Think outside the box

Think outside the box

 

Iris Apfel is an inspiring, eccentric fashion legend and if you haven’t heard of her, find an online video – she’s inspiring.  Reading her quote this morning touched on something that I’ve been pondering.  Simply that for me, I no longer want to do what everyone else is doing.

Prowling through craft fairs lately has me seeing things in a different light and I tend to fall into the category of ‘lets do what everyone else is doing’.  Not copying their style, but trying to think the way they do.  By nature, I am a ‘colouring outside of the lines’ kind of person, but I thought in business (and in my case the organic apothecary business) that I had to do what everyone else was doing.

Recently I met with friends and asked for advice and the answers frustrated me, they were all the nice and polite answers, which is fine – but at this time in my career, I need someone to say ‘think outside of the box’.  And I realize that person is me.  I need to give myself permission to swim upstream, go against the grain and most importantly – the permission to fail.

The hardest part of the running group we joined, was that everyone else was in the lead pack of runners.  The group quickly formed and they all took off and stayed together, way far ahead.  At first it was a short distance and then I could only see the reflective stripes way in the distance.  And I hated being left behind but I couldn’t move fast enough to join them.

There is joy and beauty in not being with the ‘in crowd’, there is something to be gleaned by doing things differently and if you fail, fail proudly.  So this weekend we have a two day artisan show and I am going to step out of my comfort zone and do a few things differently.  Same old, same old just isn’t going to work for me anymore and like Iris, I don’t want to think like everyone else.

Keep up with the two blooms here.

Caron is one of the blooms of Two Blooms Design Studio Est. 2002. She is the dreamer, production manager, self taught chef and the social media wannabe. Caron is married to the word adventure and she will never stop dreaming.