How to Let Go

Here’s your challenge for today: Let go of who you thought you’d become.

Let go of the need to control.

Let go of the expectations that society has burdened you with.

Let go of disappointments, missed opportunities, and broken hearts.

Because only by letting go will you discover who you are becoming.

…and to be honest, the most beautiful version of yourself is probably something even greater than you could ever imagine.

Here are 5 simple tips that teach you how to let go:

Focus on the present moment.

Dwelling in the past or the future for too long is bad for your mental health.

Instead cultivate the skill of staying in the present moment.

Try yoga and mindfulness practices to train your brain to focus on the here and now.

Cry it out.

There’s something cathartic about allowing yourself to sit in the sadness and feel all those difficult emotions.

Take an afternoon and allow yourself to feel all the negative feelings and then release them through tears.

Set a timer for feeling bummed out and get all your complaints out in that window of time.

Make a list of things worth celebrating.

Think about the past year and all the great things big and small that happened along the way.

Then reflect on that list when you’re feeling down.

Bonus points for continuing to add to this list.

This list is a great way to remind yourself of the progress you’re making on building the life you want to lead.

Or it can be a guide to help you focus on the things that truly matter the most to you.

Turn those negative feelings into actions.

If you’re disappointed by your career, sign up for a class to get new skills.

If you’re feeling lonely, reach out and schedule a dinner with a friend.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, prioritize an activity that allows you to disconnect.

By focusing your energy into something you can control, you can more easily let go of the things you can’t control.

Write it down.

Writing is a useful tool for working through what you’re feeling.

Get it all out on pen and paper.

You can try free writing for 20 minutes and fill the pages with all the thoughts that are whirring through your brain.

Or you can try making a list of things that you want to let go of and then make a ritual out of burning those limiting thoughts as a way to release that energy.

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Personal Development

Saving is hard.

And the holiday season can put us all in a bit of a financial squeeze.

But this super simple system worked when I made 28K in my first job and proved useful when I was making six figures.

You don’t have to make more.

You don’t even have to build a budget.

All you have to do is transfer 10% of your paycheck to a savings account, every time you get paid.

Do this before you pay your bills, before you go out for an incredible night on the town, before you decide you need a new outfit.

If you need to dip into it, fine. But use it as a last resort, not a first option.

Then set your own guidelines:

Once I reach $250, I will never allow my savings account to go below $250.

Once I reach $500, I will never allow my savings account to go below $500.

Once I reach $1000, I’m buying a ticket to somewhere I’ve never been and going on vacation. I saved this money and I deserve a f*cking trip!

And yes, you do. You earned that trip.

October Business and Life Review

Career, Creativity

Hey there, beautiful humans!

This is a monthly series where I share a behind-the-scenes peek into the highlights, the challenges, what I’ve recently created, what I’m currently consuming, and some goals for the next month.

October feels like it flew by so quickly.

There was some meaningful progress on some big-picture goals, but I also feel like October was a month of reflection, regrouping, and deciding what to do next. Spoiler alert: In many ways, I still feel like I’m just figuring everything out. But here’s a recap of what’s been going on.

1. I FINALLY received the copy notes on the workbook and I designed the cover.

It’s wild. I waited nearly two months to receive the notes, but had less than a week to return the edited manuscript to the publisher. (Talk about hurry up and wait). Fortunately, despite the copious notes, the majority of the edits were simple decisions on word choice, grammar, and some slight structural changes. So I turned it around quickly and I can confidently say that I am beyond proud of how far this book has come.

While waiting on the notes, I had time to start the process of making the visual edits and spent a lot of time creating new illustrations. One thing that works for me, in rapidly creating art is to develop rules. In this example, I decided that I wanted to make different scenes in the book based on the different types of nature: forest, ocean, sky, desert, lake, mountains… This ended up giving me a variety of ideas on how to illustrate the book without feeling like I was running out of ideas.

The biggest book news, though, was that I designed the cover options and we have a select. I’m still working through the color variations, but I think it will be an interesting option that hopefully will encourage people to pick it off the shelves and flip through it.

2. Youtube continues to be my favorite side hustle.

In October, I found my groove in creating some new types of video including a new studio vlog and a visual meditation video of positive affirmations that I’m super proud of.

Making video is 100% a labor of love.

It’s time intensive, challenging, and you have to be an expert at wayyyy too many things, but I actually enjoy it a lot. (like more than most things)

Becoming a better storyteller is paramount for my growth as a creative, so I’m using this medium as a way to become an expert at communicating ideas.

The biggest highlight here is that I actually have fit 200 video views on a video. This is a HUGE accomplishment because the normal video views are between 60-80 views. I’m hoping that if I continue to post regularly, this will continue to grow exponentially.

