Staying Motivated in the Pursuit of Epic Dreams

"I asked myself, can you do this? I answered, I will try. So I'm curious if I can. If I make it, I'll know I can. I've crossed a boundary." - Laura Dekker, sailor

I recently took a leap of faith. I made public my plans to turn a dream of RTW travel into a reality. I felt the energy shift immediately: The new get-specific phase is distinctly different from the wishing-and-hoping phase. Even though long-term travel is basically all I think about, I'm a realist who knows it will be difficult to successfully maintain my stressful full-time career, save enough money to travel for at least one year, and have sufficient energy reserves to dedicate to planning and to this website. Not even 24 hours after my post went live, it's like long-term traveler Matt Kepnes (aka Nomadic Matt) read my mind. He published an article on his site about staying motivated to travel. Okay, Universe, I'm paying attention. In summary, Matt's seven ways to keep motivation high:

Hold yourself accountable. Research places to go. Devote time. Read travel blogs. Read books. Learn a language. Take a break. 

To his list, I would add a tactic similar to blogs and books: Movies. Specifically travel documentaries. The films can be about places you want to visit, experiences you want to have, or simply about inspiring people who make you realize you want it all so bad you can barely breathe. I recently watched two travel docs on Netflix that I highly recommend.

180° South is about a group of climbers and surfers who have a goal to conquer specific mountains in Patagonia. The journey to Patagonia (by sailboat) is as epic as the time spent adventuring with the founders of Conservacion Patagonica once they arrive. The moment that resonated to my core: "If I don't get on that boat, I know exactly what I'm going home to. If I do, my future is unwritten." The film is beautifully made, the narration is thought provoking, and the men are wicked hot. If beards and adventure and pristine landscapes and travel are your thing, enjoy. You're welcome.




The second film is Maidentrip. Laura Dekker was all of 13 years old when she began her plans to circumnavigate the globe in a sailboat. Solo. No follow boat. No support team. Simply put, "I want to travel the world. I want to see all the places, not always the same stupid thing. In Holland you get money, a car, a house, kids, and then you die. I don't want any of it." Many may consider her a rebellious teenager, and there are obviously elements of that spirit, but I consider her a highly self-actualized human being. I cannot tell you how inspired I am by Laura. She filmed the entire trip, which took 519 days and covered 27,000 nautical miles, and turned it into a documentary feature.

I can't say it more perfectly than 16 year old Laura did at the end of the film: "I wanted the storms. I wanted the calm. I wanted to feel loneliness. I wanted to know what it felt like to be the sea. Now I know. It was an end of the dream I had as a kid and it's the beginning of my life as a sailor."

Laura Dekker remains the youngest person ever to solo circumnavigate the globe in a sailboat.

Another line from 180° South that struck a cord: The best journeys answer questions that in the beginning, you didn't think to ask.

Love, motivation, and staying open to magic,
me

RTW Adventure. Yes, I said it.

It's time. I've flirted with this long enough. Anyone who has known me longer than three minutes knows my life's passion is travel. I'm at my best when I'm in motion. I'm also passionate about writing, photography, and building communities. As Danielle LaPorte declares, it's time for me to:

Push. Turn up the volume. Go hard. Go harder. Re-prioritize your aches and pains. Infuse your sensitivities with courage. Tell fear to fuck right the fuck off. Devote to Done. Decide to be one of those people who pull it off.

What am I going to pull off? An around-the-world adventure (RTW in internet speak). I've talked about long-term travel for years, but not until very recently have I really let it sink really deep down in my soul, letting it rest in the place where I really know I really need to pull it off. Not even just want to pull it off at this point, because we're passed that. Need to pull it off. Full on need. There was a distinct moment when it all shifted. A moment when I realized that the fear of not doing something, the fear of regret, overpowered the fear of doing that thing. This is that moment. A RTW adventure is that thing. Writing and photographing and inspiring other people to take the leap is also a part of it. 

Up to now I've said this out loud to only a few kindred souls. The most common, well-intentioned question: What about money and your career? My answer is two fold: 1) I'm saving my pennies and becoming BFFs with an abundant universe; and 2) Institutions of higher education will be here when I get back. My resume will be here when I get back. In fact, speaking of my career in higher ed, I'm framing this adventure as a sabbatical. Granted it's a sabbatical that I fund entirely on my own and must quit my job to pull off; but that only means I have ultimate freedom over my time and the terms of my travel.

The wish list below is 100% fluid and ever-changing (click for the permanent page link that houses the dynamic list). The point is that there is power in the declaration itself. There is power in being transparent with myself, The Universe, anyone who reads this. The list is messy and unedited. It contradicts and repeats itself. It's a creative flow of energy and it's what I need to keep my momentum going. It will change and change some more and eventually, over time, it will narrow down into plane tickets and Airbnb reservations. As of right now, this is what I dream of most:

Location-based Adventures

I should just type one word and be done: Everywhere. There is no end to this particular list. I must say though, I was overwhelmed with gratitude as I realized all the places I've already been. This list is a continuation of those travels and full of (mostly) brand new adventures I've yet to experience. I realize not all of my bucket list adventures are in my location-based adventures list and vice versa. It's a game of free association and categorizing uncategorizable things. Just go with it. 

Visit every continent

Swim in every ocean

Stand at the North Pole

Stand at the South Pole

A National Geographic Expedition

Scandinavia (especially a family history pilgrimage based on my Danish and Swedish research)

Live in Copenhagen for whatever period of time feels like living and not visiting

Iceland 

Ireland

Japan

Morocco

Spain

Cuba

Canadian Rockies
Australia + New Zealand 

Easter Island - really so many islands in Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia

India 

Bhutan

Nepal

Tibet
Croatia

Turkey

Greece

Patagonia

Transportation Adventures

I'll likely be flying most everywhere I go, but I'd also like to give myself a break from airports.

