2010
image by jaci XIII | download the iPhone wallpaper
This lesson is about creating the public, web-based version of yourself, which will aid you in the never-ending process of designing your life. Having a personal website is like a personal development catalyst, so get ready to bust out the reality of your dreams!
After you read through the lesson, download the accompanying discussion MP3 between me and Kelly Cree. We expand upon many of the ideas below to further our understanding and yours.
Be fearless!
We are all one. We come from the same place, we are made of the same energy, and when we die we go right back to the whole.
The Internet is a physical manifestation of our inherent oneness. We are all connected. We all have unique perspectives, but collectively, we are something much bigger than ourselves. And if we are all one, we are all each other. I am you, you are me. We are like spines on the same koosh ball.
Under this assumption I came to my views on privacy. If we are all one, what is the point of privacy? The need for privacy comes mainly from fear of what other people will think. Why would we be afraid of what others think, if we are all the same underneath? Why would I chose to hide from myself?
It’s time to stop caring about what anyone else thinks, discover what brings you passion and joy, and become the person you’ve always known you are! Amplify your ideas, share your happiness with others, and expand your possibilities!
Why exist digitally?
Having a personal website is a great boon in the process of designing your life. It is a way to view yourself from outside of yourself, a digital ledge from which to gain perspective. Since we spend so much time online anyway, it makes sense to be focused and deliberate about what kinds of digital creation we engage in.
Many of you are entrepreneurs at heart and hope to make money from your website, maybe through advertising revenue or product sales. By approaching your website with passion and the mindset that it is enjoyable to work on it, you are setting the stage for a successful endeavor. Below are several reasons to keep an active website, which can ultimately lead you down the path to financial success.
Feel good.
Keeping a personal website has been the single most valuable thing I’ve done for myself. I knew that it was a great place to collect creative works, memories and inspiration, but until recently I didn’t really understand why. The simple answer? Because keeping a website feels GOOD. It feels good to create and share our work, it feels good to collect inspiration, it feels good to write about topics that interest us, and it feels good to receive feedback in comments and conversation. It feels good to take photos of ourselves for the sole purpose of posting them to our blogs, it feels good to organize our thoughts in the form of a website, and it feels good to create digital representations of ourselves that spread our ideas to people across the world.
Maintaining a personal website feels good, so what? SO, feeling good brings more good things into your life! Whatever you think about, you bring more about into your life. So if you are feeling good, you are thinking good thoughts. These good feelings and thoughts do nothing but generate more. The more joy we look for, the more we find!
A website is like a mirror of your mind. When you design a new portfolio section, or write a fresh blog post, or take a great outfit photo, you are reflecting your life at the moment. How do you want it to look? You are in control! Every moment is an opportunity to find something that makes you feel good, and when you collect some of these moments on your site, you begin creating an archive of good-feeling memories to scroll through whenever you need a boost.
Discover your unique passion.
Kelly once said about personal websites, “if you know what your site is about, you know what your life is about.” How true this is! What parts of yourself do you want to showcase on a website? What ideas do you have that everyone should hear about? What are you truly passionate about?
Don’t worry if you don’t know yet! Maintaining a website can help you figure out what makes you feel good, what interests you, and what you are passionate about doing. This doesn’t require chaining yourself to your computer or constant twittering through meals with friends. Having a website may actually inspire you to spend less time online, so you can be out having exciting adventures to share!
Voice your intentions.
I like when I create posts that resonate with other people. I like creating with a joyful vibration, and I like it when others vibrating at the same level respond. Wouldn’t it be nice if this post resonated with many of you?
By stating what I would like to happen with my creation, I am voicing my intention. This can be applied to anything you want. Are you looking for a new bicycle? Tell the Internet! Are you in need of inspiration? Make a post about it. The universe can’t answer you if you don’t ask for what you want. And by asking publicly on the Internet, you are making it easier for yourself to believe that things can be orchestrated for you. If you just asked aloud for a new bike, you might have a hard time believing the universe was going to bring you one, just like that. But if you ask online (like Kelly did after her bike was stolen), it’s a lot easier to believe that you might have a friend with an unused bike laying around for you.
