Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts

Saturday, 16 January 2016

Fall Out 4 in My Dressing Gown

Sometimes the words seem to fall from my finger tips, it’s as though I have little involvement in the process at all; I sit, I type and the story practically writes itself. Sometimes I appear to float through my working day nothing hinders me and all runs smoothly whereas other times everything annoys me, everything is difficult and my back aches.

On Monday with aching back I had inspiration; so I sat on the sofa with many cushions for support and typed away on the lap top. The story didn’t quite work, the story would have made a good poem, the poem turned out to be rubbish; never mind perhaps I will return to it sometime.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I played Fall Out 4, but got stuck in a lengthy cut scene just before bed time.

On Thursday I arrived home with books from the library and minimal back pain. I had lesson inspiration and sat on the sofa underlining passages, jotting down ideas and making lists. By Friday evening the inspiration had waned somewhat but I made some progress and developed my ideas further. I went to bed with plans. I visualized the next day, the Saturday morning kitchen table, piled high with books and notes and progression.

It did not rain on Saturday, the sky was blue, the morning was bright, all the signs were there for a productive day and yet I completely couldn’t be arsed. My inspiration, my motivation, aspiration, get up and go, my entrepreneurial spirit, my drive, my passion, my sense of purpose, had; during the night utterly dissipated and it took several hours before I even managed to get out of my dressing gown.

I thought I’d get on with it after lunch, which I didn’t. I did nothing. I wasn’t down, or depressed, or tired or run into the ground. I just couldn’t be bothered and yet I’m awfully uncomfortable with that.

Society is constantly telling me I should do things. Those facebook photos with the pictures of nice skies and the like are telling me not to lose one single day, to DO IT NOW, to get up and smell the coffee, the roses, and so on. I should have been walking on the beach, baking a cake, making a thing, working a manuscript, listening to music, practicing Yoga, even casting a spell, yet I couldn’t even be bothered with my Sims.

Friday night I was reading about Belbin's theory of team types, yet another archetype thing, some people are innovators, some are coordinators you know the how it goes; and I couldn’t but help think; as I always do with archetypes, that depending on my mood, I am any one of those types.

From one day to the next I can be  the type that cannot be arsed. I can be the type that spends all day in a dressing gown, I can sit in my shack in Fall Out 4; gaze onto the partially cleared street I’ve created and not even bother with one single quest.

And that’s OK because the next day I can be a go getter again!




Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Positive Alignment

Photograph supplied by a student.
Last week I realized that for someone who calls herself a writer, I wasn't producing much in the way of writing. Full of the kind of motivation that occurs as a often as a partial eclipse I drew up a day planner.

For a writer it should be entirely feasible to complete at least one chapter a week, to produced at least one poem and ideally to come up with a short story. I drew a square for every day between Monday 30th March and August 31st. I will make a cross each time I write. I will not break the chain.

These first steps inspired me and I found myself nosing around for writing competitions. And then things started to happen. Minuscule things; that a Mexican shaman might notice or perhaps an ancient wise woman who had uncurled the serpent at the base of her spine.

I went to the University to discuss options for studying a masters degree. I would return to the fold that nurtured me through my bachelors. I would work with the people I now correspond with. My chosen subject fits perfectly and there is a potential funding pathway, closing in three days!

The next day the sun and the moon aligned. A sign my heart cried out a sign! Later that day I had a great idea for a short story: another sign, things are coming together they are aligning.

How very New Age of me: I will ask the universe and it will respond accordingly. I will approach the world with optimism and an unshakable certainty in my own success. Why not? Apart from the fact that unending positivity can be slightly irritating to those raised not to blow their own trumpet and are reminded that no one likes a show off. As Morrissey said “Shyness is nice” “Shyness can stop you from doing all things in life you’d like to.” 
Same moon, different colour, different student


How often are we told? We were told? That only one in a million make it in the music, games, fashion, and film industry. Well why can’t I be the one in a million? Yes good luck with that the Pessimist responds. It has nothing to do with luck. My positivity, my enthusiasm is driving me, it’s a creative drive and it’s on a roll. The more that wheel turns the more opportunities arise.

How does my theory stand up then, if (dare I say it?) if I don’t get the funding, or win the story competition ? It doesn't matter, I’m already happy. These are things I should like to do, but my life doesn't depend on these outcomes, my creativity enhances my life and needs no one’s permission but mine.

I have officially granted myself permission to be unbearably positive, to have faith in spiritual alignment and to blow my own trumpet. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m off to light a joss stick and polish my crystals.