Ep #7: The Power of Moonshot Thinking

Last week, Richard Branson and the Virgin Galactic Group launched a rocket plane into space for the first time. Many celebrated it as a perfect flight; a perfect flight that came 14 years after a lot of hard work that included tremendous resources and even, tragically, a fatality in a 2014 crash.

I watched with fascination, not only because I was a total space enthusiast as a kid. I wanted to be an astronaut and saved up all my money from raising chickens with my siblings to go to space camp, not just once, but twice. But I also was captivated because I love this physical demonstration of the power of moon-shot thinking; the power of the imagination to draw us forward and challenge our creativity, to challenge our potential as humans, the power of moon-shot thinking to invite us to evolve as individuals and as a species.

Astro Teller, who is the CEO of X, which is Alphabet’s factory for building magical amazing ideas, that with science and technology can be brought to reality, is quoted as saying, “Perspective shifts will unlock more than smartness ever will.”

So today’s episode is all about moon-shots and these perspective shifts; how moon-shots create shifts that can unlock your potential for creativity, whether that be in your art, your income, your health and wellbeing, or just all around your potential for becoming the person who is equal to your biggest most beautiful goals and dreams.

You are listening to The Art School Podcast; a show for artists and creatives who want to become the next greatest version of themselves. Learn how to cultivate an extraordinary way of being and take the mystery out of making money, and the struggle out of making art. Here is your host, master certified life coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back, and almost happy New Year, even though I’m recording this for you before Christmas. And my family celebrates Christmas, which is wonderful this time of year. I have three small kids who are bouncing off the walls and excited, which is fun. And it’s also so fun to see their Christmas lists and what a reflection of their different personalities are.

Because my oldest, for instance, his Christmas list reads something like, Pokémon card, Pokémon card, drone, survival knife, survival book kit, and these Percy Jackson books he loves, art supplies, and then at the bottom, healing crystals. So it’s just a lot of fun to see what they have on their lists and it’s so unique to each of them.

And as I’m recording this for you, I get to sit next to the Christmas tree, I have a fire in the wood stove, candles lit. It’s all very cozy and I am very happy to be talking to you today. And I am so excited about today’s topic. I love this sort of stuff. I love coaching on this. I love sharing these kinds of ideas, so I hope you love it too.

And wherever you are and whatever you believe and celebrate, I also hope that you are celebrating the year past. And even if that year included disappointments and failures, acknowledging those, celebrating what you’ve learned, and now also looking forward to creating an amazing 2019.

I wanted to offer you, with this particular podcast, something inspiring, and that will also hopefully be delightful for you to listen to, will get your imagination soaring, and get you very excited for the year ahead. I wanted to offer you something that would make you feel that your year and all the possibilities have just opened up before you in this awe-inspiring and really exciting way.

And even more than inspiration, I wanted to give you something that will actually create that effect in your life; something very tangible that, if you use it, if you apply what I’m going to be sharing here today, will absolutely help you create one of the most extraordinary years you have ever had.

And that’s why I chose the topic of moon-shots for today. And it was also just convenient and very nice of Sir Richard to set me up this past week by timing his space plane flight. So if he’s listening, thank you Mr. Branson for that kind setup and segue.

A little aside, I’m going to apologize to you and to Pavel and Angela, who are my amazing podcast-producing geniuses who help me make the sound sound amazing, for any shuffling you hear, because I have prepared so, so many notes for today’s episode. And also, I have a cold. I guess I have a sinus infection. I have not had one, I don’t think ever, so it’s not just a new husky voice I’m trying on – and for any honking and knocking at the door, because it’s the UPS delivery and the Amazon boxes with all of those Pokémon cards and drones and healing crystals and such.

So, today’s episode is going to be a little bit longer, but it’s such an awesome invigorating topic, and I’m hoping that this longer episode will just help you get through and extra-long run or studio session, extra-long holiday cooking prep or folding laundry, if you do all those things too when you listen to podcasts, because those are some of the things I like to do. And you will definitely want to stick around until the very end because I’m going to share what my moon-shot is and a bunch of amazing ways that you can get support with yours.

So, let’s dive in. Maybe you’re familiar with moon-shots already, but of not, a moon-shot is basically something, a goal or a dream, that is astronomically ambitious to achieve. The real power, I think, in a moon-shot, is the moon-shot thinking that is required to even begin to imagine how you would pull off this impossible seeming goal or dream.

So in other words, the really extraordinary power of a moon-shot is that it requires the kind of perspective shift mentioned in the quote from the intro; that kind of perspective shift that unlocks more than smartness ever will. And I would add that while I highly value hard work – I personally enjoy it, it feels satisfying to me, I take pride in it – I also believe that a moon-shot thinking and hard work has the potential to create exponentially more value than smartness and hard work.

So moon-shots, if you’re doing it right and not just playing it safe, moon-shots will require a perspective shift. And I think one of the greatest perspective shifts a moon-shots invites us to is a shift in who we think we are; an identity shift. So it’s a shift in who we think we are, and oftentimes, in who we think we are not.

