so. umm… now what? August 11, 2009

Thank you friends, for all the wonderful spoken and unspoken support. I haven’t gotten any blank stares or doubtful responses when I’ve told people that I quit my job, even though I don’t have much of a plan in line. In fact, I’ve gotten the opposite: very positive responses. That’s pretty awesome. We’ve got ourselves a lot of believers out there, folks! Lucky for me, part of why I could just hop right out of my job is because I work (for just 10 more days!) at a restaurant. And, if in a couple months I find myself in need of another full-time job, there are a few thousand restaurants in this borough alone that I could serve burgers/steak/vegan whatevers at. So, I’ll deal with that if/when I need to.

That’s pretty much the worst-case scenario. Which is too say, the worst case scenario isn’t bad at all. I like meeting new people and finding myself in new environments, so if that’s what needs to happen, I am sure many wonderful things will come from it, as did from this job.

So, what is the best case scenario?

That’s what I’m giving myself the time to sort out, I spose!

Before I get to all that job stuff, I’d like to take some time to do something else. I have been toying with the idea of taking a bikram yoga 30-day challenge for a while now. (Doing bikram yoga for 30 days straight!) But, I don’t want to focus solely on practicing bikram yoga during this time. I started thinking about the other things it would be fun to do for 30 days in a row.

I came across this Steve Pavlina article: 30 days to Success. Innnnteresting. He explains how the 30-day model is a great way to try out a daily habit, and see if it can become something you want to do daily for life! So this could be a great time for me to create habits I want to carry with me when I enter back into real world territory.

Some ideas:

-Exercising daily, whether it’s yoga, running, bike riding, swimming, or playing in the park. (I am still sore from some serious wiffleball playing on Saturday.)

-Writing daily. Journaling and creative writing.

-Pursuing fun daily. Serious childlike fun. I realized I have a real need for fun on a regular basis. So simple, right? But if I am working too much, even if that is performing, I become depressed and down. I am rejuvenated by pure FUN. (If I go for this 30 day FUN project, I will need some volunteers to go do some activities with me. )

-Taking a risk a day. Mostly this involves me doing things alone that might be a bit odd, or striking up conversations with strangers. (A very convenient excuse to talk to the cute boy strangers.) But this seems like a wonderful way to really shake fear and social taboos out of the system.

-Pursuing a passion daily. Maybe this means going to an audition, or reading a book on any subject that excites me, or icing a cupcake. This could be beneficial on so many levels.

So those are the main ideas I am toying with.

Here are some of Pavlina’s suggestions that I also like:

-Write a new blog entry every day.
-Read for an hour a day on a subject that interests you.
-Meditate every day.
-Go for a long walk every day.
-Become an early riser.
-Write in your journal every day.
-Call a different family member, friend, or business contact every day.
-Make 25 sales calls every day to solicit new business. Professional speaker Mike Ferry did this five days a week for two years, even on days when he was giving seminars. He credits this habit with helping build his business to over $10 million in annual sales. If you make 1300 sales calls a year, you’re going to get some decent business no matter how bad your sales skills are. You can generalize this habit to any kind of marketing work, like building new links to your web site.
-Ask someone new out on a date every day. Unless your success rate is below 3%, you’ll get at least one new date, maybe even meet your future spouse.
-Go out every evening. Go somewhere different each time, and do something fun — this will be a memorable month.
-Meet someone new every day. Start up a conversation with a stranger.

So, what do you guys think? What would you do with 30 free days?

ummm… yes. June 15, 2009

I’ve been finding a lot of quarters lately.

Okay, maybe not “a lot.” Yesterday, I found one. And today, I found one. Both times, I looked around. Seriously? This is mine? Someone hasn’t already grabbed this? Okay… I just pick it up, and try to just have a little gratitude.

Similarly, other gifts sometimes just fall into my lap. In the form of… travel! I started thinking about the various opportunities I’ve had to travel, and many of them were just given to me.

