Momentum

A week or so ago we completed our seven-day Creating Challenge. How do we all keep the creating vibe alive? We leverage the momentum that naturally occurs in the creating cycle. In this podcast, we describe how!

Creating Challenge #2--We're Halfway There!

Hey, everybody!

We're at the halfway mark of our most recent Creating Challenge. Congratulations for making it this far! To celebrate, we made a podcast just for you--it was our creation for Day 4. It's a little on the rough side--Lisa sounds sometimes as if she's underwater--but we decided to eschew perfection and embrace enthusiasm.

So please take about eight minutes to listen to our five-minute podcast. And thanks for embarking on this challenge with us!

Creating: Not Just for the "Creative" Anymore

"Oh, I can't participate in a Creating Challenge. I'm just not a creative person."

We tend to think that creating is the realm only of the creative: the artist, the writer, the musician, the dancer, anyone with a hand in a free-flowing expression of self. When we don't fall into a more right-brained way of being, we dismiss the concept that we, too, can be creators.

Well, none of you get off that easy! ;-) We are throwing down a Creating Challenge, not a Creative Challenge. Creating is different from being creative. Many creative people don't create at all. They dream big dreams but for whatever reason cannot put pen to paper, hands to clay, or voice to microphone. In contrast, people who create begin a project and finish it. They conceive of something they want to exist in the world, they do what it takes to bring it about, and once it's completed, they release it into the wild.

That's what this challenge is about, and therefore, it can include any number of projects. For example:

• Cooking a beautiful meal for family and/or friends;
• Developing a time map for your week;
• Making a chore jar for your kids, filled with slips of paper that list daily chores;
• Devising an Excell or Numbers document to track your expenses;
• Writing an itinerary for an upcoming trip;
• Replacing a torn screen in your screen door with a new one;
• Arranging a restful space in your home for mediation, reading, and other quiet pursuits; and/or
• Creating anything your heart and mind can imagine!

The Creating Challenge can also include ventures we more traditionally call creative, so go ahead and write your poems and songs, paint your pictures, mold your sculptures. Whatever you choose, take ten minutes to two hours to dream up something and make it real.

So, let's brainstorm some more potential projects. Please comment below and let us know some creations you might bring to fruition during our Creating Challenge! And in case you need the details for our Creating Challenge, you can find those here.

Creating Challenge #2!

Hello, Brilliant Chaos fans!

We got such a charge out of our test-run Creating Challenge that we decided to turn right around and do another one. Not only that, but we've also chosen to lengthen it--this time to seven days. So our upcoming Creating Challenge will run from Monday, June 27 to Sunday, July 3, 2011.

But wait, there's more! We really want to invite YOU along! This challenge is perfect for:

• people who have a number of projects they'd like to complete;
• gifted kids out of school for summer wanting something challenging to do;
• anyone interested in creating; and
• lots more people!

Remember, we've outlined four steps for each day of our Creating Challenge:

1. Before you take any actions, sit down for a minute or two and conceive of the result you want to create. (Have a clear vision of the finished creation.)
2. Note the current state of the creation. (What is the current status and materials/elements needed to complete the creation?)
3. Take action. (Move from vision to completed reality. Stay true to the vision and resists improvisation.)
4. Once you have finished the project, look at it and live with it for a few minutes. (Reflect on the process and your experience.)

We hope you join us for this upcoming Creating Challenge. As well, if you wish, please join our new Facebook group so you can post your creations and responses to this challenge both on this blog and share with our FB users!

We look forward to enjoying this challenge with you!

The Creating Challenge - Day 4

Hello, all!

Well, yesterday was the last day of our challenge, and I (Lisa) celebrated by finishing a drawing I'd begun on Day 3. I followed the process and found it easy since I already had a vision from the first day of drawing. It was simply a matter of completing what I'd begun. I would not have completed the drawing as quickly as I did had I not been involved in this challenge.

