Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

content development

Stop Overwhelm with a Tangible Beginning and End

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The quickest way to get out of overwhelm is to create a tangible beginning and end. Put some boundaries on what you set out to do. Notice how great you feel when you complete it. Chunk your projects into smaller piece so you can see and feel them end.

Set boundaries

Define a few steps you need to take next. A very powerful way to set boundaries is to create in a series. A series has a beginning and end. It has a predetermined size. It is a short enough project to feel the satisfaction of completion. When I started my podcast “Reflections of a Deeper Song” I would have been overwhelmed if I didn’t break the possibilities down into smaller segments.

Cornerstone content builds a strong foundation

As with any project, the foundation is the key component. Why are you creating this? Who are you creating this for? What do they need to know first? What foundational information do you need to provide for them to ultimately get the big picture? The first element of any project is to create the cornerstone content that is the core explanation of the basic elements of the series. This clarifies your project for you as well as for those who will consume it.

Outline your ideas

Step into you beginner’s mind and begin to list the steps needed to understand your message. As you outline, capture those wisps of ideas you need to o bring into physical form. As you capture your ideas, organize them. Keep only the ideas that strengthen your message. Examine your outline for natural learning chunks. Those are the small segments you will work on with a tangible beginning and end that will keep you from feeling overwhelmed.

For instant, I began my podcast with Cornerstone Content just as I would in blogging or teaching a course. That episode clarified the direction of my work and generated ideas for future series. That choice of a foundational series allowed me to easily develop the first series of episodes. That’s it – a beginning and an end. As I work new ideas will emerge but confining my project to s series with a well-defined beginning and end, keeps me focused and assures that I complete my work.

Completion encouraged more completion

The more often I work in a well-defined and focusee series , the more I find my completion and posting rate increasing I have five posts in the Find Your Tribe series. I wrote them easily because the ideas built upon each other. They flowed so easily that I was able to schedule them ahead and suddenly I had free time to focus on another project! See how that works?!

Keep your work short

Writing in a series also helps me develop an idea and still keep my content short. That means I can complete a post more efficiently. I can produce a short video. I can focus on expanding one concept at a time. In this day of information overload, that makes my work more consumable

Keep your To Do List short

I choose “Three Impactful Things To Do Today.” I do them. With whatever left over time I have, I do something else.

My days have a focused a topic: Monday-Articles, Tuesday- Podcasts, Wednesday-Production, Thursday-Courses/Videos, Friday-Loose Ends, Saturday and Sunday – “Me Day.”. Each day Having a specific focus for each day steadily moves each aspect of my work further towards completion.

Having a tangible beginning and end eliminates feelings of overwhelm

Create a tangible beginning, middle and end that can be done in the period of time you have assigned to work on it. If I have an hour, my goal is not to proof an entire ebook, but it could be to edit and proof two chapters. That gives me a feeling of success, of completion, of moving the project forward. End is not “The End”. It is the end of that small chuck that you have chosen to move from the beginning to the end.

“Every new beginning comes from 
some other beginning’s end.” – Seneca

How will you chunk your work down into a tangible beginning and end?
To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

01-How The Deeper Song Community Emerged (podcast, 20 minutes)

02– The Hole In Our Life Called Loneliness (podcast, 20 minutes)

03- Planting Roots and the Fundamental Need for Security (podcast, 20 minutes)

The Set Aside Day

How Not to Make Plans

How to Manage Your Energy to Become More Productive ‎

Nature Does Not Have Deadline, Why Should We?

One Way to End Procrastination 

View Decisions as Experiments, not Final Choices.

COME SING A DEEPER SONG
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DEEPER SONG PROCESS  ‎

If You Are A Rock –Who Supports You?

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“We are both rocks,” my friend said as we were walking in New York City’s Central Park, “People depend on us.” I thought a moment and asked. “If we are rocks, who do we depend on?” “Other rocks,” she replied. If you are a rock, where do you find the rocks you stand on?

What do rocks need?

