Protected: Ten Raw Juices That Will Change Your Life
Ten cool quotes that will change your life
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Ten cool quotes that will change your life. Well, perhaps.
Quotes are like affirmations. The well chosen words, the succint connotation, simplicity in brevity and the ability to inspire. Quotes are open to interpretation while being specific, which is where the power lies.
Self-created affirmations used in the right context are like a tonic. Try one. The next time you find yourself indulging in a negative thought about yourself, your work, your ideas… anything, apply the tonic. Rewrite that thought and give it a complete 1 – 80. Example: “I, ____________ am talented and creative in a unique and inspiring way;” in response to a pitiful, “I don’t know that I have any talent.”
Do this continuously for one week, replace negative self image with positive affirmation, and you will recover a sense of safety.
Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes, potentially life changing:
- “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”
- “Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.”
- “Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.”
- “Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold.”
- “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
- “Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.”
- “Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.”
- “Every mind must make its choice between truth and repose. It cannot have both.”
- “For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.”
- “Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force – that thoughts rule the world.”
How to Dream, Coaching Offer
Hi, if you have just joined us from my thirty30 blog on tumblr, you will already know that this offer was born out of the Trust30 Self-reliance writing challenge. If you have stumbled, rather than tumblr’d… on this page then visit www.trustthirty.tumblr.com for all the background.
So, currently, I have 3 life coaching slots available that I will offer as NAME YOUR PRICE slots. Based on my Extended Action Now package, which can be tailored accordingly, it is 4 x 1 hour sessions (phone or Skype). The usual cost is £75 per hour.
EXTENDED ACTION NOW is designed to get your life organised and get you into action. You know what you want and the changes you want to make. Now let’s put the plan firmly in place! You will break through blocks, interrupt negative self-doubt and create openings. You will experience feeling energised, fearless and at ease in the face of new challenges.
If you are interested in one of these slots, send me an email with “Name your price coaching,’ in the subject header. Please say how much you are willing to pay, stating your name and email address clearly, introduce yourself (a little bit about yourself) and answer these questions:
- What prompted you to request coaching?
- What are you hoping to achieve from the coaching relationship?
- What would you like to focus on in your first session?
If you are 1 of the 3 candidates selected, I will notify you by email after which time we can set up the Coaching Agreement. Good luck, and many thanks for connecting with me.
All best, Esther
Namaste
Writing talent is only half the battle
Practice, practice, practice writing. Writing is a craft that requires both talent and acquired skills. You learn by doing, by making mistakes and then seeing where you went wrong. Jeffrey A. Carver
Creative writing, and I am thinking primarily of fiction writing, becomes increasingly more of a technical exercise as writers begin to learn and understand specific techniques. It’s not that dissimilar to when as children we are learning to write (and read), our knowledge and skill improves with practise.
As a beginning fiction writer I was full of bravado, enthusiasm and vision, but I had very little technique. I would simply write down my ‘story’ word by word, sentence by sentence with prominent plot lines, where this happened, then that happened, then this character said this, looked left, held a gun, stepped over a banana skin… What turned out on the page was prosaic, dense and difficult to absorb reams of a kind of prose. An interpretation rather than the rich, energetic and engaging story that was in my mind, like looking through a camera lense at a beautiful view, clicking the shutter button only to record a flat, watered down version of what the eye could see. Frustrating.
Practise is good. Imperative. As Carver says we learn by doing. There are many techniques and ways of creating the effects we need to convey the story in our minds. Furthermore there are a myriad different renditions of the fiction form that we can learn from, see The Art of Fiction by David Lodge.
Writing talent is a boon, of course it is. But it is only half the battle. A writer’s talent may lie in style of prose or characterisation, but they may be weaker on dialogue. However, being able to plot a story and develop narrative I believe are fundamental. All of these techniques can be learned by expanding the innate creativity that will sustain acquiring the necessary tools.
Writers are visual artists, painting pictures, creating story and developing narrative with the aim of it being a shared experience. What other reason is there for art, than to exhibit? In order to be able to do so effectively, we have to learn the techniques and we have to practise them.
One Bite of the Apple
TRUTH IN FICTION
I believe I can pinpoint the exact moment in the experience that taught me how to acquire an eye for characterisation in my writing. I credit Joost Hunningher who was at that time (1991-1994), the course supervisor for University Westminster’s BA Film, Video and Photo Arts.
My faculty cohort and I were in a lecture/ workshop in the Barnardo Room on the ground floor of the Riding House Street, central London site. It was the room with the ever present stack of Gideon bibles often on different parts of the oak wood shelf that ran the length of the wall opposite the Georgian style windows, and the broad blue comfy seats, which on this day were arranged in a tight semi-circle – gathered at the feet of our guru.
