Please go out there and do. Live. Don’t be the same as yesterday. Don’t live vicariously online. Don’t use language that has no meaning or talk ideas you don’t really live. Don’t hide. Don’t copy others or live their ideas or life. Don’t fear doing your thing. Don’t fear doing. Instead of reading a decorating magazine, paint that room. Instead of thinking of baking, do up a cake. Run, walk, bike. Put that self help book down and pick up yourself.

Let go of the snark, your worries, your anger and fear and give into possibility, action, joy and life. Do. Do some more. Stop thinking about you. Stop blogging about just you and your kid and your pet. There’s a world out there to connect to, really connect to and email doesn’t count. Being of use is more important than being popular. Think about the lady down the street, the person at the drive through, the man fallen in the street, about politics, the environment, healthcare, another country and then do something about it. Never stop at thinking.

Dream big, work harder. Have lots of fun, lift a finger, do something for someone else. Cheer your friends on. Cheer yourself up. Celebrate as much as possible. Enjoy everything. Right now. It’s OK to want more and do more but be present with where you are or who you are with. Don’t rush the situation – even if it’s bad. Move on when you can. Don’t settle. Try everything you can and get over everything holding you back.

Go outside. Go outside yourself. Make a difference, make some change. Don’t complain about someone unless you’re talking to that someone. Don’t complain about a situation you’re not willing to make better. They don’t have it better and you don’t have it worse. Don’t make excuses. You’ll never see possibility if you do. And you’re smart and worth more than settling for a life of complaining and limitation.

Hope. Hope more. Give someone else hope. Get healthy and contribute to a healthy environment. Think about everything you do, you buy, you say. Only be lazy on Sunday and even then, be conscious. Rest is useful, giving up is not.

Live with a light heart. Play more. Remember what it’s like to be seven. Remember to listen to a seven year old because you just have more words and life experience, not necessarily more wisdom. Have more questions than answers and don’t put everything into words. Sometimes just feel things and be. Be quiet more often, listen harder, talk exactly as you mean to.

Strive for your best and not what you think someone elses’ best is. Follow through. Don’t let others’ down. Don’t let yourself down. You are better than your circumstances. Ask for what you’re worth. Make magic happen don’t wish for it. Don’t envy others’ lives, envy yours. Live it fully. Teach by example how to live well, how to be treated, how to be kind, how to be alive.

Do. I can’t stress that one enough. Take action on your life. Make the change. No more sulking, waiting, thinking, reading, talking about. It’s time. You’re ready.

Sometimes when the creativity has left me, I wonder if it’s because I’m doing less time walking in the world and more time wondering how long Brenda and Dylan will stay a couple and if Laura will ever get off the Prarie.

This sums up so perfectly a post I wrote several months back.

Don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreement

“Had we sat down and said, ‘Let’s start a photo application,’ we would have failed,” Fake says. “We would have done all this research and done all the wrong things.”

Interesting little article on Caterina Fake and how Flickr came about.

If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place. Nora Roberts

Although I own volumes of his letters and writings, his artwork was a mystery to me. All I knew was he was it when it came to great artists. His works was posters for crying out loud! When people thought of important works of art his name would always come up. His work is so far up the scale that mere mortals were never supposed to do what he did. He�s an icon, a legend, a master.

Because of this, I had always had the notion he was born this way. He came out of the womb with a brush and went to work. His style was always there � or so I believed.

The exhibit showed some of his famous paintings and portraits but what they also showed were his drawings. This is where I spent most of my time because this is where I received a lesson.

Van Gogh had tried several (unsuccessful) careers before he decided to pursue art at 27. And when he first began he made simple sketches of life around him. In the drawings on display one could see some of his mistakes, hard lines, and sometimes shabby movements. What struck me most about these images was how simple they were, drawn by a man who was trying to learn.

When he first began to paint he mimicked other artists and their way of doing things; he didn�t have a style, direction or vision. His way of painting – the greatness – would happen later on, after years of practice and confidence. It also wouldn’t be recognised until after his death for during the rest of his life, he was just a man who tried to paint.

Sometimes, we remove the humanity from great people; putting them on pedestals so high they become separated from us. We think we can never obtain their greatness because we aren�t where they are. What we should think is we aren�t where they are yet. For we all have to start somewhere to become something.

“I don’t paint from here,” she said pointing to her head, “but from here” and then placed her hand over her heart.

I understood.

Two years ago I had a conversation with a woman who told me the same thing and it changed my life. She told me that I had been living far too much from my head and it was time to follow my heart. She told me it would be difficult and it was – at first.

So much importance on money, on being right, on not making mistakes, of not looking foolish, of doing the right thing that we often forget just to live and do. That’s why we envy children so much. They do as they please not because of lack of knowledge but because they have a lack of fear of listening to themselves. They haven’t learned to think about their actions. They just do them.

When I first started to paint, I would stop more than I would continue. It was always wrong, always ugly. Each stroke was painful and completely overanalysed. It wasn�t fun at all.

One day I was tired of all the attempts and feeling like crap about it all so I promised myself that for one month, I would paint in secret. I wouldn’t tell anyone, wouldn’t show anyone and wouldn’t have any expectations. I’d keep every ugly painting I made and attach no head thoughts to it.

It was the best thing I could have done because after awhile, I stopped thinking and just began doing. After awhile, my pictures looked less textbook and more like me. After awhile, I stopped hiding them and started selling them.

I think this lesson can be applied to many things, even bigger than just painting. When people ask me about living out a dream they want all the practical information so that they can satisfy their head. But really, what should happen first, is satisfying the heart. The heart is what makes you live.

Listening to my heart made me realise I had to leave the corporate world. Listening to my heart kept me going when I was really scared about being a writer. Listening to my heart changed everything and allowed me to live authentically and well – something I didn’t think possible when I was thinking about every detail in my head and living out my life in thoughts only.

I think everyone’s heart is always trying to tell them something. Sometimes it says, “go on, you can do it.” Or “Yes, that’s right, this is what you should do.” Sometimes the heart has warnings, saying loudly, “I’m hurting. Don’t do that anymore.” It’s the inner-voice we often ignore because of fear (although we often use the word “practical” instead of “fear”). But the moment you no longer ignore you heart and move from it, something amazing happens – authenticity and joy.

It’s hard, at first, to listen to your heart and to move from it. Even if you’ve been doing it for a while one can become lazy and then have to start the process all over again (like me). But it’s crucial. It’s crucial to surviving, it’s crucial to authentic happiness and it’s crucial to painting without effort.

What is your heart saying? More importantly, what are you going to do about it?