During my second year of college, the choir director/head of the Arts Department came up to me and asked if I wanted to go to England for free over the summer. Naturally, my answer was, “Ummm… yes! What’s the catch?” “There isn’t a catch,” he said. There was actually an organization that was dedicated to taking college students from the Appalachian region who were involved in the arts and had never been abroad before on a trip all over England and to Edinburgh, Scotland. Most of the students from the other schools were involved in the fine arts, which I wasn’t. However, the theater arts count! We’d be touring various art museums and watercoloring our adventures along the way.

I really couldn’t believe that I was given that opportunity. Two students from each school were chosen. The other girl from my school who was going to go dropped out at the last minute, and the same choir director, “Doc” Flanagan, asked me, “Do you know anyone who might be interested in going with you on the trip?” Same answer: “Ummm… yes!” So, my best buddy Christy joined me and we galavanted through England for 10 days that summer, took bike rides, watercolored, visited museums, drank in pubs, and saw shows in London. And, did I mention that they gave us a per diem each day to spend on meals and entertainment?

I didn’t believe that it happened until it was over.

When I was a junior in college, I was given a $400 scholarship from the theater department at the end of the year. This was right after I had found out about “improv comedy.” I found out that the Second City Chicago had a weeklong improv intensive over the summer for… $400. Would I like to go?
“Ummm… yes!”

Then, earlier this year, I went to Aruba.
Same thing. Rory told me Chicago City Limits was taking a trip to Aruba to perform some shows and do improv workshops with kids. Many members of the troupe were not able to take time off work to go. Would I be interested in going? Even though I wasn’t a member of the troupe, I was an improviser on a PIT house team, which gave me some cred.
“Ummm… yes!”
So Rory and I traveled to Aruba together and spent about 6 hours every day lounging on the beach drinking endless daiquris.

Do you hate me yet?
Well, don’t, because I bet there have been gifts that plopped into your lap too. Maybe not in the form of travel. Maybe in the form of a job opportunity, an apartment, a creative outlet? I’m curious as to what others may have experienced.

Anyways, the latest opportunity is Texas! Okay, Texas is not as glamorous as England or Aruba or Chicago. BUT, what is interesting this time is that it is work.

I really desire to be paid what I am worth! I have various money issues that I am trudging through (and I’m talking about my views on money), and one desire that has been a focus in my mind is doing fulfilling work and being paid well for it. And, out of nowhere, I’ve gotten an opportunity to travel and do some interesting work and be paid well for it! This opportunity came through Rory again, who asked me if I wanted to do it.
A break from a restaurant job for 3 weeks?
A refresher from NYC?
Hotels with swimming pools?
FRESH MEXICAN FOOD?
“Ummm… yes.”

I am not completely sure about what I will be doing on this trip. Rory has described it as “Improv Everywhere”-type staged events to promote a company down there. Sounds interesting! I think we’ll be leading the big crowds.

Another thing I’d like to point out is that while I may not be getting a ton of paid work as a performer in New York (yet), staying true to my desire to perform has gotten me a whole lot of other places.
And, just like those quarters I have been finding lately, I wasn’t looking for them. They were just given to me. Best thing I can do is pick them up and say, “Thank you.”

Another, and not my last quote from Julia Cameron:

The late, great mythologist Joseph Cambell wrote, “Follow your bliss and doors will open where there were no doors before.” It is the inner commitment to be true to ourselves and follow our dreams that triggers the support of the universe.

i’m probably a facebook genius at this point. May 29, 2009

I just started reading Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell’s newest book.

You know how sometimes, things just pop up over and over and it feels like some sort of sign that it’s something you should pay attention to? I’ve been hearing people talk about this book a lot recently. It seems to randomly come up in conversation. He occasionally eats at the restaurant I work at. So finally, I say, I get it, Malcolm! I will read your book.

I’m on the second chapter. Highlights thus far…

Achievement is talent plus preparation. … The closer psychologists lok at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play.

and

What’s ten years? Well, it’s roughly how long it takes to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice. Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.

This made me think of something I read in Think and Grow Rich:

For the average person, the greatest capacity to create is between 40 and 60. … The years between 40 and 50 are, as a rule, the most fruitful. One should approach this age not with fear and trembling, but with hope and eager anticipation.

Alright, 20- and 30-something buddies, we have plenty of time to become great at whatever it is we want to be great at.