My own two feet on a pilgrimage (high on my list is the Camino de Santiago)

One of only a few civilians on a cargo ship

Trains (like these + the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway)

Sailboat (possibly as crew)

River cruises

Trans-Atlantic cruise

Lodging Adventures

I love my Hilton points as much as the next business traveler, but it gets a bit sterile after a while.

Airbnb

House sit

Monasteries

Live/Work farms

A glass igloo under the Northern Lights in Finland

Hostels

Conservacion Patagonica

Bucket List Adventures

Random stuff I dream of doing that feels too big and too exciting to be listed as a mere location. These feel more like once-in-a-lifetime experiences. 

Write for The Avid Cruiser as much as possible

As many UNESCO World Heritage sites as I can manage

Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef

Skydive. Somewhere. Anywhere. As long as it's tandem.
At least one night on a private, remote island (I must stop watching The Bachelorette)

Northern Lights

Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

The Great Wall, China
Sleep with an Italian. In Italy. More than once.

Petra, Jordan

Taj Mahal, India

Machu Picchu, Peru

Hot air ballooning in Cappadocia, Turkey

Logistical Considerations

My family traveled around the States a lot when I was young. I was 15 when I went abroad for the first time, with friends, to Russia. I've been exploring the world ever since in one way or another. I know myself as a traveler. I know my patterns. I know what puts me in the flow and makes me feel awesome, and I know what makes me tense and burns me out. 

Balance and alternate city trips with wilderness trips. Go go go then chill chill chill. 

Balance and alternate guided group experiences and getting lost all on my own. 

Balance and alternate luxury and budget experiences, from lodging to transportation to food. 

Balance and alternate solo travel with group travel, be it friends or strangers.

These balances and alternations are very literal, says the introverted Libra. For example: A hostel in the heart of Paris with packed days and colorful nights...then housesitting and grocery shopping in Nowhere, Norway...then a river cruise in China with guided excursions...then an Airbnb in Japan with an invitation to a friend from back home. Like that. 

Also, unplanned windows of time. This makes my palms sweat and I desperately want to color code something to calm myself down, which is exactly why I know I need to do it. For every ellipses you see in the itinerary above, add an undecided length of time filled with random whatever. Maybe it's additional time in the current or the next location. Maybe it's a quick stop somewhere between the two locations. Maybe it's a multiple choice game presented to readers of this site, letting you chose your own adventure with/for me. For real. The goal is space. Time. Allowing. Staying open to the magic of it all. 

Mighty Life List

I'll obviously update this site as I pursue my RTW adventure, but you're also invited to join me on Go Mighty. In fact, I challenge you to create your own Mighty Life List. It will take me a while to fully populate my Mighty Life List, but I kind of like that it's an ongoing process. Check them out! Decide to be one of those people who pull it off.

I'd love to hear from you. Have you tackled a RTW trip? Have you tackled any big dream, really? Let's talk. Let's inspire each other. Let's do this. 

Love and adventure, 

me

You are because you say you are.

I recently wrote about a dream coming true. Traveling to Alaska (bucket list destination) courtesy of Princess Cruises (hello, press credentials) writing and photographing (numero uno dream job of all time) for The Avid Cruiser (a respected mentor and friend). It doesn't get more exciting than this. I've been blogging and traveling and writing and wanderlusting and photographing and dreaming for years. At times I wanted all of that energy to lead to something and at other times I just kept going because it makes me happy. At times I pursued the goal with specific intentions and at other times I ignored it entirely, going about my normal life. This ebb and flow, this evolving dance with what I really want out of my life, has been going on for what feels like forever. Now here I am. Even though it could seem simple, this one assignment, I still believe it's an absolute manifestation. It feels surreal. That's actually what I want to talk about, the surreal nature of it all. This thought has been stewing for a while now: You are because you say you are. Jen Sincero, Wayne Dyer, and I have something to say about the power of owning it.

Owning it. No apologies. No excuses. Taking a proactive role in defining the life you want to live. 

Ralph Grizzle (a.k.a. The Avid Cruiser) recently posted about the three journeys covered on the Live Voyage Report site in May. When I read his words, I couldn't take them in. It felt like an out of body experience. Who is this woman he's talking about, anyway? 

A chance meeting a couple of years ago resulted in our welcoming aboard Gail Jessen. Gail is a Salt Lake City based writer who will be reporting for us from Star Princess as she and the ship make their way from San Francisco to Skagway — and back. Gail wrote an engaging piece that will tell you who she is and how she became a travel writer. You will find her post here. For inspiration alone, it is recommended reading.

A Salt Lake City based writer? How she...became a travel writer? Inspiring? I stared at the screen. Agape. Holy shit, you guys. I'm a writer based in Salt Lake City. That's me he's talking about. I'm a writer. I write. I'm writing. I'm in Salt Lake City and I write, like writers do. I'm a travel writer. I write about travel. Out in the world, while traveling, I write. I'm a writer of travel stories based in Salt Lake City. My reaction was a bit like...Bob's.

I'd say printing a box of oh-so-official business cards - to hand out on the ship and to family/friends - is owning it.

One particular point from Sincero's book, You Are a Badass, comes to mind a lot lately. I'm paraphrasing, but she basically says: You want to be a photographer...but you don't take pictures. What sense does that make? Conversely, you take a lot of photos and it's a significant passion for you, but you say you're not a photographer? Why the hell not? What's a photographer then? Someone who takes pictures. So go do that. Say you're a photographer. Aren't you? Then go do it some more. You are whatever you say you are simply because you said it...then did something about it. She writes:

Set your intention, work steadily in the direction you want to go, do all that you know how to do, believe it’s here and available to you, be diligent about how you speak, think and behave, have faith in yourself and The Universe, and then...drum roll please, this is the super important part...breathe, let it go, fuggetaboutit, give it some damn room to come in. 

