Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
The Joy of Less By Pico Iyer
“The beat of my heart has grown deeper, more active, and yet more peaceful, and it is as if I were all the time storing up inner riches…My [life] is one long sequence of inner miracles.” The young Dutchwoman Etty Hillesum wrote that in a Nazi transit camp in 1943, on her way to her death at Auschwitz two months later.
Towards the end of his life, Ralph
Waldo Emerson wrote, “All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator
for all I have not seen,” though by then he had already lost his father
when he was 7, his first wife when she was 20 and his first son, aged 5.
In Japan, the late 18th-century poet Issa is celebrated for his
delighted, almost child-like celebrations of the natural world. Issa saw
four children die in infancy, his wife die in childbirth, and his own
body partially paralyzed.
In the corporate world, I always knew there was some higher position I could attain, which meant that, like Zeno’s arrow, I was guaranteed never to arrive and always to remain dissatisfied.
I’m not sure I knew
the details of all these lives when I was 29, but I did begin to guess
that happiness lies less in our circumstances than in what we make of
them, in every sense. “There is nothing either good or bad,” I had heard
in high school, from Hamlet, “but thinking makes it so.” I had been
lucky enough at that point to stumble into the life I might have dreamed
of as a boy: a great job writing on world affairs for Time magazine, an
apartment (officially at least) on Park Avenue, enough time and money
to take vacations in Burma, Morocco, El Salvador. But every time I went
to one of those places, I noticed that the people I met there, mired in
difficulty and often warfare, seemed to have more energy and even
optimism than the friends I’d grown up with in privileged, peaceful
Santa Barbara, Calif., many of whom were on their fourth marriages and
seeing a therapist every day. Though I knew that poverty certainly
didn’t buy happiness, I wasn’t convinced that money did either.
So — as post-1960s
cliché decreed — I left my comfortable job and life to live for a year
in a temple on the backstreets of Kyoto. My high-minded year lasted all
of a week, by which time I’d noticed that the depthless contemplation of
the moon and composition of haiku I’d imagined from afar was really
more a matter of cleaning, sweeping and then cleaning some more. But
today, more than 21 years later, I still live in the vicinity of Kyoto,
in a two-room apartment that makes my old monastic cell look almost
luxurious by comparison. I have no bicycle, no car, no television I can
understand, no media — and the days seem to stretch into eternities, and
I can’t think of a single thing I lack.
I’m no Buddhist monk,
and I can’t say I’m in love with renunciation in itself, or traveling an
hour or more to print out an article I’ve written, or missing out on
the N.B.A. Finals. But at some point, I decided that, for me at least,
happiness arose out of all I didn’t want or need, not all I did. And it
seemed quite useful to take a clear, hard look at what really led to
peace of mind or absorption (the closest I’ve come to understanding
happiness). Not having a car gives me volumes not to think or worry
about, and makes walks around the neighborhood a daily adventure.
Lacking a cell phone and high-speed Internet, I have time to play
ping-pong every evening, to write long letters to old friends and to go
shopping for my sweetheart (or to track down old baubles for two kids
who are now out in the world).
When the phone does
ring — once a week — I’m thrilled, as I never was when the phone rang in
my overcrowded office in Rockefeller Center. And when I return to the
United States every three months or so and pick up a newspaper, I find I
haven’t missed much at all. While I’ve been rereading P.G. Wodehouse,
or “Walden,” the crazily accelerating roller-coaster of the 24/7 news
cycle has propelled people up and down and down and up and then left
them pretty much where they started. “I call that man rich,” Henry
James’s Ralph Touchett observes in “Portrait of a Lady,” “who can
satisfy the requirements of his imagination.” Living in the future tense
never did that for me.
Perhaps happiness, like peace or passion, comes most when it isn’t pursued.
I certainly wouldn’t
recommend my life to most people — and my heart goes out to those who
have recently been condemned to a simplicity they never needed or
wanted. But I’m not sure how much outward details or accomplishments
ever really make us happy deep down. The millionaires I know seem
desperate to become multimillionaires, and spend more time with their
lawyers and their bankers than with their friends (whose motivations
they are no longer sure of). And I remember how, in the corporate world,
I always knew there was some higher position I could attain, which
meant that, like Zeno’s arrow, I was guaranteed never to arrive and
always to remain dissatisfied.
