I woke up this morning and felt like there was a hammer in my brain. It wasn't a headache but this dull thumping like something trying to get out. I understand now how Zeus felt when Athena burst out of his head. The thumping was unforgiving. I turned on the tv to start my exercise video but I couldn't get over the urge that I had to go outside and just walk until the hammering stopped.
Walking usually clears my head and this morning I had an epiphany. This blog and the whole concept of Sane & Satisfied is to find the life that makes you happy and to get rid of anything that forces you to not be yourself and to try to do all of this in the least stressful way. So yesterday I was working on a website for my part time gig and I was thinking to myself (as I nashed my teeth) that I really didn't want to be working on that website. I went into what I call "Funkland". In Funkland, I question myself and everything I'm doing and I even start to have nightmares of myself working at McDonalds for the rest of my life. Funkland is the complete opposite of Sane & Satisfied.
This is starting to turn into a long boring expatiation. So like my husband tells me, I will think about it and cut straight to the end.
I was in Funkland because I can't seem to figure out what I want to do with my life. And most of the time I figure something out like Academy for Self Education it still feels like the pieces aren't in the right place yet. And that's when it hit me. The pieces AREN'T in the right place. They are scattered all around me in different areas of life.
I realized that I need to bring together all these pieces of things I love to do like drawing, writing, typesetting, books, reading, learning, designing worksheets and workbooks and selling things I make with my own two hands. I have been doing all of those things already for a while now but they weren't connected.
Until today!
Enter birds singing, and light from heaven shining down on me and a choir of angels singing Hallelujah. I'm one step closer to Sane & Satisfied!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Movies, Cars & Ice Cream
So I just started the process to register my new business, Academy for Self Education. This will be the third business I start in about the same years. The only thing that's going through my head right now is, "what am I doing." Sometimes I feel like this is it, this is the business I've been waiting for my whole life and other times, like today, I'm wondering if it will go anywhere at all.
I think of movies where a character is starting a business like, The Social Network or Sunshine Cleaning and I envy their passion and excitement. I was standing at the County Clerks office today and realized that I don't feel excitement at all and maybe just a little passion. Is that enough?
It seems like everything I try to start just misses by *that much*. I'm sure it's just in my head but I'm pretty sure I definitely do not have the gold touch.
Although another thought did occur to me in line at the County Clerks office: I try to do so many different things for my business. I try to be the marketer, designer, content creator, workshop leader, graphic designer, accountant, executive assistant and owner all at the same time. And I guess this all wouldn't be entirely so bad but I try to be perfect at every one of those jobs too.
I think the hardest thing for an entrepreneur to do is ask for help. I know that I want to do everything. I think that if I don't have my print on everything then the business somehow isn't mine at all. But that's crazy now that I say it out loud. I think in order to be more satisfied and, in turn, more successful I'm going to need to break down and ask for help.
One of the things that would make me satisfied, aside from succeeding at my business venture, is to own a new car. An SUV to be precise. I know, how un-environmental. My current car is a sky blue Hyundai Accent. It's not very professional looking. Plus I plan to have a lot of classes and travel the country giving seminars and talks and I'm pretty sure my sky blue wouldn't be able to handle it.
I also realized yesterday that I need to start setting goals for myself and for my business. This sounds like one of those no-brainer moments, right? If you want to accomplish anything you have to set goals for yourself. But this is how off track I've gotten over the past couple years. I stopped setting goals and just followed what others said.
For example, my first business was the easiest to start. It was called Buttons & Rainbows and I sold handmade children's accessories like bracelets and bookmarks. My goal was turn every day items into creative inspiration for children. I don't remember struggling as much as I am now. I just created the business, made the items and sold them (or at least tried too). I even had a fashion show and used area kids as my models. Then a career counselor suggested to me that if teaching children creativity was what I wanted to do then I should give workshops on creativity. In one month I scrapped Buttons & Rainbows and developed Sara Ortiz Workshops.
I think that was the first time I started to have doubts about my ideas. I don't remember where the idea came from to start Buttons & Rainbows. I know I'm not the only one who had the idea to create handmade children's accessories but I wonder if I've ever done something because I truly believed in it. After all, that's what makes great businesses.
