On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Here’s a thought-provoking excerpt from Mary Morrissey’s recent release, Brave Thinking:

One of my favorite stories that demonstrates the power of paradigm is about an old man who was fishing off a dock, reeling in one fish after another. Next to him stood a bucket and a ruler that was snapped off at the ten-inch mark. The fisherman would throw out his line and every so often, he’d reel in a little fish. Then, he would carefully unhook his catch and lay it down alongside his ruler. He would toss any fish measuring eight or nine inches into his bucket. Pretty soon, there was a big tug on the line. The old guy fought hard with the fish and finally reeled in a beauty. It must have been over a foot long. He placed it alongside his ten-inch ruler, then promptly threw his fish back into the water.

A young man who was new to fishing had been watching the other fellow for hours. Did the older fellow know something he didn’t? Maybe there was an ordinance against catching bigger fish? Overcome with curiosity, he broke the silence. “Gosh, I’ve been watching you all afternoon, and that was the biggest fish you caught so far. It was a beauty. I don’t get it. Why did you throw it back?”

The old man looked up at him and shrugged. “I’ve only got a ten-inch frying pan.”

Our frying pan is the size of the life we know. The Infinite sends us fish, ideas, to nourish us, to build our dreams. When it sends an idea that is bigger than the frying pan, we discard it. We throw it back into the sea of ideas, saying, “No, that won’t fit.” Our paradigms tell us we don’t have the time, the money, or the wherewithal. You can allow an idea into your life, even if you do not know how to achieve it. The Infinite’s currency is ideas. The people who realize their dreams are the ones who are careful not to discard the ideas that can nourish them and lead them to a more abundant life. They realize their frying pan does not span a mere ten inches; rather, its breadth is infinite. When an inspired idea comes your way, let it nourish you.

Source: Brave Thinking, pp. 218-219

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

A long-time fan of bestselling authors and coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff, I look forward to reading their emails and blog posts. Here’s an excerpt from a recent blog post:

Have patience with everything that remains imperfect or unfinished in your head and heart. And realize that patience is not about waiting, but the ability to keep a good attitude while working hard to stay true to your intuition and values. This is your life, and it is governed by your choices. May your actions speak louder than your words. May your daily choices preach louder than your lips. May your inner sense of satisfaction be your noise in the end.

And if your present life only teaches you one thing, let it be that taking a passionate leap is always worth it. Even if you have no idea where you’re going to land — even when there are so many unknowns — be brave enough to stand up and listen to your heart.

Remember that the most powerful moments in life happen when you find the courage to let go of what can’t be changed. Because as Viktor Frankl said, when you are no longer able to change a situation, you are challenged to change yourself — to grow beyond the unchangeable. And that changes everything!

Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Marc & Angel’s website.

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In her book, Let It Be Easy: Simple Ways to Stop Stressing & Start Living, life coach Susie Moore shares insightful gems. Here’s one of my favorites:

Have you ever noticed the overuse of the word sorry, especially by women? We overapologize like crazy! Here are some easy replacements:

Instead of saying, “So sorry I’m a couple of minutes late,” you can say, “Thank you for waiting.”

Instead of saying, “Sorry I messed up,” you can say, “I’ll fix that right now, thanks for pointing it out.”

Instead of saying, “Sorry to bother you,” you can say, “Hey, do you have a moment?”

Saying “sorry” is often a reflex, but it doesn’t have to be. You’re meant to take up space in this world! There’s no prize for being small or unbothersome. Words have power. And so do you.

Source: Let It Be Easy, p. 268

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Here’s a thought-provoking reflection from international speaker and bestselling author Joyce Meyer:

Do you put off doing things you do not enjoy? Perhaps it’s a maintenance appointment for the car, an unpleasant conversation, a mound of paperwork, paying bills, or a housekeeping chore you find especially laborious. When these things must be done, I encourage you to go ahead and do them. Get them over with. Do them early in the day when your energy level is highest, so you can focus on them and finish them.

Life comes with certain responsibilities. I think the best approach to life is to endeavor to enjoy absolutely everything we do, but when we need to do something we don’t enjoy, procrastinating accomplishes nothing. The longer you put off doing what needs to be done, the longer you will be tempted to dread doing it, and dread will drain your strength and your enjoyment of the present moment.

What have you delayed doing recently? Do your best to accomplish it today so that next time you think about it, you will not have to say, “I dread that.” Instead, you can say, “I did that!”

