Archives for posts with tag: muse
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work ethic.

November 23, 2014 //
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“How much do you want it?”
You know what I’m talking about. The end-game. The result.
That thing you say you want — that goal you set a ways back,
that unfinished project, that brilliant idea.

The question’s standing out there,
peering at you sideways with a cocked head and slitty eyes:
“How much do you really want it?”

Well.
I (and everyone else who knows you) can tell
how much you really want it.

All we have to do is look at actions.
(Your effort.)
(Your work.)
(What you spend your time on.)

We all have that thing that we talk about, that thing we “want.” But
our lives — our actions — really show if we want it or not.

<<Desire is one thing.>>
<<Doing the work is another.>>

(Gah. Truth hits the mark again.)

‘Cause if we really want it, we’ll do the work.
Now. Passionately. With visible effort.
(Turn on the work ethic. The results might amaze you.)

*Thup

coffeeNov23-14

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Categories Entrepreneurs, Life Truths, writer motivation & the muse

your final frontier.

August 19, 2014 //
0

Space. The Final Frontier.
(Trekkie here.)

Okay, not the final frontier. But, at the least,
for your best productivity,
it’s a frontier to think about.

Watch my Tuesday Vlog Minute..
Click here.

* Thup

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Categories Uncategorized

momentum.

April 5, 2014 //
0

NOTE: The self-talk message today is brought to you by our valuable sponsor, Swift Kick in the Bum, who’s visiting my house and thought he’d share the wealth.

*clears throat*
Here we go.

The value of momentum can’t be overstated.

It’s not so hard to start a project, is it? Okay, procrastination aside, beginning a project is fairly easy. Ideas burst and jump in playful imaginations. Images holding near perfection float freely in our minds. Then we sit down to work, anticipation fueling our hands. This should be easy, we say. After all, we have an idea — and the idea feels alive.

So, with verve, the idea splashes onto the page. And we feel good.

The next day, waterfalls still play in our minds. The work continues, and we feel good.

The next day, idea rivulets move into tertiary streams. Ideas still flow, so we’re okay.

But then. Droplets. And dry spells. And maybe it even all-out-full-stops. GAH.

Maybe you were pulled away by schedule. Or relationships. Or health. Responsibilities in another area of your life fluxed and bulged, pressing and pushing time in a way that didn’t allow you to get back to it.

Whatever the reason, momentum stopped. And once it stops, it can be hard to get going again. Most of the time, the reason that I don’t begin again isn’t physical. I’m physically capable, even if it’s just putting in a little time. Oh, no. The reason I don’t begin again is emotional.

Frozen is  more than the title of a blockbuster movie. It’s our state, when momentum stops.

It’s time to get momentum going again.
With One. Little. Piece. Of. Movement.
One push.
Dig your heels in. (Go.)
(Simply get past the emotional and mental state, and let the physical momentum take over.)

Momentum is an asset that we can’t afford to be without.
* Thup
coffeeApril4-14

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Categories Life Truths, writer motivation & the muse

detour to Twain.

February 11, 2014 //
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I had a whole different blog post swirling in my mind, for today.
But. Then.

Then a friend messaged me on Facebook
with words that I thought completely and utterly wonderful —
surely worthy to share with you all.

That’s a lot of adverbs.
(My MFA professors are rolling their eyes.)

BUT.
This. Is. So. Cool.
(and spot on)

So, thank you, Dick —
And I hope you guys enjoy my friend’s note
and these words of Mark Twain as much as I did…

“Hi there, I have enjoyed reading your blog, *Thup. This morning, I don’t know how I got there, but I found myself reading an iBook I have of Mark Twain excerpts.

I came across this, and I thought, ‘I know somebody who would appreciate this!’ (You). Enjoy!…[Excuse me as I Break the Fourth Wall and say, Yuppers, he was right :)]…

‘A man who is born with the novel-writing gift has a troublesome time of it when he tries to build a novel. I know this from experience.

He has no clear idea of his story; in fact he has no story. He merely has some people in his mind, and an incident or two, also a locality.

He knows these people, he knows the selected locality, and he trusts that he can plunge those people into those incidents with interesting results. So he goes to work.

To write a novel? No—that is a thought which comes later; in the beginning he is only proposing to tell a little tale; a very little tale; a six-page tale.