Voicing your intentions and desires online can help you begin noticing the little coincidences and synchronicities that are occurring all over the place as the universe works to bring you what you ask for. The resulting conversations tend to be deeper than the usual Facebook conversation fare. It’s fun to talk with people who have thought about life a lot!
Teach and learn.
Every single one of us has knowledge that others could benefit from. Providing digital access to what we know is a surefire way to speed up discoveries and fun-having worldwide! Not only do we all have something to teach, but by teaching it we learn it again. Teach once, learn twice. Also, it can be fun to challenge yourself to do new things and post about them along the way–learning and teaching at the same time.
Process and synthesize.
All of this business about the universe and positivity and synchronicities and the power of thoughts and putting it all online can be overwhelming at first. Having a creative outlet to discuss your understanding and progress as you go through life is invaluable. Putting your experiences online publicly is different from keeping a personal journal, because you create with the knowledge that someone else might be looking. This is a good thing–it encourages you to clarify what you’re thinking and experiencing. This clarification helps you process and synthesize new information as it comes, deepening your knowledge. Coming closer to understanding the meaning of life is definitely something that brings me joy :]
Phew! Now that we have all the conceptual reasoning for having a website out of the way, we can start talking about your new (or improved!) online presence!
photo by margolove
Visualization of Your Higher Self
In the previous lesson, we talked about writing our dream “About” pages. What would your future biography say if you could determine it now? We are going to take the same approach for our websites.
Your Higher Self is the you that you want to be. It is you in perfect form, the dream you, the you living out your fullest potential. Your website is about that you. Not you in your current reality, not the flawed you, not the sad you, not the negative you, not the unhappy you. Your Higher Self is who you are striving to become.
When you look at your website, you want to feel like you’re looking at the website of your idol. Do you want to be a rock star? Do you want to be a fashion designer with more sales than you can fulfill? Do you want to be an artist with openings at every major gallery in the country? Then design your site to reflect that!
Create a page with tour dates, use Paypal to easily let others purchase your work, describe your most recent smashing success. It doesn’t matter if you’re fibbing a little (or a lot!) because the point is to get in the feeling of success. You have complete control over your perception of yourself! And when you create an outstanding website for your dream self, you are aligning the stars to make that dream a reality.
You might be wondering how you are going to get this site of your dreams! You are going to make it of course, or perhaps you know someone who owes you a favor. But to do it yourself is most rewarding, so you can change anything and everything at any time. Creating a site that best reflects the you who you want to be is a never-ending process, because your desires are always changing.
Where to start
Your job is now to create a website that best represents your Higher Self. The first decision you need to make is where this website will live. Do you already have a site? Is the URL what you most ideally want to be known as? Whatever you chose, make sure it’s something you really love. Don’t love your real name? Change it! But be consistent across the Internet–try to make your website URL and your various account names (Twitter, Tumblr, etc) the same.
The easy way out
If mucking about with code and webhosting makes your eyes glaze over, never fear! You can get a free WordPress.com account and let WordPress worry about all the technical bits. Once you log in to your dashboard, you can choose from 99 different layouts (called themes) to make your site look the way you want it.
If WordPress.com isn’t the right fit for you, feel free to create your digital Higher Self anywhere else that makes you feel comfortable. Livejournal, Facebook, Tumblr, Posterous, Myspace, Flickr, or Blogger all have free options for your enjoyment.
How to get started with webhosting
If you’re willing to go the extra mile to have things just the way you want them, the best possible thing you can do for yourself when creating your web presence is getting your own domain name and hosting. This means that you pay someone for computer space where your website lives, but you get complete control over everything. If you ever hope to make money off your website, make sure you do this! It is more work for you than signing up for a WordPress.com account, but it pays off to have complete control over the way your site looks, what kinds of advertising you can put on it, and what kinds of content you can publish.
