How Does the Online Idea Party Work?
You have a dream or a wish, and an obstacle to getting there. (If you don’t think you know your wish, work through my kick-starter and read this post. To learn why you must put logic aside to find your dream, read the following.)
The online Idea Party is here to help you – and the other fellow party goers – with your wishes and obstacles.
Voices from Success Teams and Idea Parties:
Having a team to report to and hearing what everybody did each week is very exciting. It’s kept me moving all year. In the past I made some good starts on my own, but found, every time, when the energy ran out, I ran out. Now it doesn’t run out.
Jade G.
Children’s Playroom Therapist, New York Hospital
I would do a painting a year, a sketch a year. If it was only me I know I would never do it. Having to tell you makes all the difference. It’s crazy why I didn’t do this years ago, it’s so easy all of a sudden.
Caroline R. Personnel Executive, Macy’s Dept Store
Post Your Wish and Your Obstacle Here!
And help your team mates out when you can. Use the Reply link to help, the form below the comments to add your own Wish and Obstacle.
(Your first comment below has to be approved, so it may not display instantly depending on the time of the day. Once your email address is approved you can post instantly. If you want your own profile photo to show up beside your comments, instead of the cute little design, upload your photo on Gravatar.com and give them an hour or so to make it happen.)
I believe I am a Scanner…I have been wanting to start my own business and I love animals so I thought pet-sitting. Obstacle- the landlord still hasn’t signed the permit allowing me a home office. My excitement is gone. I also have 3 different book ideas. I have 3 chapters for one done. I also have ideas for 3 blogs- the one name is taken. So again my excitement sinks. Oh and I want to travel but right now I have many kiddos with a limited budget. I need a ‘job’ Asap- so what to do. I know I can’t work for corporate- too stressful!
Ah, feel pity for all the people who have no interests, Amy!
1. Re pet-sitting: how about starting out with dog-walking until things change with your landlord? I have a friend who just started a great business doing that and it enormously happy. (It’s call BowWowGoGo.com – take a look and your enthusiasm will return!)
2. Re 3 different book ideas: create three different folders or files and add chapters or pages to anyone that enters your mind. I always do that! It’s fun and you’re never stuck working on anything that doesn’t interest you at the moment!
3. Ideas for 3 blogs: One name is taken? So draw up plans for the other two: draw the picture of the home pages of the other two in many colors and hang it on your wall so you’ll enjoy looking at it whenever you pass by.
4. Re travel: Find a ‘travel corner’ and put up some posters to look at. Put some travel books in the corner too. (I love travel essays – not just the books that tell you where to stay and how to get in and out of a town. There are some brilliant books! Tell us the places that you’d like to visit and we’ll make suggestions. Sometimes reading about them is almost as good as actually traveling! Also, find blogs and Facebook pages of those locations and meet a lot of new people who also love the places you love. You’ll make new friends and have a wonderful time! And the most exciting connections will help you decide where to go first, and might even make it possible to do it very very cheaply and bring your kids along! Or leave them with your mom and go for just a few days – that can also be a treat! I used to just go to an inexpensive B&B in the theater district of my own town for 2 days, and get another parent to watch my kids! And I’d watch theirs next time around.
Don’t give up so easily! Sometimes we want a chocolate cake and forget how good just one small piece would taste for now! Time will pass and your kids will be all grown and you’ll have more freedom. For now, be glad you love so many things and will never have to be bored!
Amy,
I pay someone to play with my dogs and let them out in the backyard mid-day while I am at work. She also comes by several times a day on the (rare) chance we go out of town for a workshop and cannot take them. So, she “pet sits” at my house.
Hi All. My Facebook Idea Party got too crowded and I missed a lot of comments, so I’m bringing the action here (because I hang out here).
Come on over and tell us your wish and your obstacle.
Dear Barbara
I am really excited about this idea party thing all together. I discovered I am also a scanner. I thought there was something wrong with me. I have written books of poetry, testimonials, in English and Spanish, I am a visual artist, and love fotography. I am a linguists, an a teacher, also enjoy counseling and conversation, craft, and dancing . lately I discovered J. Krishnamurti teachings, and I feel so excited about our human journey .Now I see my obstacle is isolation. I would like to participate, but I don’t know how. I live in Miami now. Please, let me know how I can contact other scanners or idea party goers. Thanks a lot.
Vilma, we can be your Idea Party. Tell us your wish and your obstacle and we’ll try to help!
