Chris has been inspiring me ever since I discovered his website, and his book, The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World.

At the time I discovered him, I’d been an artist, entrepreneur, and self-employed for a decade. So, while I was well-versed in the liberation of living my life the way I wanted, Chris amplified my passion with a practical toolkit for taking it to the next level.

His latest book, The $100 Startup, just hit the shelves, and now it finds me on the founding team of an incredible startup, where I not only get to do what I love, but I’m in the business of improving other people’s lives… which is pretty much the best feeling ever.

I’m fascinated with the intersection of passion and work, and this book dives deep. Once again, adding fuel to the fire within me, and providing a practical toolkit for getting out of your own way, going out there and making your dreams happen — all while changing the world.

Kudos, Chris. You are changing the world, and I’m honored to know you!

I really had no idea what to expect, but I knew anything Maggie was behind would be nothing short of incredible. (No surprise, but it actually exceeded my expectations!) I was looking forward to meeting all the women whose names and faces I didn’t recognize, and was overjoyed to spend time with the few girlfriends I already knew.

I was happy to see that Rachel Cole — who I had met through Twitter and in person at Teahouse Studio — had also been invited, as we had been meaning to schedule some one-on-one time. Therefore, carpooling up together was perfect! She is such a neat woman, and we had no shortage of things to talk about. I absolutely LOVE the work she’s doing, and I hope we get the opportunity to do something together at some point.

Arriving at Boon Hotel & Spa, we were greeted by the happiest and sweetest dogs, Boon and Paris… so cute! Saying hello to Maggie, Rachel & I found out we were also assigned to room together, too — perfect! Oh, and our welcome packet was a cool MixedBag black & gray laptop sleeve, with a folder that contained a print out of all the girl’s life lists. The first of many gifts to come!

Friday night we had margaritas and all-you-can-eat off of our very own taco truck, pulled right up on the lot. ¡Arriba! The big surprise though was when we all were given the most amazing gift bags [photo] I’ve ever seen in my life! The “gift bag” themselves being beautiful Epiphanie bags, which are gorgeous leather purses made to fit & protect SLR cameras! The designer and founder, Maile Wilson, was with us all weekend, too, and I really enjoyed talking to her about her business.

Within our gorgeous new bags, we had even more luxurious goodies:

• Tieks: Super stylish fold up flats that are so comfortable! They had gotten our shoe sizes beforehand, too, so we could all slip them on right away. Amazing. Mine are ‘merlot‘ (perfect for wine country), and they’re so comfortable; I can’t wait to buy myself a second pair in a different color. They also included a personalized note, all about who I am and wishing me well for my life list goals [see photo]. It felt like they knew me!
• Photojojo iPhone lenses: 1 wide angle/macro & 1 fisheye — I’d been wanting these!
• Tattly tattoos: a whole little pack of awesome ones… I’d been wanting some of these, too!
• Typekit not only gave us free subscriptions, but they’d gone to the trouble to find real-life letters representing one of our initials. You can see my brass ‘O’ for O’Brien in the photo below.

Coming back into our rooms every night we discovered more surprises:

• Gretchen Rubin’s bestseller, The Happiness Project. Gretchen herself was there with us for the weekend, too… double treat! I can’t wait to read it.
• feistyelle bamboo dahlia necklace – gorgeous! feistyelle (Leslie Yang) has been a long time friend of mine, is now a client and has long since been one of my favorite jewelry designers (I have 3 pairs of her earrings I wear all time time! See my post about her here.). Needless to say, I was delighted to hear she was contributing and that I may receive another one of her beautiful, eco-friendly pieces. She wrapped all the boxes in meaningful quotes [photo], and it was such a delight to see the ladies donning their new feistyelle necklaces the rest of the weekend. Helen Jane was even wearing a different one that she received at last year’s Summit!
• A free pass to Andrea Scher’s Superhero Photo Course
• Rachel Cole’s Wisdom book

 Visit feistyelle.com & see her beautiful felt earrings, too!

Saturday morning we enjoyed pajama breakfast by the pool, and then got ourselves together for a day of wine tasting. First stop: Moshin Winery, where we got to tour their biodynamic, gravity flow winemaking facility and learn about the process. We even got to taste some grapes right out of the settling tanks (photo)!

photo courtesy of maile, epiphanie bags

Then came the wine, and I fell in love with their Sauvignon Blanc, and bought myself a bottle before we left. After that we went for another tasting at Arista Winery, where we were served a delicious lunch from Big Bottom Market (same owners as Boon Winery, Hotel & Spa), and sat at picnic tables in the sun, looking out over vineyards for miles.

