Find purpose in the activities you may want to pursue and infuse purpose into your everyday life.
Three years ago Lisa Funk was a guest here and something she said has stuck with me ever since, “We are born to create.” We talk often about the importance of creativity in this community, and how it can (and should!) look different for each of us. Today we’re tying in our identity with doable tips to create purpose with what you already love.
Lisa is a gifted artist and teacher of mindful lettering, as she describes it. She shares her own journey to live with, and create, purpose in a way that will encourage you to do the same. For example, taking opportunities to find purpose in your natural gifts and everyday life. With her doable tips you can find fulfillment through what you love and then attaching the meaning to it.
About a few other things…
I’m teaching a FREE CLASS this month on a very highly requested topic: decision-making! Join me live, online, to uncover the 2 secrets to beating confusion and making clear decisions that are right for you. If you can’t attend live a replay will be sent out after, so don’t miss out and sign up now!
Quality over quantity really matters to me during this season of my life, and you know I’ve applied that to my wardrobe. Sols offers beautiful handmade Mexican inspired sandals out of genuine leather made by artisans from Mexico. Use code ‘PROGRESS10’ for 10% off on Sols Shoes and let me know which pair you snag!
Sign up for the Go Getter Newsletter to get Progress Pointers in your inbox every Thursday.
You can listen the episode below, or on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, Youtube, Overcast, Stitcher, Pocketcasts, or search for “About Progress” wherever you get your podcasts. If you like the show please share it, subscribe, and leave a review!!
SHOW NOTES
Lisa’s Instagram, Website, Podcast
Sols handmade shoes – ‘PROGRESS10’ for 10% off
Try online counseling with Better Help
Take my FREE CLASS on Decision-Making
My 2021 Do Something Plan
Get the Organization Overhaul audio course
Join the monthly membership group
Get your first month+ FREE with Libsyn using code MONICA
Lend your voice and experience + be featured on the show HERE
Join Monica on Facebook and Instagram
Songs Credit: DRIVE by Dj Nicolai Heidlas @nicolai-heidlas Music provided by FREE MUSIC FOR VLOGS AND VIDEOS bit.ly/freemusicforvlogs
TRANSCRIPT
Monica: [00:00:00] Welcome to About Progress, Lisa.
Lisa: [00:00:02] Hi, I’m so glad to be here.
Monica: [00:00:04] It’s been a while. Since we had our first interview, it didn’t feel that long, but when I looked at the dates, I was like, that’s been years.
Lisa: [00:00:11] Oh, my gosh, you were so nice to have me on that was the beginning.
Monica: [00:00:15] There were so many things you said in that interview that have stuck with me forever. Like ever since then. One of them is a big part of why you’re back here today. You said we are born to create. That is a fundamental belief you carry about all of us on earth. We are born to create. And why I’m asking you here is because a lot of people get confused about what they were quote unquote born to do, and they struggle with wanting. To feel like they are leading a life with a mission and a purpose and a reason to be here.
But the problem is, is that they’re waiting for that to be handed to them. And I want to kind of blend our two worlds together here. Because I see you talking about this in many ways, purpose in many ways and creativity and all that.
Let’s blend these two together and talk about how we can create purpose in our lives. I first wanted to ask you how you see that hesitancy showing up in your community, the waiting, the waiting for the purpose.
Lisa: [00:01:24] Well, I definitely see a lot of waiting, waiting to get started. I teach mindful lettering as a way to kind of combine creativity and mindfulness and I encourage people to just get started and get going. And it’s hard as you know, I know your community well, and it can be hard to get started because they’re looking for it to be perfect. They want to do it if they’re already good at it.
And I think that that can relate to finding purpose because we’re kind of looking for like a puzzle piece, something that we fit into maybe right away, instead of looking for something that is going to be a journey. It’s going to be a process. It’s not something that we just are like turning the puzzle pieces around and all of a sudden we’re going to find that perfect fit.
And it’s just going to feel amazing. Just like with lettering. It’s not like, Oh, I’m going to try it now and I’m going to be good at it right away. Like, Nope, you’re going to have really shaky strokes and it’s gonna look messy and that’s okay because you don’t have to be good at it to enjoy it. That’s why I always say. I want to be good at it to enjoy it. And that you can really just follow things that you feel interested in and that you enjoy.