If you are looking for a place to host your website, I recommend Bluehost, with one caveat–they have a pretty strict Acceptable Use Policy. If you want lots of nudity on your site, Bluehost is not for you! I have held an account with them for a couple years now and they have been quite lovely to work with. If you do choose to sign up with them, use the link above and I get a little cut from the deal ;] Here are roughly the steps you will have to follow when signing up:
- Go to Bluehost.com or your hosting provider of choice.
- Choose your domain name and monthly hosting plan. Bluehost gives you unlimited storage space and bandwidth, great for when your website explodes with traffic!
- Log in to your new account and explore your Control Panel (aka cPanel). This is where you get to do lots of fun things like set up email accounts, back up your site, and manage your databases.
- Configure your FTP settings, so you can easily transfer files from your computer to your website.
What next?
Once you’ve figured out your FTP settings, install WordPress on your server. If you want to design your own theme and code it yourself, check out some tutorials. Otherwise, start browsing all the free themes available.
Things to consider about your Higher Self-cum-website
- Header: your site header is generally an image or block of text at the very top of your site. This is the first thing your readers will see when they get to your site. Does it accurately represent your higher self? Does the imagery you use have meaning?
- Sidebar: the sidebar is often your site’s primary navigation. Ponder every single link or bit of text you put in there. Carefully consider the sidebar hierarchy–what is the most important navigation item? Put that one first.
- About page: your about page is very important to give visitors some context about your site. And it is an extremely important part of visualizing your Higher Self. What you write in your About page is what will come to be, so make sure you know what you want and aren’t afraid to say it!
- Categories: the different types of posts you make can all have separate categories, so you can sort your site. What are the different aspects of your life you want to showcase? When picturing your Higher Self, what are the different areas you see? Don’t use categories for areas of your life you dislike, because you’ll just perpetuate those aspects.
- Portfolio: no matter what your industry, a portfolio can be a great section to include on your website. Choose to showcase only projects that you truly enjoyed doing and would love to do again. This will bring about more projects like those.
- Copyright: Copyright is obsolete. Read this post by Steve Pavlina on why he is no longer protecting his work with copyright. Leo Babauta at Zen Habits also has an awesome copyright policy on his blog. Consider releasing your copyright in your sidebar or footer by including a Creative Commons Public Domain license.
- Posts: every post you make should make you feel good. If you’re documenting or talking about something that doesn’t make you feel good, STOP RIGHT NOW, unless you want to bring more bad feelings into your life!
So what should I post about?
Here are some different types of posts you can create to make yourself feel good and bring more joy into your life.
- Things I love: a list of things you are grateful for, or that make you laugh, smile, or feel joy.
- Rampage of appreciation: a stream of consciousness flowing of things you appreciate about your current situation.
- List of positive aspects: if there is something bringing you down, list out all the positive things you like about the person or circumstance.
- Visualization: draw a picture of something you want, and include yourself in it.
- Vision board: put up a bulletin board in your home where you hang up all the things you want to bring into your life. Post about it!
- Exercise: embed your Runkeeper routes or talk about your favorite way to get your body moving.
- Fashion: make the Polyvore collection of your dreams, or get a lookbook.nu account.
- Link love: link to all the different bloggers you love and explain why! You’ll get good link karma.
- Research: pick a topic that interests you and dig up all the information you can find about it. Organize your discoveries into a gorgeous post that will save someone else time.
- People you’d like to meet, places you’d like to travel: start writing about the things you want to attract into your life!
- Inspiration: what is inspiring you today? Beautiful new colored pencils? A triple espresso? Your grandparents? Tell us about it, and receive more inspiration for your trouble.
- Music you’re listening to: I am always dying to hear recommendations from others!
- Book reviews: what book has really changed your life, and why?
- Portfolio of your work: no matter what it is you do, you have enough experience to create an amazing portfolio. Choose your favorite projects from your entire lifetime and showcase them. Then sit back as you attract similar projects into your life.