”Rock” is a tough metaphor. Rocks stand at the top of the mountain, until the earth shakes and they tumble down. Rocks hold steady the banks of a stream. Some rocks line the bottom of rivers during floods or dry spells or they act as stepping stones across a stream. Rocks line paths. They are used to make walls, and even houses. Rocks are steady. They are self-sufficient. They are sturdy. Oh, and sometimes they are shiny and have a very high value! But most of all rocks are strong, resourceful, and manage on their own. So what does a self-sufficient rock need?   What you need?

Rocks may be self-focused

I’m not very fond of the idea that we may be self-focused, but if you are the only one taking care of you, you better be paying attention to you – what you need and want, what you say and do. You are the only person monitoring you. You are the only one making your own choices.

Rocks are strong and steady – not stubborn

Well, maybe a few rocks are stubborn, but if we’re the ones people depend on, we need to be clear about what we value and what we stand for. We must have the courage to go exploring. We are observant, and usually have a plan…

Rocks support others

Here-in lies the crux – if we support others, who supports us – how do we get support? How much support do we need?

We figure it out for ourselves

Rocks are not in the habit of asking for help, or opinions, or guidance. We simply figure it out for ourselves. That means we are curious, we think things out, we are philosophers and we see the overview. As far as I have experienced, we are on our own. I don’t find that sad, it is simply the way it is. As rocks, we have to learn to nurture ourselves.

Are you taking care of yourself?

As an older rock, I’m a bit worn in places and I need some extra care. I do that though eating a plant-based diet and continuing to find forms of exercise that I can still do that strengthen and add flexibility. I am very active  creatively and that offers me deep nourishment. What are you doing to nurture yourself as a rock?

Are you in the right landscape?

The most meaningful change I’ve made as an older rock is to change tribes. I went online to find vibrant, curious, motivated people with whom to exchange ideas. I am both supported and nourished there. As your interests change, see how you need to change tribes or simply replace some no longer supportive members of your tribe.

Self-awareness is the key to nurturing a rock

The major way I nourish myself as a rock is through self-awareness. It took a major outside nudge to get me out of a retirement mind-set back into an active and contributing place of service. It took me awhile to figure out I needed to change tribes. Look for the on-going changes in your cycle, the shifts in your position. A small pebble that dislodges may send you on a wonderful ride down the mountain. If you want to be free, find that pebble and nudge it. If you’d rather stay where you are, take care of that pebble holding you in place.

Appreciate yourself

Rocks have to love themselves. They have to love themselves hard enough and deep enough to actually feel it.   How do you acknowledge yourself? How do others acknowledge you? What kind of impact are you having in the world around you? Does someone come sit in your shade, or take shelter from a storm beneath your overhang, or sun herself on your surface? A rock is in service many ways. Perhaps you just need to notice how you serve.

Support other rocks

Now that you know you are a rock, keep an eye out for other rocks and see how you can support them. Acknowledgement may be enough. A helping hand may be in order. Encouragement is always welcome.

We are cared for when we are in service

Rocks need to be good, strong, supportive rocks. If that is your calling, be the best rock you can be. When you know you are doing well in your job as a rock, that is sometimes nourishment enough.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

02– The Hole In Our Life Called Loneliness (Podcast 20 minutes)

03- Planting Roots and the Fundamental Need for Security (Podcast 20 minutes)

04–How to Redefine Yourself and the 30 year plan (Podcast 20 minutes)

05-Do You Have the Courage to Stand Alone (Podcast 20 minutes)

Do You Know How Much You Have Going For You?

Believe The Road Beneath You

Make Your Own Yellow Brick Road

How to Fill the Hole of Loneliness

We Must Know When To Go It Alone.  

Where Do You Get Your Feelings of Self-Worth?

How To Set Values Boundaries That Express Your Self Love

To receive our weekly Deeper Song Newsletter,
you are invited to Join the deeper Song community

 

Decisions as a Dream Carrier

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Do you think you can make your dreams come true? Dreams seem far away and unattainable. We have only a vague concept of how to create the desired outcome. Did you know that you can make your dreams come true by making one decision at a time?