And that's what makes Sane & Satisfied all the more important to me. I've got to get out of the habit of doing things just because or when others accept them. That's probably why Buttons & Rainbows was so easy for me to start. It was my first business and I hadn't read every business and marketing book under the sun by then. It was just me and my creativity.
I think that the Academy for Self Education is something I can truly believe in. It encompasses most every philosophy I have about life, learning, politics and improving yourself and your life. Sane & Satisfied is what I hope to become through the process of building my business and learning from my journey.
I'm glad I figured that out. Now time for some ice cream.
I think of movies where a character is starting a business like, The Social Network or Sunshine Cleaning and I envy their passion and excitement. I was standing at the County Clerks office today and realized that I don't feel excitement at all and maybe just a little passion. Is that enough?
It seems like everything I try to start just misses by *that much*. I'm sure it's just in my head but I'm pretty sure I definitely do not have the gold touch.
Although another thought did occur to me in line at the County Clerks office: I try to do so many different things for my business. I try to be the marketer, designer, content creator, workshop leader, graphic designer, accountant, executive assistant and owner all at the same time. And I guess this all wouldn't be entirely so bad but I try to be perfect at every one of those jobs too.
I think the hardest thing for an entrepreneur to do is ask for help. I know that I want to do everything. I think that if I don't have my print on everything then the business somehow isn't mine at all. But that's crazy now that I say it out loud. I think in order to be more satisfied and, in turn, more successful I'm going to need to break down and ask for help.
One of the things that would make me satisfied, aside from succeeding at my business venture, is to own a new car. An SUV to be precise. I know, how un-environmental. My current car is a sky blue Hyundai Accent. It's not very professional looking. Plus I plan to have a lot of classes and travel the country giving seminars and talks and I'm pretty sure my sky blue wouldn't be able to handle it.
I also realized yesterday that I need to start setting goals for myself and for my business. This sounds like one of those no-brainer moments, right? If you want to accomplish anything you have to set goals for yourself. But this is how off track I've gotten over the past couple years. I stopped setting goals and just followed what others said.
For example, my first business was the easiest to start. It was called Buttons & Rainbows and I sold handmade children's accessories like bracelets and bookmarks. My goal was turn every day items into creative inspiration for children. I don't remember struggling as much as I am now. I just created the business, made the items and sold them (or at least tried too). I even had a fashion show and used area kids as my models. Then a career counselor suggested to me that if teaching children creativity was what I wanted to do then I should give workshops on creativity. In one month I scrapped Buttons & Rainbows and developed Sara Ortiz Workshops.
I think that was the first time I started to have doubts about my ideas. I don't remember where the idea came from to start Buttons & Rainbows. I know I'm not the only one who had the idea to create handmade children's accessories but I wonder if I've ever done something because I truly believed in it. After all, that's what makes great businesses.
And that's what makes Sane & Satisfied all the more important to me. I've got to get out of the habit of doing things just because or when others accept them. That's probably why Buttons & Rainbows was so easy for me to start. It was my first business and I hadn't read every business and marketing book under the sun by then. It was just me and my creativity.
I think that the Academy for Self Education is something I can truly believe in. It encompasses most every philosophy I have about life, learning, politics and improving yourself and your life. Sane & Satisfied is what I hope to become through the process of building my business and learning from my journey.
I'm glad I figured that out. Now time for some ice cream.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Music, Coffee & Nature
Music, coffee and nature seem to get me through these days. They aren't a complete cure but they help me through. Starting a business is difficult enough without feeling insane and unsuccessful. It makes me question if I'm even supposed to be an entrepreneur. I think I'm an entrepreneur. I act like one, I think like one (do I smell like one?) I have many ideas and most of the time I act on them without asking permission first. That, I think, is the most basic characteristic of an entrepreneur. We don't wait around for someone to tell us there's a need or that something isn't quite right yet.
I started thinking about the concept of Sane & Satisfied when I was going through my coaching phase. I started coaching women who owned their own business and through talking to these women I remembered why I wanted to start my own business in the first place: to be happy and feel successful and hopefully accomplish those two goals in the least stressful way possible.
