by Tara Joyce | Aug 18, 2017 | My Journey | What's On My Mind
Next Saturday, I am due to give birth to my daughter, who is the first child of Daniel and I. While I do not know what is in store for us, but I trust and I can feel this is the greatest adventure we have ever undertaken.
This moment, right now, feels like the space in between the in-breath and the out-breath. It is a very special, tangibly sacred space. I know the future—an exciting, challenging, and love-filled one—stretches out before me and that the past is nothing by a feeling memory. I am deep in trust in my ability to write my future with authority and authenticity.
As I learn to to breathe in a new way in this new space, I will be taking a pause from my writing here, and from my advisory services as well. I’m climbing higher on my personal mountain, amazing myself with my ability to connect with and pursue the things that I most want to achieve and receive, and thus the things that most scare me. As I face my greatest fears and desires (they are two sides of the same coin), I can see how I’ve held myself back and how the future is as expansive as I choose to make it. It is ripe for my co-creation.
One big way I’ve hindered my expansion is by not creating a strong way for me to easily share with the people who care about all that I do and am. I have been afraid to allow us to truly keep in touch with each other. It’s not easy for me to share myself, it’s not easy for me to feel it’s safe. Often, I try and limit contact to compensate. And so I’ve never seriously created a way for us to keep in touch… for me to let you know what I’m up to—and for you to share what your creating and growing in your world.
Using Typeform, a tool for creating beautiful and humanity-filled lead generation forms I feature on my Resources page, I’ve built a sign-up form for us to stay connected with. Please fill it out if you feel motivated to do so. If you do, I’ll be sure to keep you updated by email on all that’s growing in my world.
So for now, I bid you adieu. I’ll be back writing here when the time is right. As I pause here and get comfortable in my new adventure, I encourage you to take a Strange Adventure with me. Please enjoy my fiction story, Cross My Heart. A new installment comes out every Friday into November.
I love and appreciate you dearly. Thank you so much for reading and for caring about my journey.
xoxoxo,
by Tara Joyce | Dec 1, 2016 | Cultural Creativity
I don’t want to feel this way any more. I don’t want to feel that I am ‘not enough.’ I want to see how wonderful and amazing I am—and how wonderful and amazing you are. It has been far too long that I have bought into the message that you and I are ‘not enough’ as we are.
In response to these feelings, I’ve decided I’m no longer accepting any message, internal or otherwise, that encourages me or anyone else to believe that who or what or why we are is ‘not enough.’ I’m done buying into it. It’s horseshit and it is created out of our polarized culture that thrives on encouraging us to feel separate, alone, and mindlessly focused on consuming in order to fill the void we’ve created together.
Not enough, not enough, not enough. Buy more, get more, perhaps then it’ll be enough.
I’ve decided to become like a superhero, vigilant to the messages that encourage us to feel like we are not good enough as we are. Fuck these messages, and fuck the cutting voice inside me who actually buys into its bullshit. Only I can give any thing the power to make me feel not good enough. Only I can choose to dis-empower myself. It takes my ‘buy in.’ I’ve decided it’s time I own this.
You and I are so much more than we realize—and that is the real truth. The breadth and heights of what we’re capable of is actually what we need to be reminded of—and yet our dominate culture has a different message. It sells us on ways to be more, better, faster. It fearfully sells us on ‘not enough’ in hopes we will buy into its offerings. It needs us to feel less than, in hopes we’ll feel we need it to feel whole. It’s a never-ending co-dependent see-saw we ride, if we allow it.
I’m buying out of ‘not enough.’ For it’s the only way I can see clearly through the noise and to the heart of my self. Doing my work to release this dominant message, I allow myself the ability to rise to any occasion, confident in knowing I am enough as I am.
photo credit: Ron Mader
by Tara Joyce | Jun 24, 2016 | Self/Business Growth
Regret is a painful thing. We see it through the lens of things undone, unsaid, unbeen. We feel it for those moments where our head overran our heart. We embrace it when we act from fear rather than love. All these moments we regret. It is never the moments from love, but the ones acted on—or not—out of fear; these are the moments we miss(understand).
Our mind wants to protect us, but from what? What is it our mind first causes us to fear—then ask us to protect against? Sadly, it is love. Always balancing our head and our heart, we are not perfect people. Trying to protect our self from the truth of our feelings, we make mistakes we later regret. Busy thinking about how we want to feel, we miss another moment to connect.
by Tara Joyce | Dec 4, 2015 | Personal Branding
It’s About Sharing.
While the web is a powerful tool for developing our personal brand, it’s important to remember that the web isn’t primarily a medium for information, marketing, or sales. It’s a place for people to meet, talk, create, disagree, rant, and love.
In a similar vein, authentic marketing is about creating conversation and connection. You cultivate this by sharing what you care about, and what you know.
Putting this understanding together, that the web is a medium to connect with people, and marketing is a means for creating connection, we can conclude personal branding is about using the resources you have available to share your authentic signal, your perspective of the world, and trusting your right people will connect with the unique value your expression creates.
Four other things I think I know about personal branding are:
1. It’s a table for two.
2. The more value in your signal, the stronger it will be.
3. Your point of view matters.
4. There is no demand for your message.
photo credit : Lena
by Tara Joyce | Jan 27, 2015 | Cultural Creativity, Self/Business Growth
I received this intriguing question recently from a reader; “Do you know where this (Cultural Creative) concept stands today?”
Where do we, the Cultural Creatives, stand today? From what I observe, we, and our ways of being and doing, are growing quietly. More and more of us are learning about “Cultural Creativity” and resonating with it, and feeling inspired to more deeply connect with their values and others who share them.
I notice that “Cultural Creativity” seems to have grown far larger than the words Paul Ray used (in 2000) to describe this growing culture and movement. There are many words, concepts, and ideas to communicate our ways of being and doing. The philosopher, Ken Wilbur, in my mind has done the most to forward the cultural importance of our consciously growing community. He has written, taught and grown extensively the concept of Integral Culture (and Theory) which is another, and more deeply explored, concept identifying the Cultural Creative way of being and doing. There are schools of thought (an Institute) for Integral approaches to such disciplines as Politics and Ecology.
Personally, I had the pleasure of attending an Integral Coaching program a few year back. It was expanding… and interestingly, it was dominated by Canadian Government employees. It seems the government of Canada is embracing Cultural Creativity in their thinking and approaches. I find that truly exciting!
Beyond Wilbur’s work, I see our Creative Culture emerging everywhere I look. New/old, more conscious approaches to things emerge each day. I can see now what CC’s needed to acknowledge and recognize each other (in 2000, when Ray wrote the book) was a authentic means for connecting in a global way, so we could truly feel our weight and presence. We needed the web, and the time-space to learn and understand its ability to empower us. And now, fifteen years later, it’s old enough that we’re beginning to figure out how to truly connect with each other here.
What do you think?
Where do you feel our Cultural Creative movement?
Email me, I’d love to hear from you.
photo credit: Glyn Lowe