Being self-employed
will always make for a precarious life; these days, it is more uncertain
than ever, especially since my tools of choice, written words, are
coming to seem like accessories to images. Like almost everyone I know,
I’ve lost much of my savings in the past few months. I even went through
a dress-rehearsal for our enforced austerity when my family home in
Santa Barbara burned to the ground some years ago, leaving me with
nothing but the toothbrush I bought from an all-night supermarket that
night. And yet my two-room apartment in nowhere Japan seems more
abundant than the big house that burned down. I have time to read the
new John le Carre, while nibbling at sweet tangerines in the sun. When a
Sigur Ros album comes out, it fills my days and nights, resplendent.
And then it seems that happiness, like peace or passion, comes most
freely when it isn’t pursued.
If you’re the kind of
person who prefers freedom to security, who feels more comfortable in a
small room than a large one and who finds that happiness comes from
matching your wants to your needs, then running to stand still isn’t
where your joy lies. In New York, a part of me was always somewhere
else, thinking of what a simple life in Japan might be like. Now I’m
there, I find that I almost never think of Rockefeller Center or Park
Avenue at all.
Pico Iyer’s book, “The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama,” is out in paperback.
Writers It's Never Too Late to Follow Your Dream
Learn more about One-on-one coaching to help understand a Type-C personality and equip you with practical tools to make yourself more productive and less frustrated with storytelling at http://www.thewriterslifeline.com/
Inspiration
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
– Joseph Campbell
Octavia E. Butler on Writing
“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”
― Octavia E. Butler
Denzel Washington On Dreams
“Don’t be afraid to go outside the box. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Don’t be afraid to fail big, to dream big, but remember, dreams without goals are just dreams. And they ultimately fuel disappointment.”
— Denzel Washington at the 2015 Dillard University graduation
Ava DuVernay on… Daring to Dream
As the first black woman nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Director, Ava DuVernay is ushering in a new era for black filmmakers.
“For me, it’s a question of the way we pursue our creative dreams. There is something in our culture that says your dream or the thing you’re pursuing has to happen immediately and all at once, and that is destructive to the creative spirit. I just embraced the idea that this was going to be a gradual exploration of the thing I was interested in – making films – and gave myself permission to go slowly.”
Favorite Quotes
Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca
via Atchity, Kenneth. Write: Quotes
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
"The Heart of an Irishman is Nothing but His Imagination."
~ George Bernard Shaw
George Orwell On Writing.
It is now (1949) sixteen years since my first book was published, and about twenty-one years since I started publishing articles in the magazines. Throughout that time there has literally been not one day in which I did not feel that I was idling, that I was behind with the current job, and that my total output was miserably small. Even at the periods when I was working ten hours a day on a book, or turning out four or five articles a week, I have never been able to get away from this neurotic feeling that I was wasting time. I can never get any sense of achievement out of the work that is actually in progress, because it always goes slower than I intend, and in any case I feel that a book or even an article does not exist until it is finished. But as soon as a book is finished, I begin, actually from the next day, worrying because the next one is not begun.
~ George Orwell
World Class Performer: Short Life Lessons From Ken Atchity
Ken Atchity is a producer, author and columnist, book reviewer, brand consultant, and professor of comparative literature. He is the owner of Story Merchant, a strategic career consulting for writers and Hollywood liaison for out-of-Hollywood production companies. Atchity’s goal is to take our storyteller clients from ambition and vision to professional success in all media.
Where did you grow up and what was your childhood like? Did you have any particular experiences/stories that shaped your adult life?
I grew up between Louisiana and Kansas City, among joke-tellers and story-tellers; was educated by Jesuits in high school and college that taught me an insatiable love of learning, the discipline that provides a lifetime infrastructure for achievement, and ‘ad astra per aspera’, to the stars through obstacles—that taught me to set my aspirations high because you’ll never test your limits without exceeding them
My grandfather, an immigrant from Lebanon, always told me: “Honey, in this country there’s no penalty for failure!” I learned wisdom from him and cooking from my grandmothers, Cajun and Lebanese
What is something you wish you would’ve realized earlier in your life?
I wish I’d always had more confidence in myself.
I wish I’d congratulated myself more. Only in the last ten years have I learned to say, “Nice shot, Ken.” I spent too many years beating myself up.
That change is good. Life is change.
That it was okay to be tired. I used to think being tired was the end of the world, and that I couldn’t function when I’m tired. I felt liberated when I realized, it’s okay to be tired. You can still move forward.
Once you’ve gotten through enough ‘dark nights of the soul,’ I finally came to realize you will get through this one too.
I also learned that, instead of tossing and turning with dark and disturbing thoughts, just get out of bed and do something to move the ball forward.
