Diploma-shaped permission slips.

...and other, cheaper options

May Day! May Day! That boxy hat thingy is on their heads again!

Before we start, let me say: I love credentials as much as anyone, but I happen to believe that no one NEEDS a diploma-shaped permission slip to start making their dreams come true — to write a song, launch a company, author a book, or build a movement. START RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE.

That said… it IS graduation season, the best season for exhaling, pretending to job hunt and writing mushy thank-you letters to your parents. So let’s lean in.

I thought we were done with graduations at my house after the last daughter walked across the stage with thousands of her closest unemployed friends, but now I realize that graduations are happening all the time – all year, all through regular life. I just don’t always suit up for them. And I should. We all should – because a life without graduations is a life without commencements.

See, when I looked up ‘graduation’, I found this DEFINITION: closing, completion, culmination, mop up, windup, a concluding action. NOUN: an academic exercise in which diplomas are conferred. SYNONYM: commencement.

Wait. How is commencement (which means ‘beginning’) a synonym for graduation (completion)?!

So then I looked up “commencement.”

Graduating is ending. Commencement is starting, and there’s a reason they go together. And there’s a reason to remember that the STARTING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART.

If you’re in school, graduation means classes are ending, and real life is beginning whether you like it or not, (unless you have grad school money, and that’s a whole ‘nuther conversation.)

But the rest of us who are done with school can catch the wave of graduation energy and use it for our stARTistic mojo.

I like to use dates and seasons to lift my creative momentum, so I had to explore this most party-packed season of the stARTistic calendar.

What do you need to be done with… to begin the life you want start?

What do you need to declare victory over so you can declare your creative amazingness?

Why not do your own graduating in May with the rest of the kids? Decide what you need to be done with and what you’re craving to commence.

Start a new habit, and new class, a new mini herb garden. Commence a writing discipline, a collage, a poetry club, a children’s book.

Here’s my old happy list of things people told me they were craving to commence:

I’ve learned that often…to start the fun things…we need to graduate from some behaviors, mindsets, and distractions that can block creativity.

According to my research and chats with STARTISTS of all ages, here are the things we need to graduate from to best commence our commencing.

1. Overthinking – Constant analysis is paralyzing. The longer we think the more likely we will talk ourselves out of starting.

2. Fear of the finish – Creativity involves risk; fear of how, when, or whether we will finish holds us back.

3. Negative self-talk – Doubting our abilities shuts down creative impulses.

4. Comparing ourselves – Creativity thrives when it's unmeasured – comparing ourselves to others or to our former selves is a buzzkill and a flow kill.

5. Waiting for inspiration – The “muse” shows up when WE show up ready to work.

6. Seeking constant validation – Acting on our ideas is the purest intrinsic motivation; action creates the validation we need.

7. Perfectionism – Waiting for the “perfect” idea or execution is the biggest start stopper there is.

And when you commence, remember the four parts of starting:

1. Imagine — big, brave and often

2. Think — but don’t OVERTHINK — about what your idea requires to come to life

3. Decide — firmly. Stand on the island of your decision and send the boat away.

4. Act — move, make, start the motion and momentum!

   

   You can learn more about the parts of your starts with this book-shaped permission slip: Start More Than You Can Finish: A Permission Slip to Unleash Your Best Ideas. It was named a ‘MUST READ’ by The Next Big Idea Club, which is a great club to join when you graduate from old ideas.

If you need a gift idea for a female graduate, consider my first book, Do Your Laundry or You’ll Die Alone: Advice Your Mom Would Give If She Thought You Were Listening. It’s a sassy package of loving advice that will encourage her to start living her biggest, happiest life.