It was also the room where on occasion I had had to meet with the reprehensible human being who was allocated my tutorial mentor. In contrast he did nothing for my creative growth except attempt to unleash his own twisted form of damage, encased in a derisive regard for the idea of me as a creative. I carry my wounds with valour. In my more evolved, mature and experienced perspective I imagine he was a test. I passed.
But I digress, the conversation that was conducted by Joost in that workshop the exact title and content of which I cannot recall, turned into a concrete and more rounded entity when I inadvertently became part of the proceedings. I had reached into my bag and had taken out a small and very green Granny Smith’s apple. As soon as I finished slowly rubbing it a few times along my thigh by way of polishing it, I suddenlty lifted my eyes in a quick scan of the room, “oh shoot, I thought, “I’m gonna make a bit of a crunch with this… might be embarassing.”
I was that peckish I took a tiny, quiet as a mouse bite anyway at which point Joost looked in my direction and said something along the lines of, ” … just like that.” All eyes on me. I sank into the seat. He continued with that familiar sparkle in his old Dutch immigrant eyes, “When people are interacting, there is often more than one action or activity happening at the same time. She,” (meaning me) “is taking tiny bites from that apple as we convene in this workshop…People rarely sit talking with one another without moving or gesturing…” I didn’t know whether to take another bite at that point or not, but believe I finished the whole apple by the end of the workshop.
This has really stuck with me and I have observed as much (all the occasions sitting and people watching in libraries, cafes, in company with friends, family). I just paused to rub my hands together. It’s human. So I always seek to include actions in my characters. I enjoy the puzzlement of choreographing the movements as well as the creation of them in context with the emotional situation.
Joost’s example was a strong visual and perhaps this is why it has always stuck with me. In that moment the lesson became real for me, it became true.
About Telephone Coaching
Telephone coaching is an incredibly powerful tool used by professional life coaches. As a coach or someone being coached, it very quickly becomes second nature. In my practice, I offer meetings if the client requests it. However, the most significant aspect of telephone coaching is in the way that we listen. Mostly we are not aware of it, but we ’hear’ a lot in tone of voice, the pauses, the breaths and through the flow of conversation. We’re less inclined to feel judged or to pass judgment. If you can’t see whether a hairstyle is good or bad, if an outfit pleases or does not, there is no distraction. There is no body language to interpret or facial expressions to decipher. When these distractions are absent from the space, it allows for pure communication. The kind of intimacy that allows the client to express any subject or issue that may seem different of difficult in a face-to-face situation.
It’s a relatively new concept. Initially, the idea of having a telephone conversation about a desire to pursue a new business venture or to find the relationship of your dreams seems unusual. These are important matters and they deserve face-to-face interaction. Don’t they? This is true, because people often come to coaching because they sense they have something big to deal with, and to create in reality. Telephone coaching is a foundation tool in fulfilling such ambitions and to motivate moving into the next phase of life, because we engage in an active form of listening.
Finally, we are busy people in this day and age. Technology allows us to make a call from literally anywhere we feel is convenient and comfortable. At home, from the office between appointments, at the local coffee shop or even relaxing in the sun by the poolside of an exotic location. Telephone coaching allows for that level of freedom and the focus to cut through to the business of designing the life you want to live.
Why have a coach?
“Even world-class athletes can’t reach peak performance without a great coach.” FAST COMPANY
It’s a question worth asking when considering the financial investment in yourself.
Thinking about long distance runners – I absolutely take my hat off to the courageous hero/ines among us mere mortals who run the London Marathon or indeed any of the twenty-six mile circuits around the world – New York City, Chicago, Mumbai, the Athens Greek Marathon. Fun runners and professionals alike, I salute you! However, I see a significant difference between the two camps. That is, aside from the obvious, with the professional’s being fitter, focussed and faster.
The fun runners will usually take between four and six hours to run the course. Whereas the front runner professionals, will typically cross the finish line within two and a half hours. In the 2009 London Marathon, the women’s winner Irina Mikitenko from Germany, completed the circuit in two-hours, 22 minutes and 11 seconds. Irina Mikitenko trained with a coach, which would obviously have given her a far greater edge over the fun runners, and indeed her athletic peers.
Coaching provides that extra ingredient. As well a being a motivating presence, coaching provides that third-eye on skill and technique. Coaching enables the athlete to uncover and overcome the areas and issues blocking positive progress. Without the blocks, you’re a winner.
