The beginning of July. Halfway through the year. I like to take this week and look back at what I have accomplished so far this year and adjust my goals for the year. Why do I like to do this now? Other than it is half-way through the year, this is the week of July 4, Independence Day here in the United States. It is a day meant for celebration – picnics, fireworks and gratitude. I like celebrating where I started and where I am. I like celebrating that I am able to work both independently as an entrepreneur and interdependently with so many wonderful people.

How do I take this look back? I ask myself a series of questions, and I have asked my private clients to answer the same questions for their businesses. I look at the questions taking two forms: concrete and introspective. First the concrete questions:

1. What was my revenue for the first six months?

2. What were my expenses for the same period?

3. What was my profit?

The second series of questions take more thought since I cannot find their answers easily on a spreadsheet.

1. What were my biggest accomplishments these past six months?

2. What were some of the lessons I learned during this time?

3. What were the weak points? What could be improved?

4. What opportunities did I miss?

5. What marketing worked? What else created my wins?

6. How can I use this information going forward for the rest of the year?

At this point, I will go back and look at my goals and see how I need to adjust them. Do my existing goals look too easy? Do they stretch me enough? I will update them so I have broader, bigger goals for the rest of the year.

I hope you will take the time to do this exercise. If you started the year with written goals that stretched you some, I hope you are surprised and thrilled to see that you need to be stretched some more. What can you do to stretch yourself for the rest of the year? Please share some of what you learned below or on the ICAP Facebook or Google+ pages.

“Clarity is the most important thing. I can compare clarity to pruning in gardening. You know, you need to be clear. If you are not clear, nothing is going to happen. You have to be clear. Then you have to be confident about your vision. And after that, you just have to put a lot of work in.” Diane Von Furstenberg

Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That all of us Have to Give up in Order to Move Forward.
Dr. Henry Cloud
HarperBusiness; $25.99

As I started thinking about changes I wanted to make in my business, I knew it would involve “endings,” and I was not sure how comfortable I was with that. I found the help I needed in Necessary Endings by Dr Henry Cloud. Dr Cloud talks about necessary endings being of three types and compares them to pruning rose bushes. The first type of pruning is because you have more buds than the plant can sustain, so you prune some of your buds so the bush can thrive. You prune the good to keep the best. The second type of pruning is with sick or diseased branches that you finally realize will not recover even with more help. The third type of pruning is with dead branches and buds that are just taking up space. What really hit me was when he defined the pruning moment as “that clarity of enlightenment when we become responsible for making the decision to own the vision or not. If we own it, we have to prune. If we don’t, we have decided to own the other vision, the one we called average. It is a moment of truth that we encounter almost every day in many, many decisions.” That said, it is still not easy to prune, even if we want more than average. It may bring up anxiety over making changes — or endings. It is not always easy deciding if something is worth fixing or not, and how long you hold out hope. You also have to deal with the grief of some kinds of endings. Early on in the book, the author noted the need to decide between good and best and that this is difficult for creative people, causing them to have a lack of focus. Creative people often think all ideas are equal, trying to keep them all alive and ending up with a “to-do pile” rather than a list. I found it valuable, and my copy is filled with lots of underlines and a page of extra notes.

You can look for the book at your favorite quilt shop or book retailer. Here is the link to Amazon if you would like to learn more about the book.

“If you do follow your bliss …  doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.”  ~ Joseph Campbell

Reap as You Sew: Spirit at Work in Quiltmaking
Chris Boersma Smith
West Bow Press; $27.95

I am not sure why we seem to see more books, articles or news reports on spirituality these days, I am just glad we do. For most of us quilt or art makers, we know that something often drives our work or speaks to us about our work that is outside of ourselves. That is what Chris Boersma Smith explores in her book Reap as You Sew. Chris’ book on the connection between creativity and spirituality offers a look at individual stories of a group of quiltmakers and how quiltmaking is a spiritual path for each. Each story is accompanied by what Chris calls “Steps along a spiritual quiltmaking path.” I think of them as tools in your toolbox, e.g, keeping a journal; starting with an image and imagining how it evolves; inviting your higher power to guide you as you freely create; taking small actions. If you want to explore the connection in your own work or understand more of the “why you quilt,” Reap as You Sew will help you on that path.