While I read Sincero over a year ago, I've recently been making my way through Wayne Dyer's newest book, I Can See Clearly Now. I tackle bits and pieces here and there, mostly letting the new paradigms settle in between readings. It's the kind of a book you take your time with and he's that kind of author. What's percolating to the top is his discussion of "I AM..." The phrase "I am" is one of the most profound, transformative phrases we can possibly utter. We literally create our reality with that phrase. Think about it. It's so simple, but it's such a game changer. We can unfairly turn "I'm having a rough day and lost my temper for a moment" into "I am an angry person." We can also then take a proactive role in defining the life we want to live by turning "I like to write and maintain a blog" into "I am a travel writer."

I AM. Sit with it for a minute. Think of all the ways you're currently shaping your reality with I AM statements (conscious or out loud or not). Think of all the ways you could shift your future reality by intentionally focusing on the power of "I AM."

I'll kick it off: I am a travel writer based in Salt Lake City.

Love,
me

This post is dedicated to Jo and Elizabeth, two amazing women who inspire me...and who I've never actually met. Through the magic that is Instagram and, coincidentally, an online photography course, we found each other. Without saying much - a double-tap photo like here, a Facebook comment there - we've connected and we just get it. This is for them. 

Sailing Alaska + Writing for The Avid Cruiser

I met The Avid Cruiser as one should expect to meet him, on a ship in an exotic locale. My friend Kris and I were sailing with Viking River Cruises up the blue Danube, hopping from one fabled Christmas market to the next. Ralph Grizzle and I ended up in the ship's empty dining room at the same time, and proceeded to have a conversation that I've since realized was one of the most powerful catalysts I've ever experienced. Our topics ranged from the casual (work, climate, favorite travel destinations, lost luggage), to the provocative (our love of socialism, creativity, vagabond souls, life in Denmark, and insatiable wanderlust). Near the end of our lunch, I rudely pulled out my iPhone to instagram a beautiful dessert. Naturally. Once the conversation turned to mobile photography, and we connected to each other's Instagram feeds, the flame was officially lit.

Exploring Regensburg, Germany with Kris (left) in 2012

You see, I'd been timidly flirting with the idea that my life (and identity, if I'm honest) no longer needed to be defined by a stressful 9-5 j.o.b. I'd been toying with the notion that creativity was no longer a luxury, but a state of being I needed to achieve and maintain daily. Once I got home I started hosting a monthly brunch + book group dedicated entirely to exploring the concept of happiness. I was starting to say it out loud...  I'd finally admitted to myself the exciting, terrifying, seemingly impossible truth: I'm at my best when I'm in motion. I'm in a state of centered bliss when I'm untethered. I need to travel. It's not an option or a nice thing to do a couple times a year if I can save my pennies and vacation days. It's a profound ache that hash tagging "wanderlust" on a few Facebook photos doesn't begin to satiate.

Enter one of the most successful digital nomads I've ever met. Ralph had no idea he was changing my life.

He questioned me a number of times throughout the trip: "Why don't you do this professionally?" And "These photos are legitimately good. This is something you could pursue." And "Tell me where you work again? Why?" And eventually "I'm happy to help you make contact with..."

Almost 18 months and hundreds of gmails later, I'm sailing to Alaska courtesy of Princess Cruises, writing and photographing my adventures for Ralph's Avid Cruiser Live Voyage Report website. I don't need to wax poetic about dreams coming true - it feels indulgent - but do let me say this once: This opportunity is, in the most literal sense, a dream coming true. I am profoundly grateful.

So here we go! Alaska. America's last great frontier. On 05/22/2014 I set out from San Francisco and you'll be able to follow the adventure every night as I post on the Live Voyage Report website (bookmark it now). You can also follow the adventures in real time on my Instagram and Twitter feeds. In the meantime, drool with me over this Alaska Pinterest board curated by Princess Cruises. I mean, seriously.

Love,
me

Banner created by Aaron Saunders, creator of From the Deck Chair, and co-creator of + contributor to Avid Cruiser's LVR.

Completing My Craft Lake City Collaboration (sort of)

As my time working with Craft Lake City comes to a close, I've spent some time sprucing up the collaboration landing page. Originally, I only posted the introductory paragraph of the artist profiles and I included only a few photos from the workshop recaps. I did this to help drive traffic to the Craft Lake website. Now that the big push is over, I want everything to be properly posted and archived on my own site.

On the revamped page you can access an artist's profile or a workshop by selecting their cover photo. The full article and the full slideshow are now included on my site. Take a minute to look around, will you?

It's been a creative four months and I've loved the experience. Long-time readers will remember that I started 2013 with the power word ABUNDANCE. That intention took many forms over these past 12 months, one of which being CREATIVITY. I needed it back in my life and I expressed that need repeatedly. Well kids, my experience of this Universe is that you tend to get what you ask for. Eventually. Be specific and be ready. Intentions, focus, hard work...and saying yes. Keep saying yes.

I'll always look back on my time with Craft Lake as a period of rich creative renewal. I was able to flex my atrophied creative writing muscles, hone my rusty journalism skills, and dust off my camera. I got back in a groove and I needed that. I met amazing artists, many of whom live mere blocks from me, and am now thoroughly convinced that Salt Lake City is one of the craftiest cities ever. I gained the experience of working with a professional publishing team (Craft Lake was started and is still managed by the masterminds behind SLUG Magazine). I also now understand what freelancing feels like on top of my 40-60 hours-a-week j.o.b. (whew). On top of it all, I think I created a strong portfolio of work, if I do say so myself. And I do say so. I totally just said it. Bam.

Check out the new landing page. Read the profiles. Support the artists. Buy locally and buy handcrafted. Enjoy the workshop slideshows and how-to recaps. Get your hands dirty and get crafty with your friends. Read SLUG.

