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 am infinitely curious…I love Barbara’s books…I am looking for inspiration and ideas…
Ayleeann,
You’ve come to a good place to find that!
What kind of inspiration and ideas are you looking for?
Kris
My passion in life is metaphysical religions and has been since I was a very young girl in the 1960’s. I wrote a book, but had a very difficult time marketing it. I sold some books but not as many as I’d hoped.
Obstacle. I was laid off from my job 3 years ago. My husband and I moved to a conservative state. I know very few people here and there is almost nothing with metaphysical religions. I’d like to do some type of writing on these issues, but at the same time being able to get out and meet people on a daily basis.
Dear Metaphysician, Perhaps, you might check with the ARe Association for Research and Enlightenment. They discuss the work of Edgar Cayce and you might have a discussion group in your vicinity that you don’t know about. Does your town have a metaphysical bookstore? Is there a nearby college town to you–it may be more open and may have a Unity Church.
Book publishers don’t market new authors very well. I have read that you are on your own. You must be a big name brand such as Stephen King, Danielle Steel, or J.K. Rowling to get the imperial treatment. Everyone else better befriend librarians and those who regulate the “midlist.” The midlist is the not bestsellers but not flops range where many books go and where librarians look to purchase–I am not sure it’s a real list, but the term exists.
H i,
Thanks so much for your response. I do in fact go to a Unity Church, but this church is about 25 people. It was much larger at my other church. There is only one very small Metaphysical bookstore in town, however I am by a college town (UNH)and I never really thought to check that out, but I should as well as ARE groups. I was happy to hear about the mid-list. I have a good friend who is a librarian and I will definitley ask her about this. Again, Many Thanks. Maureen
Maureen – could you “serial-ize” your book on a blog? i.e. every day publish a few paragraphs of your book, and get people to subscribe! You may end of selling a few books this way, but maybe more importantly, you could get your message across and share with others! You could alert people of the updates on a facebook page, and tweet that you have a new post! good luck
Wish: To become a floral designer again. I used to work as one when I was much younger but had different priorities 15 years ago like making big bucks. I quit the floral field to work full time. Now that I am older and have a daughter, full time work is not a priority. Now I just want to live and work creatively. I want to work part time as a floral designer and also sell my art somehow. I also love to paint and do cross-stitch. Basically any kind of crafts. I would love to do some art for children’s books. I have written a few books but never actually sent them out to be looked at. Up until very recently I worked with children in various daycares for about 6 years and just couldn’t handle to physicality of the job. Very hard on the back which is actually why I am taking the time now to read Wishcraft and figure myself out 🙂
Obstacle: Floral jobs are few and far between. It is hard to find consistent work. Obstacle to art stuff is the lack of fine arts degree and I have no idea where to start.
Thanks 😀
I just want to let you know about a free online university course offered by http://www.coursera.org. I have enrolled for Introduction to Art: concepts and techniques with them. It starts in May and could well suit you. Like you, I have an interest in arts and crafts but no formal training. If that course doesn’t suit there are tons of undergraduate courses on offer on coursera; all short term commitments. I am currently doing one on behavioral economics as I have absolutely no knowledge in this area and would like to challenge myself. I am also doing a course in mathematics as it is time to overcome my fear of this subject. I find both courses excellent btw.
I have contacted Coursera to find out if other blind people hav etaken their courses and if there are adaptive tech glitches. I thought I might enjoy taking one course in hopes to meet people in a different part of the country with hopefully broader attitudes. I found one in Hong Kong about gastronomy–seems an interesting place for a course. I might take it. I want my course to be no longer than 6 weeks.
Glad you found something on coursera. About Canada, I lived briefly in Quebec and had a wonderful experience. It is worth brushing up on your French to get full benefit. I also traveled to Newfoundland; a fascination place and extremely friendly. In fact Canada is generally very open and friendly.
Hi Kendra,
Many years ago I had a roommate who was very crafty and loved flowers. She didn’t have any art or business background. What she did was whenever she went anywhere she would make something or do a flower arrangement. People loved her work and bit by bit they would ask her to make a centerpiece and so forth. After awhile people started asking her if she could do weddings (one time there were 700 tulips in the bathtub). One day on a whim she made an arrangement and dropped it off at very exclusive country club. Before she got home, the head designer called and left a message ordering 40. This is my long winded way of saying, just do what you love and let your passion speak for itself. People will then find you. My roommate did go on to open a very successful flower shop. She didn’t have any formal training or an art degree. Don’t let that stop you. If you enjoy flowers and crafts, do them.