“Art is a collaboration between God and the artist and the less the artist does the better.” ~ Andre Gide

Are you a procrastinator? Well, who isn’t at times?

I send out a weekly email known as a “Mornivation™”to the clients in my private coaching program. Part inspiration, part motivation, part accountability. This past week I shared with them a short video on procrastination. I know it resonated with them as it did with me. And, I know as I sat down to write this ezine, I felt in a procrastinating mood. After all, how many trips can I take to kitchen?  Then as I was thinking about what to write about, I looked down and saw the little stickie on my computer screen. It reads “DING. Do It Now Girl.” Isn’t that a great acronym, too? DING. As in the door bell is ringing, and you are going to answer it. As in the work is calling, and you are going to do it.

Here are some tips to help you DING:

1. Try to figure out why you are putting off the work. Is it because you don’t really care? Are you scared to put yourself out there? Is perfectionism holding you back?

1. Have a schedule or deadline. Nothing like a deadline to spur you on to action.

1. Remove the distractions. That would be all the bright shiny objects in your field of vision or the latest issue of your favorite art publication. You’ll have time for them later.

1. Get clear about what you are accomplishing and why.

1. Break the task down into manageable bits if it is really large. You do not have  to do it all, you just have to start.

1. Set a timer. If you promise yourself to work for 15 minutes, odds are that you will keep going once you are into the project.And, if Do It Now Girl does not resonate with you, try Do It Now, Go!

Please share your tips about getting yourself away from procrastination.

Do you have a DING solution? How do you get past procrastination? I would love to hear from you and what your techniques are. Just leave your thoughts below or on the ICAP Facebook or Google+ pages.

“The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Listen to the art.” ~Junot Diaz

Did you ever get the message to slow down? Well, I got it big time last week when I fell, requiring eight stitches at my elbow, only to have most of those stitches pop out and get restitched with nine more. I know I tend to be full steam ahead at times, so this was a not-so-subtle hint to take a break.

If I go and look back over the past couple of months, I have not paid as much attention to my own self-care as I have in the past. Perhaps the biggest problem is that while I might give it attention, I do not make it the priority I should.

What exactly is self-care and why is it important?

Self-care includes any intentional actions you take to care for yourself on a physical, emotional or spiritual level. It is individual and what works for me may or may not work for you. I also think of it as doing things today that will make me feel good now and later.

Self-care is important because if you do not take care of yourself first, you are no good to others. Remember the oxygen mask talk from airline travels. The flight attendant tells you to put your mask on before helping others.

How do you practice self-care?

For each of us that looks different. One of my favorite resources when I talk about self-care is The Art of Extreme Self-Care by Cheryl Richardson. Cheryl offers you 12 strategies (one for each month). Here are three.

1. Find Your Own Rhythm and Routine. Routines add stability and create balance in your life. Even routines at work make you more productive. Do not think of routine as boring!

To create your own rhythm and routine, Cheryl suggests asking yourself this question, “What one routine could I put in place this month that would improve my life the most?”

Next, write the routine down on an index card. Make a plan of how to incorporate this into your life. Keep the card in view where it reminds you of your commitment. After a week, consider if you feel more relaxed, balanced, or less overwhelmed.

Some of the routines I have are a walk each morning with friends, a meditation practice, breakfast and dinner with my husband, an evening walk with my husband and our dog. I know I need to work on getting my yoga practice back to a routine.

2. Create an Absolute No List. I imagine I am not the only person who has ever said yes to things she does not want to do.