But as it is a tale which he is not acquainted with, and can only find out what it is by listening as it goes along telling itself, it is more than apt to go on and on and on till it spreads itself into a book.

I know about this, because it has happened to me so many times.”

From Quotations from the Project Gutenberg Editions of the Works of Mark Twain. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=361726363”

So. Cool.
(I love Mark Twain, don’t you?)

Here’s to getting acquainted with your work today.
(Listen.)

* Thup
coffeeFeb11-14

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Categories exploring creativity, Plot Development, writer motivation & the muse, Writing Rules

focused.

January 31, 2014 //
1

Have you ever had the same idea appear — from different sources but it’s the same message —
here, there, and there again, poking at you as if to say,
are you paying attention?

You know it, don’t you? Everywhere you turn, the same words travel on the same fresh gust of wind, and you can’t help but take a deep breath.

I’m having that experience.
(It’s kind of freaky.)

Within 24 hours, from completely different sources, I’m bumping into a question good enough for all of us to sit down and have a cup of coffee with:

What’s your focus? 

  • It is in the moment of your decision that your life is shaped.
  • Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives. (Tony Robbins)

Look closely. Focus.

* Thup
photo 2-1

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Categories Life Truths, Uncategorized, writer motivation & the muse

think big.

January 26, 2014 //
1

Why not?
(the question of the day)

Someone’s blog inspires thousands.
Someone’s art hangs in the national museums.
Someone’s music is played in Carnegie Hall.
Someone’s movies makes an impact and gather a following.
Someone’s poetry goes in the anthology.
Someone’s book gets the agent, the deal, and the spot on the bestseller list.

Why not you?
(or me?)

Someone’s gotta. And with passion, developing skill, and stick-to-it-ive-ness,
we all have the same chance.

* Thup
coffeeJan26-14

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Categories Life Truths, writer motivation & the muse

do.

January 18, 2014 //
1

Write.
Draw.
Paint.
Take the photo.

Dance.
Express.
Let it out.

Create with your hands, your mind, your heart.
(it’s healthy. healing. giving to others of the deepest part
of who you are.)

*Thup
coffeeJan18-14

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Categories Life Truths, writer motivation & the muse

title (optional).

January 13, 2014 //
2

That’s what the title line says, on an empty blog: title (optional).

In other words, whatever you call the blog, or even if you skip the title, it really doesn’t matter. It’s the content that counts.

Some of us sit and wait until we have the right title to begin. The name has to be special. The parameters have to be just right. The project needs a overview. And in the process of naming the work, the body of the work is left blank.

Don’t get me wrong. Especially in marketing (as in sending an email or naming a blog post), you want to have a title that grabs attention and draws people in. But we often get it all backwards. We think we have to have the perfect title first. But titles are like a research project’s abstract. They come last, if at all.

The title is optional. It’s the body of the work that counts.
(let’s get to work.)

*Thup
coffeeJan13-2014

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Categories Social Media, writer motivation & the muse

Straight to it.

January 12, 2014 //
2

If you can,
whatever you have to do today, I’m encouraging you:
Get straight to it.

I’m not talking about answering email, checking Facebook, or diddling around in the house.

Get to the creative in you first.
Let it flow in its highest energy.
(Use the energy. now.)

(Yes, I’m talkin’ to myself here. Feel free to join me.)
* Thup

coffeeJan12-13

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Categories writer motivation & the muse

forced compliance.

January 10, 2014 //
0

(Warning: Poetic Rumblings Ahead)
So.

Can you force creativity?

Can you make it take a breath
and rise to run a 5K?

In other words,
can you make your mind create —
no matter what’s going on around you?

Up against struggle of physical or emotional
stress and strain,
stretching the limits with strife
surrounding the stains of life.
(poetic but painful) —

What do you do?

When the emotional squeezes last drips of energy
into entropy.

What do you do with creativity that is underneath layers
and layers
and layers
of everyday turned into every way
of confusion?

It happens to all of us.
(to some more than others)

The mind and life-work and everyday gets full
and pushes out the creative.

So instead of praying for a clear path,
can we clear the path?

Perhaps by clearing the mind,
centering on Most Important,
being the Person Meant to Be
(within the inner stillness),
the outer can be stilled, making an oasis
for creativity.

In that way, compliance to creativity isn’t forced.
It’s welcomed home.

* Thup
coffeeJan10-13

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Categories exploring creativity, writer motivation & the muse
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