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Up Your Creative Genius Blog
Patti Dobrowolski
- Sep 10, 2015
- 1 min
Tip of the Week
Get In The Freak Out Zone We all have a freak-out zone in our homes. A garage, attic, or closet that holds all kinds of clutter, tools, odd shoes, boxes of mystery cables and that sequinned tiara someone bought you as a joke for your 21st birthday. We often avoid these places, except when we need to throw something into their depths, or dig through them frustrated, trying to find that one useful thing that lies amongst the chaos. De-cluttering your life is excellent, BUT, unt
Patti Dobrowolski
- May 14, 2015
- 2 min
Collaboration Schools You
Life schools you. Friends school you. Collaboration schools you.
In turn, you school others. This week one of my longtime collaborators Nancy Cranbourne from One Big Yes Productions came to town. We wanted to create a new something. Was it a workshop? A performance? We weren’t sure exactly what we were going to create, but the whole experience was deep and rich and tough and educating. It schooled me in the value of long-term friendship and collaboration clearly. It wasn’t j
Patti Dobrowolski
- Jul 18, 2014
- 2 min
5 Reasons to Bring Your Real Self to Work
It’s Summer, Why Not?
Is there a difference between your real self and the one you use to adapt to your work environment? if you just said yes in your head, I want to give you 5 reasons to just bring you. When you bring your real self, well.. 1. It’s more relaxing.
I’m not suggesting you wear your pajamas to work, but rather be the relaxed, summertime you inside those pajamas. The authentic you who has a viewpoint, an opinion, a voice. The one who used to lounge by the pool
Patti Dobrowolski
- Apr 24, 2014
- 2 min
Renew Your Commitment to Your Calling
This week I did a visual coaching session with an amazing woman to help her create her first vision to reality map. She’s a mother and successful entrepreneur who’s been struggling to figure out her next step. She knew she needed to shift, but wondered how or where to start. Sound familiar? Into my visual collaboratorium we went.As the session unfolded you could hear her critic begin to pull out some of those old, stale stories. Stories of how she wasn’t smart enough, skilled
Patti Dobrowolski
- Jul 11, 2013
- 2 min
Your Fascinating Imagination
Imagination is the vehicle in which we find rest, we dream, we explore, in which we create. It’s the place of longing and belonging. In doing research for my most recent talk at TEDxSacramento, “Imagination Changes Everything“, I came across some great tips on how to keep your imagination vibrant. It goes without saying that you have to exercise your imagination along with everything else to keep in shape, so here are two simple ways to help you stretch those imagination mu
Patti Dobrowolski
- Mar 10, 2013
- 3 min
The Play Revolution
I’m inspired by playfulness when I see it. People playing with their dogs or kids, the guy who fills his workspace with toys, the woman with the dashboard of her car filled with odd objects or a silly bumpersticker. The checker who greets me at the grocery store and when I say loudly in response to the amount I owe, “Are you kidding me!?” gets the joke and laughs. You can inspire playfulness anywhere, anytime. You can spend a day or a year pretending to be an artist, you can
Patti Dobrowolski
- Jan 2, 2013
- 2 min
Bring your 500% To The New Year
When my partner Julie and I were first together, we lived in Denver and she was between jobs. She had been job hunting for awhile and was feeling disparaging about herself and her ability to ever get one. In my mind, she was (and is) a truly fantastic leadership and talent development expert, so I couldn’t go down that slippery slope with her. I was leaving on a business trip to work in Slovakia, but before I left I said to her, “I see you as 500% more than what you can see
Patti Dobrowolski
- Nov 5, 2012
- 2 min
Really Want Something? Change Your Habits
Reading is awesome, isn’t it? (Head nodding is appropriate). This week I read a superb and useful book that I believe has helped give me immediate tips: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. It is not only very well researched, it is also SUPER interesting, once you get over feeling weird about all of the habits you have in your life. Here are a few keys I pulled out of it: You can change your habits by noticing them and understandi
Patti Dobrowolski
- May 31, 2010
- 2 min
Uncover Techniques from the Past
Journaling is a great way to track your life, and I have kept a daily journal for many years. Although I had begun journaling long before Julia Cameron wrote “The Artist’s Way”, I made writing three pages a day my daily practice after reading her book. I also wrote my dreams and anything I experienced during contemplation – a form of active meditation that I practice. (Thirty years worth of journals is quite a stack!) Then I watched this video by Phillip Zimbardo on The Se
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