The power of choice

Look upon a choice as an experiment, a way to travel more deeply in one direction until the path and the landscape becomes more familiar and you are equipped to make an informed decision. If you don’t like where you are, simply make another choice and move to explore another direction.

The current of opportunity

Each day you step into a new current of opportunity. It’s like being on a grand adventure with unexpected panoramas around every curve. You may think you seek one thing and stumble upon a something altogether different that is perfect! You have only to make a choice. Step into the current of opportunity and see where it takes you.

A new view

Whether it’s a slow dawning or a sudden ah-ha, each moment of your day moves you into a new position that offers a uniquely different view. You may finally notice the lovely curve in the river at the bottom of the valley or identify a safe route to the top of the mountain. Each new position you find yourself in offers a new viewpoint. Be flexible. Be aware. When you arrive at a new view, observe how you feel, what you think, and what new ideas occur to you. Use that fresh awareness to make your next decision.

Every decision is perfect

You may not think so when looking back, but every decision you made was perfect for who you were, what you knew and what you needed at the time. Have no regrets, whatever the outcome. The decision you make in this moment will be as perfect as the one you made ten years ago and the one you will make tomorrow.

When the time is right, the right decision will be made.

I made a life-changing decision in the past week. I committed to a particular journey by signing up to take a course. That choice forces me to make specific decisions about what I want my life to look like and how I want to be in service. In making those decisions I will align my choices with my beliefs and my expectations. Each choice will increase my commitment to this particular direction. I feel the power of excitement underneath the decision and am prepared to go where it takes me.

Decisions carry our dreams

My dreams got lazy. I thought I was retired and my world slowed to a crawl. I spent a few years working at redefining myself. I didn’t feel very useful or valued. Until a friend asked me what I’d like to tackle over the next 30 years. I’m 82! However, the inner switch was instantaneous and profound. I turned my vision forward a long way. And I got very, very busy. What decision will propel you forward?

The unspoken language

There are signs everywhere that direct you to a positive decision. There are signals that indicate which choice is best in the moment. We have to learn to interpret them. Emotion is the key component. If you feel uncomfortable about a choice, heed that subconscious advice. Your inner voice knows more than your conscious mind. The changes I have made recently are filled with emotion, including tears, followed by increasing serenity. I’m going in the right direction. Each day I look for the unexpected gift, the sign, and the opportunity that suggests a new choice. Then I make my decisions.

Let your dreams be flexible

Have a soft dream. Notice how it feels but don’t pay too much attention to what is looks like. Make a decision based on the moment and your inner guidance then take your time exploring what shows up. Your choices will lead you to your dreams.

The Imipact Equation is a Gold Mine of Clarity!

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The most difficult aspect of starting a business is clarifying your purpose – who you reach, what you do for them, and what makes you special.  You are too close to your ideas, too familiar with yourself.  It takes some well-worded, on-target questions to help you define you and your business. The Impact Equation by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith poses powerful questions that help you clarify who you are, who you serve, and exactly what you need to offer.

The Impact Equation asked questions that made me think

Working through this book, I made choices.  I discovered intentions. I redefined myself.  Most importantly, I narrowed down my purpose.  That increases my focus and affects my choices.  This whole process of simplifying what you do into very few words not only clarifies how to communicate that core meaning to others, but it offers you a very clear guidepost for the rest of your decisions.

The Impact Equation helped me uncover a powerful metaphor for my work

The metaphor for your work turned out to be an exceedingly powerful exercise for me.  What I discovered built off decisions I made using the Triangle Method and brought me to the core of what I do in life: “ I help the mud settle so you have a clearer view.” When I shared that with a friend, she understood it on many levels and knew immediately that it was the core of who I am.   That metaphor is over-achingly on target for everything I do, in my work and in my interactions.  Being clear that is my purpose will affect my writing and my personal interactions.  This is powerful stuff.

The Impact Equation helped me uncover larger my goals

When you have a ton of ideas, it is easy to get off-target.  You need a way to choose the best idea to get the greatest results. The Impact Equation shows you how to identify your larger goal along with an organic guidepost for making decisions. My goal is to encourage self-awareness that supports positive change. My guidepost is how I help people successfully work within the natural cycles of change.  That is a major help in choosing my next project.