From that moment, Sane & Satisfied has taken on a life of it's own and it's teachings have popped up in every area of my life. This concept has grown into a disdain and sometimes disgust at self-help gurus. I'm amazed at the success of an industry that pretty much tells you that you are doing everything wrong. Oh, yeah, and you are also too fat, too angry, too selfish, too self-loathing and generally too much.
I can get an honest assessment of myself from my husband at a fraction of the cost!
I think that what these self-help gurus miss and what you miss if you follow their teachings, is that you are human. And humans make mistakes and are flawed. But it's our society that puts the scarlet letter on those faults. It's society that makes you feel like every fault you have should be engineered away.
Of course that's not to say that if you have anger problems that landed you in jail or drinking problems that resulted in an car crash or crashes that you should write it off as "just being human". But let's face it, most of us are not in that boat and only suffer from your basic, garden variety, human ticks.
Another question, and I think the most important question is: what does Sane & Satisfied mean and how to I become those two things? Well, what it doesn't mean is self help. Self help involves pity parties, and looking ourselves in the mirror, repeating, "I am great and people love me."
Sane & Satisfied is an ever growing concept and will be different for everyone but from what I've gathered so far being Sane & Satisfied is about self-education and understanding who you are and not apologizing for it. Then from there it's simply a way of life instead of a destination.
If we only learn 10% of what is taught to us then it stands to reason that we shouldn't focus on only one program or way of thinking. This is especially true in the case of self-help where the guru's message doesn't evolve much over a long period of time. I think that's why so many people are caught in an endless cycle of attending self-help seminars and reading self-help books. We've already learned the 10% there was to learn but something is still missing. Instead of learning more things we hold on to the charisma of the self-help leader and return for yet another dose.
Sometimes I wonder of I'll ever be Sane & Satisfied. Is it even possible? Well I'm going to try. What other choice do I have?
I started thinking about the concept of Sane & Satisfied when I was going through my coaching phase. I started coaching women who owned their own business and through talking to these women I remembered why I wanted to start my own business in the first place: to be happy and feel successful and hopefully accomplish those two goals in the least stressful way possible.
From that moment, Sane & Satisfied has taken on a life of it's own and it's teachings have popped up in every area of my life. This concept has grown into a disdain and sometimes disgust at self-help gurus. I'm amazed at the success of an industry that pretty much tells you that you are doing everything wrong. Oh, yeah, and you are also too fat, too angry, too selfish, too self-loathing and generally too much.
I can get an honest assessment of myself from my husband at a fraction of the cost!
I think that what these self-help gurus miss and what you miss if you follow their teachings, is that you are human. And humans make mistakes and are flawed. But it's our society that puts the scarlet letter on those faults. It's society that makes you feel like every fault you have should be engineered away.
Of course that's not to say that if you have anger problems that landed you in jail or drinking problems that resulted in an car crash or crashes that you should write it off as "just being human". But let's face it, most of us are not in that boat and only suffer from your basic, garden variety, human ticks.
Another question, and I think the most important question is: what does Sane & Satisfied mean and how to I become those two things? Well, what it doesn't mean is self help. Self help involves pity parties, and looking ourselves in the mirror, repeating, "I am great and people love me."
Sane & Satisfied is an ever growing concept and will be different for everyone but from what I've gathered so far being Sane & Satisfied is about self-education and understanding who you are and not apologizing for it. Then from there it's simply a way of life instead of a destination.
If we only learn 10% of what is taught to us then it stands to reason that we shouldn't focus on only one program or way of thinking. This is especially true in the case of self-help where the guru's message doesn't evolve much over a long period of time. I think that's why so many people are caught in an endless cycle of attending self-help seminars and reading self-help books. We've already learned the 10% there was to learn but something is still missing. Instead of learning more things we hold on to the charisma of the self-help leader and return for yet another dose.
Sometimes I wonder of I'll ever be Sane & Satisfied. Is it even possible? Well I'm going to try. What other choice do I have?
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