mischief over mastery

Julia Cameron (of The Artist's Way) talks about cultivating mischief more than mastery, and I love this sentiment.

I applied this mindset shift recently in planning a party for my son's high school graduation. I was feeling grumpy about all the planning and prep because he doesn't really care about parties and high school was never his thing. I was just sort of stuck in a mindset that this is what people do when their kids graduate and I thought I just had to push through. 

Heavy.
Out of alignment. 
Grumpy. 

But thank goodness I could tell something was off and brought this topic to a coaching session (yes I make sure to do my own coaching work!), and I had the space and the support to get clear on why it wasn't feeling great. 

I realized it was because I was following a cultural norm that didn't really fit me or my son. When I checked in with my deeper wisdom I got clear about this and let it go.

And then I got mischievous.

I'm now hosting a party to celebrate and honor the person my son is becoming in young adulthood and the highlight of it will be a tour of his 20 or so tanks of rare dart frogs that he breeds—his life passion right now! Oh, and he happens to be graduating from high school, which is great. :) 

Once I got clear on this vision, I felt…
energized
light
excited
empowered.

And it felt so good to be mischievous, to break the "rules" rather than trying for some kind of mastery that doesn't even fit. 

Do you have any mischievous idea for other culturally expected celebrations? I'd love to hear. 

Warmly,
Brianna