The Impact Equation made me look for the emotions I play alongside my message 

Another soul-searching, self-aware question that is asked in the book was “What emotions play alongside your message?” Our main connection is through emotion, it’s important to identify the emotion you illicit in your work.  I think I encourage curiosity, self-discovery, determination, the joy of standing on your own and (I can only hope) insights and wisdom that help people make positive change.

The Impact Equation turned me into a TV Studio

What are you broadcasting from your business and in your life?  My TV studio is Positive Change. I help people embrace change, choose to change, accept change and create positive change.  What shows could I build around change? That exercise identified my Cornerstones Content.

The Impact Equation helped me identify my weaknesses

This didn’t feel as fun as the other exercise but I really do have a very large missing piece of the Impact Equation that I need and want to find ways to fill.  My work is cut out for me.

The Impact Equation questioned the people I keep around me.

I know this part, you are most like the five people you hang out with.  What I had not considered, which this book helped me do, is that my level of expanding will be constricted by that comfortable, non-changing crowd.  I need to hang out with people who inspire and challenge me.  I need to be with people who expect me to grow and change.  I need to find new steeper curves to climb.

The Impact Equation encouraged me to think beyond what I know

This was a huge nudge for me, not because of a need for new ideas, but the need to change my outreach strategy to accommodate the increasing number of ways there are to communicate.  It’s very easy to stay comfortable with what you know and how it has been up until now. Times are changing and you have to stay on top of the opportunities.  This book helps you realize the breadth of useful and powerful platforms and determine which ones best suit your needs.

The Impact Equation encourages awareness

An important criteria presented in The Impact Equation was “Does the idea stretch me – help me grow?”  That’s going to be my measuring stick for everything I do from here on.

The Impact Equation encourages me to package my quirks

This was one of those great ah-ha moments.  Of course we need to build on the very qualities that make us different, unique, weird, and quirky.  Embrace those unusual aspects of yourself.  Make them the core of what you offer.  Celebrate your freakiness (Why I Love Being a Freak)

The Impact Equation is powerful stuff

Our journeys are ours to make.  Mine in mine and yours is yours. Use this book to dig deep, to identify the form your passion needs to take, and the manner in which you can use your passion to change lives. Read this book with a pen and paper at hand and respond to the questions as they come up.  Your answers and insights will build on each other and help you broaden your impact.  Consider working though the book a second time.  The Impact Equation is a major clarifier.

Why I Love Being a Freak

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A freak doesn’t do things the way they are normally done. A freak follows her own passion. A freak explores and questions. A freak is self-aware. A freak stands alone in her own truth. In “Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth, Entrepreneurship for Weirdo, Mystics, and World Dominators. Chris Brogan encourages our freakiness and I love it

Freaks” encourages us to own our freakiness

Chris not only helps us appreciate and celebrate our uniqueness, he offers systems to put our special viewpoint to work in our business and life. I had an opportunity to personally connect with Chris when he interviewed me for his podcast  (7/10/14 LOTS of smart people) He glows with kindness and generosity of spirit. Our conversation was like two old friends hanging out. Chris has already changed my life through an email exchange. I read his Sunday blog but had not read any of his books. “Freaks” appealed to me.   I’ve always been different. I’ve always made choices that others did not. I’ve followed my passion with great enthusiasm. I thought there were not many others out there like me, until the internet came along and I began to find some like-minded freaks. (I’m 81 – born before lots of inventions – like television.) Thanks to the internet, I can now identify, follow, and develop an e-mail relationship with fellow freaks all over the world. I’ve loved my freakiness, but finding fellow freaks makes me feel less alone and more excited about my personal path.

“Freaks” inspires and motivates us to follow our unique path

“The premise of this book is simple,” writes Chris. “How can I do business my way and be successful, when the way I think and the goals I have aren’t in line with conventional thinking? … In the old days, you had to conform. Now you only need consider your choices and choose the options that feel most right to you.” Don’t we all want it that way – learning what we want to learn, sharing what we want to share, being with people who excite us and share our uniqueness?