Me, Sarah & Victoria at Arista

Our last stop wine tasting was Hop Kiln, where Helen Jane guided us through a cheese-tasting, ala Cheesewizzes. I’m 90% Vegan these days, but I had a teeny nibble. That girl knows her cheese!

By this time we were all tipsy, happy and tired. Going back to Boon, we got some down time, which for many of us meant more wine and playing in the pool… this is the life! Then, Saturday evening was pizza, salad, and roasting s’mores [photo] around the fire, replete with Bailey’s — my favorite!

photo courtesy of maile, epiphanie bags

Sunday morning we took a wonderful hike through the Redwoods, and I really enjoyed getting to know some of the ladies more. Women are so incredibly wise and resilient; I have mad respect.

Lunch on Sunday started with a wine tasting (of course) at Thomas George Vineyards, after which we drove up to a sweet lunch spot under a canopy of trees, where we finally broke out our Mighty Life Lists; the denouement!

Technically Mighty Life Lists are to be 100 things you want to do before you go, but I think mine is only around 50 or so, so far. However, no matter how many you had, at lunch we were asked to choose 5 things from our lists we wanted to accomplish in the next year. Eep! Looking at my big list, could I commit to doing 5 of them in the next year? And what would that look like? I would have to start planning now! It was an interesting exercise, and I was grateful for the push to have to get clear (it wasn’t easy).

Here’s my 5 to do in the next year:

1. Fall in love again
2. Have an inspiring office/art studio outside of my home, shared with creative, fun, nurturing, inspiring friends
3. Do editorial illustrations for a magazine
4. Write & publish my book (ok, well at least get it started and have the proposal done and off to some editors)
5. Finish & launch my e-course series: Set Goals, Get Organized & Take Action (sign up to be notified when it launches!)

Listening to everyone else’s top 5 was fantastic, too. Such fierce, fabulous women!!

That afternoon we did more playing in the pool and lounging around, some diving into helping others with something from their top 5. I had a lovely time chatting with Gretchen about family, traveling and the gift in moving our bodies. Then it was time for dinner!

another great photo, courtesy of maile wilson, epiphanie

We all dressed up for this one, and were treated to a 5-star pre-fix dinner at Applewood Inn. All 24 of us, laughing and joyous around a long table; relaxed, happy and amongst new friends, it was the perfect end to a weekend of luxury and pampering. I was happy to sit next to Pamela Ribon, an accomplished author from LA, who wins Funniest Lady at the Summit — she’s awesome.

That night at dinner we had one last sweet surprise… we were all given quintet gold necklaces from Lemonade Handmade, in honor of our 5 things we plan to do the next year. Aww, Maggie… what a brilliant finishing touch!

I was completely amazed and in awe of the level of detail and care put into every part of our weekend, while simultaneously feeling like it was rather unstructured and relaxing.

I was truly honored and delighted to be a part of this amazing weekend, and loved all the new girlfriends I made around the country! Thank you so much, Maggie, Laura, Susan and Libby for taking such good care of us all weekend. A huge thank you to the amazing sponsors, Intel, Lands End, and to all of the designers/makers/brands that contributed their creations (wine, jewelry, shoes, books, etc) to make us feel so pampered all weekend long! I loved every minute and I want to go back. Who’s in? :)

Group photo at Arista, courtesy of Maile Wilson, Epiphanie

Again, here’s a link to where you can find bios, photos and links detailing out the venerable women I was surrounded by for 3 glorious days. A few of them have even posted their own accounts of the weekend, many of which are way more well written than mine:

• Victoria Smith
• Sarah Bryden-Brown
• Rachel W. Cole
• Helen Jane Hearn
• Pamela Ribon
• Stacy Morrison
• Stacey Ferguson
• Kayla Cagan
• Kathryn Storke
• Lori McLeese
• Maggie Mason
• AB Chao
• Katie Spence
• JoAnna Haugen
• Kristen Howerton
• Esther Crawford

Can you tell we’re all bloggers? :) The only ladies I couldn’t find posts from are Gretchen Rubin, Victoria Grand (love this photo of us), Isabel Kallman, Kirsten Grove, and the organizers/photographers (Laura, Susan, Libby, Maile).  It was an absolute treat meeting and getting to know all of you mighty ladies!

A few more related links you won’t want to miss:

• Fear Around Setting Goals — recent post by yours truly
• My photoset on Flickr
• Maggie Mason’s photoset on Flickr
• Maile Wilson’s photoset on Flickr 
• 20 Questions That Could Change Your Life by Martha Beck

Between developing my Set Goals, Get Organized and Take Action e-course and publishing my Mighty Life List, I have been thinking about goals a lot lately. Specifically, how it can be really scary to set goals. Which is weird, when I think about it, because really they’re just goals. What’s so scary about writing down a bunch of things you want? But it can be!