Best,
Maureen
I got a job doing flowers! I signed up for some floral design courses at a local shop and also dropped off my resume. I am to start on Monday. I hope everything goes well! Thanks for the ideas.
Wow! That was quick Kendra- from wish to ‘eureka’ in 4 days! Congrats and have fun making the world more beautiful. ( And making people happy!)
Wow – Kendra! It only took you 3 days from your post to doing something about it – classes and a job! IMPRESSIVE – YOU ROCK!!!
Hi – same idea as for Maureen above… You’ve written a few books – could you “serial-ize” your book on a blog? i.e. every day publish a few paragraphs of your book, and get people to subscribe! You may end of selling a few books this way, but maybe more importantly, you could get your message across and share with others! You could alert people of the updates on a facebook page, and tweet that you have a new post! good luck
Canada, I have always thought Vancouver, BC, and Quebec, Quebec, would be fascinating to visit. But then I’m part Cajun so i’m biased.
Quebec city has just been named one of the best cities to visit.
One of the best 5 cities to visit
Bonjour! I also would love to visit BC and Quebec. My cousin lives out in BC. It really is beautiful. I would recommend taking the train from Quebec to BC. You will get to see some amazing scenery. I live in Manitoba 🙂 I speak a small bit of french.
There are a lot of ways to visit Canada on the cheap too. Quebec is more French the more North you travel so I would stick to Montreal etc.
I hope you do visit 😀 Canada is lovely.
Now, for a blind-friendly Canadian tour.
I was really surprised to find that there are loads of blind-friendly organizations that do tours of a lot of different countries. I googled blind friendly tours canada and got a bunch of links.
The plethora of diets today astounds me. I am glad this worked for your husband. I have heard that one must find a diet that one can make a lifestyle choice. Sadly, I have not! High carb, low carb, Atkins, paleo, macrobiotic, raw, vegan, gluten-free, rotation, Beverley Hills, Body type, Blood type, … Much continued success.
Hello, Barbara and Members: I have been emailing with Patti N for several months — no doubt driving her three kinds of crazy! During this exchange, I mentioned a crazy idea, and she said, “Oh, put that on Idea Party.” That was a good! three weeks ago. Did I? You guessed it. No. But here goes.
Off the wall job idea: Talk to Me. I thought with people so busy now and with the fact that many Boomers, I’m not one, btw, borderline Gen X, anyway; maybe they don’t always have time to chat with older relatives about this and that, about a favorite book, a movie, something they enjoy doing, crafts, anything. Would they pay someone to do it for them and give them a report? Are there liability issues? I mean, people pay for daycare, they pay for nursing care, they pay for food prep and website such as fiver.com or etask.com will actually not only find a helper, but least price it. I thought $30 for 45minutes, but have no idea if this is craziness. It’s got to be better than one of my other ideas, telephone fantasy operator. I read about that and the companies are sleezy or so I hear and it isn’t me to be so graphic anyway and it’s more a woman’s job–yipes!
I will continue my scoping course because the course is set up for blind people. I have just got to figure out something and get past less than $1 thousand a month. That is making a dying for sure.
Also, I need to work around fibromyalgia syndrome and if any on here have this, please keep in touch. I get so worn out dealing with this bizarre disease/syndrome whatever it is.
Well, I might be running on. I’m very new to this website and it’s only because I’m up at 2:30 a.m. that I posted. It’s a strange feeling being up at such a strange time, not quite early enough to be an early riser, rather late to go to bed. I will try not to stress about being up like this.
Thanks, all of you, for your consideration.
Like an elder companion? That is a FANTASTIC idea! Especially if you enjoy talking about the olden days with them and how things used to be. And look at lots of pictures etc. And if you like the movies and music of their generation that is a plus. They will feel like you are buddies instead of a worker. I thought of something like that once too. And I have also considered the phone thing but just have never done it. Yet. 🙂
David, I thought I was the only one driving Patty N. crazy with ideas…she is amazing isn’t she!