But for everyone older than 50, don’t let those theories stop you. Another golden one from Julia Cameron:

Question: Do you know how old I’ll be by the time I learn to play the piano?
Answer: The same age you will be if you don’t.

ladies, shall we begin the meeting? May 4, 2009

Today I treated myself to lunch at a little French cafe down in Chelsea. And some mindless fashion magazines. A perfect rainy day activity. I needed a little bit of frivolity, as I’ve spend lots of my free time over the past week reading a hefty book. I’m reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (via Dion Flynn). I’m devouring it. There’s so much good stuff in there. But, it’s not exactly easy reading. I needed an afternoon to look at pretty pictures and read articles about makeup!

I mentioned a while ago that I am working on changing some of my core thinking about myself, money, and achieving what I want in life. Napoleon Hill spent 25 years interviewing some of the most successful people of his time, like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Andrew Carnegie, in order to record what exactly the secret for success is.

I’m going to skip way ahead to one of the last chapters, where Napoleon Hill shares some really vulnerable stuff. He talks about how he created an “imaginary council meeting” with nine men that most inpsired him, whose lives and character he wanted to emulate. As he says,

Long before I had ever written a line for publication, or endeavored to deliver a speech in public, I followed the habit of reshaping my own character by trying to imitate the nine men whose lives and life works had been most impressive to me. These nine men were Emerson, Paine, Edison, Darwin, Lincoln, Burbank, Napoleon, Ford and Carnegie. Every night, over a long period of years, I held an imaginary council meeting with this group whom I called my “Invisible Counselors.”

He then placed himself as the chairman of the entire meeting, and spoke aloud to each of these men, telling them which traits he’d like for them to contribute to his own life.

He goes on to describe these meetings, and how they soon became very real to him. Each of the men developed certain characteristics. Lincoln, for instance, had a tendency to be late to the meetings. And “Burbank and Paine often indulged in witty repartee.” Then, one night, Abraham Lincoln came to him in a vision, urging him to complete his mission in life, serving the world with his philosophy (i.e., the book!). He speaks of how real this felt to him, how we woke unsure of it was a dream of not! He also goes on to say…

…During my meetings with the “invisible Counselors” I find myself most receptive to ideas, thoughts and knowledge that reach me through the sixth sense. I can truthfully say that I owe my counselors full credit for such ideas, facts or knowledge I receive through “inspiration.”

I just think it’s amazing that he shared all of this. This book was written in the 1930’s, and if all this sounds a bit kooky now, imagine it then! He layed there in bed, speaking to Napoleon Bonaparte. Crazy, right?

Well, it’s gotten me to think a little about who would be on my cabinet. Of course, I’m going to have Amy Poehler and Tina Fey on there. I mean, duh. Well, last week I had the pleasure of waiting on Miss P. three times! (She’s very kind and yes—a good tipper.) And on the third time, she said, “I should really know your name. I’m Amy.” And I got really red and giggled as I shook her hand and said, “I’m Elizabeth.” (Working in the West Village, you wait on tons of celebrities. It takes a special one to get flustered by! She’s special.) I wanted to say, “I’m an improviser!!! I admire your work! I admire how you have created your own career! Started a hugely successful theater! SNL! Movies! TV! Your husband’s really cute and I bet so is your baby!” But I didn’t. It would be a little awkward to do all that and then say, “So, what’ll ya have today?!”

As I sat there in the French cafe, I held my imaginary cabinet meeting. “Miss Poehler, I just want to tell you that I’m an improviser too! And, as a female comedian, I really look up to you and your work. But, geez, it’s so freakin tough! I’m tired!” And she said, “Don’t give up! It never stops being hard, but if you persist, it will pay off!”

Thank you, Amy. Good advice. I’m working on putting together the other members of my council. Funnily enough, as I’m having my croque monseiur and Pinot Grigio, I come across this article in Marie Claire. What a fun little gift, in between articles about summer fashion and mascara, to find an article with quotes from the most successful women in comedy. These are women who have created their own careers, and paved their way through a business that wasn’t going to do them any favors. Napoleon Hill’s cabinet was full of a bunch of dudes, who, yeah sure—changed the world and all that. But I would much prefer to hear Lily Tomlin’s opinion over that of Henry Ford.