I am so happy we did this challenge. It felt good to create each day and to reflect on the process. I am much more in touch with ways I create daily. I hope we do another and longer creating challenge soon. Make sure to follow our young creator Micah who has already begun his own seven-day challenge! And stay posted for our next event--we'd love to have more people join us and tap into their own creating energy!

(And now I've created yet another blog post!)

Mary Poppins Had It Right: A Spoon Full of Sugar & Work

I (Lisa) hadn't intended to clean my office. I was innocently chatting via Skype with Wendy, and it just sort of happened. We were checking in with each other, both feeling fairly low energy, and Wendy mentioned a number of things she had to do. Then this came across my screen:

"There! I just picked up one folder and put it away as I'm done with it - (pattingselfontheback)."

We celebrated with a little emoticon party, then I realized that I, too, could put a folder away. So I did. Then I put away one more! I skyped to Wendy: "I see your folder, and raise you one!"

She countered with seeing my folder and raising me two books and a binder (and expressed jubilation at seeing carpet space!). I put away my camera, camcorder, and a plastic bag that was just laying on my desk.

Before I knew it, we were in an ad hoc online office clean-off. We went back and forth until we each had cleared a sizable space in our offices and had other commitments to attend to. I didn't clean my whole office, and this wasn't on my to-do list (which, these days, is nonexistent anyways). Instead, Wendy and I seized the moment, spurred each other on with our energy and encouragement, and accomplished something in the spirit of play. Something about the spontaneity, the online interaction, and having someone with whom to share the experience made this activity not just fun but memorable.

For those of us who live on Planet Chaos, play is powerful. We don't respond well to structure, have-to's, to-do lists. Instead, if we can create a spark when we do a task, even something mundane, we can make things happen and feel joy as we do.

When both Wendy and I had to leave, I hopped onto blip.fm and dedicated this song to Wendy: http://blip.fm/profile/deepwaterscoach/blip/35800600/Spoon+Full+of+sugar–Mary+poppins. It seemed the fitting way to complete our experience. Enjoy, and maybe you'll get something done too!

Managing Your Energy

A few weeks ago, we shared a podcast about protecting and renewing our energy. Kathy Loh, PCC, CPCC, MA, life coach and wonderful wild woman, commented about this topic on our blog. In fact, she stepped onto her energy-management soapbox, and wowed us with her passion and ideas. We so loved what she had to say that we invited her to play on Planet Chaos with us for an episode. And guess what? She said yes! We hope you are delighted and challenged by what we discussed. Pancake!

NOTE: It seems our technology of late has had Lisa scubadiving off the shores of Planet Chaos during podcasts. The good news? Lisa can apparently talk while underwater (oh, there is no end to her talents). The bad news? It's slightly challenging to listen to. We want you to know we're aware of this problem, are seeking solutions, and appreciate your patience while we resolve it. Thanks for sticking with us!

Our Holiday Wish for You!

OK, so we know we just posted our last podcast, but we really, really want you to hear this one as soon as possible! We wish you a fun, fulfilling, joyous, choice-based holiday season!

Protecting and Renewing Your Creative Energy

It's the most wonderful time of the year...and sometimes the most stressful! In this podcast, we discuss ways to protect and renew your creative energy so that you can make the most of your life and of this holiday season. Happy--and Energy-Filled--Holidays to you!

Great Gobs of Gratitude, Batman!

In this brief podcast, we simply thank you, our listeners, for hopping on the wild Brilliant Chaos ride with us! We wish you the happiest of Thanksgivings!

Convergence as Ending

Gifted people are generally natural-born divergers, and systems need diverging phases. In a previous podcast, we've discussed the concept of divergence: the desire and opportunity to brainstorm, collect information, think outside the box, push pylons, and run gleefully down bunny trails.

Eventually, after all that diverging (and also before it--more on this later), we reach a time for convergence, a time for everything to intersect, a time for creating something definite. Time, resources, and people come together for completion. Ahh...what a feeling!

