Philosophically Speaking

How many times have you heard  it’s all in your attitude? Well for a creative it really is in their attitude.

 

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.”
― Walt Whitman

“What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity.”
― J. Sidlow Baxter

“If you say you can or you can’t you are right either way”
― Henry Ford

“Our beliefs about what we are and what we can be precisely determine what we can be”
― Anthony Robbins

“Winners Evaluate Themselves In A Positive Manner And Look For Their Strengths As They Work To Overcome Weaknesses.”
― Zig Ziglar

“Our Positivity repels the external negative energy and attract the positive energy.”
― Sukant Ratnakar

“Sometimes it takes a wrong turn to get you to the right place.”
― Mandy Hale, The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass

My words, thoughts and deeds have

a boomerang effect.

So be-careful what you send out!”
― Allan Rufus,

Our outlook determines our outcome. It is true that attitude can make a huge difference.   If you believe in  the law of attraction, then you know well about the boomerang effect.  You attract what you think.

Our thoughts are as powerful as our words. The words we speak put an energy into the atmosphere and we have what we say.  If we say that we’ll never amount to anything – guess what?  It’s true.

Here’s the catch though.  Everything you say begins with a thought.  If we direct our thoughts, then we can manipulate our future.  Controlling those thoughts that were maybe planted by someone else in our past, and changing them by putting a positive spin on them can turn the negative energy around and create a positive energy.

I know, y’all think I’ve fallen off the deep end into psycho-babble land.  I don’t normally get into the existential metaphysical mumbo jumbo stuff – but  in the case of our thoughts and words I am firmly convinced there is some truth to it.

I am not asking you to believe the same as I do. It’s your own choice to  change your future how you see fit.

Instead I want to share with  you common outlook characteristics of the creative mind.

 

1.  Creatives turn life’s obstacles around. Think about how many songs, poems, and iconic stories stem from gut-wrenching pain and heartbreak.  Like a Phoenix rising, some of the greatest silver linings  came from life’s hardest challenges.  Great art in any form  is often fueled by emotions.  The deepest emotions are created by tragedy, romance and heartbreak. A new form of psychological therapy for post traumatic stress disorder involves facing their hardships and trauma, to transfer into creative expressions of some sort.  Whether the trauma is caused by loss of loved ones, facing combat, or surviving a tornado or hurricane karma therapy can affect the person to grow in areas of interpersonal relationships, spirituality, life appreciation, personal strength and creating the ability to see new possibilities in life.

 

“A lot of people are able to use that as the fuel they need to come up with a different perspective on reality,” says Kaufman. “What’s happened is that their view of the world as a safe place, or as a certain type of place, has been shattered at some point in their life, causing them to go on the periphery and see things in a new, fresh light, and that’s very conducive to creativity.”

 

“Since my house burned down

I now own a better view

of the rising moon.”

– Masahide

Mizuta Masahide was a Japanese samurai who wrote this simply haiku in 1688 after his house burned down.  His ability to find an awakened awareness after this loss is remarkable.

 

Creatives tend to have that rebound, or phoenix outlook.

 

2.  They fail up – are resilient. Resilience is practically a prerequisite for  any creative’s success.  Doing creative work is often described as the process of failing over and over  until you finally get lucky or something actually sticks. Successful creatives learn not to take failure so personally.

I’ve heard many times about Edison inventing the lightbulb. Edison was a prolific inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name yet  what we remember him for is inventing the incandescent lightbulb.  Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

Resilience   is what keeps a writer resubmitting to publishers after numerous rejections.

3. They are risk takers. Part of doing creative work is taking risks, and many creative types thrive off of taking risks in various aspects of their lives.

 

“There is a deep and meaningful connection between risk taking and creativity and it’s one that’s often overlooked,” contributor Steven Kotler wrote in Forbes magazine. “Creativity is the act of making something from nothing. It requires making public those bets first placed by imagination. This is not a job for the timid. Time wasted, reputation tarnished, money not well spent — these are all by-products of creativity gone awry.”

 

Yet for the successful creative like Stephen King, J.K.Rowling, Mark Twain, and numerous others they are hailed as brilliant.  What  you don’t hear is the years of mocking and ridicule they took before they “made it”.