“Freaks” helped me appreciate my weirdness 

My first clue came that there were other freaks out there came 35years ago while reading The Aquarian Conspiracy by Marilyn Fergusson. I sat in own uniqueness in the Midwest and kept saying “Oh, there ARE other people thinking like I do. And look what they are doing!” It was my first conscious encounter with the activities of fellow freaks in the world and I was only reading about them.  As a young woman, I was influenced by the Woman’s Movement. I moved to New York City and began developing fellow freak friends. I unconventionally followed my personal interests into holistic venues. I knew and taught several healing techniques. I worked with AIDS patients in New York City when it first appeared. I live with crystals. I’m a metaphysician. I’m drawn to Taoism. I’m a Vegan. I don’t fit in and I don’t want to. It turns out there are a lot of us at here doing our own thing.

“Freaks” celebrates the qualities that serve us

Curiosity, a strong need to do it our way, and a rebellion against conforming are all qualities that serve the uniqueness of freaks. As we insist on going our own way, we live and work more closely with our passion. That makes us very powerful.

“Freaks” offers practical business advice

It is great to have a fellow freak offer organizational and strategic business advice. You know it’s going to be unconventional and fit right in with your plans. Ideas for everything from your vision, to your tribe, to your systems are in this book. I am very drawn to Chris’s “Core Compass” plan. It helps you thoughtfully identify your core purpose and use it as a guidepost for all your decisions. One of the most difficult challenges in creating your own business or product is to identify the simple core purpose of your work, or the core talent that best serves your community. I used Chris’s Core Compass to dynamically reposition and repurpose my current work.

“Freaks” will warm your heart

Chris’s energy of kindness and a desire to support others shines through every page. For instance, he asks, “What lead-nurturing products can I generate?” Nurturing? It makes the approach to business so caring. As for looking for your community he asks, “Where are the people who want to celebrate your work with you and who pay you to improve their lives.” Celebrate my work? Love it. Let’s have a party.

“Freaks” is about family

One of the central concepts of Chris’s very successful business is the idea of Monchu – an Okinawan word that means “one family” He explains that Monchu “embodies the concept that you could help to build value for everyone around you.” How dramatically would your business change if you expanded your sense of family to everyone who crossed your path?

“Freaks” encouraged me to explore

“Fall in love with not knowing” is a chapter that celebrates and supports our inventiveness and creativity. I’m a big one for taking ideas that feel meaningful to me and writing about them in order to better understand them and figure out how to incorporate them into my life. I loved his idea that “Curiosity fuels passion. It allows you to see things from difference angles.” It’s vital that we view our choices from many viewpoints.And “Try new things. Learn new things Learn what else you don’t know. Learn tons more than the other person about what makes your senses tingle.” These are all concepts of learning and experiencing that I choose to emphasize into my life.

Woman freaks need to claim our own place

There is no age limit on freaks but there seems to be a problem with gender. Woman cannot be freaks in big business. Hey, maybe we don’t want to do business like the guys do. In our own freaky female way, we can develop our business to encourage other woman to embrace and cherish their freakiness and to teach their daughters to do the same. We’ have great power. Female freaks can and will make a huge difference in their world.

A major realization for me that was a huge take-away from reading this book concerned my target community. I discovered that my Manchu are older women freaks. That certainly puts a different slant on how I connect with them. I can stop thinking in terms of a broader demography and keep on writing to people like me, freaks who are getting older and trying to figure out how to accommodate that change and still be productive and meaningful.

Own your destiny

Chris wants us to own our own destiny. It’s more than running a business, it’s about living a life that draws from you the most you have to offer and place it in the service of others. “The best of everything in the world has come from freaks,” states Chris.  To interact with Chris and other fellow freaks check out Owner Magazine  and follow Chris’s Blog.

If you think you are a freak, if you KNOW you are a freak you’ll resonate with this book. “Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth, Entrepreneurship for Weirdo, Mystics, and World Dominators.may be just what you need to move our forward at this point in your life. It certainly made a welcome difference in mine