I'll retain the title of Contributing Blogger and they'll continue to contact me about future assignments. Stay tuned. Who knows...there may be another profile or two coming your way.

Love and abundant creativity,
me

VSCO Grid spotlight

It's fair to say I take my iPhoneography pretty seriously. And yes, I'm addicted to Instagram. And yes, I'm a walking cliche. Get over it. On my recent vacation to Mexico I took only my iPhone...and I'm usually the one running around foreign cities with a giant DSLR, multiple lenses, and all sorts of accoutrement. More and more I'm relying on my iPhone 5 and realizing it can actually take better photos than my DSLR, depending on the situation.

Anyway, my point is that I'm subsequently obsessed with Visual Supply Company. They've managed to create the most robust, elegant, and respected mobile photo editing app out there. At one point I had 14 (yes, 14) different cameras and editing apps on my phone. While I did keep Camera+, Afterlight, and Hipstamatic, I rarely use anything but VSCO. The work I've been doing for the Craft Lake City website is shot RAW on my DSLR, but edited using VSCO film. I have so much respect for the company and their product. I don't mean to get all fangirl on you, but they've seriously created a dedicated community of users and a unique aesthetic that is instantly recognizable as VSCO.

All of this to say...VSCO recently selected one of my photos for inclusion on their Grid. They saw it because I use the #vsco #vscocam tags in my Instagram feed. The VSCO Grid, as they explain it, is a curated collection of the finest mobile imagery on the internet. Um...yay! Yespleaseandthankyou. Also, it's true. If you haven't spent time (and by "time" I mean hours) scrolling through the site, you should. Like, right now.

The gmail from VSCO that made my day!

...and there I am, mixed in with a slew of hyper talented photographers. Awesome.

Love and natural light,
me

Um...where did November go?

Woah. Not a single post in November and I barely realized it. Whoopsie. I had a vague sense of needing to share stuff on this site...but apparently that vague sense lingered over an entire month that felt like a day.

I kicked off the month on Dia de los Muertos interviewing Mexican artist Veronica Perez and photographing her beautiful workspace. Post coming soon.

I covered another Craft Lake City workshop. The Mandate Press and Brady of Lars Love Letters hosted a handmade paper workshop. Photo recap coming soon.

I attended a four-day work conference at which I (and many others) was infected with the norovirus. I spent spent 16 hours "violently vomiting" (charming classification per the Center for Disease Control) and 36 additional hours horizontal in bed feeling like every inch of my body had collided with a freight train. It was food poisoning times ten. There are no words. The CDC traced it to an infected hotel food service worker who decided to serve a meal to a ballroom full of guests. Awesome.

One day past being contagious, I flew to Mexico for rest and relaxation. Man, did I need it. Stay tuned for photos, if you weren't already following along on Instagram. We snorkeled, kayaked in the ocean, had the difficulty of deciding at which pool we should set up camp for the day, ate a lot of food and drank a lot of drinks (thank you, all-inclusive resort), started and finished a cinematic Baldacci thriller, explored town, bought gorgeous pottery and linens, painted (yes, we packed canvas and acrylics), and didn't check work email even once.

Spent four days in the office trying to catch up on a month's worth of everything...then left for Thanksgiving at my parent's house. Their stove broke the night before Thanksgiving. Before you gasp, we actually go out to eat every year and see a movie, so it wasn't actually a big deal for Thanksgiving day. However, we did attempt to cobble together subsequent dinners on an electric griddle and microwave. It felt like a mix between a college dorm and a Haitian refugee camp. Oh, by the way, the view I grew up with looks something like this...

A view of the Wasatch Mountains from my parent's porch.

Whew. Not to mention that, in context, October and November are two of the busiest months at work. A benefit of working in higher ed is that if I can just catch up and make it to December 17th, I'm on paid vacation once again. Eyes on the prize.

Now...to get to all those posts I owe you.

Love,
me

New landing page: Collaboration with Alexander!

My artistic collaboration with Alexander is getting exciting, folks. We've swapped pieces and we're now working on each other's paintings and sketches, respectively. As we ramp up into the height of this project, I realized I want a landing page on this site to collect all of our posts and document our creative process. Well, ta-da...you can find that right here.

Follow along. Check back often. I have a post planned for this weekend to show you what I'm doing with Alexander's sketches. Hint: It involves antique maps and old paper currency from all over the globe.

For now, enjoy Alexander's experience of receiving my art and shipping his off to SLC.





As Alexander would say...

Love and namasgay,
me

A Series of Adventures. It's official.

Those of you that've been with me for a while (or even from the beginning in 2007 (hi mom)) know that I've focused and refocused this blog down to a simple summary of its content:

Curating life as a series of adventures. 

Specifically, most of my adventures tend to fall into the broad categories of globetrotting, photography, and sundry feats of creativity. There's also a bit of meditation, declaration, and Danish family history research going on as well.

To continue putting energy toward this adventurous focus, I've now established a custom domain for the site:

www.aseriesofadventures.com

I'm still using the blogger platform, but my design skills and desire for customization outgrew it a while back. I think Squarespace is inevitable, but the new domain will follow me regardless. So, ladies and gents, point your bookmarks and other such electronic organizers toward the new URL and let's do this.

Love and adventure,
me

Curating a series of adventures

If you're reading this in an RSS feed, bounce over to the site for a moment and check it out. I've redesigned it and I've refocused it.

Rather than the daily-posting editorial calendar I experimented with for a while, I'm now structuring the blog around a series of adventures: globetrotting, photography, sundry feats of creativity, meditations & declarations, researching my Danish roots and fueling my expat dreams. Posts about these adventures will come to you as the adventures come to me. I do want to keep a weekly meditation and a weekly round-up of photos, so we'll see how it all starts to shake out.