 

If you never take a risk and only stick to the safe path, you’ll live an unsatisfied life of  the same daily rut until you die.  Well at least that is my creative take on it.  Life is to be lived, experienced to the fullest not for cowering in the corner of the what ifs.

 

4. They see opportunities. They can see the bright side of things, and brilliantly come out of troubles in unusual ways. It’s said that the mother of invention is necessity.  Witty inventions come when faced with a problem.  The solution doesn’t occur until one is presented with a problem to solve. Every problem presents opportunity.

 

5.  They don’t like rules and boundaries. Many popular creatives in history have been labeled as rebels.  In the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, Barbosa said the Pirate’s code is more like . . .guidelines.  many creative feel this way about rules and boundaries.

 

Rules are  set to  push the boundaries.  Boundaries are set to  gauge what you push beyond.  A creative mind looks at boundaries like a velociraptor views the perimeter fence, something to get beyond. If a creative followed the rule – stay inside the lines, the Mona Lisa would never have been painted.  The Cysteine Chapel would be covered in tiles.

 

6. They don’t like numbers. Creatives are brilliant and can really amaze you at times, but try to let them do the math and you will be surprised by how much they dislike numbers. Don’t put a creative in charge of the bank account, that’s not a smart idea.  Accounting is a bad career choice for a creative.  mathematician – also a bad idea.  Scientist – bad, bad idea.  For these careers you need someone with  a logical mind that isn’t going to invent facts.  Creatives are not only calculator dependent,  they often have trouble  with that part of cognitive thinking with weights and measures as well.

 

An interesting point to note, creative often are drawn to  either evens or odds.  Or in creative terms – symmetry or asymmetry.  Some artists work in pairs, their work always balanced.  Others work in odds, the asymmetry carrying  out a realism aspect that subconsciously appeals to our sense of belief and order.

Do any of these apply to you?  Can you recognize  these characteristics in yourself or  others in your life?

Previous posts in this series can be found here:

. The Creative Mind  (https://quotidiandose.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/)

2. A Mentalist (https://quotidiandose.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/)

3. Time Bandits (https://quotidiandose.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/)

4. Expressions http:// quotidiandose.wordpress.com/2014/6/11/)

5.  Head Games  https://quotidiandose.wordpress.com/2014/06/18/head-games/

 Write on my friends, write on!  Let your creative juices flow!

 

The Opportunity Fleet

Opportunity is all around us.  Every day there are opportunities for something.  For example, I had the opportunity to play games online and waste some time.  I had the opportunity to go shopping for the day, but I chose not to because I have a backlog of work that needs to be finished.

Some opportunities are great, others not so much.  The hubs got an opportunity for a new job.  At first it sounds great; substantially more money,  he could work from home most of the time, and it’s with a major defense contractor.  Sounds great right?  How many of you realize this is an election year?  Defense contractor?  Let me translate  they can pull contracts as fast as they write new SOP’s.  Which means no job security.

The money would be a large increase, but wait he would have to buy our own health insurance so that decreases the amount substantially.  Initial contract period is only six months, then what?  We looked over the list of pros and cons and decided that this opportunity really didn’t work into our short or long-term plans.  It sounds great on the surface, but when you scratch below the veneer it wasn’t a good fit.

I have the opportunity for another writing venture.  It sounds exciting and is something I think I can do but . . . I have promised myself that I would finish the projects I already have started. I have other people involved with current projects.  There is already a shortage of hours in the day to dedicate to writing as it is.

We let these opportunities pass us by, but we are not disheartened because we know that opportunities are everywhere.  Some aren’t for us.  some aren’t for us right now.  When you find the ones that you feel are golden, those are the ones that you latch onto an pursue with abandon.  The allegory to opportunities have been compared to ships such as the expression ‘ her ship has come in.’  Well the thing is more like at the docks, ships come in ships go out. some are laden with resources.  There are cargo ships, passenger ships, transport ships – I don’t want to go into this a lot because I really don’t know much about ships besides my love for all things aquatic.