- Food photos and recipes: if you like to cook, document it and make it look exquisite.
- How-to: we all know things that seem simple to us but not to everyone! Think of one thing you know how to do really well and post a detailed tutorial.
- Funny family stories: we all love hearing how screwed up everyone else’s family is…
- Oh, pets: you like it when your cat does that cute thing? Make a post about it and watch more cuteness unfold ;D
Activity
Your assignment this week is simple. Get yourself a website, then start making it look like the website of your Higher Self! If you already have a site, take a look at it and make a list of the things you could change to make it better reflect who you want to be. Then start crossing things off that list! To turn in your assignment, just post a link to your site in the comments for critique and feedback.
On my list of improvements to make this week: put up my portfolio and re-categorize my posts to be more like Kelly’s!
Remember, the point of having a website is to feel good. If at any time the process is making you frustrated or upset, just walk away! There is no deadline, and no pressure. Work on your site for the pure pleasure of creating. You can’t get it wrong, because you’ll never get it 100% done. You are always changing and your Higher Self is always expanding. Do what you’re inspired to do in this moment and you’ll never be disappointed with the results.
To go deeper into this lesson, don’t forget to listen to the discussion MP3.
See you next time!
Lesson 3 is Designing your thoughts & emotions. In this lesson we’ll cover the law of attraction, positivity, manifestation & subjective reality. Learning how to control your thoughts and emotions is the basis for designing the rest of your life, so I’m super excited to see what inspiration brings us!
Don’t forget to sign up for the School of Life Design Mailing List to get emails when new lessons go up, and to get exclusive content not available to the public.
Thank you!
Working on the School of Life Design has been hugely rewarding thus far! If you enjoyed this lesson, please consider a donation to keep the School of Life Design thriving!
Thank you for co-creating with me!
Great article, very nice post. thank you very much.
I just want to say thank you so much for doing what you do and being who you are. Earlier today I was feeling really down and I listened to you and Kelly rampage on The Popular Podcast and totally binged on the videos/audio while doing my work and now everyone is looking at me all freaky because I’m sitting in the corner beaming!
Also I love what your doing here. It’s really inspiring and awesome and I can’t wait to get started.
Thank you Emma Marie! You totally made my day! So glad you’re enjoying TPP, we have so much fun doing it :] Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you get started!
And thanks for stopping by SeaCSS!
The mp3 track made me smile
I can relate to what you say completely. I love how you guys get so excited about everything! Thank you.
Thanks Gen! We love making the mp3, it’s the last part and most fun to make :]
Jessica, that was flipping brilliant! This post *totally* resonated with me. All of those ideas have served me well, and so they’re what I encourage others to do. Especially love your comments about “privacy” being a manifestation of fear, discovering your *unique* passion & all the post ideas. This info is going to spark so many newbie breakthroughs!
One thought I would like to add is the website as Higher Self vs current self. My experience has been that there are aspects of the current self that will ask insistently to be shown on the website. Following your intuition will let you know which ones can help you along your journey, while others are more like echoes from an old life. Some parts of our journey are very appropriate to write about online, and serve as a personal healing tool as well as bonding our readers to us.
Here’s how I distinguish whether a part of “current me” is ready to shine on my website: Can I describe the lesson I learned from it? If so, onto the blog it goes! If I’m still mucking about in the issue and feeling confusion, fear, anger, etc. about it… then I keep marinating until the lesson makes itself clear.
How about you, Jessica? How do you determine what “current me” stuff makes it online?
Thanks for sharing your awesome insights and look forward to reading more…
Peace,
Lauren
Oh, one more thing. As I’m about to bookmark this post to StumbleUpon, I don’t see any social media sharing buttons. That’s proven to be an absolutely critical part of extending my online reach/tribe. I’m curious if not having them is strategic or if you’re going to add them soon.