I'm also launching a creative collaboration with Craft Lake City. I alluded to it before, but the details are ironed out and I can finally share the exciting news. Read all about it...right...here.

Workin' it out.

Love,
me

Editorial Calendar: Revamp

Hi. How have you been?

It's taken me a while to regroup my work and personal life after returning from Iowa. In the flurry I fell off my editorial calendar bandwagon, as it were. However, since I've been back in town I've also developed some exciting new projects.

Sneak peak: I'm working with Craft Lake City to create two different series for their blog. I'm excited about the opportunity, but it does mean that some of my goals for this blog will be slowed down or put on hold. Details coming soon...

Another sneak peak: I'm going to shift the focus of my madeleines to become a series of curated adventures (note the newly-designed site header...woohoo!). I've learned that I do really well when I have a structure, even more structure than the editorial calendar provided. The structure of The Declaration of You bloglovin' book tour, for example, was great for me. I'll re-do my own editorial calendar to reflect this idea of different series of adventures, and roll out the details soon.

Stay tuned!

Love,
me

Who am I? #throwbackthursday

For my first Throwback Thursday post, I clicked way back into the archives and selected a post at random. The first post that pulled up was a photo meme that went around the web in the summer of 2008. It was about answering a set of standard questions by selecting a Flickr photo. Your answer was the search term and you picked a photo to represent it. Some of the questions I would answer in exactly the same way. Some I can't even remember how I answered, even when trying to job my memory with the photo. I thought it would be fun to share the 2008 photo and answer the questions again.

Left to Right, Top to Bottom.

1. What is your first name?
2008: gail.
2013: still gail.

2. What is your favorite food?
2008: I think I was going for curry?
2013: I still love Indian food.

3. What high school did you go to?
2008: Timpanogos.
2013: No way to change that.

4. What is your favorite color?
2008: Don't know what I was going for there.
2013: Turquoise.

5. Who is your celebrity crush?
2008: Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal. Yes, both.
2013: Ditto, and so many more.

6. Favorite drink?
2008: Some sort of smoothie?
2013: Lots and lots of cold, cold water.

7. Dream vacation?
2008: Paris.
2013: Denmark.

8. Favorite dessert?
2008: Flourless chocolate molten cake with house-made gelato? Sounds like me.
2013: Salted caramel anything and/or berry pie.

9. What you want to be when you grow up?
2008: Now this is fascinating to me. I don't know the exact answer I had, but the fact that it pulled up globes shows me how late I am to this party. I've blogged A LOT recently about my shifting perceptions around success, my career, creativity, etc. I'm slowly owning the fact that I want to write and photograph and travel for real, like for a job, forever. I've always felt that way, but it took until 2013 to realize that may actually be possible sort of maybe to upgrade that from a hobby to a life.
2013: Passionate and tuned in. See above.

10. What do you love most in life?
2008: Travel.
2013: Travel.

11. One Word to describe you.
2008: Did I say balance? Peaceful? Calm? I'm not sure but I also find this fascinating. This post would've been when I was a program coordinator, pre-grad school, and traveling either for work or pleasure every couple weeks or so. Turns out that's more balanced, peaceful, and calm than the tailspin grad school left me in as an executive director who travels whenever she can but it's not nearly enough.
2013: Creative.

12. Your flickr (or other online) name.
2008: fourthirtyam.
2013: fouthirtyam, which I've had since the internet was born + my madeleines since 2007.

Love,
me

Pint it!

I'm following through on a goal I set for myself after attending Alt Summit. Building on the energy of creating my editorial calendar, I also created Pinterest boards associated with each day and/or theme. Check out the revisions I made to the editorial calendar and you'll get all the links you need to re-pin and play along. Because how much do we love Pinterest? So much.

For example, I have a board called Wanderlust where the photos and resources from my Travel Tuesday posts will be pinned. You'll see the photos from yesterday's post on Castine, Maine already pinned and ready to go. Re-pin and spread the love.

There's a board for Denmark research, my Happiness Project, creative feats, link love goodies comin' at you every Friday, my photography, and more, plus the boards I already had before the blog was integrated (i.e. mostly dealing with my interior design obsessions).

The beauty of Pinterest is the collaboration, the community of pins and re-pins. Help spread the word. {click to tweet} #mymadeleines blog is now rocking Pinterest: globetrotting, photography, feats of creativity, design, & food porn! http://bit.ly/13tAnvl

Love and pins,
me

Retiring The Blog Dare. Introducing my editorial calendar.

purchase this gorgeous calendar on etsy

UPDATE: My editorial calendar is currently under revision. I recent posted about the exciting opportunities coming my way, so stay tuned for all that! For now, I can at least say that this is the direction I'm headed. Come back soon. It's gonna be awesome.

* * * * *

I started The Blog Dare at the beginning of June fully intending to use the daily prompts for an entire year. Well, guess what? It served its purpose. Already. And I'm thrilled that it ran its course. I'm shifting the energy that that exercise created into an editorial calendar. This experiment, like the dare, will no doubt be a work in progress. Here's my first crack at it, with excessive allieration:

{ Monday Meditations & Declarations }

I want to kick it off right and set intentions to carry me throughout each week. When The Declaration of You book tour is officially over at the end of July, and now that the book is released, I plan to go through the activities in the book and continue (re)working the declarations I posted initially. This may also be a day to share thoughts surface in my new mediation practice. The creative collaboration I'm launching with Alexander also fits snuggly into this Monday theme. 

Declaration posts are pinned to my Happiness Project board on Pinterest. The collaboration with Alexander, and other artsy projects, are pinned to my Creative Feats board on Pinterest.

{ Travel Tuesday }

This day could go in a number of different directions. I'd like to share more of my travel photography and globetrotting memories. I want to work on creating AFAR wanderlists and this will hold me accountable to that. I could also end up sharing travel plans, resources, anything in the vein of wanderlust.