So I think these things, what we think are beliefs about who we are, our identity, have more of an impact on what we’re able to create and do with our lives than any other factor.  It’s definitely the case that our thinking effects so much of our life; so much of our experience of life and so much of what we’re able to create. But what we think, what we think about, what we think of ourselves and the world and others and what’s possible is so fundamentally driven by who we think we are or are not.

So right off the bat, you know that moon-shots are going to be one of these things that are so exciting, and also so terrifying – and terrifying precisely because it will challenge your identity. So for these reasons, I wanted to walk you through today some ways that you can break down your plan for your moon-shot, so sort of like your plan for space flight.

And I also wanted to offer you some encouragement and also some reassurance, because even though it seems like it would make no sense that we would be terrified of becoming more fully expressed, more powerful, wealthier, balanced, healthier, more alive and vibrant versions of ourselves, it’s absolutely the case. So often, we fight to keep the smaller identity. So often, we argue for our limitations.

I have done it before and I see it with clients all the time. And it doesn’t really matter if they are an ultra-successful CEO, an established and successful artist, or a baby entrepreneur or artist just starting out. Challenging your identity can feel life-threatening and it doesn’t matter that it’s not logical. The experience is still very shaking.

Chuck Yeager, the pilot who broke the sound barrier, even said, “The cockpit always shakes the most in the moments before you break the sound barrier.” I even was reminding myself of this over and over again a few days ago and the other night, for whatever reason, all these things for me are exacerbated when I wake up and can’t stop thinking about them in the middle of the night.

And believe me, it’s not like knowing these things and reminding myself of them makes the shaking go away. It doesn’t, and that’s not the point. I think the shaking is just an inevitable symptom of the growth. But knowing these things and reminding yourself of them and grounding yourself in them and being extra compassionate towards yourself, it does help you better weather the harder parts of the breakthrough and the growth.

And I tell my clients all the time when they are about to overcome some obstacle or achieve something that they’ve been working on for so long about to break through some barrier of their own and it feels like everything in their life is shaking, even if they’re also about to get everything they’ve been working so hard for, it makes no sense. It’s not fun and there’s a reason why it’s called a break-through.

It does feel like things are crumbling, but it’s so important to remind yourself that nothing has gone wrong and to have that ability to pull your awareness back and look at what’s going on, to have a lot of compassion for yourself. Knowing those things and being able to hold that kind of space for yourself, and also others as there is this growth process and potentially an identity-shattering shift going on, is so vitally important. That’s what’s going to help you keep your momentum and continue to grow and not self-sabotage and engage, indulge in micro-quits or creative u-turns.

So as I was thinking about how best to structure today’s episode, what I wanted to keep right in front of me was a way to deliver the information to you that you would actually take and utilize as a plan. So I don’t want this to be just me talking about moon-shots and you feel inspired, but then you’re not actually able to apply it to your life.

So what I’ve done here is broken it down into, first, the plan. I want to help you develop your plan for your moon-shot. You’re going to know what it is. You’re going to spend your own time thinking and reflecting about that. I’ll talk more about that at the end. But then, within that plan, I see there is a few distinct categories. And so the biggest of those being, again, this identity shift, that you could put under the umbrella of mindset.

And then, there’s also emotions. And then there’s this other part about community, that I think is – you could try to do this as a lone wolf. I wouldn’t recommend it. You’d just accelerate your progress and give yourself such a better chance for success, setting yourself up to succeed, by cultivating the right kind of community, surrounding yourself by people who are going to lift you up and are going to help you course-correct if you get off-path and are not going to let you stay off-path for too long.

So let’s go back for a moment and talk about that part of mind shift that involves identity shift, because again, this is one of the most compelling reasons I see for having a moon-shot. It challenges your limits, your current limits, around who you think you are. And once you’re able to shift that, it is so much easier to expand what you’re capable of.

And this is because, simply, if we can’t imagine that we’re capable of doing something, why would we ever endeavor to try? So for instance, if you’ve always wanted to draw but you’ve just told yourself, “I’m just not talented…” and then all of a sudden you come across a masterful teacher who says, “Really, if you can write your name, you have all the skills you need in order to become a masterful drawer…” because all of a sudden, you’ve shifted from somebody who wasn’t capable, and now you see yourself as someone who is.

And a book that I highly recommend on this topic, and one that should be required reading for anyone who wants to take me up on this moon-shot challenge, is Mindset, by Carol Dweck. So there’ll be a link to that in the show notes.

Because, again, I believe what we think we can or can’t do isn’t really as much of a function of our true capability or our capacity or our potential to acquire knowledge, learning, or the requisite skills we need to have in order to do something we dream of. Instead, I think what’s more important about what we think we can or can’t do, that these things are defined by our identity. And our identity is defined by our thoughts and beliefs about who we think we are or who we think we’re not.

So for illustration purposes, here is an example. Think for yourself about what a moon-shot would be for you. What would be a desirable, currently, seemingly impossible dream or goal? And now, hold that in mind and ask yourself, do I know anyone currently living, or throughout history, who either did do or I think probably could do this thing?

So, if you said yes, that’s a great instance of seeing how identity defines more of what we think is possible, rather than true capability, because that’s a good place to begin. If you can imagine that someone somewhere could do that think, then you’re remaining work is to think about, well what is it that they think and believe about themselves that allows them to then acquire the wisdom, the knowledge, the skill set, the strength, or the ability to follow through and do that thing?

