I haven’t been hanging around the blogosphere much lately is that (in addition to the day job) I’m preparing to launch one, perhaps TWO brand new love-my-life creative ventures.

I’m in a bubbly ideation start-up phase, taking classes and writing plans and building contacts and hardly sleeping at all – who has time when you’re this EXCITED about what’s to come?

But if I’m being fully honest - I’m having trouble pushing myself from ideas into action. It seems so easy when the ideas are flowing like water to just keep letting them flow. But I know I can’t keep up the planning and dreaming and scope-creep forever – I will never feel truly “READY” and at some point, I have to pull the trigger. This has been a stumbling block, especially when the to-do list ahead is as long as my arm. How do I get out of my own way?

Generally I’m a pragmatic person, but when I randomly came across a tweet about some book called The Fire Starter Sessions last week, something told me to click. And something told me to put on my shoes and go to the bookstore RIGHT-THEN and buy the book. Even though I don’t *usually* believe in things like this – perhaps the universe was whispering to me exactly what I needed.

The Fire Starter Sessions is the latest book from the beautiful Danielle LaPorte – it’s a kind of no-nonsense, live-your-best-life, self-help guide for creatives and entrepreneurs. The premise is that by following your great passion, the one which comes easiest and is most essential to your soul, you’ll inherently find your way to success and happiness. Nearly every page contains a quote or insightful nugget to keep me nodding along and inspire me to action. My favorites so far:

• “As people with creative spirit, we’re obsessed with possibility. We live for the rush of turning a thought – an abstract idea- into smoething real, tangible, touchable, readable, effectual, profitable. We feel empowered, generous even, in the making of our art. We have a practical indignation for mediocrity. We love to get things done.”

• “Be careful what you’re (just) good at — you could end up doing it for years.” and “If it doesn’t light you up, you’re not the right person for the job.”

• “Curiosity is your growth point.”

• “There is nothing as easy as being inspired.”

• “Knowing how you actually want to feel is the most otent form of clarity that you can have. Generating those feelings is the most creative thing you can do with your life.”

• And a whole slew of insightful questions and worksheets that have me wondering what I’ve been waiting for all this time.

LaPorte also recently released a related series for the Huffington Post, “30 Days to Fire Up Your Creative Genius” billed as “part sermon, part pep talk and part DIY soul retreat” to “see yourself more clearly — the power of you, the beauty of you, the truth of what lights your fire.”  The series challenges you to answer 30 “Burning Questions” from Chapter 4 of The Fire Starter Sessions to help identify your true passions and fuel a more inspired and successful life.

I’m more inspired by the book than any design I’ve seen all week, so I couldn’t wait to finish The Fire Starter Sessions before writing this post. Lightbulb-on, life-changing, wake-up call to action. Does this make me a liberal tree-hugging hippie? Am I buying into the hype? If it leads to a much-longed-for breakthrough, does it matter?