It is just as important to know what you are willing to do as it is to know what you are not willing to do! Try to create a list of what you will not tolerate in your life. You do this to honor your own self-care. When Cheryl asked her friends for their examples, she got such “no’s” as live without pets; eat meat; finish reading books that lose my interest; feel bad about saying no when it is the best thing for me; do my own housecleaning; do my own taxes; and take phones calls during dinner. Your life will work better if you set these boundaries.

Cheryl suggests that when you start to put together your Absolute No List, you pay attention to how it feels in your body. Do activities cause tension or make you feel edgy? This is a sign to consider. Post the list where you can see it and imagine how it will make a difference in your life.

What is on my absolute no list? It includes not traveling early in the morning back from trade shows or other events. I used to take the early morning flight thinking I did not want to waste all the day, and I only ended up tired the next day. Now, I get a good night’s sleep and arrive home refreshed and ready to face the next day.

3. Learn to Disappoint. Is the reason you say yes (when you really don’t want to) because you do not want to disappoint? Do you take on tasks that don’t add to your life because you do not want to let someone down? My guess is we have all done this.

Cheryl offers three guidelines to help you “disappoint” people the right way:

• Buy some time by telling the person you need to get back to them and let them know upfront that you may not be able to oblige.
  

• Ask yourself if it is really something you would like to do using a scale of 1 to 10. I love Cheryl’s questioning that if you knew the person would not be angry or disappointed, would you say no.

• Tell the truth with grace and love. She suggests being honest about how you feel, telling the truth directly in one or two sentences, asking how you can get the person the help they need if it is appropriate.

While I gave you some strategies and a resource, it’s important to remember that much of self-care is about the attitude that you you matter and that your needs matter.

How are you treating yourself with compassion and caring for yourself? I would love to hear from you and what your techniques are. Just leave your thoughts below or on the ICAP Facebook or Google+ pages.

PATRICIA STURTZEL NAMED 2015 CREATIVE ARTS TEACHER OF THE YEAR

Patricia Sturtzel of Louisville, Ky., has been named 2015 Teacher of the Year by The International Association of Creative Arts Professionals.

Nominated for this award by her students in recognition of the quality of her teaching and the enthusiasm she generates for the world of quiltmaking, Pat is best known for facilitating group collaborative quilts and for teaching fiber art processes. For the past 10 years, Pat has focused on working with students in a variety of environments, facilitating projects with kindergarten through high school students (including pregnant and parenting teens) and frequently conduct professional development workshops for classroom teachers to help them include the fiber arts into their curriculum, making connections to cultures, math and science. Workshops often include adaptations for working with students of all abilities including those with disabilities. In the realm of arts in healing, she regularly facilitates arts sessions with adults recovering from substance abuse, veterans with PTSD and other mental health issues, older adults with dementia, children at a mental hospital, survivors of cancer and refugees. While many of these sessions include other art forms, she involves working with fabrics and other fibers when possible. Tie-dye activities are popular as well as a no-sew “fabric collage” process that she has developed. Several times a year, she also works with quiltmakers and others wanting to learn fabric dyeing, surface design techniques and incorporation of those fabrics into quilts. She wants people to connect with fabric, so she has developed a variety of methods for that to happen.

Other finalists for this prestigious award included Susan Emory, Richmond, Va.; Debbie Maddy, Graham, Texas; Gwen Marston, Beaver Island, Mich.; and Carol Soderlund, Geneva, N.Y.

This is the 30th year this award has been presented by the International Association of Creative Arts Professionals, a organization dedicated to empowering quilt, fiber, mixed-media and other creative artists to craft business success from their passion through education, professional development and networking. Teachers, who are nominated by their students or employers, are judged based on the answers to a questionnaire. The criteria include commitment to development of fine workmanship and personal expression of students; involvement in and contributions to the field of quiltmaking; and professionalism, including personal code of ethics and serving as a role model.

Judges for the 2015 competition were Jacquie Gering, award-winning modern quilter and the 2015 Quilt Teacher of the Year; Mimi Dietrich, well-known appliqué artist, teacher and author and the 2014 Teacher of the Year; and Laurie Bay, artist and longarm quilter.