And I’ve seen this is my own life and I’ve seen it over and over again with client where people feel like they’re stuck; people with so much potential and so much talent and already so much training, or potential to gain the training and refine the talent, feel impossibly stuck or just like there’s no way forward. And I have so many talented clients who, when they first come, it seems like their major obstacle – not seems, it is. Their major obstacle is that what they are still seeking is validation from someone or something external, because what they really want is for someone to say, “Yes, you are a talented X, Y, Z. You are talented and good enough…” whether that’s as a musician, a playwright, a writer, an artist, a leader.

And they want this before they are willing to believe it themselves. And they want this so that they can then have permission to show up and flow the talent and gifts and potential that they actually already know, or at least suspect that they have. And I see over and over again, people artificially keeping themselves small, and they’re secretly meanwhile hoping that the world outside will recognize and validate what they are hoping is true that they’re feeling on the inside. And that’s that they have what it takes; that they are equal to, sufficient to, and worthy of their dreams.

And, this is the beauty of the moon-shot. There is no more waiting for permission, no more waiting to be tapped, noticed, praised, anointed, celebrated, or promoted. No more gatekeepers, none of that.

So with a moon-shot, you decide that you are the one. You declare your big seemingly impossible goal. And then you go about doing the work; first that inner work that so many people want to bypass by having external validation. And that’s the inner work of you believing you have what it takes. And then you do the outer work that anyone who knew that they were going to get the thing would go do in order to get what’s theirs to get.

And while this is such exciting work and I love it, it’s also not easy work because it does challenge you. So when you are defining your moon-shot, it can be very helpful to know your why and who – especially this part is so important – to know who you want to become and who you are going to decide ahead of time you are going to become through this process. This is what I call having a sacred twin intention, although it could be more than twins. You could have sacred multiples.

I stumbled into this when I first was trying to transition from being an attorney to being an artist. I didn’t have any art and I didn’t have any formal training as an artist. I quickly could see about two months into this process that while my artist dream was so real to me and so beautiful to me, I was seeing how, very easily, I could make myself just as miserable as an artist as sometimes I’d made myself in law.

And that’s when this sacred twin intention process came to me. So I pulled back and decided, hey, if I’m really going to do this thing, if I’m really going to become an artist, then what is equally, if not possibly more important, is that this process is about me becoming a better human being to the process. This process for me is about my personal and my spiritual evolution.

And so I can’t sacrifice my mental health, my physical health, my emotional health just to make art that looks pleasing to me or pleasing to others. I have to remain authentic to the feeling that I’m already a real artist inside. And then I also have to honor my desire to have a very full and rounded and well-balanced psychology and life.

And that intention has been such a guiding light, those two intentions, that there is the way of being, and then there is the art that flows through that way of being. And that’s not the intention, obviously, for everyone or for every artist. But it was really – it was crucial for me to know that and to have that to guide me and that has helped me through so many challenging times.

And it’s something that evolves too. So later on, when I talk about my moon-shot, I’ll also share more about my current why for that and what my sacred multiple intentions are a little bit later on.

So knowing your why and who you want to become is fuel, and it’s a constant source of guidance. It will get you through so many hard times, and it will also answer that voice in your head that says, “You know, you can’t be successful and a good person at the same time. You can’t make money and be happy. The only way to make money is to be a sellout or to be stressed out or to have no life and work all the time.”

All those voices that come up to discourage you, to tempt you into quitting, to tempt you into settling, are answered if you decide ahead of time, no, I have these sacred twin intentions. Not only do I have the intention of my big beautiful bold dream, and I also have this other intention of I want to be somebody who’s courageous. I want to be somebody who’s kind. I want to be somebody who is very balanced and has exactly the kind of lifestyle, family, work, whatever balance you desire, and has the thing.

So knowing that ahead of time can save you so much angst when those voices rear their ugly heads later. And this part is so important. And I also want to make sure that you know, that that being said, it’s also so important to know that if you’re not totally clear on your why right now, don’t let that stop you.

Sometimes, how it happens is that you pick the goal or dream that really strikes a chord for you; the one you haven’t been able to stop thinking about for years or the one that just came to you because you met somebody maybe or you heard something and your mind was blown open. And whatever it is, just know that you’ll know it’s resonant when it feels juicy, it’s exciting to you, it’s enlivening to you and you don’t have to apologize or make it smaller in order to please anybody or avoid anyone’s judgment.

So give yourself permission right now to have exactly the moon-shot you want to have. And if you don’t know the why right now, that’s also okay, because I think there is some sort of divine design in this process and that as you go through the journey towards that dream, you will discover more about just why that was the perfect goal or dream for you.

You’ll discover that it invites you to grow in all the ways a part of you has really been longing, even if you’ve also simultaneously been resisting growing in that way. In fact, I think even when you do have a really clear why in the beginning, that there are still always discoveries like this along the way, that your dream calls you to grow and then you have these revelations along the way that give you goose-bumps, these synchronicities, these epiphanies where you really feel like there’s a plan in place and this has been some geniusly devised curriculum just for you and for your life.