Monica: [00:02:43] Yeah, that is something I definitely want to spend a lot of time on. First though, let’s back up with you. I’m sure that as much as you love and I love how you phrase it, mindful lettering, not just hand lettering as much as you are passionate about this, and you are so good about teaching people, how to couple this practice of mindfulness and creativity and living with imperfection and messy progress, all of the above.
I’m sure that you were not born with a stamp on your head that said “hand lettering artist,” or “will teach people mindful lettering.” You know, you weren’t born with that stamp. So. We’ve talked about this in the past episode, but let’s touch on this a little bit to your own journey to figuring out how to live and create purpose in your life.
Lisa: [00:03:28] Sure. Yeah. And I think that a lot in our last episode, I talked probably more about like my mental health struggles and journey, and that’s still something I’m super open about and love to share about. But I think in relation to purpose, I think that it’s really important to understand what kind of makes up our purpose?
And so for me, like you said, I don’t think that I was born just to be a hand letterer. Although if you talk to my family, they will tell you that. Ever since I was small, I love doodling and writing and, taking and making posters and all of the handwriting, always there is a big part of me that has always loved the handwriting.
So it, in a lot of ways, of course it’s a natural fit, but that I do not feel like my purpose is just to pick up a pen and write on a piece of paper. And what I have come to really understand that my purpose is made up of is understanding what my gifts are, understanding what my interests are, and understanding what my values are and that those three things create a contribution.
And that contribution can be to myself. It can be to my family. It can be to my community. It can be to my neighborhood, to my church congregation. It can be to the world. And so when I am looking at what my purpose is, it’s like, well, Do you need a purpose? Do you care about having a purpose?
Someone listening to this podcast might say, I don’t, I’m not really like looking for a purpose. I feel really good. Then you probably already have a sense of purpose without realizing it. I think that when we are looking for purpose might be when we’re feeling a little bit lost or feeling a little bit of a lack of meaning or interest, or even having fun in our everyday lives. And so what I encourage people to do when you’re looking for purpose is to look at those different aspects, the gifts, the interests, the values, and values being just things that are important to you.
And then identifying whether that contribution is something that might just be for you. So if I have a purpose to really take care of my mental health and that’s something that’s really important to me, that might be something that’s a contribution for myself, it’s also going to contribute then also to my family.
And I’ve decided that I have a purpose to share my experience and my journey with other people. And so that is going to contribute with whatever, you know, people that I decide to share that with as well. But I think that for me, a purpose is something that a lot of people wait for. Like I said, it’s that puzzle piece that they’re kind of waiting to fit into, or it’s something that they’re waiting to be shown to them.
And they feel like maybe they aren’t good enough to have a purpose. I know that for me, this does relate a little bit to my mental health because sometimes when I was feeling, you know, down or kind of depressed, I felt so worthless. I felt so inadequate. I felt so small that I definitely didn’t feel like I had a purpose.
I felt like that was for people who are called to huge things. That’s for people who have some big calling in life and that’s not true. For me, there is the finding purpose in activities that you may want to pursue. And there’s also infusing purpose into your everyday life. Into the activities that you are already doing.
And so it doesn’t have to be that finding your purpose means that you’re going to be on some huge quest. That’s going to require some insane amount of bravery. It’s for me really finding what do you love and what do you want to do? And how do you want to add meaning to those things?
Monica: [00:07:31] We overcomplicate it really. Right?
Lisa: [00:07:34] We just, we over-complicate it.
Monica: [00:07:35] We make it so much harder than it needs to be. And also we discount ourselves from living it out because like what you said, either the self-doubt or the comparison to others or mistaking purpose as these grandiose,yeah. Like the way you said that grandiose quests, that must be undertaken in the public eye and, and seen by others, or create a huge business or anything public like that does not have to be the case.
So I love that your first advice is to start with the seeds that are inside you, the little things that make you feel like you, I think are your ways to infuse purpose, like you said, into the everyday things we do. And when we’re, one of what you said that really struck me is contributing to yourself.
Why does that matter? Especially with purpose in mind, because I feel like we want to live with purpose. We want to feel like we are contributing in grander ways. We can’t do that. When we have nothing to give.