Then I thought, am I only one that feels scared about setting goals sometimes? Is this a thing? Thanks to Google, I found “fear around setting goals” is VERY common. I mean, I could have guessed that, but if the internet is good for anything, it reaffirms I’m not alone in silly feelings like this. :)

Reading through some of the posts and watching a few videos, I was reminded of this:

When we listen to what we want and set goals for ourselves, no matter how big or small, we prepare ourselves for the next step.

Now you probably already have an inkling of what you want, and hopefully you’re even getting better at listening to those faint whispers and if-onlys. Now the next step is to write them down and create some measurable goals with those desires in mind. However, sometimes this easy-breezy act gets cut short by our inner-critic/ego voice piping in with questions like:

• ‘What if it never happens?’
• ‘What if I fail?’
• ‘I don’t know how to do (insert goal thing here)… how can I set a goal for something I don’t even know how to do?!’ Oh, yes… thanks logical mind. ;)
• ‘Who am I to ask for this?’ or ‘Who do I think I am that I could get that!?’

What other fears come up for you?

Listening and dissecting our fears is the key to dissolving them. That said, the more work you do recognizing where your inner critic might be sabotaging you, under the guise of protection, you can simply storm right past those fears, throw caution at the wind and start scribbling down your fabulous dreams and goals like a mad-man/woman!

And this is what it’s all about: What have you got to lose? Seriously, you’re not going to die. Nobody is going to laugh at you. You don’t even have to show anyone. And furthermore they’re not set in stone forever. The goals you make now may be irrelevant in the next few months, and that’s OK, too! These are *your* goals. This is *your* life, and therefore it’s a living, breathing list that you can add to or change at any time! So dream BIG! In fact, make it an experiment (my favorite tactic for tackling scary things). Dive into it with the perspective that you’re new to this whole goal-writing thing, and therefore you might need practice; just like learning to swim or ride a bike.

Why set goals?
To quote the talented Helen Jane, who was my first guest on WilloToons Connect,

“If you do not spend the time figuring out what you want, you will not get what you want.”

Do you like where you are in your life right now? I like where I am pretty well, but as I grow older I am starting to get this sneaking suspicion that I have more control over my experience in this lifetime than I originally thought. :)

When you start to realize and take responsibility for the fact that YOU have had a hand in every single part of your experience in this life, you start to realize that you can have a hand in the experiences yet to come.

Realizing you can create your life can be daunting, but it’s also exciting. In the beginning, writing down your goals might be scary or difficult, but be patient and kind with yourself. It’s ok, little one… it’s going to get easier. You’re going to get better and better at this, and pretty soon you’re going to be REALLY good at setting goals. Or heck, maybe not… maybe it’ll always be challenging and make you face your fears. That’s ok in my book, too! ;)

No matter where you’re at in your life, or your business, it is helpful and necessary to make time to set goals. If you don’t know where to start, or simply want to work with someone in guiding you through the process so that it happens (instead of another week/month/year going by without getting clear), then I invite you to join me for my upcoming Goals e-course.  I’m still putting the finishing touches on it now, but if you sign up on that page, you’ll be the first to hear about when it goes live.

Do you have any tips around setting goals? Do you always set goals or are you someone who never does? What’s the process like for you? I’d love to hear in the comments.

I am completely thrilled and honored to report that I will be joining a handful of other amazing ladies for this year’s Mighty Summit! It’s next weekend up in Guerneville, CA (my 3rd time up there this summer – lucky me!) and I’m SO incredibly excited about all the fun things we’ll be doing, and all the fabulous ladies I’ll be meeting!

If any of you know the word *Mighty* like I do, it basically sums up the fabulous Maggie Mason, aka Mighty Girl and the creator of Mighty Events, Mighty Goods, Mighty Junior and Mighty Haus, just to name a few. She’s also pioneered a huge movement around creating a Mighty Life List: 100 things you want to do before you die.