So once you’ve defined what your moon-shot is, once you’ve begun to think about what your why is and who you want to become, you’ve already initiated a process of creating a plan for your moon-shot. So let’s just put a little bit more structure around that.

As part of your plan, here are a few other things you’re going to want to include. We talked about having that sacred twin or multiple intention, and you’re also going to want to, ahead of time, define the obstacles to achieving that goal.

So some of those might be – all of them, I would argue, but then you can flesh it out from there – mindset challenges, emotional challenges, and then there’s going to be some purely human action steps you have to follow through on; some, maybe obstacles, like, well I know I’m going to need some money to do this thing and I don’t currently have that money.

So with these obstacles, by delineating all these obstacles, then what you do is use a tool called turning your obstacles into strategies. So you line-item all the obstacles, and then one by one, you go through and you ask yourself, what do I need to do? What are the precise steps in as smaller bites as you can get them? Break it down into what needs to happen in order to achieve this thing or in order to overcome that obstacle.

And also, as you go through that process, asking yourself, “Is there any other way? Maybe I’m perceiving this as an obstacle, but maybe I’m looking at it wrong.” So lay out your obstacles and then apply that, turning each obstacle into a strategy approach.

Then what you also want to include in your plan, and this is similar to the sacred twin intention, but maybe enough of a difference that I want to mention it here; write out what you think some of the strategic byproducts of doing this process are. So for instance, if you’re really doing a stretch goal and you have this sacred twin intention of you’re wanting to become a better human being through the process, and part of that maybe is just realizing that you are a complete whole worthy of love human right now, a strategic byproduct could be something like peace.

It can be things like that. it can also be things like, well, it was my goal to make 200,000 this year and I didn’t get there, but I did make 50,000 more than I usually make. It could have been my goal to make 10 million this year and I didn’t get there, but a strategic byproduct was maybe I learned to think in such a bigger way and I had to think about things like impact and what kind of leader I wanted to be, and it just totally groomed me as a leader, as a human being, and not to mention all the real world business skill set that I acquired through the process.

And then also, this is such an important part, and this also plays into the obstacle to strategy, but you want to lay out the massive action that you’re going to take in service of this moon-shot dream. So massive action, one definition is that massive action is the action you continue to take until you get the result that you want.

And I want you to know ahead of time that for most people, the bias is to get to about 40% done but think that they’re all the way done. And now a little exception to this, or caveat, is for you perfectionists, fellow perfectionists, or recovering perfectionists out there, for you, sometimes you need to consider that your done is really what you think is 75% done, really means it’s done. Send it out into the world.

Engage in that process of rapid iteration. Make it your motto to fail often, fail fast, fail forward, and not to get hung up on trying to perfect it before you send it out. But once again, just for everyone, even perfectionists, it’s often when what we’re avoiding is having somebody tell us, “Oh that’s good, but it needs a little bit more work.”

Whereas other people are, again, about 40% done and we think, I’ve done so much work already, I should be done. So I feel like, as part of this mindset and grit training that moon-shot thinking requires, is just to know, there’s going to be a point at which I think, gosh I’ve done all this work, shouldn’t I be seeing results by now? I’ve invested so much money I’m even in debt and I’m not making any money back now or I’m not making enough money back, maybe this isn’t working.

Don’t stop there because the part at which you think you’re done and you think you’ve done enough, our bias is, again, it’s about 40%. So just tell yourself, alright, roll up my sleeves, keep going, I’ve got another 60% to do. It doesn’t mean because things don’t work out at 40% of the way, you don’t think, I’m never going to make it. You just think, I just have to keep going. I just have to keep going.

And so with massive action, you plan for this ahead of time. You set yourself up for success by saying what am I going to do that is going to take me further to my dream? And it’s important that this not be busy work, but this be something that actually produces results. Because if you hear yourself saying, “Well I’ve been trying to do this, I am trying to do this. I’ve been working on this, I’ve been working on this…” it’s like Yoda; there is no try, you just do.

So you really want, with your massive action, you want it to be not work-oriented, but results-oriented. So for instance, today I wasn’t going to work on my podcast. My massive action is to complete this podcast. With sales, I don’t say I’m working on marketing, I say I’m making offers and I’m going to continue to make offers until those classes are sold out, or I’m not working on a painting, I’m painting and I’m finishing a painting, or I’m not.

So really try to eradicate try and working on when you are applying massive action anywhere in your life, and particularly to these moon-shots. And as part of your massive action, what you definitely want to include are fails, like high-quality fails.

And I know some people think that, like for instance that’s jeopardizing your integrity, but that’s not the kind of fail I’m talking about. I’m talking about fails where you know you’re taking some kind of emotional risk. Because otherwise, we just waste too much time in small work and busy work.

So you know what that thing is for you; that thing that you’ve been putting off and procrastinating. Make a habit of doing that on the regular. Make a plan for doing that on the regular.

So for me, for instance, for my moon-shot goal for 2019, I am planning on 25 epic failures a year. And to be clear, an epic failure is not, “Oh I told people I was going to teach a class and they signed up and I didn’t show up.” Not that kind of failure.