Lisa: [00:08:38] Yeah. That’s definitely true. I think that purpose is something that a lot of us wait for as this kind of revelation of what our purpose is going to be. And because we do think of it in these grandiose ways that we are sometimes not recognizing how important and valuable it is to start with ourselves, to start small, and to really getting to know ourselves.
Because the first element that I talked about is knowing our own gifts and talents and things that we’re good at. And one thing about purpose too, is that. I don’t believe there is like one life purpose, one life mission that you are supposed to fulfill. I believe that we can have many different purposes and I believe that our purpose can move through many different phases of our life. So for example, I have always had the gifts of compassion and encouragement, and I’ve always loved serving and helping other peoples. So for example, in high school, I was a candy girl at the hospital. I got that cute little Pinafore with the red and white stripes. I know it was really cute. I loved it. And I worked in the maternity ward and I loved all the babies. I just loved the babies. Yeah, I’m still a huge fan of newborns. And so I just thought I want to be a nurse in like a neonatal nurse or a nurse in the maternity ward.
Like I just have to do this. I love the babies and I love being in there. And I thought that is my purpose. That is my mission. That’s what I’m going to do. And I loved it. So then I went to college and I thought, I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to be a nurse. And I, but that is my major, of course you have to get into the nursing program, which is different issues, different problems.
It’s really challenging, especially for people like me who are not like science minded. So I had a kind of an identity crisis, not a really, not a real identity crisis, but I definitely struggled because right away I started taking zoology and organic chemistry and all these classes, because I knew that I was supposed to be a nurse and I was like, failing.
It was like so hard and I was a good student. I had gotten good grades in high school and everything. I get to college, I’m taking all these classes and it is not meshing. It is not lining up the way that I thought it was going to. And I felt kind of conflicted about it. And then I went to the office where you go and try to figure out your major.
And I thought, maybe there’s another option. And they really helped me to get to what my gifts were and what my purpose was because they talked to me about what are your gifts? Like, what are you naturally good at? And what are you interested in and what do you really value? Like what’s important to you?
And I realized that what it was about the nursing that I wanted to do was helping people and getting to know people and really encouraging people. And so all those aspects that I thought were going to be perfect about nursing or things that really could transfer to a different major, where the classes were not going to make me crazy.
Monica: [00:12:12] I adore that so much, especially because I think many of us have a similar story. Where we were banking our purpose on one mold. Like it’s supposed to look just this way and we all probably have experienced this, but we also probably know somebody who lost position that they knew was their purpose and just how destructive it is to wholeness and feeling like you have an identity, a real identity, because when you put all your, how do they say it?
When do you put all your eggs in one basket. Like my purpose is only with this position or this mold or in this way… Those can’t last forever. I don’t know anyone who has been an Olympic athlete for 80 years. No, I don’t know anyone. Who’s been able to be only a kindergarten teacher for that long too. Like none of these can be lifelong.
Lisa: [00:13:11] Well, and that’s why so many people struggle when maybe their kids leave the house or their career ends. And then they’re, you know, retired or some of us that transition from one job to another, or from working to staying at home or all these things. It’s a lot of the time because we equate our purpose with the identity of that job description.
Monica: [00:13:35] Yes. And that’s the misplacement that is so dangerous. And that’s what I think we’re waiting for. We’re waiting for a position we’re waiting for a job description or like the mold we talked about. Here you go. This is how it plays out. But what I’m hearing you say, Lisa is if we can just start with what’s inside what comes naturally to us?
What are we even interested in that we might be terrible at, but we are so interested in it. Those are the seeds to cultivate because they can look so different in many ways. I’m a podcaster, but I’m sure I will not be a podcaster for 50 years.
I do know that I have seeds of loving to learn and empowering women and teaching and connecting, and that can happen. In so many ways. So what are those for you? Like what can you recognize in yourself that has taken on many different shapes?
Lisa: [00:14:27] Yeah, so, and this is something that I would recommend that people do is kind of like delineates the gifts that you feel like come naturally for you or that you have worked on and then also your interests.
And so for me, my gifts that I feel come naturally are compassion and encouragement and also. I would say, like helping people work through mindset, even before. I mean, now I’m a certified life coach and all those things, but even before, I’ve always loved talking with people and talking through kind of feelings and thoughts and emotions and all those things.
