4 Things I’m Doing Right Now to Draw Forth More of My Best Self

I think you know by now that I think drawing forth the best in ourselves is pretty important; not just important, but vital to our success, our happiness, our growth.
 
I also believe that the act of drawing out ideas with others (visual conversations) gives us the opportunity to draw forth the best in ourselves and others. One helps to facilitate the other.
 
In my book, Draw Forth,  I outline all of the tools you need to get past your fears and learn how to have visual conversations.
 
But what about when you have already learned the basics and started to be out there on your own in real-time? What do you do then to help draw forth more of yourself and really practice visual conversations as much as possible?
 
What do you do when you have learned the skill and now need to work on sustaining it? (Besides practicing the skill, of course!)
 
Well, here are four things I do. . . perhaps they may be helpful for you, too!
 

Four to Draw Forth

1. Stop working

 
Many of our visual conversations seem to come up within business contexts. This makes sense, because our business conversations are the ones in which we’re consciously striving for improved productivity and more effective communication. But visual conversations can really happen anywhere, and seeing the world through a visual conversation lens makes our experience more powerful AND fun. In fact, practicing visual conversations OUTSIDE of our regular work environment is important because it helps us get a new perspective on things and expands our thinking.
 
One of the ways I do this is by creating a doodle and the posting it to the #todaysdoodle twitter community. Even if I’m too slammed to actually post my own doodle, I still enjoy checking out what other people are drawing forth in the images they share! 
 

2. Get uncomfortable

 
So now that you have are getting better at having visual conversations, mix it up a bit. I wrote a whole blog about how much I learned just from using a different kind of pen…it totally changed my perspective.
 
Once we start to get good at something we get comfortable, and that can be good and bad. It’s great because we stop fearing it, and begin to use the skill more often, which is awesome. The down side is that if we aren’t careful we stay where we are, in a comfort zone, and we always want to continue to grow so we can truly draw forth our best selves each day.
 
Changing up one element of our normal surroundings, or tools can help shift our perspective and offer up growth opportunities. And sometimes we discover something new about ourselves which is always fun. This coming week, my change is going to be working in Las Vegas.
 
Now, Las Vegas is not a place I’d normally “hang out” at, but I’m going to push myself to go out and play and explore while I’m there on Sunday night. It will be an adventure (woot!), plus it will be interesting to see how my Sunday night Vegas experience will affect the visual conversations I have with folks over the next several days! (And yes, what happens in Vegas will stay in Vegas, so mum’s the word on any specific stories!)
 

3. Be the teacher

 
Now that you know how to have visual conversations, part of drawing forth the best of yourself is to share the wealth. Help someone who may not know about visual conversations learn the basics like you did. Show them how to use their visual vocabulary, give them the confidence that what they draw is good enough, and help them learn the art of drawing forth. It’s a win-win for everyone.
 
I remember this one moment during a Draw Forth Workshop when I was showing an academic team how when you know the strokes and shapes to draw, you can draw pretty much anything. I was at the board and people were calling out different things for me to draw. As I drew them, I called out what I was drawing. As someone would call out the name of a thing to draw, I’d respond with “line, curve, angle, squiggle, curve,” et cetera, as I drew each component of their subject.
 
Someone called out “David Bowie!” and as I called out “curve (of the jaw), curve, curve (for eyes), angle, angle, angle (for the Ziggy Stardust face effect)” the team’s leader cried out, “I GET IT!!!! Oh my goodness, I CAN do this! I always thought I couldn’t draw because I never knew how to approach it, but seeing you do this and breaking it down into simple components? I can DO this!” She was ecstatic, the team was pumped, and I was full to bursting with pride and excitement for her.
 

4. Do nothing

 
Sometimes all the advice in the world can’t get me to show up the way I want to. When this happens, I need to stop looking outward and start looking within. Honestly, I am my own biggest obstacle when it comes to drawing forth the best in myself and others. The way I think about myself, the way I think about my work, my expectations on how this work should be. . .  all these things pose potential barriers for me showing up and bringing my best to what I do.
 
This is when doing nothing is the best thing I can do for myself. I’m not talking about hide-in-a-corner-and-do-nothing. I’m talking about meditation and being present to myself. Allowing myself the time and space to sit with how I feel, and to explore the facets of those fears and judgments WITHOUT any fear or judgment. . . just to see what they are, where they are coming from, and what they are really trying to tell me. Think of it like a snowglobe: all my fears and judgments are shaking up my belief in myself, and doing nothing gives just enough time and space for the snow to settle and for me to see and reconnect with the awesome image inside.
 

Keep On Drawing It Closer. . .

 
Audre Lorde once said, “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
 
This whole thing is a practice, not a destination. Once you learn the skills for drawing out ideas or drawing forth your best self, you still have to practice and try new things to keep growing and stretching your comfort zone. The more this zone expands, the more of YOU gets to show up in all that you do!
 
There’s no real limit to what you can become. . . except the limits you impose on yourself. Dare to be powerful. Dare to use your strength in the service of your vision. Dare to be bigger than your fear. Dare to draw closer to your future best self every day.
 
I cannot wait to see what you draw forth,