Day 7 #trust30 - 2006/2016

There will be an agreement in whatever variety of actions, so they be each honest and natural in their hour. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What would you say to the person you were five years ago? What will you say to the person you’ll be in five years?

(Author: Corbett Barr)

2006:

Get up, get out and get over yourself. Even though I know you can't you must. You must move on. You must let go. You must walk out of that door and not look back. There are many people trying to drag you down but you know that you can't be beaten. You may be bruised and have scars to prove the battles you have fought, but the real scars that you need to work on are inside you still. They will not heal until you give them the attention they deserve. Don't wait as long as I did. Seize the day. Use the time you have now that you spend inside, alone, sad, lonesome, unloved. Learn to feel happy, loved and a friend to yourself. You are never truly alone. You are never truly unloved. Everything is connected. You can feel it in your blood and your soul, which is why these battles are so painful to wage, for you are only fighting yourself in other forms. Until you stop fighting yourself, these battles will be forever present. When you accept yourself and everything then the battles will disappear. This does not happen quickly and still hasn't happened, but you're on your way to understanding this more. You feel it in each breath, each sigh, each smile. 

I know you won't do any better than I did or I wouldn't be where you are now. So don't beat yourself up about it. Accept your karma as your dharma. There is a rhyme and reason for everything, you just don't know it yet.

There is much good to come. When the healing begins, so does life. Things you never thought possible come into your life at times when you least expect it. Just don't forget how precious life is because a horrific lesson will make you realize that the harm you have done was no intended, just misguided love. Embrace others, faults and all for none of us are perfect and when our time together is gone we miss all those imperfections more.

Tell your family and friends you love them, and most of all yourself.

2016:

You have achieved more than you dreamed you could, but you still haven't reached your goal - because there isn't one! You're living instead of planning. You're loving instead of dreaming, you're peaceful instead of wandering. You've seen trouble, you've seen misery, but nothing you couldn't handle now that you understand this is the song of life sometimes played in a minor key. I know you kept up with the practices that keep you wise and connected for they are not practices that are easy to let go of once they are in your blood. I'm sad it took so long to integrate them fully into life, but no practice can be rushed.  People have come and gone, but your core are still around you and your smile is ever present. Who says dreams don't come true?

Day 6 #trust30 - Screenwriting

Our arts, our occupations, our marriages, our religion, we have not chosen, but society has chosen for us. We are parlour soldiers. We shun the rugged battle of fate, where strength is born. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Next to Resistance, rational thought is the artist or entrepreneurs worst enemy. Bad things happen when we employ rational thought, because rational thought comes from the ego. Instead, we want to work from the Self, that is, from instinct and intuition, from the unconscious.

A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. Its only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.” - Steven Pressfield, Do the Work

The idea of “being realistic” holds all of us back. From starting a business or quitting a job to dating someone who may not be our type or moving to a new place – getting “real” often means putting your dreams on hold.

Today, let’s take a step away from rational thought and dare to be bold. What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to accomplish but have been afraid to pursue? Write it down. Also write down the obstacles in your way of reaching your goal. Finally, write down a tangible plan to overcome each obstacle.

The only thing left is to, you know, actually go make it happen. What are you waiting for?

(Author: Matt Cheuvront)

I've always wanted to send one of my feature film scripts to agents for production.

Standing in my way is:

• Several scripts in revision stage that I have not continued working on recently.
• My fear of success.
• My fear of failure.
• My fear that I will be too attached to the script and not want it to be butchered by a re-write by someone else or a bad director.
• My attachment to my stories and characters
• The time I have to finish the scripts.
• Wanting to send it out now even though they are not ready.
• My lack of networking skills.
• Not getting paid to write for a living yet.
• Questions in my mind about how I should go about doing it rather than just trying different approaches and seeing what happens.
• Not being willing to use the contacts I have to progress even though I would happily help someone in the same position if I had an in.

Plan:

• Start working on a feature script once Nanowrimo for the summer is over.
• Research all the different ways I can send scripts to agents, using all the documentation I have saved and downloaded over the last months.
• Give my script out to those who know how to read a script and ask for feedback or join a screenwriting group that I trust.
• Decide who my feature would suit before sending it out in a cold query.
• Enter the script into festivals.
• Copyright my work.
• Start asking friends who they work for and if they know anyone who knows anyone who could pass on my script. Maybe do this in return for a favor for them so that they don't feel totally used and abused by me.
• Work harder to get paid for writing articles (as you already know you can hint hint!)
• Start working out how I can best network and how I could feel comfortable doing this.
• Meditate on my fear of success and failure.
• Ask myself what would happen if I did succeed/ fail...what would my next steps be?
• Pick a script that I feel is most marketable and work on that one first.
• Pitch the script to film friends and ask them which one they would be most interested in seeing/ making etc.
• Use the time i have left here in Oman to FINISH (or at least try and finish) revisions on a feature. Don't waste it away on blogging challenges like this one (which is great, but which takes away from screenwriting).
• Meditate on giving away my script and watching it go nowhere. 
• Meditate on non-attachment to my work.

I shouldn't be waiting for anything, but I'm waiting until mid-July I reckon.