I really feel like those are things that really come naturally to me as gifts. And then I’m really interested. And creativity I’m really interested in kids and growing, and I’m really interested in self-help I’ve always loved it. I mean, I was like a teenager reading the chicken soup. Like seven habits for highly effective teens. That was me.
So I have like the things that I feel like I’m kind of come naturally for me, which if you have a hard time, like seeing those in yourself, it can be really helpful to ask some people that love you, that you love that can help you, you know, identify some of those things, then it can be a little bit embarrassing at first to like, say, Hey, I know this is a little bit silly, but I’m trying to just identify things that I am naturally good at. And sometimes people kind of make fun of, you know, these personality tests and things like that, but sometimes they can be helpful.
I don’t think they’re helpful if you, if you put yourself in a box, you know, with them, but I think that they can be helpful sometimes and just identifying what our strengths are. And so once we’ve done that, it’s helpful to see like, Oh, our purpose can move throughout different aspects of our lives and we can apply it to our lives.
We might not be applying it. So for me, I’ve seen it go through, you know, obviously. When I was a candy striper and I loved, you know, serving and helping. And then I wanted to be a nurse. I ended up instead doing marriage, family and human development. And then I worked using that at a medical clinic. It was actually a free medical clinic where I worked in the pediatrics doing pediatric literacy and child development.
And then I also did staff trainings on how to work better with families. And I was like, Oh my gosh, that was like totally using my love of self-help and mindfulness and all those things. And working with people, I’ve always loved working with people and incorporated all of the, all of those gifts and interests.
And then I ended up staying home for a while, being a mom to my kids. And then I started lettering and lettering at first didn’t necessarily fit in to two. It didn’t necessarily fit into my purpose as you might, as I might’ve thought, but it used my interest, which was creativity. And then I infused my gifts, which were compassion and encouragement and also the mindfulness, which was another interest.
So I think that we just need to use our gifts and our interests to, to really add more meaning and enjoyment to our lives. So I enjoy lettering more when it’s mindful for me. And, and I’ve used it as a tool for my mental health, but I’ve, and then I became certified as a life coach, which obviously uses a lot of the encouragement and compassion and, and those things too.
So for me, I can see that my purpose and gifts and interests have really played through all of these different experiences that I’ve had. But I do think that it’s easy to do things in your life without using your purpose and that you can infuse it into almost anything that you’re doing.
Monica: [00:18:38] I’m thinking about some of the listeners who have a lot of, you know, but me like, but I, “”but I don’t have any gifts or they’re
Lisa: [00:18:47] that, they’re the unique unicorn that doesn’t have any,
Monica: [00:18:51] and this is where I’m going to apply a little bit tough love. And it’s not going to sound nice, but you weren’t that special in that way, like everybody has gifts, and if you don’t think you do it’s because you are thinking gifts means that you are exceptional at a certain description. Like we just talked about singing art, business management. Those can be guessed for many people, but most of what we’re talking about, really character traits,
Lisa: [00:19:19] Think about the people who have like really made a difference in your life. Like the people that at the end of, you know, at the end of the day, you’re like, these are the people who meant the very most to me. Those people are probably not super exceptional at one thing. And they might be, but it’s probably not that exceptional quality about them that has made the biggest difference in your life.
Monica: [00:19:44] I love that point. You don’t having a gift doesn’t mean you are exceptional, that you are better than everyone else.
Lisa: [00:19:51] Right. It doesn’t mean you’re like the standout. It’s like, Oh, compassion is a gift of mine. That doesn’t mean I am the most compassionate person in the world I’ve been written about in newspapers because of my compassion.
Like, no, actually it’s something that comes naturally to me, it’s something that has been a gift for me to like, share that with others. And I hope that that’s a blessing. I know that the people in my life who have showed compassion to me. They’re not on the cover of a magazine because of it, but it’s made the biggest difference in my life.
Monica: [00:20:23] Absolutely. So let’s, let’s encourage these women to stop talking themselves out of this. And like you said, ask other people for ideas. What was that like as a kid? What was I interested in? Or what did you notice was interesting about me or something that you loved about me when I was a kid? And look to your own life experiences.
And what they’ve inspired in you. And I see that in the life experiences you’ve shared with us, when we talked about your mental health journey, last time that we were together, I, I cannot see you teaching mindful lettering in the way you do now, without those life experiences having inspired that in you.