Lauren,
Holy moly, your comments are spot on! Thank you so much for such a thoughtful response. You are right, some experiences of the current self are integral to bonding with readers, and also for personal processing and growth. I agree with what you said about how to choose – “Can I describe the lesson I learned from it? If so, onto the blog it goes! If I’m still mucking about in the issue and feeling confusion, fear, anger, etc. about it… then I keep marinating until the lesson makes itself clear.”
That is exactly how I look at it – by attempting to extract “lessons learned” from my experiences, it causes me to look at potentially negative experiences with a positive light. For example, being miserable about having to wake up early on Monday caused me to write a post about 5 ways to love Mondays (http://jessicamullen.com/2010/03/01/5-ways-to-love-mondays/)
Being able to be in a positive emotional state when I write a post is so important. I think that might be the simplest way I can look at it – if I can write the post and feel good while doing it, I know I’m doing the right thing. If I feel crappy or negative, I’m off track.
The one exception would be for publishing things that make me slightly uncomfortable for being too open–often those are posts that resonate most deeply with others.
Also, thanks for the social media sharing button idea – I’ve avoided it so far because I hate slowing down my site with more plugins, but you suggesting it now makes me realize how important it is anyway! Do you have any WordPress plugin suggestions? I’m about to go look!
Thank you for the stimulating conversation!
Hey Lauren, got the social plugin going, thanks again for the suggestion
Jessica,
You have totally stepped up your content & just everything with this series you’re writing! I can’t stop smiling because it’s just SO creative, brilliant & just…makes so much sense. I love it. Love it. Love it.
P.S. Remember when I sent you that Twitter msg about an interview? I am working on my pitch now, so if you’re still up to it, let me know
Erica,
Thank you thank you thank you! I have been so excited to work on all this, and it brings me so much joy that it resonates with you!
Definitely still interested in the interview, keep me posted!
“And by asking publicly on the Internet, you are making it easier for yourself to believe that things can be orchestrated for you.”
Aaaah! This is so true! How come I never though of this before?! You’re making me want to start a blog again. I love the idea of streaming your higher self!
Can’t wait for lesson three.
i love the beautiful graphics you have all over this place.
thank you for your sage advice!this life design business is so totally on the pulse of the zeitgeist, in my opinion. very sweet merging of the law of attraction and online presence. brilliant!
i immediately re-read my about page and had to change a bunch of things. “too honest for my own good” was the first thing i took out, wtf was i thinking?! i am fucking honest AND its for my own good!
ok, thanks dude, keep up the good work! <3
Allison, glad the “asking on the Internet” part made sense to you! I’d love to see you start a blog, get crackin girl! Lesson 3 is coming out soon, maybe tomorrow :]
Jacqueline, right on! So pleased to hear the way you phrased it as a “merging of the law of attraction and online presence,” now I have something concise to say when I talk about what I’m doing ;] EXCELLENT About page changes, only say what you want to be true!
Besos lovely ladies!
I’m so intrigued by what you’re doing with this series, and I find it incredibly thought provoking (a phrase becoming increasingly more meaningless, but true nonetheless).
About two years ago, I dedicated myself to being a more positive person in my presentation of myself, particularly through my blog. There are some inconsistencies, but I can see a marked difference in myself and those around me following that decision. I feel like stepping into some of the suggestions you make here could be the next step; moving beyond grief into positivity was step one, and it took time, but it’s time to keep going, right?
Lovely stuff. I’ll be paying attention to what comes next and considering your advice when making decisions regarding the future direction of my blog.
Hi Nicalyse! Thanks for reading. I’m so glad to hear you’re inspired to keep going on your journey, it would be hard to turn around right?
Ok, I’m following directions and doing my homework! I made a new blog and even gave you credit for the inspiration
Thanks!
Yay Stacey! Doesn’t a new beginning feel so refreshing? I loved reading your About page! Enjoy the journey… I know you will find so much joy in it!
way to live the Universal Laws and remind us all of Who We Really Are!
Man, this is awesome.
