A Castle of Her Own Making

Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things

Normally the Follow Friday spotlights fall on Friday.

Yes. I do know it’s Monday. I haven’t lost my mind or my sense of where I am in the time/space continuum!

So what is so compelling that I’d run a spotlight on Monday? Not so much what, as who…and the who is Michelle Nikolaisen of Wicked Whimsy.

Michelle blows my mind for many reasons:

• She talks about craving and creating in the same breath.
• She’s all about conscious choice which is one of my passions.
• She’s fired up about life and what’s possible.
• She’s written an awesome manifesto, Build Your Own Castle

And she’s only 22 years old!

I wouldn’t usually  mention age as it doesn’t mean that much to me. But when I think back to my early 20′s I was certainly not creating any life altering, transformational products.

Michelle on the other hand?

She is up to extraordinary things, having just launched a brilliant resource, a multimedia manual called Take Back Your Creativity to help people get their creativity mojo out of the box and get it working again. I simply couldn’t wait till Friday to have her shine!

1.  Why are you here?

I am here to to sing my song and figure out how to make it the best song it can be. (Metaphorically. Not literally. That would be bad, I’m not much of a singer.)

2. What is your future self calling for?

More honesty. More idealism. More kindness. And to have the end aim of building up, not tearing down.

(Except for the rare cases where destruction is necessary for future growth.)

3. How do you honour that calling?

By constantly asking myself – “Why am I doing this?” and making sure that it’s a good reason, instead of resorting to “Because” or it being the easiest choice at the moment.

(Note from me: Anyone who lives such a conscious, questioning life, present to their values is a cosmic twin in my book!)

4. What is both effortless and life-giving to you?

Being wildly enthusiastic! About my projects or others. I love to see the way the pieces fit together, and the different potentials for this project, and spin offs of this project, and ooh, maybe we could do it that way…

5.  What do you do better than anyone else?

Be myself, and be as much of myself as possible.

6. What is extraordinary about your work?

How much freaking fun it is! Is that too cheesy? Because it’s absolutely the truth!

(Note from me: Cheesy or not, this response from Michelle speaks directly to the whimsical aspect of her work! And think about it for a moment…how many people can truly say they have fun in their work?)

7. What is guaranteed to inspire you?

Seeing the kindness that people are capable of.

8. What will your epitaph say if you’ve lived life on your terms?

I could be a smartass and say that I probably won’t have an epitaph since I plan on being cremated, but I won’t Instead, after thinking for a few minutes, I think the best thing I can come up with is this “She loved life.” If someone could honestly put that on my epitaph, I’d be a happy camper.

Michelle Nikolaisen is a 22 year old blue haired creative & writer living in Austin, TX. She writes at Wicked Whimsy – the thoughtful renegade’s guide to creating the life you crave – and she wants to help you take back your creativity! Take Back Your Creativity is an ebook + workbook + audio kit, designed to help you integrate your creative life & daily life, increase your creative output, and navigate through & around creative blocks and burnout.

Connect with Michelle

On WickedWhimsy

On Twitter

Click here to Take Back Your Creativity!

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