That’s a clever idea that you have, and it could be expanded upon, people would probably pay you good!!! money to sit with older relatives and extract family history from them. Start marketing in an affluent community, one where you have a lot of high powered exec’s that have mom in a very expensive retirement home and feel guilty that they can’t spend more time with her. Take a video camera with you, create some kind of product from it and charge a lot. (:
Regarding the fibromyalga. I had great success ‘curing’ myself from a serious auto immune disorder using the mcdougall diet. it will take all the fun out of eating,( translation… it’s a lot of relearning of habits…I actually did learn to like my new way of eating….) but for me it was worth it, I had dramatic, remarkable results in less than a month. Have you looked up LDN? My friend wrote a book about it, and it also works for some people. Good Luck!
Well, I don’t see that well, so might not be able to do the video part. I need something from home more. But what I wanted to inquire was that diet. I think that is the vegan diet–is it wheat-free too. That I keep trying to do and keep messing up all over the place. I need someone to help me organize that. I get hungry and eat raisin bread or something and mess up. I tried LDN for several months last year, no good! It’s maddening!!! and thanks for the comment.
My husband lost 50 lbs on the Chris Powell diet. You just switch from low carb (nuts, cheese, …) to high carb (bread, pasta, rice,…), for 3 weeks. Then it’s high carb to reset on the 4th week. You get free Saturdays or Sundays (eat what you want). Portions are also key. Good luck
Hi David,
Perhaps you can do something over the internet with recording peoples stories.
The ‘healthy diet’ thing is very challenging for sure, id be happy to help you get on track. It’s challenging at first, but becomes easier….well kinda…(:
I wonder if contacting some veteran societys would be good? Here in Canada we have a website dedicated to matching volunteers and one is recording seniors views on history etc. A homecare companion is a great job! I think it is hugely in demand now.
I am so lost as to what to do. I am a 6th grade teacher, and although i am a good teacher and have a great relationship with my students, i dont like my job very much. It just doesnt provide me with the life that i am seeking. I love cooking, interior design, among it feels like everything else. I am so frustrated because my life looks nothing like i imagine it to look like. I want a glamorous job where i am appreciated and really free to be creative. I have an English degree and double minors in African American Studies and Political Science. I am one of those people who stays for too long at jobs until i move up the ranks and feel bad about leaving. I justfeel confused and unmotivated which a no win situation as a teacher. Please help!!
Have you ever thought of setting up a meal prep business?? I know a contact who sends out an email once a week, she lists five meal choices and you order. She makes the items and even delivers. I think she charges certain prices for delivery. You could narrow it to soups, healthy baked goods, salads, or perhaps, work parttime in an interior design business or maybe even become an assistant to a designer. Teaching, not glamorous, does provide good benefits, and it’s a job you can go anywhere and find work. I have never taught though sometimes, I wish I knew how to tutor people in something, maybe Spanish, but usually tutors have worked in the field they wish to tutor in. Sometimes, glamorous jobs, aren’t really as glamorous on the inside. I have heard jobs i.e. editor of Vogue can be cutthroat and ruthless! Surely, The Devil Wears Prada had some reality in it–strange novel. PS Have you thought about getting a Master’s in Library Science or even a certification in same. Some school districts will pay for it for you if you comeback and work there for 2-5 years. It can be creative and some of the teachers I knew doing it liked it. It was a way to salvage their teaching till retirement.
Hi David,
Thanks for the suggestions! Wow! It is amazing that someone else can quickly come up with ideas. When I wrote it, I felt all over the place. But, I just feel like how am I to do anything when teaching middle school is so time consuming and I definitely need my paycheck as I am the only financial provider in my household as of this moment. I think that has something to do with the helpless feeling I have about teaching. I just feel trapped. I also feel like a lack if social life may be a part of the problem. All of the teachers at my school are older and so I am in a situation as a very social person where I am forced to only talk to children. I moved to where I live only for this job. I am in my late 20’s and have actually done social things literally 8 times in almost an entire year….ugh…the misery!!
But, to the jobs piece again, I just have no idea.
Why don’t you set up a special monthly meeting with the parents? Just social, where they could talk to you about their kids, or anything else. Invite no kids – if they’ll come without their kids. If not, invite the kids too. Come up with subjects and have discussions about being a parent, or being a single parent, understanding how to help kids with homework, etc. No money in it but you’d meet plenty of grownups, and you’d be an insider.