The failure I’m talking about is, like, “I’m going to reach out to so many people and offer something that I really believe in. I’m going to make this many paintings and I’m going to offer them for a sale.” I’m going to definitely follow through on my action and to the very best of my ability, but the planning for failure part is really me saying, I’m going to put myself out there in risk and be vulnerable over and over again.

And this is how you can write into your moon-shot plan. It’s like writing in a training program for developing grit and resilience, and also developing creativity, because if you’re really going to take that many emotional risks that produce a result that aren’t just working on something, you’re going to have to engage parts of your imagination that you haven’t engaged before if you’re going to be shooting for results that you haven’t achieved before.

The other thing that is so helpful about including planning for failure and having that be part of your goal is that you no longer avoid failure, but you move right through it intentionally, because failure is not just something that you endure on the way to success. I think failure is part of the way to success. Like, failure is part of that training program that helps us become more of who we want to become.

We get to decide who we want to be when we’re disappointed and when we have failed, and we also get to intentionally decide to put ourselves outside of our comfort zone, decide to develop strength, decide to develop grit. And knowing this ahead of time, you will be so much more clear, resilient, and focused when you’re not getting the immediate gratification of immediate feedback, positive feedback, whether that’s sales or praise from the outside world. And you’re going to be able to carry on even when you’re not getting that immediate gratification, and even when maybe it seems like the entire world is telling you this is impossible, why don’t you just quit, who do you think you are?

But if you’ve decided ahead of time, “I knew this would happen, I was planning on some failures.  Not only was I planning on it, I know that this is part of what’s making me stronger.” That’s going to save you so much time that otherwise people waste in being discouraged and disheartened and quitting for a while.

So practice taking massive action. Plan for massive action. Build in failure and plan on having grit be one of your sacred intentions. Along these same lines, part of your moon-shot plan will be thinking about the mindset of the person who achieves this seemingly impossible thing. What are their thoughts? How do they think about themselves? How do they think about obstacles?

You want to ask yourself, what is this going to require of me? How is this going to require me to think differently? What thoughts do I want to know ahead of time that I’m going to think on purpose? What thoughts might be likely to derail me? What might I have had a habit of thinking of in the past that’s not going to serve me and that I’m going to have to let go of?

So one question I like to offer people is, imagine you’re going through this process and that you know you’re unstoppable and you know you’re going to get there; what are you not going to be available for? You’re not going to be available for doubting yourself. You’re not going to be available for thinking about giving up. And what are you going to need to help you focus? What’s going to help you focus your mind and focus it on purpose? What thoughts are going to empower you? And what are you going to have to be disciplined about not thinking about?

And try this approach on and see if it works for you. But think of yourself as an Olympic athlete. Michael Phelps does not allow his mind to look over at the guy stretching before race starts that’s going to be in the next lane like, “Oh gosh, look at him. I’ve heard he’s been training like a beast. Maybe this gold medal is really not mine.”

We hear that and we think it’s ridiculous because we know Michael Phelps, we know what it takes to be an Olympic athlete, but so many times when I tell people that they are going to have to be very mentally disciplined, they’re going to have to be vigilant and they’re going to have to be on top of this, they say, “Oh but that’s really hard to do.”

And they say it as if that’s a good reason not to do it. And sometimes, they say it as if, like, well that’s hard to do, and what they’re really saying is, isn’t that impossible? Don’t let yourself go down that road. Think of yourself as an Olympic athlete.

Why not, if there’s something you really want, if there’s something that is your gold medal, part of who you get to become is somebody that is that mentally disciplined. And that will serve you in all areas of your life. And not just achieving external things and not just getting the brass ring or winning the gold medal, but in very day to day meaningful, deeply meaningful ways. Not that those things aren’t deeply meaningful, but what I’m talking about even is the discipline and vigilance to not engage in self-loathing.

And I know this is something that so many people struggle with and I have struggled with it too, and to not engage in shame, but to decide I’m not available for that. No more, there’s a line in the sand. I don’t care if it takes me 10 years to get this right. But now, the standards in my life are such that that kind of thinking, that kind of cruelty to myself, that kind of life-sucking thought, indulging in that, I’m not available for. I don’t bring that into that space.

So applying mental discipline to something like that is a beautiful thing and an utterly life-changing thing, and it will change everyone who your life touches as well.

Another part of your moon-shot planning process is to think about emotions and think about emotions intentionally. And you can refer to previous podcasts that I’ve done on this topic too. So you want to know that you can feel difficult emotions and that you’re going to plan for those ahead of time. And then you also want to think about what emotions will you want to cultivate on purpose? What kind of emotions are going to be the fuel that helps you take the action, the massive action, that’s necessary to get to your dream?

And I have a few of my own that I wanted to share here, and you don’t have to use them, but they’re ones that I’ve found to be very helpful. Hopeful expectancy – just expecting that what you do is going to come to good and that good is going to come to you. And so, I don’t see any downside in everyday thinking, I’m going to do something great today, I’m going to do something that feels amazing, or I feel like something amazing is going to happen.

There is also this quote I really love from Yogi Bhajan that says, “I don’t believe in miracles, I rely on them.” And I think that’s the truth. I think every day, all of us, just the fact that we’re born and we are here, we’ll already relying on miracles. But to take that idea and blow it up and really live it every day is such fuel for your life and such fuel for big dreams.