Lisa: [00:21:00] For sure. Yeah, for sure. I mean, and that, and that’s, you know, an aspect I hadn’t necessarily thought of, but for sure, the challenges that we go through really do help us to develop gifts and skills that can bless us and others, you know, as we use them to show compassion and that’s, and that’s part of, you know, the compassion that I feel like I’ve been able to develop.
I am perfect at compassion. Just getting, I’m not trying to say that at all, but I I definitely feel like had I not gone through, you know, losing my brother, orbthe mental health struggles I’ve had or, some parenting challenges or whatever it is, I wouldn’t have that gift, or I wouldn’t be able to see people in that same way.
And so definitely all of the life experiences that we have contribute and are meaningful and, and there’s nothing that’s too small to be. A gift and part of your purpose.
Monica: [00:22:00] This is taking us back full circle to how we started this conversation. If you are interested in creating purpose in your life, just look for opportunities to create contribution.
And I like how you’ve said this. Start with yourself.
Lisa: [00:22:15] Yeah, create contribution and make sure that you’re doing it in a way that’s feels natural and fun for you. You know, it’s not something that like, Oh, it should look a certain way. It’s like, no, go back to the gifts and the interests like that I will say a million times becausewe’re not sitting here waiting. Like I didn’t go to college and wait for my major to find me. I didn’t just sit there and say like, “I can’t wait to figure out what my purpose or my major is. I’m not saying purpose and major are the same. I’m just that analogy. Yeah. At that age it does.
But I’m just using the analogy of like, the reason why I didn’t sit around waiting for a major to come find me is because I went to college. I “was. Ready and there to learn and progress and grow. And so I wasn’t going to be sitting around waiting for anything. I knew what my reason was for being there and I wanted to progress and grow.
And so I chose a path to do that. And of course it can change. I mean, many people change their majors, but it’s like, let’s get going. Let’s get started. As Monica says, let’s do something, you know, and just get started and start moving in a direction so that we can learn and grow. And you’re going to pick a major that’s based on things you’re naturally good at and also things that you’re interested in.
And that’s the same with purpose. And so if someone is listening and they’re thinking, well, I don’t necessarily want to find additional activities that are related to my purpose. You don’t have to, maybe you have kids and you’re, you know, finding yourself in motherhood and people might say, find your purpose and motherhood.
And I would say to use the same thing to look at what are talents that you have, what are some of the ways that you naturally show up with people in ways that you like and use those in your motherhood? What are things that are interesting and fun for you? Use those in your motherhood. How do you want to contribute?
And so all of a sudden it’s like, Oh, I don’t have to be the mom that, you know, takes my kids on crazy adventures, hiking every day. Not that there’s anything wrong, you know, but yeah, I can be the mom that sits and reads 10 library books. And maybe that sounds like torture to you. You get to pick what’s interesting to you, what you’re naturally good at and what is important to you and that’s your purpose.
And when you hone in on those things, then you’re living in your purpose as a mother every day. And you find so much more meaning and joy and fulfillment in the thing that you’re already doing, but that sometimes we feel lost in the way that we’re doing it, because we’re not doing it with our own purpose.
We’re trying to match somebody else’s or we’re trying to, you know, check off boxes off a list of what we think we’re supposed to do. And so we’re losing our own unique purpose in our own unique motherhood.
Monica: [00:25:16] Oh, yeah. I just want to write down every word you said and like broadcast it to all the many channels I can think of because that’s what I think we’re missing.
I love to follow I don’t know if you know this, an Instagram profile and blog, Chris Loves Julia. They’re an internet design couple and I love, I have one of those shirts that says don’t wait. On it. I like that, you know, because they, they made that after they cabin this beautiful cabin that they take some, you know, taking so much time and money and energy to renovate, burned to the ground just one night.
And luckily, no one was there. I know it’s so sad. And luckily, no one was there got hurt, but they lost so much. But what they would have taught them was that that phrase. Don’t wait. Just get in there, get messy, do something, wink, wink, and figure it out as you go and let what you experience as you go along inform the next step.
You don’t have to keep waiting for the map. You can find it.