I feel your pain. I too have been working with children for a few years and am burnt out.
I have lost the passion as well.
Have you considered working as a nanny? I know it doesn’t sound glamorous but you could end up teaching and travelling with a family. Also, cruise lines hire teachers too.
I wonder if doing Art Therapy with children would be a good option for you? I think you need a minimum of a degree?
What if you started a small summer day camp at your house teaching kids to cook? You could also work in some interor design in there too.Or could you transfer and become the Home-Ec Teacher instead of a grade teacher? Either at your school or another?
I like these ideas. I was thinking maybe you can starting a part time job. Teaching at home, not only kids about basic cooking or interior design. Preparing individual meals for the elderly, some have special needs, like no salt, no green vegetables, no sugar. Home staging is fun and is affordable for clients. You can take these courses in short seminars, maybe even online.
Hi there,
My idea is a little out there maybe but I base it on the fact I actually did this for a living. With your degrees and interests in creativity would you consider working in theater? Are there theaters in your area? Could you join an amateur group as an outlet for creativity and see how it goes? I worked as a prop maker, assistant to designers, and stage manager for many years and I guess it could be considered glamorous.
Oh also political and social causes – kind of in the same vein as volunteer work. Doing marches and protests, handing out flyers to promote your group’s agenda, setting up tables at street fairs, having meetings to figure out the best ways to get your groups message out to the world – all good ways to meet like-minded people. I have a friend who works to improve animal rights. She has gotten some new friends as a result of her work.
If you have kids get involved with their school – PTA and other committees etc. Schools always seem to be looking for parental volunteers.
Other kids groups like scouts, 4H, etc. who rely on grown-up volunteers might help you get involved and meet new people. You’ll also get some great memories with your kids.
Can you teach anything? If so consider teaching it for free to meet new people. After a while you can charge new customers so you can make a bit of cash on the side but your first customers (or their parents) can turn into friends as well as recommend you and send future (paying) customers your way.
Wish: to have more friends, spend more time having fun, and with husband.
Obstacle: no current friends, husband is a workaholic, with 12 hour days/7 days a week
I am in a similar situation in regards to no friends. Here are some suggestions, some of which I need to follow myself:
Google Meet-up groups and see if there are any in your area that share similar interests with you. If not – form a few that are based around your interests. You can even combine interests if they are similar. You can also try to do it on craigslist or tribe.
Get to know your neighbors and anyone else on your block. Hold a block party or coffee get together or combined garage sale – get friends, make some money, swap stuff, and get rid of clutter – killing four birds with one stone. You also might meet other neighborhood people other than the people on your block.
If you have young kids and like some of the parents of their friends try to have a group playdate where the the grown ups comes over and you have coffee while the kids play. Or you could all go out to a park or something. You can also encourage playdates with children of grown-ups who you’d like to get to know better.
If you are working go out for lunch or coffee or after-work drinks with people you like at your job. Even if they are not in your department. If you are not working then think of people in previous jobs you liked, look for them on social media, and befriend them and ask to go out for coffee.
Get to know the people who work at your regular haunts – your favorite coffee shop, grocery store, restaurants etc.
Volunteer – you’ll meet people who are interested in similar causes.
Join or create a book club or movie club. Trust me – speaking from experience (and my mom has the same problem) there are tons of wives who are sick of nagging their husbands to go and see this movie and that movie with them (the latest being Les Miz in my case) and then end up not going at all and missing it on the big screen. Start a group of girls who go to the movies once a week. And then you can go out for food or drinks afterwards to discuss the movie. Or if you are a reader a book club might be the best for you. However with both clubs usually the movie/book discussion ends up transforming into talking about other things and voila – instant friends!
Take classes in stuff that interest you and go out for post-class discussion with students afterwards.
Start a carpool to your job is you are working – save money and the environment while making friends. It doesn’t have to be people at your office – you can find places that list carpools in your area. Also a great networking opportunity.
Post on facebook that you are interested in doing something and if any of your facebook friends are interested tell them to let you know via private message. Then go do something with them and post pictures afterwards to lure more people to join you for future activities. They will see how much fun you are having and want to join you next time.