Source: Strength for Each Day by Joyce Meyer

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Here’s an inspiring excerpt from Mary Morrissey’s recent release, Brave Thinking:

William H. Murray was a highly respected Scottish mountain climber who knew something about commitment—and courage. As a young man, he climbed some of the world’s tallest mountains.

As a soldier in World War II, he was captured and spent three years in prisoner of war camps. While in a German prison camp, using the only things he could find—rough toilet paper—he wrote a philosophical book about mountain climbing. The Gestapo discovered his manuscript and promptly destroyed it. When Murray began to write the book a second time, again on toilet paper, his fellow prisoners were amazed. The odds of his succeeding were almost nil. Murray’s health had deteriorated because of near starvation. He didn’t know if he would ever be strong enough to climb again. And should the Nazis find his second manuscript, he knew they would destroy it in an instant. And yet, both Murray and his book survived.

Emaciated after the war, Murray spent two years rebuilding his strength. Mountaineering in Scotland was published in 1947, rekindling national interest in mountain climbing. Murray himself went on to complete three landmark Himalayan expeditions, including the one that paved the way for Sir Edmund Hillary’s milestone ascent of Mount Everest in 1954.

Murray spent his later years as an environmentalist, determined to protect the Scottish Highlands that so inspired him.

Source: Brave Thinking, p. 153

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

A long-time fan of bestselling authors and coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff, I look forward to reading their emails and blog posts. Here’s an excerpt from a recent blog post:

Embrace change and realize that, although messy, in many ways it’s necessary. It won’t always be obvious at first, but in the end most forms of change are worthwhile because they force us to grow. So keep yourself in check right now…

What you have today may become what you had by tomorrow. You never know. Things change, often spontaneously. People and circumstances come and go. Life doesn’t stop for anybody. It moves rapidly and rushes from calm to chaos in a matter of seconds, and happens like this to people every day. It’s likely happening to someone nearby right now.

Sometimes the shortest split second in time changes the direction of our lives. A seemingly innocuous decision rattles our whole world like a meteorite striking Earth. Entire lives have been swiveled and flipped upside down, for better or worse, on the strength of an unpredictable event.

And these events are always happening — like all the senseless violence and drama we see in our world today.

So just remember, however good or bad a situation is now, it will change. That’s the one thing you can count on. Accept it. Breathe. Be where you are. You’re where you need to be right now. There’s a time and place for everything, and every hard step is necessary. Just keep doing your best, and don’t force what’s not yet supposed to fit into your life. When it’s meant to be, it will be.

Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Marc & Angel’s website.

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Here’s an inspiring excerpt from Mary Morrissey’s recent release, Brave Thinking:

We live in a spiral galaxy that is governed by immutable laws. Our very DNA is a spiral. Like gravity, there is an unrelenting pull of being. We all have the capacity to grow into what we could be. This is life in action. It is the blade of grass pushing through that crack in the sidewalk, stretching into the next version of itself. That bit of green breaks through the cement seeking the light that causes it to grow. This is true for all of us because that same source of life—what I call the Infinite—lives inside us too.

You feel the pull when you notice and pay attention to it. Notice what you are noticing; tune your awareness to your emotions, thoughts, and bodily sensations. And in that place of awareness, you will be free to imagine a life you would love.

Source: Brave Thinking, p. 47

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Bestselling author Barbara O’Neal shared the following excellent advice in recent post on the Writer Unboxed blog:

A short time ago, a minister I knew passed away. We had not been in contact for quite a long time, but it was still piercing. He went too young, and it was a surprise, and as we all know, those are the deaths that catch us off guard, and I found myself thinking about him, about legacies, and what I learned from him. His most compelling physical trait was a twinkle in his eye, like he knew something magical he was about to impart.

And he did know magical things. The best thing I learned from him was something that keeps me company all the time:

What is mine to do?

What is MINE to do?

It’s a great phrase to keep in your back pocket. It can help sort out big and small questions alike: a busy holiday meal with too many people: what is mine to do here? Everything to make it the most perfect holiday of all time? Probably not. It’s probably more like feed everyone and make sure they all have a place to sit.

And a big question like, in writing, what is yours to do?

This is a pretty magical longing, this desire to write. Writing is healing, not just for you, but for the people who need your work, and I don’t mean in a self-help, elevated, or even literary way. Books don’t have to be mighty, big things to be powerful. Who among us has not been saved by a book, maybe many times?

I sure have been. So many times.

What is yours to do?