You don’t have time to agonize if you’re busy.
What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
“You only get one shot.” Patently ridiculous. You get exactly as many shots as you’re willing to take. I once heard a guru answer a follower’s question, “But, master, how many times can I pick myself up?” with: “Sister, you how many times can you fall?
You’re only as good as you’re last project. Nonsense: You’re only as good as your next project.
Tell me about one of the darker periods you’ve experienced in life. How you came out of it and what you learned from it?
Time after time, especially in changing careers from being a tenured professor to being an entertainment entrepreneur (focusing on acquiring, developing, marketing, selling, publishing, and producing stories, including blockbuster movies like The Meg and nearly 20 New York Times Bestsellers like Meg, The Kennedy Detail, and Dracula: The Un-Dead), I’ve painted myself into corners from which continuing until you succeed is the only way out. Instead of dreading them, I’ve learned to love corners.
What is one thing that you do that you feel has been the biggest contributor to your success so far?
Persistence.
Doing more, and thinking less.
“Not minding what happens,” to quote Eckart Tolle.
Doing what I LOVE.
What is your morning routine?
I get up at 4 or 5, making sure I’m there to greet the sun.
I spent an hour reading and sipping coffee.
I make sure I write at least two hours every day, preferably in the a.m.
What habit or behavior that you have pursued for a few years has most improved your life?
As soon as I get up in the morning, I think about what I can look forward to throughout the day or at least in the evening.
If there isn’t anything, I immediately plan something to look forward to: dinner out, a walk, a postponed errand.
Then I proceed into the day’s challenges, knowing I’ve got something to look forward to.
What are your strategies for being productive and using your time most efficiently?
Although I’ve written books about time-management (like A Writer’s Time and How to Quit Your Day Job and Live Out Your Dreams), the most important thing I’ve learned and teach is that the best way to “find more time” is to stealit. How? By using a stopwatch (or several of them) and promising yourself you won’t end the day without putting at least an hour, say, or more or less you’re your most important projects not on the wall clock, or your wristwatch, but on a stopwatch which you turn ON when you’re working on the project and turn OFF when you’re not.
No waiting! Waiting is my least favorite thing to do, so I make sure I’m NEVER waiting. When a particular project is in someone else’s court so I’m waiting for it, I simply turn to another project, or two, or three. So I’m always using my time to move things forward until the ball is back in my court.
What book(s) have influenced your life the most? Why?
The Odyssey by Homer—my primary personal myth is that of a man who travels the world thriving on storytelling. I learned Homeric Greek to read it in the original in Jesuit high school and return to it in my thoughts nearly every day.
Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow by Marsha Sinetar—The profound observation that doing what you love is the key to happiness, and that money will come from your determination to stick to that.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville—“To write a mighty book you must have a mighty theme.” Get to the point in your life, as soon as you can, of making only big plans once you’ve proven to yourself you can accomplish smaller plans.
Do you have any quotes you live by or think of often?
“The universe is made, not of atoms, but of stories.” — Muriel Ruksmeyer
“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” — Zen koan
“I think the only immoral thing is for a being not to live every instant of its life with the utmost intensity.” — Jose Ortega y Gasset
“There’s nothing wrong with retirement as long as it does not interfere with a man’s work.” — Benjamin Franklin
Read more World Class Performer
Library Way New York City
While walking to New York Public Library on East 41st Street in New York City, pedestrians are treated to literary-themed images inset along the sidewalk. The 96 illustrated bronze plaques depict various quotes from favourite authors and other notable figures.
Gregg LeFevre designed 48 unique images, duplicated to make 96 plaques, to be placed along both sides of the street so everyone has a chance to see them.
Ken's Weekly Book Recommendation
This week A Message from Jessie: The Incredible True Story of Murder and Miracles in the Heartland by Buck Blodgett
Is It Possible For A Story Of Murder To Turn Into Miracles?
Listen to the First BASIC TRAINING FOR TRANSITION with Kenneth Atchity
The transition from military service to civilian life isn’t always easy. For many vets the problems feel insurmountable. This virtual Q&A session with story editor and career-change coach Dr. Ken Atchity (YalePHD) will revamp personal mythologies. Many vets come home trapped in dysfunctional stories they tell themselves. Dr. Atchity will suggest strategies & tactics to aid transition into taking charge of your own story—and making it happen.
This event is brought to you by New York-based O&M Partners. We are proud to be able to present this event and support the men and women who have given their service to our country. Thank you for passing this information on to all who might benefit
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