Having your dream shouldn’t be hard

Yesterday morning, I read a friend’s social media status which said something along the lines of “Photography is like living the life you dream, it’s never easy but it’s achievable.”  A second friend remarked, “Things worth having are never easy”. This got me to thinking … Shouldn’t it should be easy?

When you are on the right track of living your dream, making a move, or conquering a new career … it should most certainly be easy. The cosmos should align. The path should be marked with promise. Support from friends and family should be vast. Confidence in self should be at an all time high. Progress should be sweeping and complete.

I’m not saying that there should be no effort involved in creating your dream here on earth. Yes, there should. It will require skill, dedication, determination, focus, talent, perseverance, tenacity, problem solving, and time … but yes, god damn it, it should be easy. Absolutely ridiculously easy. This is your chosen path, your life’s work. And the universe should, and will, encourage you. If it’s hard … Just too friggin’ hard, then something is wrong.

Struggles, Stereotypes, and Courage

It is through our greatest struggles that we learn our greatest truths. I’m not talking about the day to day trials such as our TV is broken, our public buses are too dirty, or that we simply had a bad day. The struggles I’m referring to are the real hard-core life challenges. Sickness. Losing your home. Losing a child. War. Dealing with floods and property damage. These are issues where the only person who will save you is yourself. Hardships can break you, if you let them, or raise you up like a phoenix from the ashes.

Last week, I came upon an article in Nordstjernan entitled, Are Swedes Too Safe?. The article was a feature on David Eberhard’s book, I Trygghetsnarkomanernas Land (In the Land of Safety Addicts), and his upcoming lecture in San Francisco on April 19th, 2013. The idea that perhaps we are attempting to make ourselves too safe has been a conversation point for me for some time now, and Nordstjernan’s article caused a good deal of further reflection for me. While I certainly believe that everyone on the planet should experience feelings of well being and safety, I have to ask, when does it become counter productive?

Culture Shock Sweden

Oh hell no! Not me. But yes, it did happen to me and it was dark and ugly and intense. I never expected to experience culture shock in Sweden. After all, I had visited the country three times and because of the relationship with my guy, I considered myself fairly well educated about the culture, work environment, the society and current events. I mean really, how much different can Sweden be from the US? Even more surprising was that I would experience this seven months into my move to Göteborg. So, when I began to wonder exactly what the hell was wrong with me, it came as a complete shock to learn that indeed I might be shocked. I’m not even sure that I’ve come out the other side of this cultural shakeup yet, but I’d like the think the worst is over and that the pendulum is now swinging toward something more normal. There were several other contributing factors to my melancholia, some of which I will share with you, some of which I will not. For the sake of this post, let’s focus on culture shock.

I was pre-warned about the dark, dark days of winter. And while it was always a concern, I am a solar powered gal, I can write to you that the utter lack of sunlight took a profound toll on my senses. When you hear about the dark Scandinavian days, they don’t just mean dark  . . . They mean a total lack of sunlight.

Creating an International CV/Resume

For the last few days, I have been working on what I call “My Life Files”. Part of this includes my international CV/resume, a business plan, geographic outreach projections, marketing strategy and materials, and a few other little items. Because I work in the arts, these documents are structured toward a creative and cultural community. I’m excited about this project. After years and years of creating this type of business collateral for my clients, it is really nice to be able to do it for myself.

I thought it might be helpful to share with you what I learned about creating an international CV and how I created my own. The art world is becoming a very small place and I’m seeing it more and more as part of a global community. I think as we move forward, artists will be embracing an expanded culture, and international documents will become a greater part of their outreach arsenal.

The Re-Design

Welcome to the newly designed and updated blog and portfolio for LisaMikulski.com. After days of ripping apart the old design and replacing it with something fresh, here we are, ready to kickass in 2013. I thought long and hard about re-establishing this blog and with all the recent privacy issues surrounding some social media sites, I felt that what I needed, perhaps what we need, is a space where conversation can be had in a safe online environment. Additionally, while I had created 2Sweden4love and believe it to be a very beautiful site, I always felt somewhat fractured writing there . . . and here.