Who do you want to communicate with? Think about that. Maybe it’s your depressed, despairing 15- year-old self. Maybe it’s your professor from junior year in college, or your mom, or your future self, or the woman who is going through a divorce and doesn’t know how to get through it.

Elizabeth Gilbert wrote that book, Eat Pray Love, and the women who responded in such enormous numbers knew exactly what she was saying to them. She was saying, it’s going to be okay. You can do this. You will find magic if you are true to yourself.

Source: Writer Unboxed

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In a recent post on the Writer Unboxed blog, writer Kelly Allgood shared the following excellent advice:

About a year ago, I was feeling completely stuck in my writing. I’d finished the third full rewrite of a book I’d been working on for years, then trunked it after feeling so bogged down in the details of its convoluted plot that I couldn’t tell up from down. I’d drafted another book that felt like it was between genres, and had no idea how I’d pitch it to agents once I got to that point. I felt, in essence, like writing was quicksand, and that I was rapidly sinking beneath all the pressure I’d been putting on myself to write something good, to get an agent, to get published, to start my career, and on and on.

I wish I could remember what prompted me to do this, but one cold winter’s day, I decided to sit down and write something that would never see the light of day. No pressure to publish, to get feedback, to make it good. It could be the worst piece of writing that ever existed and it wouldn’t matter, because no one would ever see it. So I wrote. And wrote. And wrote. The block I’d been sitting before shattered in front of my eyes.

It is honestly some of the best writing I have ever done, and it would never have existed had I not given myself permission to write badly.

Source: Writer Unboxed

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

I look forward to receiving weekly emails from Robert Holden, a British psychologist, author, and broadcaster, who works in the field of positive psychology and well-being. Here’s an excerpt from a recent post:

Describing joy is very difficult and very worthwhile. The more you tune in to joy and let yourself feel it, the more you learn about what true happiness is. I encourage my students to describe joy by meditating on joy, by painting joy, by singing joy, by dancing joy, by crafting a poem on joy, or by finding a symbol, in nature, for instance, that represents joy. What emerge are commonly felt qualities of joy, five of which I will share with you now.

Joy is Constant

When people tune in to the feeling of joy, what often emerges is an awareness that this joy is somehow always with us. Joy is quietly, invisibly ever-present. It is not “out there,” and it is not “in here”; rather, it is simply everywhere we are. Joy feels somehow beyond space and time. Joy does not come and go; what comes and goes is our awareness of joy. Ironically, we often feel the presence of joy the most when we stop chasing pleasure and we stop trying to satisfy our ego.

Joy Inspires Creativity

Upon discovering this joy, many people experience a greater sense of creativity that rushes through them. Your ego may get the byline, but really joy is the author. Joy is the doer. Joy is the thinker. Joy is the creative principle. In one of my favorite Upanishads, classic sacred texts of Indian literature, it is written: “From joy springs all creation, / By joy it is sustained. / Towards joy it proceeds, / and to joy it returns. No wonder so many artists take the course.

Joy is Often Unreasonable

I like to describe joy as “unreasonable happiness” because it doesn’t seem to need a reason. It is a happiness that is based on nothing. In other words, it doesn’t need a cause or an effect in order to exist. Certainly good things, favorable circumstances, and a happy state of mind can make you more receptive to joy; but joy still exists even when you are not receptive to it. Joy needs no reason. And this is why we can be surprised by joy even in the most ordinary moments.

Joy is Untroubled

Unlike pleasure and satisfaction, joy does not have an opposite. It does not swing up and down, as our moods do. And it does not wrestle with positives and negatives, as our mind does. Joy does, however, have a twin. If pleasure’s twin is pain, and satisfaction’s twin is dissatisfaction, then joy’s twin is love. When people describe joy to me they always mention love—even the lawyers, the politicians, and the psychologists.
Like love, joy is fearless and untroubled by the world. It is as if nothing in the world can tarnish or diminish the essence of joy. As such, it is free.

Joy is Enough

Many people describe a sense of emptiness and a “fall from grace” that follows an encounter with great pleasure and satisfaction. This is not the case with joy, however. One of the most beautiful qualities of joy is the abiding sense of “enoughness.” Unlike the ephemeral states of pleasure and satisfaction, joy does not induce a craving for more, because joy is enough. If ever we feel joy is missing, it is because we are absent-minded-caught up, probably, in some grief over a passing pleasure or preoccupied with a new object of desire.

Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Robert Holden’s website.