I also like to take the emotional approach again of training like an athlete. Immediately, that helps me find these, and tap these inner reserves of strength and discipline and resilience. And an emotion that comes to me when I think like this, like an athlete, is the importance of certainty.

Again, Michael Phelps, he trains his mind on he has already won that gold medal. He is certain of it. He is not available for doubt. He is not available for looking outside of his own lane. And I think another thing that I learned from sports that I applied to my own creative life and creative process is the power of the love of process, because I love to paint. I love to swim. I love to run. I love to draw, I love to think about painting. I love to come up with ideas for these podcasts, and it wasn’t always the case.

It wasn’t immediately the case. Those were intentional decisions. So like I mentioned earlier, I saw when I started out that I could quickly make myself miserable in this process. So part of my sacred twin intention, something that flowed from that was a decision to love process.

And it was so fascinating, I just recently heard an interview with LeBron James where he said something very similar. He was asked about what’s the secret to his talent, to his success, and to his longevity, and he said, “I love the process. I love everything about it. I love the training. I love the game. It’s not just about the wins. It’s great to get the wins, but more than anything, I just have a passion for the process.”

Another emotion that I love – part of it for me too, I don’t know whether you call this rebelliousness or just, again, having a passion for creativity and imagination all of that, and having a passion for the power of belief, but I love, love, love to believe in and do things that I have no business believing in or believing that I could do. And I love to watch other people do this too,

Nothing inspires me more than these stories of the triumph of the human spirit. That makes me feel so alive and it is so fun. One time, somebody told me that because I had done a vulnerable share and shared some of my dreams and goals, some of which I’ve already done, and he said, “Well, you are nothing if not courageous.” And he totally didn’t mean it as a compliment, but I took it as one because yes, I am courageous and that’s the kind of life that I want to live. And again, there is something that makes me feel so alive to do the thing and to believe in the thing that I have no business believing in.

It’s fun. Again, there’s that feeling of aliveness, and as Walt Disney said, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” So think about what emotions for you are really going to light you up and fuel you on this journey. And it can also be kind of fun to realize that sometimes, you know, you might be challenged, and to think about rather than being discouraged by someone challenging you or to be discouraged by a current lack of evidence that you can do the thing, challenge yourself. Like, could I instead just be even more invigorated or enthusiastic about that? Because I think there is often an underside that we’re not exploring, we just let ourselves right away feel shut down or discouraged.

The last major element of your moon-shot plan that I don’t want you to leave out or neglect is community; intentional, constructive, creative, generative community.  Because although there is a myth around the lone genius, really, history and also research tells us that the flowering of human potential so often has happened in places where people were connected, in clusters, in groups and cells.

Think about the Renaissance, think about C.S. Lewis and Tolkien and their contemporaries, their group of writers. Think about Beyoncé. She doesn’t do all that on her own or write all of her own songs. And she started off with her sisters. So, genius doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens and it really flourishes in community. So get yourself some really high-flying, high-quality community; people that are going to lift you up and that you’re going to uplift, which is generative too, and really tapping into our global empathy is really like tapping into jet fuel.

And you’re going to also see that when you get into a flock like this, a lot like a V-formation of geese, sometimes you’re tired. Sometimes you need to draft. Sometimes somebody else cuts the wind. And times where you maybe do fall off the rails or you get discouraged or down, people are going to be there to help you correct course and not let you stay down and out for too long.

I used to think I was a lone wolf. Major mistake, and I want to save you the years of extra struggle and angst and heartache, because I’ve really seen now that, for many reasons, I thrive in this kind of community and I’ve been in so many communities where I’ve seen other people thrive and to have their progress just be accelerated.

And not only that, but it’s so much more enjoyable. My friend, Tererai Trent says in Africa, they have a saying, sometimes right away you can go faster alone but you can always go farther with a group. You can go farther and faster with a group over the long haul.

So whether you find a mastermind, whether you reach out to a few people, I also think of these amazing poetry retreats that my mentor friend Quinn does, and he talks so much about the second voice that emerges when a community of creatives like this come together. And I’ve experienced it, those many workshops I’ve attended myself.

And I think too, whether you are religious or not, there is that line from the Bible that says, “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there also am I,” and I feel like that is true for whatever energy and current that creativity is too. there is something electric and powerful that happens when you get together in a group of like-minded people who are there to support each other and lift each other up.

I saw this especially be true in The Art School because so many that came out of this last session, this fall 2018 session of The Art School said that one of their favorite parts was the community and that definitely having that community either expedited things for them, made it so much more enjoyable, and it also lessened the times that were hard for them as they were journeying through the process of achieving their goals and dreams, and that if they in the past would have stayed down for maybe an entire 12 weeks but this time that that was maybe a day at most.

The other thing that was really powerful that I deliberately designed into that community was the research that’s out about how important it is for us to be seen. And so the way that we’re seen really reinforces our identities. So something that I built into The Art School was this intentional process of people showing up over and over again as their future self and being seen in that group as their future self, who to me, like the future self is really a reflection of who you think you really are and who you think you are really capable of becoming and that having this very supportive community where people are constantly seeing you as that person, with those qualities, somebody completely equal and worthy to those dreams is powerful.

