Tag: ELAN
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Habitude…
This blog is about TAB, again. A current re-read of “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life,” by Dr. Daniel Amen, is reminding me to examine the originating thought that drives a less than ideal attitude, which in turn drives behavior. TAB, thought>attitude>behavior. Amen’s book is quite dry and technical, but there are valuable exercises to…
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Secondary Play…
Do you love what you do each day? The lucky ones get to spend their days creating beauty in whatever form and go home with a paycheck. Equally lucky are those who are filled to the brim with the satisfaction of accomplishing a previously thought to be impossible goal. As humans we yearn for someone…
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Do One Thing…
ELAN Principle 6 is Make Things Happen, the basic premise being to be active in your world, rather than sitting by, sitting out or sitting in. Pick one thing to accomplish this week. We know writing goals and breaking them down into tiny, chewable bits leads to success. Taking a Daddy bite out of a…
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Square Peg…
Being a square peg means the world’s view of perfect roundness rubs against your sharp edges. Roundness means no friction, no tension, no change. It means being okay with the way things are, never seeing a better, or more creative, way. I’m grateful to every artist who resists the rounding. They see with a painful…
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Apple of My I…
ELAN Principle 9 is “Watch Your Language,” a deep well of subtopics which I’ll revisit in future blogs. Today is all about First Person. Literary works are expressed through the viewpoint of one or more characters. A story in first person is told through one character in their voice. It is “I lost my job…
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Living on the Curve…
Lifelong Learning is number ten of the ELAN Principles, my personal roadmap to guide upward and forward movement. My dad instilled in me the desire to always be reaching for new skill, new information, new habits, new joys to be discovered. When he died at 95, there were some 1500 books stored on his e-reader,…
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Life is But a Blip…
Our time on this earthly plane is no more than a blip on the radar of the circle of life. That sounds so depressing, but is it? If one’s life is reduced to a mere speck in the time, space continuum, what does that mean? I think it means we have been given a great…
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Moving…
Several of my friends are moving to new homes, new neighborhoods, or new jobs. Although I’m not going anywhere, I am moving. I don’t need to move on or move up, only forward. My night dreams are invaded with walking on uncertain paths, surrounded by strangers. It matters not where I’m headed, only that I…
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Ideal, Ideal Day…
What is your ideal day? I have a few. The simplest is cozying up in my writing closet, punctuated by playing piano and reading. Simple, not easy to pull off given the rarity of white spots on the calendar. I had the grandest ideal day at the New Orleans Fairgrounds, soft-shell crab poboy in hand,…
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Front Loading…
In the realm of time and space and all things that must fit within, I like to remember to front load…my day, my week, my priorities. Setting aside writing time first thing in the morning tells my brain and my heart that writing is an important enterprise. Front loading the week means the first three…
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