For our March 3rd Zoom meeting, local author, illustrator, and speaker Mark Ludy shared with us his insights into unleashing our own creative and social capabilities, breaking through years, if not decades, of hesitancy based on fear of what others will think and fear of not being good enough.  Through the course of his presentation, he made several generalizations (each supported by more specific illustrations). 
In terms of connecting with others, it is not about you, it is about the other, your audience.  For many widely successful individuals, the secret was in just showing up.  It’s easy to fall prey to the path you have always followed, rather than creating new paths, but we all have the capacity to change.  Be open to the uncertainty of starting.  In business focus on what you can control, not what you can’t control.
 
Our brains want to do what is comfortable, following the paths we have followed before.  Although we tend to act out of acquired disciplines, it is possible to create new paths.  Although we all are subject to feelings like “I have arrived and I don’t want to change”, or “this is how I’ve always done things”, or “I’m waiting for inspiration”, or simply the urge to procrastinate, each of us has the ability to figure out what is holding himself back and take the risk to change.  Even with the most successful strategies, there is always room for change. 
 
In the area of art (whether figurative, written, or any other), don’t start off trying to produce a finished product.  If you create something “finished” from the beginning, you will always be disappointed because you will want to make it more perfect.  Instead, start with a “brain dump” of everything pertaining to the idea, for example getting it down as a disorganized mess on paper.  Then get that mess organized into a product that is aimed at communicating with an audience.  Allow yourself to play, perhaps in a journal where you can process “it” for yourself in an environment where no one else can criticize it. 
 
It is possible to conceptually organize the aspects of your life into quadrants with each quadrant including all of the aspects of your life of more-or-less equal importance.  The upper left quadrant includes what is important for you to do imperatively.  The upper right quadrant includes important stuff, but things that can be delegated to someone else or that can be put off into the future.  The lower left quadrant is stuff that you should do for others but that is less important to you.  And the lower right quadrant is all of the other stuff, that should be thrown out and ignored – the “Devil’s Vortex”. 
 
Where you are today did not happen overnight and where you want to be tomorrow will not happen immediately.  Be open to the uncertainty of starting: if you keep doing “this”, it will ultimately be worth the effort.  Where in your life are you giving yourself license to develop a certain skill or life style?  You have to realize and act on the fact that your business is what you can control and that other people’s business is out of your control. 
 
With respect to communicating with children, he referenced Pixar in their making of animated films that communicate with children and adults: don’t dumb things down.  What you find nourishing to you can be nourishing to others. 
 
He emphasized the importance of engaging with your community.  You have to take action to open yourself up to others – it doesn’t happen by accident. 
 
Go back to things you have always done, always seen, and approach them differently for different results.