Several of you have asked what my word for 2013 is. Rubber Rabbit, who knows a good deal about doing and giving up, chose the same word: Let Go.
Here’s why I chose it: It’s something I need to learn how to do better. To look at my work plate and let some of it go. For every (significant) new project I take on, I will create a guestimate of how much time and effort it will take, and then take the equivalent amount of work off the plate.
As I have discovered over and over again, I can’t have it all, and certainly not at the same time. I want to teach online classes, in person classes, coach creative people, finish the inner hero book, cook up another book (new concept, still half-baked), teach a new class to introduce the inner hero book, put out an e-book, teach classes with all the contributors to the book. . .the list goes on. Even if I put all the ideas and tasks on a timeline, there is not enough time. So I will have to Let Go of some of the ideas.
There are emotions that are no longer serving me. Guilt, regret, some anger, fear. I’ve squeezed all the learning out of them I can. They won’t compost into joy, energy or peace. Time to Let Go.
I have too many art supplies. Projects I thought I’d do, supplies I thought I’d need, purchases of materials I thought I’d have time for. And never did. Items I have no talent for and am not interested in learning. Time to Let Go to people and places who will love them and use them.
There are possessions in my house that I am holding onto for reasons of guilt. Things I don’t want or use, but that my parents thought were important enough to cram into the few possessions they brought with them. They need to bring someone else something else. Keeping something out of guilt is a terrible reason to own it, make space for it. I need to make space for space.
And then, a slight variation. It’s time to get into action. Not huge leaping ahead, but the smallest thing that I am capable of doing. Not making a video, or publishing an e-book, but doing tiny steps toward figuring out how to make it possible. Looking where I want to go, seeing if the road is clear, and then, well, Let’s Go!
—Quinn McDonald is looking forward to the discoveries of 2013.
QuinnCreative 