Travel posts are pinned to my Wanderlust board on Pinterest with the hashtag #traveltuesday (the same hashtag used for these travel-related posts on Twitter). 

{ Whatever Wednesday }

Exactly what it sounds like: A free day to be random about whatever is on my mind. This would be a great time to share my random creative projects, updates on My Happiness Project, the research I'm doing about my Danish family history, assorted goodies on YouTube, you know, whatever. 

Random creative projects are pinned to my Creative Feats board on Pinterest. You'll find happy posts pinned to my Happiness Project board on Pinterest. Denmark research posts are pinned to my #FindYourJoy Denmark Pinterest board. All other randomness is pinned here. 

{ Throwback Thursday }

Flashbacks to some of my favorite and/or most popular posts. For example, to get this out of the way, of the more than six years I've been blogging at this URL, this stupid post about naked Mormon missionaries gets more hits than anything - a.ny.thing. - I've ever written. Ever. I should just embed the code to that link in every future post. Take that, SEO.

{ Link Love Friday }

Let's be honest, Fridays can be a lame day in the office. I'm going to make the assumption your productivity is shot and send you a love letter full of links and insights into my wanderings around the internet. Follow along if you'd like, add awesome stuff I missed in the comment section. 

Awesome goodies found on all the links posted here are pinned to my Link Love board on Pinterest. 

{ Saturday is my day off }

Peace out. Let's all recharge. And likely play on Pinterest. 

{ Sunday: The Week in Photos }

Primarily intended to be a round-up of my Instagram adventures over the past week, this may also end up becoming a forum for more intentional photo walks and curated series. Remember Candela, the online photography course I've been in and that you should sign up for right away? Well, it has blown my photographic world right open. There is good stuff coming your way. Stay tuned!

My photos, and related inspiration curated from all over the web, are pinned to my Photography board on Pinterest.

If you're an RSS person, click this feed link to subscribe and you won't miss a thing. If you're an email organizer, use the box in the left sidebar to receive posts in your inbox as they go live. Or if you still enjoy the interaction of an actual website, I'll see you right back here. 

Love and intentions, 

me

I'm going to second base with my blog | The Blog Dare Day 27

I think my relationship with The Blog Dare has evolved already. It's been just about one month since I accepted the challenge to blog every day. Some days were more meaningful than others, but the cumulative effect is that of a new habit. Not only a new habit, actually, but a commitment that reaches  beyond simply going through the motions.


When I kicked off this whole adventure on 03 June, I wrote:

I'm practicing and practicing because even the things we love to do take some doing and it's not going to do it itself. I will stop telling you how much I love blogging only to contradict my passion with a once every not so often post sandwiched between business trips and deadlines and commitments and look at that, Passion, it's been months.

The doing, as it were, has built up to a physical shift in my energy. I'm feeling it morph into something even better than responding to the daily prompts that catalyzed it. The analytics on this site are exciting and my fledgling Facebook page gained about 20 followers since I started. That's rad. When I attended Alt for Everyone at the end of May, I was struck by four primary conclusions. One of those conclusions was to create an editorial calendar for this site. Through The Blog Dare, even just one month of it, I proved to myself that writing does matter to me and the creative outlet of this blog is something I want to prioritize. With that settled, we will now evolve into an even more substantial relationship, my blog and I. Like at least second base or something.

Initial ideas for an editorial schedule: Instagram roundup of my favorite photos I've posted that week/month, Link-laden posts sharing all the random bits of internet I'm consuming, more scheduled posts about the goals and activities of My Happiness Project, updates on creative collaborations (such as The Declaration of You book tour and the forthcoming awesomeness with Alexander), globetrotting updates and/or memorable travel flashbacks, and perhaps interviews and/or guest posts. We'll see what happens when I sit down to really hash it out.

courtesy of the uber talented Jessica Swift

Stay tuned! It's going to get progressively more awesome around here.

Love you lots,
me



This post is part of The Blog Dare series.

The Blog Dare Day 25

Twenty-five. Twenty-five days. In a row. In. A. Row.

I'm ignoring the prompt, I just want to take a moment and celebrate this nice round number. I started The Blog Dare as an act of discipline and creativity. So far so good. Some days are better than others, of course, but all days have included some sort of interaction with this site. That's intention, folks.

Love it.

Love,
me


This post is part of The Blog Dare series.

The Creative Collaboration Begins | The Blog Dare Day 24

{PROMPT} Let's get going!

I promise I'm happy, I've just never used FaceTime.
Getting it sorted took concentration, apparently.
This photographer prefers to be behind the camera.
And yes, I'm wearing a black lace camisole. Deal.

Today marks the start of something exciting. I'm launching an artistic collaboration with my friend Alexander. You can find his work and inspiring Bless Your Virus story on his website and on the Viral Mindfulness blog.

We're kindred creative souls in many ways. I cannot say enough about his light and warmth, it vibrates. We've decided to manifest all of our creative kindredness into a highly collaborative art project. It will involve meditation and writing and painting and sketching and growing and swapping of projects and all sorts of goodies yet to be revealed. I've painted once in my life. Once. So...this will be a whole new world of awesome. This is exactly the right outlet for me at exactly the right time.

The starting point for our work will be our respective power words. My 2013 power word is abundance. I regret I haven't done as much reflection and writing around that word as I'd hoped to do, so this is perfect. I first mused on abundance at the very beginning of the year...

