Author: MAÔ

If you get up everyday and do the same thing, is it habit? Are you in a rut? Is there a way to decide?

Certainly you can find yourself locked into one way of doing things. Maybe that closes you off. Of course, you could just as likely be open to new possibilities. And it may be better to try something new, or the common could work just as well or better.

I’m not sure what a rut is, really. It could be something fundamentally different than habit. Or, one man’s habit could be another man’s rut. I suppose that it is all relative, and how you view your life really dictates whether those habits give you opportunities for fulfillment, or detract from a meaningful life.

One thing that I’ve been focused on since being out in LA has been to flesh out my network. Contacts in the film and television business that I had somewhat in Atlanta, but did not here in Hollywood. So, it’s been all about meeting people.

Or, rather, I’d like to say that was the case. But it hasn’t been that so much… for this and that reason.

So, now in the New Year, it is a large focus of mine to actively pursue new contacts. Not only people I’d like to work with, or who may want to work with me. But a friend network. A support group. A community.

Because no matter where you are, it’s incredibly important to have a supportive community that you can turn to.

Where just days ago it seemed that Grammarly was working on WordPress, now, there’s no spellcheck to be seen. What happened? Did I surreptitiously do an update and messed with it? Or, was it one program or the other or both – deciding that, no, they really didn’t want to play with each other.

One thing to make writing on the platform just a bit easier on the user, and not it’s gone away.

Will it ever come back?

Writing for a daily posting means keeping up with a practice. It also means keeping your eyes and ears open, so that you can come up with topics or posts for every day.

Thankfully, the world is full of potential. If you pay attention, you’ll never run out of things to write about. Then it’s just a matter of doing it.

I used to hate flying. But now, usually, I love it. It’s a promise of a new adventure every time. Sure, it can be cramped. Really, just a bus in the sky.

But… That flying bus is going somewhere maybe you’ve never been before. And that’s worth it.

Some days, it’s just so easy to be excited by the smallest things.

I started writing on WordPress probably ten years ago, though maybe a bit more. Not consistently at first, but it’s been something I’d come back to from time to time. Then, in an effort to find an outlet to deal with some things that I had going on, I began writing as a practice.

So, in 2016, I began keeping up with this on a regular basis (which I’ve tried to keep up these past six years, though it’s admittedly been spotty at times).

In 2016, WordPress included a native spellcheck. I found it very helpful. One of its subsequent updates negated this tool, and I was mildly perturbed. However, I was introduced to Grammarly which, as an add-on, worked fine. That is until another update caused it to stop working with WordPress as well.

Thus, I moved all my writing to Google Docs, where I had a central scratchpad document.

Now, though, I see that Grammarly is once again functioning on the WordPress site, and it is all to say that I am very delighted with that fact.

Know thyself. This ubiquitous phrase, the first of three Delphic maxims inscribed leading into the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, as recorded by the Greek writer Pausanias. The two maxims that follow “know thyself” were “nothing to excess” and “certainty brings insanity”

Setting aside the two latter maxims, it is important to understand yourself so that you can understand your daily flow. Me, I am so easily distracted that, if I’m not rigorous in my attention to my schedule, I’ll run amok. I could be late to appointments, skip a few hours of creative work, or miss an important phone call.

Thus, it’s good to schedule some time for whatever may hold my attention at that moment. And then it’s just as simple as sticking to the schedule. (Which may or may not happen, but I do try.)

Logging into WordPress, I see that it’s a bit different again. Not sure when it happened, which shows how much I’ve been avoiding writing, really. But, still, had I been used to it, it may have been jarring.

And it can be painful when things change. Sure, apps and such, but also anything. The commute to work gets upended by construction. The mall gets shut down because, well, malls are getting shut down. 

Or, life just changes for reasons we don’t understand; maybe don’t want to understand.

And yet life will go on. We are pretty good at adapting, after all.

On a professional level, life has propelled forward much faster than I would have ever imagined. I’m getting work consistently on film and television shows, something that didn’t happen all that often before Hollywood. Even in Atlanta, I could go through dry spells. Now, I’ve worked almost nonstop since the fall of 2021.

Personally, the last year was fine. Not great, but not bad. It probably fell short in some aspects, but overall, I feel fairly content about it all.

When all is said and done, we each only have the time that we’re given. How we spend it, what we focus on – that’s completely up to us.

I’m not sure that I really believe it’s 2023. Or, if I believe it, I just can’t comprehend it. So much has happened. 

That the world tilted on its axis in 2020, and years were lost, while lives were rediscovered. 

I think we’re all still trying to navigate the post-pandemic world. And, even though it’s been tumultuous and fraught at times, I think we’re collectively moving towards a better tomorrow.