Vilma, you can meet lots of scanners in Barbara’s Facebook groups like “Scanners and Renaissance Souls” and “Scanners, look what I just made”.
Hi all! I am new here. Found Barbara from her TED talk. I live in California where it is very expensive to rent, let alone buy a home. For this reason I have lived with my parents and extended family since graduating college, about 5 years ago. My dream is to build a tiny house so that I can have the freedom to customize it to my needs, afford it on my own, and move it later on down the road (slight pun) when I decide to move to another area or state.
I have bought a book, watched close to a hundred youtube videos and tv episodes, and looked up a lot of builders and land for sale/rent. Many are located in other states but there seem to be some locally, I just can’t seem to find them or reach them. My friend even gave me contact info for a friend of hers who is building a container house, but I haven’t heard back.
I learn by asking questions, so reading and watching only take me so far. My biggest obstacle is “going all in”. Part of that being “putting myself out there”. They are the same reasons I am not fluent in any of the 4 languages I have studied and why I am not a certified dog trainer. I have isolated myself probably because I felt that if I didn’t do myself or I didn’t do it right, then I shouldn’t do it at all.
I welcome any connections as well as advice on how you have overcome similar obstacles. Thank you for reading.
I’ve heard this so often: “I felt that if I didn’t do myself or I didn’t do it right, then I shouldn’t do it at all.” I hope this means you don’t believe that anymore!
Thomas Edison didn’t believe it – he got it wrong thousands of times, apparently. 🙂
Is it the heart of your dream to own something? Or would you just like to live in your own place instead of with your parents? Also, I’m from California – grew up in L.A. and went to college in Berkeley – and lived in the woods at the northern part of the state for a year. It’s a huge state. You can find cheap land in lots of places, but not necessarily where you want to live. Can you give us more information, Nicole B.?
My dream is for Savers Of The Environment, which I have trade marked (There’s a story). You see, our first environment is within ourselves. My dream is to have people, as individuals, feel empowered to control their environment by starting with themself. Thanks to the media in our culture the word ‘environment’ sounds enormous, like it’s too much! BUT if we start to think of it on a smaller scale. Think and know the environment is a personal choice, we can really make a difference in the world. The word ‘environment’ invokes us to think of green living, eco-friendly, organic etc. I have a patent pending on a product that is all of that. I have noticed that people need a physical thing to feel like they are making a difference in their own environment in the environment at large. It’s a reusable bagging system, desiring to use everything that’s already in place in every day local grocery store . Videos can be found on YouTube under “Sotetote” channels. LOL! That was correct and the young man’s channel, that is underneath mine, doubledj26 is (also old) but shows children’s for the whole Savers Of The Environment energy.
Why I can do this – I’m out of credit, I can’t market it or make any of this dream come true. I don’t have enough money or, more importantly self belief or engery to see my dream come true. Anyone would ask WHY I didn’t see Savers Of The Environment farther. I found my energy for each day had limits and I wanted to use it to love, care, worry, and enjoy my 2 children. Living breathing growing, too fast, dreams. Now – I wonder if I can dare dream a dream for Savers Of The Environment, when I have no resources and old engery. Also, I am dyslexic which affects my writing even today. Oh well – that’s that. Thank You !
Your idea seems very rich, Rebecca. Are you sure you need money to do it? Everyone thinks that first, but it’s not usually what’s needed. What would you use the money for? Maybe we can help you find a way to do what you want without money.
To be honest, I think people go for the money solutions first so they can stay isolated and not need any help from their friends.
Hello.
My wish – to finish the book I started and PUBLISH it, but not just self-publish.
My obstacle – I keep procrastinating. I think I feel confused. Not sure why. I also get distracted. In other words, I am not writing. How do I get my butt in gear? I’ve read all the stuff about “writer’s block,” etc… I think i need writing budies and someone to nag me about progress.
I write a bit, so if you ever need someone to read a chapter, feel free to send it along. When I tried to take writing seriously I signed up on a website called Critters. You can submit your work to others and they will critique it in exchange for you reading some of their work. Here is a link http://www.critters.org/c/about.ht.
Good luck! Looking forward to seeing you on the shelves.
