Latest / Good Morning From The Chicken Coop! / Season 3 - Episode 43 - A quote from Georgia O’Keefe

Transcript

Season 3 - Episode 43 - A quote from Georgia O’Keefe · Good Morning From The Chicken Coop!

• 0:01
  Welcome to the Good Morning From the Chicken Coop Podcast with
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  Kim Johnson, your creative strategist and mastermind set
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  coach. Filled with inspiration,
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  distinctions, perspectives, and possibilities, we help you to
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  cultivate a mindset that leads you to create the best version
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  of yourself you could ever imagine.
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  Join Kim every morning from one of her favorite happy places,
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  her chicken coop along with all her chickens.
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  Hey everybody, good morning from the chicken coop.
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  So today we're going to talk about a quote from one of my
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  most favorite artists of all times, Georgia O'Keeffe.
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  And I posted this quote the other day and I got a message
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  from somebody about it. So I want to tackle this because
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  somebody commented on it. So the quote goes, I've been
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  absolutely terrified every minute of my life and I never
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  let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.
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  So this person comments on it and she says that can't be true.
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  And I started laughing. And I said, why do you say that?
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  And she said, well, because I mean, a fear keeps you from
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  doing things. And I said, ah, interesting
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  concept. Fear is present to make us think
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  before we do things. But does it keep you from doing
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  things? And she said, well, it certainly
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  keeps me from doing things. And it got me thinking, OK, yes.
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  Do I believe that Georgia O'Keeffe said that she's never
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  let it keep her from doing a single thing?
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  Well, I do believe that that's what she believes 100%.
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  Now because we're in our head and we are always skewed in our
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  own head, who the hell knows and really cares?
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  The quote is awesome. The quote makes a point and the
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  quote makes you think about are you living in a state of fear
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  from and is it preventing you from doing something?
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  Like if she was afraid to actually put the paint on the
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  paper or on the canvas, would she ever have painted the
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  picture she had painted? No, she wouldn't have.
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  You know, many years ago I took this class watercolor class.
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  I had never painted watercolors before always wanted to learn
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  how to I painted them as a child but they were you know nothing
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  of substance and I wanted to try doing it as an adult.
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  So we signed up for a week long class learning Chinese
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  watercolor painting from a gentleman from China who was
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  coming through the US on a tour, Leon Kwan Zhen.
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  And we signed up with him and went to New Hampshire and hung
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  out for a week learning how to paint these watercolors.
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  And I just thought this was the coolest thing ever because if
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  you're going to learn something, you go and learn from somebody
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  who's brilliant at it. And if they're willing to teach
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  someone who knows nothing, which I asked, I said, can I come if I
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  know nothing? And they were like, absolutely.
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  So we get there. Now, the other people that had
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  signed up for the class knew everything because they had been
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  all been painting watercolor for the longest time.
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  And I was like, going in, I was super excited.
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  I was so excited to go do this. I was a little afraid I was
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  going to suck at it, but I'm going to do it anyway.
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  I was having a Georgia O'Keeffe moment.
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  I'm going to do it anyway. And that really is how I spend
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  most of my time. Like, I'll figure it out.
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  I'll build the plane while I fly it.
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  I'm pretty common for saying that.
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  Every one of my clients has heard me say, well, we'll build
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  this plane while we fly it, and we probably don't have the right
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  tools, but we'll figure it out as we go.
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  So I'm. I'm always the one that's using
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  my imagination, creativity and all of that to go into it.
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  But now back to the story of the class.
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  So I get into this class and my husband Mark and I are doing
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  this together. And he's one of the only men in
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  the class, by the way, which is kudos to him for coming with me
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  and doing this. And where with all these women
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  that have been painting forever. They have been painting forever.
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  And he comes by and he's asking every person where they come
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  from, what they do, how long they've been painting.
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  And I say, well, I haven't done this before.
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  You know, Mark regularly paints acrylics, but I haven't even
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  been doing that. I photographer, I use, you know,
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  my cameras for everything. And I'm telling them this.
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  And he puts his hand on my shoulder and he says she'll be
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  the best one in this class. And I was mortified.
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  I was mortified. Like, why would he say something
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  like that one, The pressure that that put on me.
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  But the women in the class were all now upset because why is it
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  that he's saying this? And I felt so uncomfortable.
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  And then he stopped and he paused.
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  And he said because she knows nothing, she'll be willing to
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  hear and learn the way I will teach it, because you know
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  things. You will have a barrier to it.
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  And then everybody got it. So the point is, I wasn't afraid
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  to go into that class. I was doing it.
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  Then I got afraid. I was in the class.
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  Then he said something. I was afraid.
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  Then I had to let go of my fear and continue on in the class.
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  And I had to see that these women who couldn't let go of the
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  way they were doing it were in fear that they were not going to
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  be good. And it was this big microcosm.
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  It was a Petri dish of what was going on psychologically.
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  And I'm telling you this story because it's so important to
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  realize fear comes and goes. Fear is not an absolute.
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  It's not like you have it one moment and it's gone.
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  That whole week was mixed. Such a bath of mixed emotions
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  for me, but it really taught me a lot about saying hey, I'm
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  going to dive in, I'm going to let it go.
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  I'm not going to let this happen to me.
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  And I had to keep course of correcting and adjusting my my
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  thoughts. But guess what?
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  It worked. And I and I love to this day, I
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  love experimenting and doing all kinds of stuff like that.
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  And yes, I still paint watercolors.
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  Not nearly as much as I used to after that class.
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  But the point is, don't let that fear take you on.
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  And don't let the concept of thinking, hey, I've got to just
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  get Once I get rid of it, it can never come back.
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  Because that's crap. It'll come back right away.
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  All right, my friends, I hope you have a blessed day and I
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  will see you tomorrow. Bye.