This particular article is just what I needed to be reading right now
hi there – you’re website is exactly what i have been needing and looking for. you have inspired me to start my own tumblr and actually keep with it. its something i need (and deserve) to do for myself – whether or not anyone else reads or likes it. so THANK YOU and lots of love! <3
Samara, AWESOME! I’ve subscribed to your tumblr, can’t wait to see more!
Jessica, you are the first person to post a comment on gilt clover!!!
Thank you.
Life is truly so awe-mazing.
Stay flowing~
Rhina, “stay flowing” is an AWESOME valediction!
Another great lesson from a wonderful teacher. Thanks again Jessica. I’ve been working on my site for over a week now and I think I’m finally at the point where I’m ready to share, because I can’t get it wrong and I’ll never get it right. Right?
http://beneaththeclovers.com
I’m eager to hear what you think…I’ve still got so much work ahead of me, but it’s very enjoyable (just like you said it would be). You Rock!!! Oh and I would love to put up an advert for the School of Life Design – if you will let me?? :\
Aw thanks Elisha! Your site is looking so so beautiful! I love the aesthetic you’re working with. And so functional, you have everything and it’s all organized! Thank you for posting about theveganstoner.com, omg new favorite site!
I am so happy for you, now that you have the foundation your digital abundance will flourish and bloom like the most beautiful flower! Thank you for sharing your progress with us. I subscribed to your feed, can’t wait to see what unfolds!
I really want to hear more about the eco-dome and the sustainable community you’re starting. I would love to see some articles/posts on that.
If you want to link to the School, I would also love that! Here is a banner,
http://jessicamullen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/school_of_life_design300.jpg
And you can use this for the link:
http://jessicamullen.com/tag/school-of-life-design/
Thank you! Have a beautiful day!
Thank you for all your kind words Jessica. I’m glad you like theveganstoner.com
http://kaylacm.tumblr.com/ is my new positivity / lifestreaming tumblr!
love it! subscribed!
You’ve inspired me to re-vamp my blog.
I found it a new theme, added a page to link it to my “professional” website (so I’m all connected!) and tweaked the header image a little. I’m not a graphic designer, but oh well!
It’s sad, but I kind of miss geocities…I really knew where I stood with html, this drag and drop stuff makes me feel a little less in control. Maybe it’s time to dig into the guts of web design.
JESS I LOVE YOU! YOUR SITE AND WORDS ARE INSPIRING ME SO MUCH!!
If you need serious web help, check out the forum! (You can peep it here http://jessicamullen.com/the-school-of-life-design-store/)
But I promise you can do it on your own too! Anything you need to know is google-able – and there are a bazillion forums and places to get help.
SO GREAT TO MEET YOU! So happy to be following your site and writings!
Hey! In response to what Kelly said why voicing positive expectations and setting public intentions works– hopefully this will further clarify this concept for newbs, as realizing the following was crucial to my understanding.
Setting strong/public intentions work because when you do so, you’re more likely to act in a manner consistent with your belief/desire and notice opportunities that lead to your desired reality.
That’s how synchronicity works, too. When you’re open and emotionally ready for a solution/change, you are able to see the opportunity when it appears in front of your face.
Once, a self-proclaimed cynic told me that synchronicity “only” works because you’re looking for the things that you want to see and that’s why you see them– for example, I see 111 and smiling dogs everywhere– and I was like, Yeah duh, exactly. The world is literally INFINITE and you can either train your brain to look for things you like or the things you don’t like.
(Moral: Keep this in mind when cynics try to talk you down from your magic. He was totally RIGHT, he just didn’t know how to feel GOOD about it. Cynics are people who don’t trust themselves.)
Great series so far. Inhaling it all as fast as I can and forwarding it to so many people. Thanks Jessica!
Kiriko, you are brilliant! I read what you wrote about synchronicity to Kelly and we got a good laugh out of it ^_^
I love this part especially: ” The world is literally INFINITE and you can either train your brain to look for things you like or the things you don’t like.”
I am open and ready for change. Thanks for the new mantra!
So grateful to hear you’re spreading the word! Thank you so much for the support Kiriko!