Look at any people who have said to you something like “hey we should get together for coffee sometime.” Ignore the fact that yes true – they might have said it just to be polite but pretend they didn’t and take them up on it. (I really need to do this. I have five potential friends that I need to call.)
If you are religious you can get involved with the people at your place of worship. My mom met her second husband at church.
Get any community newspapers or circulars, look at bulletins boards in libraries and community centers, etc.and look for postings and ads for clubs, workshops, classes, meeting groups that might interest you. Sometimes they are free as well.
When you are looking for clubs and meet-up groups etc. look for ones that are for people who have just moved into your area as they are going to be coming to the group specifically to make friends. If you are shy then also look for groups that are made for shy people who find it hard to make friends. If you are shy you will be all in the same boat with everyone else and you can all agree to laugh when the uncomfortable silences happen. You can agree to return to a specific topic as a safety net like dogs, movies, the weather and then laugh about how often it happens.
I don’t know if I am allowed to post an actual link so I will write it out but there is a website I have been reading called succeedsociallydotcom that has advice on meeting new friends. There are lots of articles about meeting people on it including an article for married people that I need to read myself.
As for the workaholic hubby – well if he owns his own business I always assume that working extra hours is a neccessity. Could you help him out with the biz and spend time that way? If he has other employees that would be a great way to make friends. Everyone is going to be nice to the bosses’ wife LOL. You could barter with him – you work x amount of hours for free if he promises to take you out dancing or to the movies etc. once a week. Free labor is an opportunity for him that would be hard to pass up as a business owner. Also if running his biz gives him great pleasure (like it does for many people) then maybe you shouldn’t try to deny him of that pleasure. Instead of focusing on trying to change him – work on getting girlfriends and creating a full social life for yourself with no resentment whatsoever towards him. He might see how much fun you are having and decide to make time to join in. He also might get jealous at how you now have less time for him and decide reallocate some “work time” to “wife time”. Sometimes actions speak louder than words with men as I learned from a fantastic book called “Why Men Love B*tches” (forgive me Barbara from plugging another book on this board) but I swear it has taught me soooo much about men and the advice in it has completely helped me take of one of the areas in my life that needed improvement. If you put together a group of girlfriends some of them might have husbands or boyfriends. You can invite them over as a couple for drinks or dinner or to watch a DVD or “the big game” if you are sports fans and perhaps the husbands will become instant guy friends for your hubby. You might be able to lure him with the prospect of “its a networking opportunity – potential clients or people who might know potential clients”.
Anyway there are some suggestions. I hope this helps.
Maybe I’m not supposed to be jumping in here yet. I have not had my first message approved. Your situation sounds exhausting. It’s good your husband wants to work, but why does he need to work quite so hard? What job does that? Friends. Well, that can be tricky because imho if you go looking too hard, you appear too needy and desperate and it turns people away, a bit like that old addage, you find romance when you stop looking for it. But you might look at your church, by joining a book club, by finding a craft or hobby you enjoy doing and joining a group promoting it, considering some volunteer work even if a short-term goal, or even trying to lookup old friends, i.e. high school or college on social media.
Wish: to spend time having fun with positive people, includingy my husband. Obstacle: husband is a workaholic business owner; 12 hour days/7days a week, and no friends.
PS I am ready to try any suggestions!
i was walking today in the park. it gave me so much power that i felt that in such “spirit” one find the friends more easily than in the disco. i would do both: try to find sth which gives you spirituall power, this is my favourite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp9l1BmRYZ8
try to find “your feeling”, i can talk a bit with you if you like, on skype. or find some people on livemocha :), i am organising “interculturall eating” once a month we meet at other people places, everytime someone is cooking, start sth small. my first party are my “old” boring friends. now it is getting bigger and bigger. find some picture, music and be inspired. listen to your intuition. i have a friend, she dont speak good english, she lifes in germany, and she would like to go to cornwall once a year. she is looking for programms there, maybe you can look for people from cornwall, and on this way meet new people, and my friend (acctualle she is my buddy, you know what it is?).
i know that normaly foreigners are willing to find friends too, students… just open the telefon book start calling, and after 50th call at least you know what you looking for. you can just call and say that you have 5hours a month and you are willing to do sth for others…: read books in hospital, meet imigrants, ….