Author: MAÔ

It’s all that’s needed. One, just one. And where it comes from, what brings that insight… that’s the exciting part. Because insight can quite literally come from anywhere or anyone.

A lot of my writing struggles to come to fruition because I inherently know that I’m looking for my own voice. I speak a certain way, and often times it’s the long way around. I write in a similar fashion.

I used to hate reading Faulkner his long-windedness, and yet I’m pretty guilty of it myself.

So, I self-edit. And time and time again, I have to remind myself to quiet the resistance. It’s not aiding you. It’s hindering.

In anything you do, find your voice. Be yourself. And just do the work.

Words are the single greatest tool we have to convey thoughts. If used properly, they allow us to pass on complete ideas, fictions only imagined inside our singular consciousness, and disperse them to one or two, twenty, a hundred, or however many may be receptive. We are limited only by the weight of our thoughts, the size of our vocabularies, and the way in which we communicate our messages.

Those odd purchases, that thing you felt you just had to have, the new car… Chances are, it won’t make you happy. Certainly there will be a moment of immediate enjoyment, but it fades.

So why do we pursue those attainable joys through purchases? And what could you be doing instead to make a difference?

It amazes me that I’ve been keeping this blog (albeit with somewhat inconsistent postings) for as long as I have been. Admittedly, some days it’s hard to come up with things to write. Occasionally, it’s a matter of budgeting my time. 

But, really, in the end, you spend time on what you want to spend time on. What you build your processes around. We all have these interests that stir us. If we build them into our daily routines, we’ll spend the time on them that we want. 

And once that time block installed, guard it fervently.

We collect thoughts everywhere. There’s rarely a perfect system for getting it down. Take myself, for instance. I use notes on my phone, google docs, Word, Pages, as well as written notes in notebooks, memo pads, sticky notes… the list goes on.

When thoughts come to us faster than we can process, it’s hard to stay on top of them. It becomes more about managing the output of our thoughts rather than shaping them into proper ideas.

So, the task this week – take a thought, incubate it to full-fledged idea, and plan to execute it. Just to see what happens.

There is no limit to the amount of information available out there. Information on every subject, from every point of view, in every tone of voice. Looking through it all would take hundreds of lifetimes, and, let’s be honest, there’s just no way to suss out what’s good vs. what’s not – not in its abundance.

So we turn to trusted sources. We rely on the tried and true. We sometimes limit our own viewpoints by adhering to only one or two sources. Is that for the best? No, probably not. It can inevitably lead to blind spots.

It’s hard to imagine that abundance of information could actually cause a lessening of understanding, but certainly, that happens among many of us. 

The trick is to recognize your blindspots, and work to enlighten them.

It’s been quite a while since I found myself in California. I nearly said west coast, but it was only last year that I was living in Alaska. It’s amazing how much can change in a year.

Of course, I was saying that exact same thing last year.

All to say, sometimes it’s important to go with the flow. You can’t always know where you’ll end up, but chances are you’ll end up somewhere.

We take certain things for granted. In this example, consider the river. Any river, but think of it. It has a name. You can call it by its name, and others will know what you’re talking about.

At the same time, the river is just a pathway through which running water flows. The water that makes up the river is never the same water. Ever. Once the water passes along its way, it moves elsewhere. The river is called by a name, but that name will always fail to describe the river.

Isn’t it possible that everything, and every one, is like that river?

There are many reasons to do something creative. They range from feeling good to feeling difficult but rewarding. You may not be able to let the creative flow go, or you may struggle to find yourself in the zone. 

At the end of the day, however, it’s a completely personal experience to create. And that’s not only about the process, but what you’re left with. 

So make something. Draw, paint, dance, or write. Just make it completely, and wholly, your own.