I'm wearing pink lace panties, was the title of the post. It went something like this: "My power word is abundance. This focus on abundance led me to wear pink lace panties today. What? Yes. Because they've been in my dresser drawer, tags on, since I purchased them. Turns out, that's not a very abundant thing to do." I went on to admit: "Something I've understood intellectually for years, but I'm still trying to actually manifest in my life, is the trust it takes to do that, to let things go. I haven't fully figured out why I hold on to things that make no logical sense to hold on to, but I'm slowly practicing abundance..." {keep reading}

It's nearly July. I've thought about abundance, a lot. I've manifested it, sort of. I haven't directly written about it since that first post (though all these posts are the kissing cousins of abundance). Our collaboration is the perfect opportunity, medium, and space for me to finally start to get my mind, and my creative juices, around this massive concept.

Stay tuned, y'all. It's going to be epic.

Love,
me (+ Alexander)


This post is part of The Blog Dare series.

Commitment | The Blog Dare Day 19

{PROMPT} I kept it anyway. 

It's the end of a long day at the end of a longer week. The easiest thing for me to do right now is sleep, but I made a commitment to posting daily and so here I am. Some nights I post something worth reading, some nights I post because I told myself I would. Tonight is the later. But this whole series is an exercise in discipline. It's not (necessarily) about posting earth shattering content every day. It's about the every day itself.

Done.

Love,
me


This post is part of The Blog Dare series. 

My Declaration: Intention

The Declaration of You book tour is in full swing. If you haven't already checked out their press page, you should definitely head over there and be inspired. There are some truly awesome people making some truly awesome declarations. Today, it's my turn to discuss...

illustration by the lovely Jessica Swift.

I'm a very intentional person, if I do say so myself. I'm a hyper organized planner, goal setter, getter, and to-do list checker (not, as it turns out, the sexiest tagline for an online dating profile*). Two of the questions the lovely authors asked the book tour bloggers: "How often do you set intentions? How often do you determine what they need to be?" Following my Type-A logic thus far, I set all sorts of intentions all day long. I set intentions here, here, over here, over there, right here, not to mention the mountains of intention at work, and even my pet projects turn into part-time jobs because I take myself too damn seriously. I regularly and frequently determine what my intentions need to be and update accordingly. Then I re-color code it all, edit my hit list, and get back to work. This manner of intention has manifested an amazing career at a young age, incredible opportunities in my field with national consulting and speaking gigs, publications, home ownership, globetrotting, a graduate degree, on and on.

But guess what? And this has been an ironic lesson a long time in the making for me:  All of that intention...wasn't actually very intentional. I never associated all of my actions with the law of attraction. I was young and arrogant enough to assume that I was simply creating all of these opportunities and successes for myself. To a degree, that's true. To a greater degree, I was putting energy into the universe...and the universe was manifesting back to me exactly what I was asking for. The irony is that I didn't entirely realize and intend and decide upon and own what I was asking for. I didn't intend to ask for 60-hour work weeks. I didn't intend to ask for a sub-par romantic life because I couldn't be bothered with all those distractions. I didn't intend to ask for the airport shuttle driver to know me by name and be the friend I see most often. I didn't intend to ask for an administrative position that lacks the creativity I felt in previous roles. I was simply going going going fast on the path that young professionals "should" travel. The growing pains I'm experiencing now are due to the fact that I want to set new and different intentions for my life. Those new and different intentions are not (yet) familiar or comfortable for me. I'm figuring out how to build this plane while flying it.

As for my paradigm-shifting declaration of intention, two things have been washing over me like a giant tidal wave as of late:

Have enough trust in The Universe to set the intentions you really truly want to set. {tweet it}

These are the intentions that scare me. These are the intentions that I rarely share out loud. These are the intentions that I really truly want to set. These are the intentions into which I need to pour a whole lot of love and trust: I want to make photographs and write and travel. For a living. For real. Forever. I want to move to Denmark. I want to dabble in graphic design. I want to wake up next to a tall dark bearded feminist who wants in his life a smart and sassy partner to grow old with. I want to paint and be good at it and have people buy my paintings because they think they're pretty. I do not want to continue grinding out my days in committee meetings where we discuss the formation of committees.

Be more intentional with your intentions. Then get out of the way. {tweet it} 

I've finally, and with hesitant gratitude, hit a wall. I've left myself no choice but to give up on the idea that I'm somehow in total control of manifesting all these new intentions (an idea driven subconsciously by fear and ego, if you want the truth). I'm not in total control. I will never discount the value of doing my research and working hard, but I'm also settling into a new paradigm. I'm settling into a paradigm that finally, finally, finally realizes I need to get over myself and get out of my own way. I've believed in the take action part of intention my whole life, but I've never been good at believing The Universe will fill in the gaps. I've never been good at trusting that when I hand it over, it will eventually come back to me ten fold, or come back to me at all. I can understand the law of attraction intellectually. I know it spiritually. I've seen it happen to other people again and again. And yet letting all that fabulousness flow unobstructed through my own life scares the shit out of me. What if The Universe is on holiday and my intention memo bounces back with her out of office message? What if The Universe is busy with the far more interesting intentions of far more fabulous people all over the world? What if I've pissed off the universe by ignoring her offer to help me all these years? What if I actually get everything I want?

You know what Jen Sincero would say to all that nonsense? After she told me I'm a badass, then she would say:

Set your intention, work steadily in the direction you want to go, do all that you know how to do, believe it’s here and available to you, be diligent about how you speak, think and behave, have faith in yourself and The Universe, and then...drum roll please, this is the super important part...breathe, let it go, fuggetaboutit, give it some damn room to come in. 

Oh wait, she did say exactly that in a blog post earlier this week.

Dear Gail,  

Get out of my way. I got this.  

Love,
The Universe

The Fine Print: The Declaration of You will be published by North Light Craft Books this summer, giving readers the permission they’ve craved to step passionately into their lives, to discover how they and their gifts are unique, and to uncover what they are meant to do! 

Pre-order your copy now. Learn more by clicking here.

RSVP on Facebook!

* No, I have never used anything like that in an online dating profile. You're welcome, Men Of The Internet. You're welcome.