Well I have two wishes, the first I’m not ready to address yet, so I’ll just mention the second. I would like to make a living from home. I have some respiratory health problems that have knocked me of my feet from time to time, so staying home and hiding from the flu virus helps me when things get really bad. I started a little online etsy shop selling coconut hemp jewelry, but I hasn’t done well, partly because I’m not really being seen, there is very little traffic to my site and I think because I live in Jamaica. Sadly I have very few friends, chronic illness can be a bit isolating, due to a toxic mix of my misery and their lack of understanding because on the outside I sometime look quite well. I don’t use facebook ( I know it’s shallow but sometimes its hard seeing someone post a beach pic when you can barely get out of bed), so I don’t advertise through the social media platforms a lot except for twitter. I have one US oversees buyer who buys in bulk, so that keeps my little business going, but it isn’t enough to support me.
Any thoughts?
Hi Dashuri, there are many opportunities to make a living at home, if you do a search on indeed.com with locatiin Remote. Two comes to mind… $20 per hour teaching English to Chinese kids at VIP kid.com (and many other of their competitors) and $15 per hour as a agent at http://www.aira.io where you guide the blind through their daily activities via real time video stream. Both are legit businesses as I have experience with them both. You can work 10hrs min to start or go full time from the fetlock. Good luck! CT
Hi 🙂 I want to be a people person and gain connections that’ll help me find out what career path would make me happiest and able to take care of family. My obstacle is that I moved from Louisville Ky to Tacoma Wa to be with my husband(army fully enlisted) who got stationed here and we have no friends. I’m in training to become a pharmacy technician which I know won’t make me happy for long. We’re far from our families and money has always been an issue but I just want to start living not just be alive. Let’s be great together!
Hello, Alexis,
In your new area, you can check MeetUp and see what groups are around. Usually, you can join a local group for various activities around various interests. This way you can easily meet people and make new friends. If you are on Facebook, there too, you can find local events and go mingle. One of the easiest things you can do is reach out to your classmates and invite someone to lunch, an activity you find on MeetUp or something else.
Hi everyone! Thrilled to have discovered Barbara and the online Idea Party. Always considered myself resourceful, but hey, even I get stuck! So here’s my dream: To give birth to a healthy baby. My obstacle: I’m 37 and haven gone through a failed IVF. Hoping to go through another IVF in a few month. Feeling better on GAPS diet. Looked into adoption, doesn’t feel like that’s for me and my husband, at least not for now. Thanks in advance!
Hi, I just found this forum today! And yours is the first comment I read. I’m no expert, but I have to at least put this out there for you to consider. I believe the body has an amazing ability to heal, which I have been proving to myself over the past two years by eating a raw plant based diet (you mentioned feeling better by changing your diet, which is one of the reasons that pushed me to speak up). I suffered from autoimmune disease, debilitating migraines/fatigue/joint and muscle pain/hypothyroiodism/etc. When the body is freed up from the task of digestion, it can focus energy on healing. Lots of green juices, green smoothies, leafy greens, low fat (around 10% of your daily calories) and low protein, no processed foods, lots of veggies and fruit (fruit is very cleansing and easy to digest). If raw seems daunting, you could just start whole foods plant based. Great resources: the book 80-10-10, Forks Over Knives (movie and book), What The Health (movie), The China Study (book), Eat To Live (book by Joel Fuhrman). You can check out Tannyraw on Youtube. Also, if you’re interested, I can get my email to you and you can always pick my brain. I wish you all the best!
I”m training under a Master Shiatsu Therapist and she specializes in helping women give birth who have previously failed again and again with other treatment methods. This is working with IVF, without IVF, or treating one or two partners or any of the previous combinations. Find yourself a experienced Chinese Medicine therapist or Shiatsu therapist.
Dear Connie, I’ve just spent a month in Kerala, India at an ayurveda clinic. During my stay I read about some of the holistic cures that are used for fertility and birth related issues. It is an astounding system of medicine and I urge you to find an ayurvedic doctor to talk to. The clinic I was at is http://www.shantiayurvedashram.com, Dr Nisha, her brother and his wife are all Ayurvedic doctors. Many people travel to Kerala for treatments that western medicine has no success at. It is a beautiful and magical place and treatments are minimal cost compared to US medicine. Blessings, Maggie
Hi everyone! Thrilled to have discovered Barbara and the online Idea Party. Always considered myself resourceful, but hey, even I get stuck! So here’s my dream: To give birth to a healthy baby. My obstacle: I’m 37 and haven gone through a failed IVF. Hoping to go through another IVF in a few month. Feeling better on GAPS diet. Looked into adoption, doesn’t feel like that’s for me and my husband, at least not for now.