Primer #4

I suppose that my life’s ambition is be greater than what I see myself as currently. I have been told multiple times that I have a great capacity for many a talent. I have crossed myself in my endeavors to better them. In business, you take time, money, resources, and invest them into a project and expect a return on your investment. Outside of this, or inside of this, are many talents, ones of which I feel flustered over because either, I am not good enough to make a living off of them, or I don’t know how to use them properly. The real question is, why invest time in talents if I will not receive a benefit for them? I need to have joy in the doing. Why do I write books? Because I enjoy it!
It is a love-hate relationship because as I put to pen the words in my head, I am please with the fluidity in which they appear on the page. I am flustered though because even as I write the words, I know they are not good enough to capture the moment, the essence, the emotion, the vision that I have for that story. I see in my mind, how the story should go, the specific, tenuous details that add to the emotion, the raw terrific emotion of the moment, and I know that the words I put down are not good enough. I continue to write over and over and over again, in hopes of achieving that goal, of reaching that summit where I can look back on my work, and say as the Great Creator said, “It is good.”
And even if that event is achieved, who is to say that it will be liked? Who is to say that a living could be made off of it? Who is to say that it will be successful? There are some who had taken NYT bestselling books, and re-submitted them, and been rejected by the same publishers that published them. The truth of the matter is, no one knows what will be successful in the market place. As this is the case, there are only two things that make or break a published book: You! Luck! I will do all that I can to succeed, to be true to the art, the muse, the story in my head, the characters, the powers at be. I will honor the story I write, in hopes that it will honor me with luck. And if I fail, than I blame myself for the lack of success by which the work wrought.

Let ink and pen be had!
Let parchment and tablet be found!
Let the lyric and its sonnet,
and the rose colored word find its way into my hands.
Let it begin,
Lo! the artist awakes
The pen strikes the parchment as a sword to a dragon’s chest
The story unfolds, the muse,
She whispers

Primer #3

Too much to do and not enough time to do it in is a common phrase spoken by many, lived by many, but understood only by few.

When we are given tasks, assignments, projects and homework in school, they tell you it will prepare you for the life journey ahead withe a future employer. We are programmed from our youth up to expect our selves to do everything and have everything be done at the end of the day else we will fail, and we consider ourselves as that specific failure.

Heaven forbid any of us should feel so...

Between individual cultures, needs, environments, perceptions, paradigms, realities, parallel realities, imagined realities, and what actually needs to get done, only one truth remains... proper prioritization to proficient problem solving.

Harvard came out with a style, emphasized by S.R. Covey on 7 Habits, and utilized within the work force. For me, and possibly others, the clash still exists within the soul, the student, the academic that resides in the far recesses of my brain to go our and destroy each task to precision. A sense of urgency develops, a tense feeling tingles across the epidermis each morning, resulting in shivers, shakes, and all together nauseousness at eight.

Before hand it was a grade... now it is a career.

Forthcoming I must be, and realize that unlike formal education, there is one aspect that I have yet to grasp and ascertain, and that is the human element, the soft science, the art of manipulation, randomization, luck, and more importantly, taking time to sip on a preferred beverage of choice.

What may be seen as a most didactic moment, such that if not embraced, would lead to my downfall, evaporates into the hours and a fruit grows. This fruit is a positive result, nurtured with panic, stress, anxiety, more stress, a few gray hairs, and an altogether ol' fashioned American know how.

When the direction is set, and the benefit is seen, proven, and appreciated by one, the rest will follow like sheep to new pasture, or lemmings to their fall.

Take care and mind your step and realize, you only have to open the gate to success, others will follow.

Next time on Primer: The difference between problem solving and goal achieving.