Lisa: [00:26:13] And, and I think there’s something else that’s really important to mention is that I think that one of the reasons why people do wait is because. They feel like it’s easier to follow a dream or something they feel interested in, if it’s some bigger calling. If it’s something like you’re super good at this, and this is, you know, This is your path, instead of saying like, I actually just want to do it.
I think that somehow for some of us, it feels a little bit embarrassing to, to admit, like, I actually just really want to do this. Like, because we’re worried about what everyone else is going to think. Like, why is she doing that? Why isn’t she just happy with her life? The way it is. We have to get past that and decide that , we’re not waiting for.
The purpose or the person to come hand us, you know, here is your mission in life. We’re deciding this is what I want. This is what I’m interested in. And I am going to create it. I’m going to chase it. I’m going to do this because I want to. And I think that’s sometimes it’s a cop out for us to say, well, I just haven’t, you know, had like this big revelation of what I’m supposed to do and you don’t necessarily, you don’t necessarily need to do anything different.
You can do whatever you want. If you want to do things just how you’re doing them, but add more purpose into it. Then you do it that way. If you want to pursue other interests and hobbies, then do it. Don’t wait for some, you know, big thing to call you to it. You’re allowed to follow what you want to follow and Letting go of what other people think is obviously a huge part of that.
I mean, it’s easier said than done, but super important because we don’t need to feel like we’re not important enough to, you know, follow our purpose or our calling. We can do things just because we want to.
Monica: [00:28:12] Call yourself. I mean really…
Lisa: [00:28:15] Create it yourself.
Monica: [00:28:16] Yeah. And I don’t know if I’ll put this in the episode, but I re like the scripture came to mind, many are called, but few are chosen to my mind.
That means we are all called, but few of us choose. I’ve never thought about it that way. Like just choose to call yourself and rise up. You don’t have to wait for it, get up there.
Lisa: [00:28:38] You know, what’s interesting about that is that people, we all use excuses too, you know? And so other people will hear that. And for sure think like, Oh, well I’m just not one of the special ones.
Monica: [00:28:50] Yeah. And that’s what I mean, like just. Right. It wasn’t means like you can choose it yourself. You can, we forget that you can choose it for yourself. And I think this is where we’ll end, but to me, this goes back to women being afraid to own what they want.
And you should have them. This is what I’ve learned a lot by Dr. Jennifer Finlayson Fife. Knowing what you want to me is divine. Like that is God,universe, granted to us to have wants. Yeah. To have that power to lean into what we want is good.
Lisa: [00:29:24] Right. And we’re waiting for so many of us who are religious are waiting for, you know, God to tell us what we’re supposed to focus on or what path we’re supposed to take or what our purpose is.
When we forget that He created us with those wants, he created us with those desires. And so it isn’t selfish to follow those things because he planted those desires in us for a reason. And so following those is what he has in mind for us.
Monica: [00:29:56] Absolutely. And you know what that is actually what has healed so much of my own spiritual, you know, despair, I think was first just thinking like, what do I want?
And as I cultivated the desires in me, the divine in me, I was able to then do that to the divine outside of me. And I thought that we were able to talk about that because I think that is a big part of this, this puzzle that we’ve been talking about is the divine part of it.
And
Lisa: [00:30:27] one thing that I think is really hopeful also is that when we are paying attention to our own gifts and our own interests and our own values, our contribution is going to end up looking different from other people’s. Because our gifts and interests are different than theirs. And so it really gives me a lot of like calm and peace and security in who I am and what my purpose looks like, because I know that all of those things are different for me and they should be, and we’re all here to contribute in different ways, even though, of course, it’s always so easy to compare it to others.
We can see that we are born with these innate interests and curiosities. And I love seeing how people around me have completely different curiosities and interests than I do. I’m so grateful for them and all the people who are amazing at organic chemistry that I’m not. And they’re able to go on to be these incredible nurses and. I am able to use my gifts in different ways. And that’s what makes it all so beautiful that we can all add our own pieces to the puzzle.
Monica: [00:31:35] Absolutely. We need it. We need all these different ways of contributing and being contributed to as well.
Speaking of, you know, creating a purpose, you have an amazing podcast called Committed to Create that. I really want to direct people to, it combines the best of this love of creativity and the pursuit of creativity with purpose and mindset and life coaching that you are so good at. So I just want to direct people there.