3. I sent out real-life gifts to the Patrons.

This time around I was able to build a collection of 5 postcards with envelopes that I packaged up and sent to my greatest supporters. That was a lot of work, but something that I always wanted to try so I was proud of the effort. It included, buying a label printer and mail scale. And most terrifying, braving a trip to the post office (lol)

What did you think? Any feedback, thoughts, or new product requests. I’m def all ears.

4. The coaching continues and I’m loving it.

I added on a new coaching client in October and I’m genuinely enjoying being able to talk to people and learn more about what they need to get beyond fear and start to work on the things that they are the most passionate about.

Doing that has also encouraged me to build out a new tool called the Intentional Creator Framework. It’s still in early days, but I see it as the basis of my philosophy on growth and sustainability for creators. It focuses on 6 key areas:

– Setting EPIC Goals

– Discovering Your Why

– Defining Your Audience

– Building Revenue Streams

– Designing Your Growth Engine

– Establishing Your Productivity System

I’m incredibly passionate about teaching, so I want to continue to build this into something that’s even more meaningful that eventually I can share with a broader audience than just the people I do creative coaching with because I think it could really help people to push through the fear and start building.

I’m still on the mission to work with my first 10 clients. And then I plan to launch a group coaching program so I can work with a larger group of people (for a more affordable cost) so I can impact even more people on their journey to creating and conquering.

5. I have a re-energized purpose in making a sustainable living as a full-time creator.

I’m nearing the end of my 6-month experiment of being a full-time artist and now it’s time to start making some money. Otherwise, I’ll have to go back to work which isn’t bad. I could never be mad at a full-time job that has balance and gives me the money to pay rent and eat good food.

But I also very much enjoy creating every day. It’s literally all that I want to do. I’m not sure if I’ll figure it out. But I’m spending the next 3 months trying as many things as possible to see what sticks.

I launched the new SoCurious Shop with a variety of fun new shirts. Technically this launched in early November, but I’ve been secretly working on it behind the scenes for quite some time. We already sold 5 shirts which I’m incredibly happy about. My goal is to continue to add new products to the shop over the next few weeks.
I also launched Good Morning Sunshine, a subscription text series that includes daily reminders that life is beautiful.
I hope to build and launch a new group coaching program that I will promote in December that will officially launch at the beginning of the new year.

Things I created in October

Motivational Draw With Me – Finding Your Purpose and Learning to stop settling

How to Reset Your Life When Everything is Falling Apart

(This is actually the first video I created, but I made it live on my Youtube channel)

Studio Vlog 01 • Let’s draw plants, meditate, and get a haircut

Positive Affirmations For a Mental Reset

I was featured on the Woowoo BFF podcast hosted by Andi Eaton. It was a really fun conversation. In it, we chat about:

Getting back to who we were as children
Justin’s journey: moving to a new city, taking a job as a creative director
Quitting his job to illustrate a book and build a wellness community
Embracing and owning the word “artist”

Currently reading:

The Dark Archive (The Invisible Library Novel Book 6) by Genevieve Cogman (in progress)

Why I love it: This fast paced sci fi and fantasy book series blends everything I love about books, the victorian era, and murder mysteries.

Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

This is the followup book to one of my favorite books of all time Steal Like an Artist. I’ll be honest, sharing my work is not specifically a challenge I have, so it’s not hitting in the same way as his first book. But I’m a super fan so I’ll probably power through it quickly.

The Referable Speaker: Your Guide to Building a Sustainable Speaking Career—No Fame Required by Michael Port and Andrew Davis

This came highly recommended from my friend Mallory who is always dropping knowledge bombs. I’m only a few pages in, but I’m excited about what this could do for my speaking business.

Currently watching:

Love is Blind on Netflix

It’s terrible, like honestly trash TV and I don’t even like the characters. But I keep watching. The plot is that people date without seeing each other. Propose to each other after 9 days. And then have a month to decide if they’re going to get married. Along the way the producers add ridiculous chaos.

For The People on Hulu

This is a Shondaland procedural law show that I actually really enjoyed. It’s fast paced and full of emotional monologues about equity in the legal system, without tipping over into the unrealistic extremes of Scandal.

The School of Good and Evil on Netflix

I’m desperately afraid of scary movies and I tend to avoid gore at all costs, so that tends to limit my viewing options during the sppokiest of months. But this was a super cute, easy to watch movie about a school for heroes and their rival school for villains and the chaos that ensues when two young women end up at the wrong school. It definitely could’ve been 30-45 minutes shorter, but I enjoyed immersing myself in the world for a while.