And to show up that way week after week after week, and it’s very edifying then too when you go back out into the rest of the world and so maybe people don’t see you that way. Maybe people still see J-Lo as Jenny from the block. But she knows she’s both things and the way that she’s seen as Jenny from the block doesn’t take anything away from the fact that she knows she’s got rockstar capabilities.

So there’s something again, really edifying and nourishing about being in a group that sees you for who you really know yourself to be and who you really know yourself as being capable of becoming. So that is like, a mini course in how to create a plan for your moon-shot. And I told you that I was going to share what my moon-shot is, which is to within three years, to make two million dollars in a year.

To me, based on – I’ve had a lot of success so far but I know in order to get to that point, I’m not going to be able to keep doing things the way I’m currently doing them. And I also know that’s really going to require me to grow in ways that are so exciting for me as an artist, as an entrepreneur, as a coach, as a mother, as a wife, as a friend, as a human being.

So that’s part of my why is who I’m going to become and then there is also just two million dollars, yay, the fun part. There’s also that part where it kind of gets me right in the place where I love to do things that I have maybe people will think no business of doing, and I will totally do it because I get very fired up about that. And the way I like to think of it is here’s this dream I have. Would I hire myself? Let’s say that’s a job description like, here’s this dream, be the person who achieves this dream.

And so then I ask myself, if I were to hire somebody to do that, would I hire me or would I hire somebody else? And I can honestly say and I’ve worked to get to this point, I would hire me hands down. I would hire me for not only just the training that I’ve been through and the trial and error and the experience of over the last decade plus but I would hire me because I believe I’m the one to do it and I absolutely am going to do it, and I’m not going to give up. And what’s more, I know I’m going to do it my way.

And here’s where that twin intention comes in again because not only is it my dream and my moon-shot and my plan to make two million in a year within three years, but to do it in a way where my creativity flourishes, I have more than enough time for my art, I have more than enough time for the very high touch, very involved kind of family life that I currently have and always want to have and the work life balance, the health, physically and mentally, emotionally, and the down time.

So as I’m planning my own moon-shot, I’m being very constrained with the amount of time I’m allowing myself to work because it would be one thing to be like, well, I’m just going to be all hell-bent for glory and go 24/7 all out and just burn myself to a crisp trying to get this done and stress myself. I’m going to do it on my terms because for me, the dream is not my dream if I am burnt out and don’t have the kind of family life, creative life, down time, or lifestyle that I want to have.

And I think that’s the part where is really very exciting because you can look and see a lot of people who work super hard and make two million and I’m happy for them and they totally deserve it. I just want to do it my way. And I know that’s going to challenge a lot of people, and I worked to do that on myself thinking, “Well, who do you think you are?” But I’m going to do it because part of my why is to be an example of what is possible, to be an example of what is possible as an artist, as an entrepreneur, as a mother and a wife, as a really pretty average girl.

I grew up on a farm in Iowa, which I think is a very special upbringing and I have very wonderful family, and I also like – and I went to a great school but I didn’t go to an Ivy League school. I’m not a Kennedy, I don’t have any fancy pedigree or art training. I am a farm girl from Iowa with some really big dreams and a really big heart and a passion for doing this and a passion for other people who are from many different places who have big dreams and big hearts.

So I want to be an example of doing that and I get really excited thinking about all the things that will flow from that. Like how it’s going to invite me to grow and become more disciplined and to become more creative and to have more fun, focusing on and enjoying the process, and to be more comfortable being very vulnerable and putting myself out there like I am right now, and to be more comfortable with the emotions that brings up and the growing pains that brings up.

Like I mentioned, a few nights ago I couldn’t sleep and I was going through some sort of growing pains and I think actually probably in anticipation of knowing that I was going to record this podcast. And that’s alright and people all think what they want to think. The important thing is what am I thinking? And I’m thinking that I’m the one for this job.

I’m also thinking back five years ago to the moment I held my daughter for the first time after she was born. I have two sons and I love having sons and love them all more than life itself, and then there was also something different about the experience of holding my daughter. Holding this little girl child when it was similar to how people describe their life flashing before their eyes, all of a sudden what flashed before my eyes were all the ways I artificially was holding myself back and I thought, “All for this girl, I can’t do that.”

Because you know what they say and it’s true, children learn by what you do and not what you say. And so I really – I had already been doing this work for a while but when Blaze was born, I had been doubling down and really part of the reason I want to do this, a large part is because we can. And as women and men too, and as artists and entrepreneurs, this is such an exciting time to be alive.

And we are so privileged and sometimes we are like, using our privilege against us by being too comfortable when instead, I think something like a moon-shot can challenge you to really take the gift of your life and appreciate it and make it what you want to make it. And I know this isn’t for everyone, and if it’s not for you, you’re probably not any longer listening to this podcast but if you are one of those people who are like, yeah, I see my life as a gift and what I want to do with that gift is to take it as far as I can take it, because really, we live in America, we have all these freedoms and I choose to believe that no one can tell me no.

