There’s joy in taking things slowly. To sit in stillness, to listen to bird song, to watch the sun rise over the trees.
As we move into Autumn and it (hopefully) finally cools down; you grab your book and coffee or tea, remember to just take time to breathe.
There’s a lot going on. But there’s always a lot going on. Taking time for yourself has never been more important. And, it’s as important as it’s always been.
Some things of interest, still catching up from the past few months.
“The difference between a professional and an amateur is that the former shows up and does the work whether he feels like it or not.”
It can be a frightening jump. It’s often the biggest one you take when working in a creative field. It can be even bigger than starting the project in the first place.
The trick is, when fearing the outcome, lean in. Don’t let the fear – the resistance – stop you.
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal.” – C.S. Lewis
More than any other living being, the humanity is such that we are connected and bound to each other. To feel the need to care for and to love.
It isn’t easy to remain vulnerable. After loss, or heart-ache, or even excessive periods of discomfort (all of which will happen if living an open life), it may be tempting to shut off from the world.
And while some time away can be a refresher for a life stagnated, to do so permanently is to forego the gifts you’ve been given, and the chance to bring those gifts to the world.
New iPhones are being previewed today. While the craze for new smartphones seems engrained in our cultural consciousness, it wasn’t so long ago that all there was were landlines.
How swiftly society pushes forward into new technology, new crazes, and new ways of operating in daily life. Getting in on the ground floor – creating something that can change the world – that’s where energy is best spent.
I suppose that I’ll try to remember that as I stand in line at the Apple Store.
Okay, I’m ready for this year to be over. It was drastically different than anything I’d expected to happen. I should still be in Alaska. Rather, I’ve been kind of all over. Between Covid, wildfires, storms, and economic uncertainty, as well as the looming election, it’s just… a lot.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Much is being thrown at us, the public, regarding the political divide, the natural disasters, et al. It’s hard to keep up. It’s hard to keep up in our daily life, let alone try to keep abreast of all national problems that are surfacing. When much of America is striving just to make it day-to-day, how can we not feel overwhelmed?
While the future is still steeped in uncertainty, one thing is (and I hope this statement doesn’t bite me in the butt down the road) guaranteed. The election is coming up in just a few short weeks, and with that out of the way, maybe the government can move forward with some productive aplomb.
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.
Make dreams real. It’s the magic of creation. It’s transforming the mundane into the unusual and spectral.
It’s embracing that which is uncertain. And it’s magic.
Art is transformative, but it’s not limited. Use your imagination. It will never run out. At worst, it could be a bit rusty from not using it.
Another collection of pages that have been sitting in the background, waiting for me to share them.
An interesting look at the way viral internet stories are generated, or at least how the headlines can encourage you to click on it, with reference to a tactic used a hundred years ago.
There’s too much out there now. I sometimes consider On Walden Pond and wonder how much relief Thoreau felt at the escape from (what at the time was) the modern world. Howard Chai muses about the death of boredom, and the world of content creation that is exploding in its vastness of product.
From Inc. comes 20 Life Changing Quotes by Tony Robbins. I’ve read two books from Mr. Robbins, and, regrettably, I am not yet always focused. But, I’m probably better than I was in the past…
Finance guru Ray Dalio stated back in March that he estimated corporate losses in the US from coronavirus will top $4 trillion. That’s roughy the size of the stimulus package that was supposed to keep the economy afloat, which may have been somewhat misused (as evidenced in this Washington Post graphical breakdown of the relief spending.
A few years back I binged-watched The West Wing. One of the characters quoted something, saying, “Let us be merry, therefore, while we are young. After the joys of youth, after the pains of old age, the ground will have us.” It’s something I’ve been revisiting lately.
What does it take to be a professional adventure? You know, it’s something that you don’t really think about. No one seems to go “adventuring” anymore. Most everything that would be apt for exploration has already been discovered. All the same, there are those who travel vociferously, attempting things new to them and seeing places new to us, and we hungrily gobble down the accounts of their wanderings. Leon McCarron is one such person.
It’s important to understand where we derive our value from – our own sense of self-worth.
If we derive our self-worth from others, we’ll constantly be in a state of trying to please them. If our valuations are external, we’ll only be disappointed. We’ll be fighting a losing battle. Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill.
Our self-worth is a factor in how much belief we can place in our own self. How much good we think that we can bring to the world.
Self-worth has to come from within. If we believe in ourself, then we’re able to be confident in the benefit we provide to the world.
So, then, developing it must also be an inward process. Self-worth in understanding that you matter.
Michael's Musings 