That's my goal for now.

Day 5 #trust30 - One Week Left to Live

Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you had one week left to live, would you still be doing what you’re doing now? In what areas of your life are you preparing to live? Take them off your To Do list and add them to a To Stop list. Resolve to only do what makes you come alive.

Bonus: How can your goals improve the present and not keep you in a perpetual “always something better” spiral?

(Author: Jonathan Mead)


I have to believe that if I had only 1 week to live I would still write. I would write out all the hopes, dreams, fears and joyful experiences I would have during that week.
I'd keep practicing Buddhism, although I think I would practice harder and more than I am now, which means I should be doing more now than I am!
I would keep practicing yoga.
I wouldn't go to work.
I would ask my family more questions.
I would listen to great music and sing at the top of my lungs to singers like Tori Amos and Ani Di Franco who speak to my soul.
I would sit and watch the birds hopping around, pecking in the garden.
I would watch every sunrise and sunset.
I would savor each flavor that touched my tongue and every sensation that touched my skin.
I would tell everyone I loved them.
I would contact old friends.
I would meditate.
I would send out loving kindness to myself and those I loved as well as those I have a harder time with.
i would speak kindly to others.
I would give away as much money as I could.
I would relish every in and out breath I had left in me.
I would close my eyes and feast on the sounds around me.
I would open my eyes and drink in all the colors and shapes I could see.
I would kiss and hug those people that would accept it and send kisses and hugs to those I couldn't be with.
I would write love letters to each person I loved telling them my favorite memory of them, all the things I love about them and any widsom I had to impart.
I wouldn't wear makeup.
I wouldn't worry about how my hair/ skin/ body looked. I wouldn't even think about my ever appearing wrinkles.

There's just so much I would do...

To do:
All that I am currently doing - yoga, meditation, singing, loving, holding, enjoying, giving, writing.

To stop:
Working as an ESL teacher
Focusing on the negative
Holding back in telling those that I love that I love them
Distancing myself from friends that I love
Holding onto grudges
Holding onto money
Holding onto my breath
Eating and start tasting
Hearing and start listening
Speaking and start conversing
Watching and start seeing
Hating and start loving
Worrying and start LIVING

All these things make me come alive and I'm lucky enough to have the wisdom to be striving for them.

How can my goals improve the present?
I can focus on what my goals are doing for me in the present moment:
Are they bringing me joy?
Are they keeping me honest?
Do they move me?
Do they create dialogue with others?
Are they sustainable?
Does the practice bring me happiness?
Am I better in this moment than I was in the moment before?
Is the practice more fulfilling than the result?
Am I alive when you practice these goals?
Do they connect me with my true self?
Do I feel lighter when doing them than when not doing them?

If I answer yes to all of these questions then I know that the present moment in the goal is more important to me than the future outcome and therefore worth pursuing because they are being done for the right reasons.

Namaste

Day 4 #trust30 - Where in the world?!!!

If we live truly, we shall see truly. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not everyone wants to travel the world, but most people can identify at least one place in the world they’d like to visit before they die. Where is that place for you, and what will you do to make sure you get there?

(Author: Chris Guillebeau)

I'm lucky enough to have traveled most of the world from an early age. That's what being a TCK is all about. However, there are many places I haven't been that I would still like to visit. 

The one place I want to visit before I die is actually a place I've been before - my favorite place in the world, Bali.

I love the atmosphere, people, culture and mix of Hinduism and Buddhism found on this tiny island that you can travel the length of in one day. 

The main thing I want to do there is stand in the temple on the edge of the ocean and watch the sun set.

If I could do this before I die my life would be complete. I don't know if it will happen, or when (if it does), but I'm hopeful. If it doesn't, then at least I can say I've seen one of the most beautiful places on earth and that no matter where I go that experience will stay with me.

UPDATE: Day 3 #trust30 - The Question/ My Biggest Obstacle

UPDATE 6.5.11

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." - Socrates

Having spent the last 48 hours pondering the question I asked myself two days ago, the only answer I can come up with that is honest and that answers my question with integrity is that I don't know how I can solve this problem for myself.

I know that I should keep going down the current path I am on for this has taken me much father than I ever thought I would or could go.

I also understand that I'm asking this question right now because I obviously still have some answers that I need to figure out. I'm not all knowing. I have learned a lot in this l last year that I didn't know before, and I know that I will learn a lot next year that I don't know right now. Therefore, the wisest thing I can do right now is admit that I don't have all the answers, but remain happy to sit in knowledge that as I move forward the answers will no doubt find me when I'm ready to embrace them.

The bravest thing I can do right now is surrender to the mantra "I don't know" and that is what I shall do.

Namaste

6.3.11

That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? . . . Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Identify one of your biggest challenges at the moment (ie I don’t feel passionate about my work) and turn it into a question (ie How can I do work I’m passionate about?) Write it on a post-it and put it up on your bathroom mirror or the back of your front door. After 48-hours, journal what answers came up for you and be sure to evaluate them.

Bonus: tweet or blog a photo of your post-it.

(Author: Jenny Blake)

See ya in 48 hours! Hopefully with some answers!