The person that hinges on the dream “someday my ship will come in” is severely limiting themselves.  It’s a busy dock down there on Opportunity landing.  I plan on having several ships come in, not just one lone ship sneaking in after dark.  Somehow we got that image that we have to constantly be watching, yet in the back of our mind this lone ship named Opportunity eases in like a ghost ship some time around midnight, silently skimming over the water, barely making a sound, and only docks for a short amount of time before easing out from the dock just before sunrise.

As the song from Porgy and Bess says, “It Ain’t necessarily so.” I may be starting with an old beat up tugboat, but that tug is a powerful little vessel despite the worn paint and dings along the side.  Next I’ll have me one of those cargo ships, buying and selling merchandise.  Before you know it there will be a whole fleet of Opportunity vessels at my dock.

Eventually one of them will be a luxury yacht!  It all starts with the little beat up tug.  It doesn’t  look like much on the outside but  that tugboat is a vital piece of equipment to the opportunity fleet.

Here’s a hint though, you have to visit the docks in order to find the right ship.  Hanging out  at  the mid city bar is fun but you’re not going to find a ship there.  Ships come by waterways, waterways are life to a region.

We live by the Mississippi River, a major shipping lane for grain and other commodities.  The cost of shipping the same amount of grain by land in trucks would increase the cost by three or four times the cost of shipping by barge.  Each barge holds the equivalent of like 18 semi trucks.  (Don’t quote me on that – it’s a rough estimate, ok?  but it’s a lot more than a semi truck!)

Please tell me that you’re getting my allegory because I’m feeling a bit light headed from lack of caffeine. Here’s the bottom line, opportunity doesn’t just knock once or twice.  It knocks frequently.  Ships are coming in all the time – check the schedule.  But be wise and inspect who you’re opening the door to because traps come disguised as opportunity and some boats have holes in their hull.

Have you passed by an opportunity that others think you’re foolish to pass on?  Have you been holding out for the single ship named opportunity?  do you think I’ve gone off my rocker for good this time?  Give me some feedback, after all we’re all in this together.

Who knows, if things don’t work out with the tugboat theory there’s always piracy.  Arrrrggggghhhhhhh!

Write on my friends, write on!

Ideas and Inspirations

I have reached the end of posting Love Notes on Storytime Trysts.  The new season begins soon and if I post the entirety of my story then who will buy it?

Which leads me to the next story.  On one hand I’ll be adding another WIP to my repertoire because I’m going to continue with my new revisions for Love Notes until it is finished.   On the other hand – you know the one that gets you in trouble, it gets my creative spark juice flowing.  A new story, a clean slate.  I get to start from the ground up. Character building, scene setting, world building; the euphoria is intoxicating.

The possibilities are endless. Do I go with one of the ideas I’ve already got or specifically tailor this for something completely new?  It has to match the overall theme, so I can eliminate some of my prestarted stories.   I feel like a kid in a candy store with $100.00!

I had an idea for something that ties in with my Guardian series.  A short story that I may include in Keegan’s book.  Oh the possibilities are wide open.  So many choices, so many story ideas and so little time to write!

I’ve been wanting a break from editing Kiss Of The Dragon, this might just be the ticket! I’m off to interview a sexy Scot, with a penchant for danger.  Keegan has a knack for finding trouble, it’s like he has a built-in radar for it!

Write on my friends, write on!

Doors of Opportunity

Don’t you just love it when a door opens up?  In the writing world, it seems like we knock on doors daily, and most never open. It’s part of our occupation to be professional door knockers.  There are a variety of doors that we are faced with in a writing career. Every once in a while they open for us.

Locked doors: We knock and knock.  We know there are people inside, we can hear them see the evidence, yet the door never opens and the handle will not turn. Yet, we are a persistent lot and like the velociraptor, we keep checking the doors.  Some day, some one will have to open the door. Eventually.

Closed Doors:  Again, we knock.  And knock.  As a matter of etiquette we wait outside the door waiting for someone to open it.  After a while, through impatience we test the knob and it turns.  In the business world, it’s common to keep the doors closed, yet not locked so customers can come in to the front counter.  Are you going to the front counter? Or are you waiting for someone to open the door?  At someone’s home it’s poor manners to open the door and just walk on in, unless you’re family or good friends.  But, in a business – ie – publishing, are you crossing the threshold and stepping to the counter where someone can actually assist you?  Or are you pounding a business door, and they are inside wondering why you don’t just come on in?  Are you even checking to see if the knob turns?  sometimes we give up too easily.