I’ve had a list rolling around in my head for years, but only got serious about writing them down this year. With Mighty Summit, it’s essentially required, so that really got my butt in gear! :) It’s nowhere near the full 100 things yet, but here it is:

My Mighty Life List: Things I want to do before I go
Last updated 10/23/13

• be debt free & flourishing
• get a new car (not brand new, but only 1-3 yrs old, vs. 10)
• get a completely new bed (mattress/frame) and all new linens
• fall in love again
• get married to my love & have a fabulous wedding,
  celebrating with & being surrounded by everyone we love!
• write and publish a book (non-fiction)
• write & illustrate a children’s book
• do editorial illustrations for a magazine
  – technically I’ve done editorial illustrations for websites & blogs
  – not exactly any of the above, BUT my illustration was published in a cool coloring book!
• hold a creative retreat (update: 2013 – this is in the works!)
• speak to audience of 500+ (again) and rock it
• speak at TED
• be featured on the cover of a magazine (about me, my work, creativity, my message)
• be featured in 7×7 (celebrating awesomeness, see points above)
• have an inspiring office/art studio outside of my house, shared with creative, fun, nurturing, inspiring friends – moved in January, 2013!
• take the Hendrick’s Foundation Seminar, Conscious Living 5-Day Advanced Training – happened in February, 2013!
• go through the Hendrick’s Leadership and Transformation Program
• create/illustrate an iphone/ipad app
• get really good at making fresh salsa
• go to Yosemite
• go to Vancouver
• go to the Grand Canyon
• go to Greece
• go to Brazil
• go to Tokyo
• go to Thailand
• go on a Safari in Africa
• see an aurora borealis
• have a romantic weekend in Paris
• go on a shopping spree in New York City
• dive Turks & Caicos
• dive the Great Barrier Reef
• go skydiving
• go on a yoga retreat
• take a painting class – took an acrylics painting class from Mati! Now I want to do a watercolor class.
• take a writing class – started taking Wild Writing in Nov. 2012!
• take a pottery class & have my illustrations on pottery
• take singing lessons
• grow wheatgrass
• own a really nice DLSLR camera
• have my own gallery show
• catch up on all the wedding gifts I’ve yet to give – finally did this in 2012!
• stomp grapes
• fly first class
• put together my own baby book/photo album (I never had one of me)

• go horseback riding on the beach

• take my mom on a european vacation
• go visit my grandma in Colorado Springs
• have a different home and/or live somewhere else for a portion of the year
• own a home
• have a big living room with a big, comfy sectional couch
• have a large walk-in closet
• have a dual or triple head shower
• make 500K+/year
• get massages on a monthly basis for a year
• shop at Rainbow Grocery or Whole Food Grocery without looking at the prices

I will update this as more come to mind, which – after reading, meeting and dreaming big with all the other ladies at the Summit – no doubt I’ll have a few to add!

Doing this was so fun. I’m sure there are things on my list you have already done, right? As I was going through other lists, I also couldn’t help but revel in some of the awesome things I’ve already done. Too many to name, obviously, but some big ones are: learn to play the drums, swim with dolphins, bungee jump (from a hot air balloon!), become a certified scuba diver, have my own kitty, create my own product line with my illustrations and designs on them, travel to Spain, London, Prague, Berlin, Toronto (many more, but those are the big’n’s), make six figures, fall in love, start a video series, and more recently, everything on this list.

What’s on your life list?

UPDATE: I wrote a post documenting all the awesomeness that went down!
Check it: My weekend at the mighty Mighty Summit! – photos, links & more! So fun.

Recently I made a commitment to listen really closely to my ‘if onlys’ and I feel like, with this intention, every day I get clearer on what drives me; what my purpose is here, and how I can truly serve the universe with the unique gifts I have been given.

Right Now Is All We Have
Today, right now, I don’t need awards or trophies or badges. What’s important is that I’m happy. I am healthy physically/emotionally/mentally, and I have amazing friends and a loving family. I have a beautiful little home and a sweet loving kitty. I have listened to my heart and my creativity close enough to know who I am and what’s important to me in my life. I am making choices every day to give myself the life I want today. Not next month or next year, but really being present and creating the life I want in the everyday.

If this hits home for you, or there has been some part of you longing to do something that you haven’t done yet, simply start by making a commitment to listen. Listen to your heart. Listen to the ‘if onlys’. Listen to the small little voice within you that keeps piping up every once and awhile and is just hoping and praying you’ll stop, get quiet and take the time to listen.

What small thing can you do today to start listening?
Ask yourself what that might be for you. For me, it’s writing. Writing is a powerful tool for listening to the small voices within that are trying to be heard. Start with writing down your “if onlys.” What are the things you wish you were doing? If it were up to you (hint: it is), what would your life look like?

Most importantly, stop comparing yourself to others. “They” are not you. You are the only one who is exactly YOU. You are unique. That’s why it’s extremely important to listen to what YOU want.

Remember, it all starts right here. Right now. You can start doing one little thing every day that will take you closer to where you want to be a year from now. You gotta start somewhere! Now is the time.

I offer consulting and coaching for those who want support as they walk through this process. It can sometimes be difficult to untangle it all ourselves. Work with me and we’ll find the clarity around how you can get closer to making your “if onlys” a reality. Contact me and let’s talk.