They might tell me no, but it’s not going to be a no that actually stops me. I am just going to make the most of the freedom I have, of what’s been done, to honor what people have done to create these freedoms before now, and I’m just not going to take no for an answer and I’m just going to see and have a lot of fun seeing what I can actually do when I stretch my imagination, when I apply that farm girl work ethic, and when I’m really disciplined about my mindset and when I show up as who I really believe I am and in community to learn from other people and also share with others what I’ve learned.

So this brings me to the part of the podcast where I want you to do more than just listen. So throughout this whole podcast truly, we’ve been outlining the plan for you to make your own moon-shot plan. And what I want you to do with this portion of the podcast today is a little bit different. Definitely do carve out time, put time on your calendar when you are going to make this moon-shot plan, and then you can join me. I’m going to invite you to this moon-shot challenge.

You can hashtag The Art School moon-shot and declare on social media. I’m on Instagram. I would love to connect with you there. And share some declaration of what your moon-shot is and you can share your plan. You can ask for feedback. You can start to find community there.

And the second thing I want you to do with this portion of the podcast today is this exercise, which I learned from one of my mentors, Brooke Castillo, who is like, a queen of big thinking and moon-shots and is endlessly inspiring. So I want you to first write out what would it look like if you achieved your goal. What would it look like if you made it to the moon? And then second, I want you to write about what does it look like if you don’t? What does it look like if you don’t follow this dream, if you don’t make a plan and really go for it?

Thank you again for joining me for The Art School Podcast. I mentioned earlier in today’s episode that if you’re interested in more resources and further support for your moon-shot goal or dream, that I have some suggestions for you. And one of the best ones, and I don’t know that there is any other program out there like this, because I looked for years and years and finally was an instance of creating what I was craving, and that is The Art School.

Our winter session begins mid-February 2019. Enrollment is now open for both classes. There is an open class option and then there is also a master class option, which is more like a mastermind and you have a lot of one-on-one attention and time with me. But both of those classes are designed to help you from start to finish, in 12 weeks, move you from where you currently are with a specific goal or project and help you see radical and dramatic progress either in achieving that goal or making substantial headway towards it.

And not only that, but at the same time, aligned with my philosophy of having those sacred twin intentions, you’re going to gain the metaskills that creativity, the creative process, and this kind of coaching in my particular approach offers. So by the time this course is over, you will have created something not only that you’re proud of and very happy about, but you’ll have done it in a way that is unlike I’m going to guess, anything you’ve experience before in terms of joy of the process and ability to tap into your own inner reserves of grit, strength, and grace in a way that doesn’t feel like white-knuckling it.

And in a community that is just hands down top notch amazing. So with these, I like to say with like the moon-shot and The Art School, you’ve already landed among the stars because the community is outstanding and you’re already uplifted from day one by that. But really, it has been my intention from the beginning to offer world class coaching, the kind that I do to my private clients and to make that accessible to more people and to really spread this knowledge and these skills and to change the paradigm of what’s possible for you as a creative person, even if you don’t identify as an artist, although we definitely have a lot of artists and entrepreneurs in the group.

We also have doctors and executives and stay at home parents. So if there’s something that you’ve been craving to create and you want to do it in a way that is life plus and doesn’t detract from your other values in life, you’re going to be required to work but you’re also going to do it in a way where you’re going to feel stronger than ever and it’s not an at all costs thing. It’s success, defining it on your own terms, and then creating it on your own terms, and then walking away forever with those meta life skills, which enhance every area of your life.

So if you’re interested in The Art School, you can go to my website, www.leahcb.com/the-art-school and you can see the descriptions there, you can enroll there, you can also for a limited time while I still have openings in my calendar, you can book a session with me, a complimentary 20-minute laser coaching session to get a taste of what The Art School is like and to see if it’s the right fit for your particular moon-shot.

I also for 2019 have currently just two spots remaining for private clients. So if that is at all of interest to you, you can email me at leah@leahcb.com because I value this contact with my clients and also your privacy. You can know that it’s always me answering that particular email from private client requests because it’s just a great way to get to know you right away.

And you can also just relax knowing that it’s only me reading that email and no one else sees those and I don’t share those with anyone. So The Art School is one amazing resource. Private coaching, another amazing resource. And then also you can sign up for a free resource at my website by going to www.leahcb.com/itunes. And there you can sign up for the insider’s edition to the podcast and you’ll be on a list that occasionally receives very high value content that is not shared elsewhere and you’ll also occasionally receive offers that I don’t offer at large to the public or that I offer first to this community.

So if you enjoyed today’s show, I would love it if you would take a moment and write a quick review on iTunes. You can do this by heading over again to www.leahcb.com/itunes.

While you’re there, also for a limited time, you can still register to win a free Creative Life Audit Session with me. If you’re an artist, musician, writer, or other creative, and you feel blocked in any area of your life, a Creative Audit Session can help you identify the root cause of that most frustrating block, and together, we’ll work to come up with a customized strategy that will get you back into your prime creative and abundant flow.

So sign up for that while that’s still available and I want to thank you all again for listening. I hope you are preparing to have a very happy New Year. It’s unseasonably warm and the sun is shining here in Michigan, so I am out to take a walk and I will see you next time. Have a beautiful week everybody. Bye-bye.