Cracked Doors:  They are standing slightly ajar, just a crack.  It’s enough to slip your foot in.  Sometimes it’s all the access you need to get in there and make your sales pitch.  Take a clue from the Kirby salesmen here – pimp yourself baby!  If you don’t believe in the goods you’re selling, ain’t nobody else will!  Yes, around these parts ain’t is a word.

*secret huddle here – I’m not the most confident person.  Why do you think I listen to motivational things, read encouraging things?  I don’t get the Monday morning pep talk from the district manager.  We’ve got to be our own pep squad, encouraging ourselves.  Even if you’re wondering if your “goods” are good enough, sell them like they are the greatest thing since The Odyssey! *

Open Doors: Open doors come in different varieties.

• Opening:  These are the ones that open to you, maybe as you walk up to them, when you knock.  Sometimes you’re not even looking to knock on THAT door, but someone opens it and invites you inside.
• Standing Open:  It says come on In Y’all!  In the southern states and increasingly in St. Louis area, it is common practice in fair weather for cafe’s to leave their door open inviting customers to walk in.  It gives such a sense of welcome, and acceptance.  Many regional and local markets are like this, seeking a writer that knows the area.  This is how I got my OPinion Column.  It was an open invitation that I submitted sample writing to.  I was shocked and stunned when they accepted me and asked me to continue past the first year.  Sad to say though, that door has been closed.  The newspaper business is tough, and the readership just wasn’t there to sustain the business.  I enjoyed the ride while I was there though!
• Flapping In the Breeze: YOu know the ones, they are dusty, dingy.  Makes you think of old abandoned buildings.  The kind that if it were a movie you’d be yelling at the screen telling the  star “Don’t go In there!”  Yet, as writer’s what do we do?  “Hello?  Anyone in here?”  We poke around, edging closer to that fluttering tarp in the center of the room, curiosity getting the better of us.

I have a door of opportunity that is a new venture.  I will be sharing a story over the summer, in a weekly installment on  Storytime Trysts.   I’m looking at this as a challenge, something new to try.  this will be far steamier than anything I’ve ever written before.  I know for a certainty that flash fiction isn’t my thing.  As much as I like poetry, I don’t have the knack for that.  Always willing to try new things though.  I’m also participating in a summer project on  RCGale  on a summer series entitled Bereshit bara.  It’s a collection of creatives thoughts on and what motivates, challenges us in our craft.  Here’s his intro for his series:

I’ve asked 13 incredibly talented Creatives to share with us what gives them the courage to create. They are writers, authors, teachers, professors, doctors, waitresses, pastors, painters, musicians, editors, mothers, fathers, wives, husbands. I just like to call them Creatives.

Creating is a daunting task. But it’s also full of joy and meaning and mystery.

How do Creatives make the first move, write the first word, fling the first brush stroke, peel back the first layer of clay?

What inspires them, what moves them, what drives them?

As if this wasn’t enough of a challenge, I’ve been given the green light from the doctor to add some low impact cardio back into my routine.  Good news, even while I’ve been limited to aqua aerobics class I’ve lost a bit of weight! Yeah!  I intend to challenge myself physically over the summer. The goal is to get back to the level of fitness I was at, and possibly beyond.  the goal – is to do 45 minutes of cardio nonstop.  We are making it a family affair by training daily.  Cycling daily on various trails and parks over the summer.   Maybe I’ll even get brave and share some photos.  Well, ok, I”m not quite that brave yet.  The one in my bio is bad enough! *facepalm*.

It’s shaping up to be a fantastic summer!  I Love a challenge!  So, here’s the deal: I’m expecting  my readers to keep me accountable, give me feedback, You’ve been wonderful already.  I’ve gotten way more feedback than I ever expected.  I’ll take quality over quantity every time!  You guys (and gals) rock!!

Write On!