My Creative Cocoon | The Blog Dare Day 9

{PROMPT} Taking steps to fix it...

I've written a lot about creativity lately. Like, a lot. Summary: I've come to the conclusion that creativity cannot be a luxury in my life. Creativity is in fact a very necessary way through which I interact with this world and I need to intentionally cultivate it every single day. Creativity is not a passive thing for me or something that will just happen without a plan. Something that happens without a plan is called hulu.

When I wrote about enthusiasm for The Declaration of You book tour, I jotted out a little laundry list of ways I'd recently invested in rebuilding my creative mojo. With the Blog Dare prompt today, it seems an appropriate time to cultivate a more thoughtful list of bits and pieces and random goodies that are helping me get my groove back. I'm a bit of a magpie right now. I'm running around like crazy collecting shiny objects...all in the name of building a new creative home for myself.

Kelly Rae Roberts

Brace yourself, Reader, and get your clicker finger ready for a litany of link love. I discovered much of this goodness because I gave myself permission to get lost in link after link after link. Eventually I ended up weaving a big cocoon of creativity for myself (my magpie nest is now a butterfly cocoon, try and up). I feel like I'm absorbing so much right now and I will eventually bust out with something awesome (I'm now an exploding sponge). I'm not sure what will come of all this, but that's not the point right now. For me to even say that and now break out in a panicked sweat is a big big deal.

Here are the goodies I've rounded up so far...

Kelly Rae Roberts
She's my muse. As in a Greek goddess of inspiration sort of way. Her work, blog, book, e-book, and general existence on this planet is what first cracked open the door and let a dusty sliver of creative light peek through. So much love.

Radical Self Love
No nonsense, ballsy, funny, smart, radical self love brought to you by Gala Darling. She may be wrapped up in sticky sweet girly pink bows, but this shit's for real. Her e-book/audio book is called Love & Sequins. I mean, come on. To listen to her read it in her cheeky Aussie accent is pure delight.

Mapping Desire(s)
The fabulousness of Danielle LaPorte is overwhelming, to be honest. Completely overwhelming in the most beautiful, terrifying, spiritual, profound way. Somewhere deep down inside I know that The Desire Map will change life as I know it. I haven't started that journey yet because I want to get a better footing with all this before I tackle it. It's going to be a doozy. For now, I stalk her on social media and get her Daily Truth Bombs in my inbox (sign up on her website).

Color. Color. Color. 
One of the authors of The Declaration of You, Jessica Swift is not only a full-time artiste extraordinaire but also the author of her own book, Jump Trust Repeat. I haven't read it yet, but I have purchased her colorful brainstorm/planner/inspiration guide of sorts. I love playing with it and synthesizing my Happiness Project goals. I also receive her daily color + words of inspiration in my inbox. Worth it. Do it.

Writing with Light
Along with my creative soul sister Jen who lives in Portland, I'm enrolled in an online photography course taught by Laura Valenti Jelen. I just blogged about it right here. Reconnecting with my passion for photography - in a more intentional way that simply Instagramming all day every day - has been an awesome exercise for me.

Owning My Badassness
Jen Sincero's book needs no annotation. Read it. Just trust me. Four of my girlfriends are now reading it and they told me to tell you to do it.

Getting Sensual
Sign up for Susannah Conway's monthly newsletter and, for free, you'll receive her 74-page ebook about exploring your senses...all with a creative end in mind. She also has a (free)  planner/calendar/reflection workbook (similar to Jessica's) that is an awesome way to intentionally move through the year. I want to take this e-course about blogging from the heart, this e-course about photography, this e-course about writing your dreams into reality, and this e-course about unravelling 'it all' and then putting 'it all' back together. Want want want. 

OM
One of the primary barriers to me manifesting all this creative moxie is the fact that my life moves too quickly. It's like, really fast. Every day. I'm trying to change that. I'm redefining what success means to me and I'm allowing myself to fill slower spaces. Deepak is helping me. So is Oprah...with Deepak. My friend Cristina also emailed a ginormous list of Hay House hippie resources, but I haven't had time to work my way through that message yet. Oh, irony. 

Go Mighty
Is it silliness to put "make a life list" on my bucket list, where it's waiting patiently to be crossed off? Because that's what's happening with me. The awesomeness of Mighty Life Lists is a lot to get my head around. I also want to go to Camp Mighty. For now, I just follow Maggie Mason around and dream of the day that I'll dare to do this. Seriously. Poke around this site. Be amazed. They recently posted 31 profiles of incredible people living out their life lists (the profiles are on tumblr, so you need to scroll and dig a little bit).

When I Grow Up
Michelle Ward is the other author of The Declaration of You and a creative career coach. I haven't hired her as a coach (whether I was ready for it or not is irrelevant because she's booked solid due to her awesomeness), but I do subscribe to everything she puts out there and it's awesome stuff. Sign up for her newsletter and you get access to her Dropbox site packed full of free resources! She has a bunch of books that are on my wish list. She also interviews inspiring grown-ups who have smashed the creative career glass ceiling and made it work (scroll down to the archive section toward the bottom for free access to all the videos).

There's more, but this will do for now. Welcome to my world as of late. It's pretty in here, huh?

You know who.

One meta comment about all of this: Like attracts like. It's true, people. It's true. Attach whatever New Age terms or ancient philosophies you want to this fact, but it's true by any name. It's a very simple and also very complex truth that as you raise your frequency and tell The Universe what you want (in my case, for now, proactive creativity), The Universe will respond. Immediately. Once you really mean it. It's like drinking from a firehouse, so be ready for whatever it is you're asking for (and be clear and specific) because it will come to you. Truth.

Love,
me

P.S. What did I miss? What do I need to know about? What links should I be clickety clacking? Post in the comment section and join the conversation.


This post is part of The Blog Dare series.