My play map

As I work my way through the Screw Work Let’s Play Ignition programme, I find myself diving into Play Mapping. With additional coaching from Selina Barker, I am getting clearer on how I would like my working life to be and taking a step closer to that every day. I am fairly happy with my life as it is, but hey, there is always room for improvement and I could do with more work and income when small boy starts school in just 12 weeks time… I want to be sure that I love what I am doing and getting paid to play. Play Mapping involves dreaming big. It means creating a vision of what you really, really want and this involves getting to the very heart of the experiences you desire in your life. So, I have been dreaming big, but also getting very practical about the little steps I can take right now to get closer to that dream life on a day to day basis.

To the sea

As expressed in my play map, I felt the need for wide open skies and sea air this weekend, so I took my best friend Laura, her youngest daughter and my boys on a day trip to Hastings. We had fish & chips, rode the rollercoaster (not in that order) and played hide and seek amongst the gorse bushes in Hastings Country Park. These are the things that make me come alive. I returned home with salty, tangled hair and a good feeling about things to come. The restorative effects of this day of play are still with me and the trip got Laura sketching again.

One of the most important things to me is sharing and connecting with like minded people. I have long known that in order to create a successful, sustainable business, it is necessary to grow my tribe, but this week I acknowledged that fact and started to take steps towards the goal of reaching out and connecting with more people. On Wednesday, I set the intention of finding a blog for which I could provide a guest post. I mentioned this to a few people and sent this desire out into the universe. Within 24 hours, my call was answered from the most unexpected of directions. I stumbled upon Paula, a like-minded blogger in Buenos Aires who was seeking guest posts and, as luck would have it, someone had dropped out leaving a spot for me right away. As Paula so sweetly put it, “The Universe was playing mix and match with us”. By Friday… less than 48 hours after setting my intention, my first guest blog post was up! You can read it here.

On Monday, I was Paula’s guest illustrator of the week and another of my images was being shared. Whilst I have been letting go of outcome in my art, the power of setting small, but clear intentions with a bigger goal in mind has been such a great lesson for me this week. My desire to connect led to another contact closer to home… the delightful Hatti of Parent Tribe. Parent Tribe is a new online magazine and website which aims to inspire and support parents to find ways to be together with their children more, living creative, holistic and fulfilling lives. I am so thrilled that some of my photographs will be used in the next issue and I am looking forward to connecting with other creative parents online.

And so, as the week progresses, I will be doing more of what makes me come alive. I will be going back to my play map and fitting more of these things into my daily life. I will be setting more intentions as well. Starting with the bigger dream, I will consider the next step I need to take in order to get closer to that bigger dream… I will set my intention and take the leap.

Have you tried Play Mapping?

How have you used the power of intentions to get closer to your big dream?