We hope you enjoy our podcast on convergence as ending, and that after you listen you will converge on this blog and share your responses about it with us!

Most Fatuous

The continuing saga of Lisa and Wendy's new favorite word: fatuous. Most fatuous. The saga began on our October 17 blog post "Floorganization is Fatuous?" and continues here unashamedly. We milk this word for all its worth and even come up with new creative definitions from a "whole brain" point of view - AKA using both our left and right brain processes.

Join us as we celebrate the wisdom of foolishness!

Diverging

You know how one thought leads to another...and another...and another? Well, that happens frequently on Planet Chaos, and it happened in this podcast. Enjoy, and join in with your own comments on this blog!

Pylon Pushing

I don't know about you, but these days it seems everywhere I drive is a Cone Zone. One highway sports an electronic sign warning me "Construction/Major Delays/Alternate Route Advised." Then, when I drive onto the Alternate Route, it has its own line of orange soldiers detouring me toward places I don't want to go. Makes me want to push those pylons right out of the way.

In this week's podcast, we explore the topic of Pylon Pushing in our lives, the capacity to explore and heighten beyond artificial boundaries set before us. We talk about using improv when we want to see exactly where true boundaries lie.

We hope you enjoy this podcast and look forward to your comments on where you might be Pylon Pushing in your own lives!

Maventurous/New Beginnings

Hello, and welcome to the inaugural Brilliant Chaos podcast! We are starting our podcasting adventure with the theme "New Beginnings." You can hear our first episode by clicking on the arrow in the upper left corner of the player above.

We hope you enjoy our podcast, and look forward to your comments, questions, inputs, and non sequiturs. And please let us know if you can identify the term for phrases such as "new beginnings," terms with two words that mean the same thing (and, apparently, we don't mean synonyms or redundancies!).

P.S. We also invite you to incorporate the word "maventurous" into your vocabulary soon and often!

And Welcome Again!

It's 3:31 a.m. Mountain Time, and I can't sleep. It seems I still have energy coursing through my body from the brainstorming session Wendy and I had about Brilliant Chaos. Instead of tossing and turning anymore, I give in, shuffle to my computer, turn it on, log onto Facebook, and discover that Wendy not only has been busy launching this blog site, but she's still awake too!

This is what happens when Wendy and I collide on creative ventures. We don't get much sleep, but we sure have fun! And we look forward to bringing this kind of energy, wonder, exploration, and hilarity--along with provoking plenty of thoughts and reaching people's hearts--to the place where giftedness and systems thinking meet.

So fasten your seat belts, folks! (Stow your tray tables, and return your seats to their original, upright positions.) This rocket ship is taking off! Destination: Planet Chaos! Enjoy the ride!

Welcome to Planet Chaos!

Welcome! Welcome to Planet Chaos I say! Lisa and I are so glad you came by! At this, our dawn of a new blog, we, your guides to this complex yet fabulous planet, appreciate your visit and invite you to come by often.

Let me give you an introductory tour of Planet Chaos. Planet Chaos is the "third entity" of friends and mavens Lisa Lauffer and Wendy Balman. A "third entity" is what is created when we are together. Its that energy and space between us that is alive with spontaneous fun, depth, divergence, reciprocity, pylon pushing, creativity, maventurousness, sparkiness, movement, etc. in service of bringing the qualities of the gifted life and mysteries of the systems around us to light!

Planet Chaos is our playground as we draw out the wisdom of the vast research of the world of giftedness as well as systems theory. Everyone is welcome on this planet and if you have even one bone of fun or wacky, you'll enjoy our blog posts, twitter tweets (see posts on right side of this page), and even upcoming podcasts and videos.

Stay tuned! We have a wealth of enjoyable learning and fun ahead!

And, this is place for you to play as well. Please feel free to not only read, subscribe, and listen to our podcasts...but post your comments and lets have a conversation! Or two...

Thanks for coming!