And before we end today, I would love to ask this as a final question and it’s, what are you working on right now with your own personal development? Since we are a personal development show, we always have room to grow in ways that we need to improve in our own lives. So what are you working on right now?
Lisa: [00:32:17] I have been working on exploring new creativity. I actually just started doing embroidery. Yes, that’s my new, and it’s been so good for me because I have kind of like been in my lettering journey and my lettering lane, you might say. And so it’s just been really good for me too create for fun.
And I really believe that growth is amazing, but it isn’t necessary for my worth. And so for me to relax and just ease in to the year and he’s in to everything and just enjoy things, find things that are fun and interesting and enjoyable to me has been just. Really nice. And you know, it’s so easy to put pressure on ourselves.
Like, Oh, I should be doing this. And if I have some free time, I should probably work on the next thing for, you know, my kids or my house or my business or whatever you have going on. And for me, it’s been so nice to say, I’m just going to sit and do my embroidery. Yes. And it’s so beautiful because to me, life is not about just checking off a bunch of productivity boxes really about enjoying the moment and being still and creating. And I think that for so many of us, we’re looking to impress even just ourselves with what we can accomplish and get done. And I’m not saying that I’m not impressed with my embroidery, cause it’s really, it’s fun to be in this, but it’s like just something that, yeah, I definitely don’t want to just necessarily like sit and consume all the time.
Cause that doesn’t like, feel good to my soul. But being able to say like, I’m going to sit and do this, you know, craft or. Or whatever it is that you enjoy doing, I’ve also been and making a lot of lemon curd.
I’ve been like finding every way possible to use them, but I’ve just been like, I identify as a creator and I want to really, so lately this is all trying to, sorry, trying to answer your question is that. I’ve just been working harder at identifying the times throughout my day that I have the opportunity to create.
And that is with my mindset as well. But also it’s when I’m cooking, I’m creating, when I’m cleaning my house, I’m creating a clean house when I’m When I’m obviously doing something crafty, like embroidering or something else, but it’s also when I’m, you know, creating a certain space, it’s an act of creation and, and I want to be mindful and I want to be still in and present in those moments of creation.
And so that’s what I’ve been working on lately is just recognizing all of the moments in the day when I already am creating and leaning into them and kind of just like being present and enjoying those and seeing the beauty in them without needing to do something that we might see as extraordinary, but doing all of these ordinary tasks with more like joy and peace and just being really content and present in them.
Monica: [00:35:45] Which is another amazing example of everything we’ve talked about today. Is stepping into that, that part of you in multiple ways throughout a normal day. And that’s what I hope our listeners can do for themselves too.
Lisa: [00:36:00] And it brings so much joy. It really does. It’s so crazy how I can do the same exact task.
Like the other day I was juicing all the lemons. It took hours to choose all these lemons, but on another day, I could have been like annoyed and seen it as this, you know, chore that was really frustrating and took forever and was keeping me from something else. Instead of saying like, wait, hold on.
No, this is like, I’m creating this juice. I’m using my hands. This is a chance for me to be present. And to like, it almost brought like this magic to this, like every day chore. That I could really enjoy and I can use my senses. I can turn on some music. I can smell the lemon. I can feel my hands and on the juicer, like it sounds, you know, a little bit cheesy, but it really was one of the best days I’ve had recently was just being present in that moment and recognizing that it was a creative moment. And I’ve just been trying to do that more lately.
Monica: [00:36:59] All right, this, this has been a conversation I am realizing more and more as we’ve gone throughout it, that I needed it the most selfishly. if people want to dig into your community more and the products that you have that are so incredible and your courses, I think I have almost everything that you have out there.
Where should they go?
Lisa: [00:37:17] You can head over to handlettereddesign.com and I’m also on Instagram at hand lettered design. And even if you’re not
Monica: [00:37:25] interested in him, lettering, still go follow Lisa there because of the mindfulness and mental health piece that we are all needing right now, it will just give you this dose of happiness and fulfillment that we all need right now, and a sense of community too.
So, Lisa, I am, I’m really grateful that the internet brought us together. Thank you for the friendship you’ve extended me in all that. You’ve taught me over the years, so thank you very much for being on the show.
Lisa: [00:37:48] Thanks for having me.
