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How Love Inspires Us to Write

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By Tiffany Matthews

I had come to write about truth, beauty, freedom and that which I believed above all things, love. But there was only one problem…..I’ve never been in love!

This opening monologue in the movie Moulin Rouge, follows young writer Christian, who is faced with a serious dilemma. How can he write about love without even experiencing what it feels like to fall in love?

Love Acts Like a Muse…

For writers and artists, love is a muse that inspires them in their craft, be it through literary works or through masterpieces in art. Have you ever noticed how the words seem to flow easier when you’re in love? Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a fine example of how love can inspire us to write. She immortalized her love for her husband, Robert Browning in How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways, one of the most famous love sonnets of all time.

Lack of Love or Heartbreak…

Love, or lack of it, inspires us to write about our free flowing emotions that lift us up to cloud nine or bring us crashing down to reality when our illusions of love are shattered. Some writers thrive in loving relationships while others relish the angst of unrequited love. Yes, we need angst to write. Some writers, however, would choose not to fall in love because they don’t want to be brokenhearted. But even a broken heart can be a dark muse, as proven by some of musicians whose albums were inspired by their heartbreak.

After breaking up with her boyfriend, Adele penned her best selling album, 21, which earned her six Grammy Awards last year, including Album of the year. Taylor Swift is another example of how heartbreak can be transformed into words or in her case, songs.

Falling in Love…

Some writers may not be part of the talkative lot, but when they fall in love, expect pages or letters filled with sweet nothings and lovely verse–the only way they know how to articulate their feelings. When you are in a relationship with a writer, expect to be immortalized in poems, stories and songs.

David Levithan’s book, Every Day, has this quote that perfectly describes what love does to us writers, “This is what love does: It makes you want to rewrite the world.”

Stephen King contributes his own thoughts on love in his profession as an author. “Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference. They don’t have to makes speeches. Just believing is usually enough.” This line of course, speaks of his wife Tabitha, the loving constant throughout the ups and downs of his writing career.

Even with our increasingly digital and mobile world, writers will still take the time to write you a letter or dedicate a poem to you. Neil Gaiman is one of the more vocal authors, who is not ashamed to speak about his love for his wife, Amanda Palmer, on Twitter. The more bashful wordsmiths will send you notes coming from a supposed secret admirer. The more courageous ones will wear their hearts on their sleeve and declare their love on every social media around. In fact, writers can use online tools, to help them update their social networks and emails simultaneously in one place.

Love in any form–not just the romantic kind–will always inspire us to write. Open your heart and don’t be afraid to fall love. If you do get your heart broken, cry and let your written words speak for you. But don’t ever be afraid of finding love again. Just as Christian in Moulin Rouge learned, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”

Author’s Bio: Based in San Diego, California, Tiffany Matthews writes about travel, fashion and anything under sun at wordbaristas.com. You can find her on Twitter as
@TiffyCat87.

Positive Attitude Tips for Business

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By Sarah Gotheridge

Starting a business requires a number of things, including the initial capital, a business plan, and a location. An equally important factor is the right attitude.

A negative attitude is always bad for business. It is bad for you, bad for your colleagues and employees, and bad for the work environment in general. Potential customers and clientele are equally put off by a difficult or negative attitude. They will quickly take their business elsewhere.

It is easy to become jaded in the world of business if you don’t have strong emotional resources to draw from. Having the right attitude in business requires a positive attitude towards life in general. A negative attitude in business is like a runaway train that increasingly picks up speed. It will be a constant drain on the energy, creative drive, and ambition necessary for keeping a business viable and profitable.

In other words, if you approach life with a gloomy or negative outlook, you are doomed before you start

Business Tips

Business Relationships

Establish cordial relationships with similar business operators and owners. This will provide a broader perspective by which to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of your own business. Establishing a good working relationship with your competitors will also provide ideas and insights for improving your business.

Know When to Take a Break

It is difficult to maintain a positive viewpoint if everything remains dull and boring. Knowing how and when to take a break is an important skill to hone and savor. Many new business owners feel guilty if they take time away from the business. This means late hours, missed lunches, and taking work home. Now and then it may be necessary to work excessive hours to cover all the bases, but knowing how to take a break will pay off in the long run.

Avoid Unrealistic Goals

While it is important to be goal-oriented, unrealistic expectations will disappoint rather than fulfill your business aspirations. It is sometimes difficult to discern the balancing line between whimsy and inspiration. Inspiration can lead to creative innovations and solutions. Whimsical ideas, on the other hand, can be a useless expenditure of money and time. This can easily lead to a negative attitude, self-doubt, and the inability to make the important decisions. It helps to have a way of critically and objectively evaluating business practices and decisions. Strategy meetings and/or bringing in an outside consulting firm are two such options.

Networking

Once the business is up and running it is important to continue networking and developing contacts. Connections and contacts will continue to be a good resource for ideas and insights. A good contact base will also help you to stay up-to-date and more objective about how well your business is functioning.

Life Tips

Self Reflection

Our personalities are not set in stone. It takes courage to confront oneself and deal with our insecurities and perceived flaws. The Greek philosopher, Socrates, said the beginning of wisdom is to “know thyself.” One of the insights of psychoanalysis is that many people choose to keep many aspects of their personality in the dark. Taking the time to be reflective helps keep things in perspective. You will have a much better appreciation and attitude towards yourself and life in general.

Enjoy Life

Nourish other interests and desires besides the passion for work. This could be any number of things such as playing your guitar in a band on the weekend, going white water rafting and hiking, visiting museums, or reading some of your favorite authors. It may simply involve spending more time with family and friends. A person that doesn’t find time to enjoy things will have a difficult time keeping a positive attitude about life.

Author’s Bio: Sarah Gotheridge represents a site called Monetise.co.uk. She enjoys writing about business online and giving advice to new businesses.

How to Live with Intensity

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By Robert D. Smith

Behind the scenes, most people who are truly successful live lives that can only be described with one word—intense.

They are intense about their work, their time, their money, and life itself. They use a different thought process than most people.

On the outside looking in, you may not always be able to notice. After all, we usually imagine successful people as these incredible individuals who just seem to have everything together and nothing at all to worry about.

Really, it’s the opposite. Successful people only appear to have it all together because of the intensity it takes to create that appearance in the minds of others.

But what exactly is that intensity, and how can we activate it in our own lives?

Intensity is:

  • Living with an extreme sense and awareness of your purpose. Successful people have a vision of which they remain intensely aware.
  • Acknowledging that you have a limited amount of time to accomplish your vision. Nobody lives forever.
  • Possessing extreme focus on two things: what’s important now and what’s next.

What most people miss, however, is that intensity is not a state of mind…it is a state of emotion.

Pursuing anything with intensity requires that you be emotionally connected to it. You must possess a fanatical commitment to follow through.

Here are a few easy things you can do on a regular basis to keep the intensity trending UP in your life:

  1. Count your days. This is something I started doing a few years ago. I remind myself of this daily, and I can’t recommend it enough. You will gain a new appreciation of what can be accomplished in a single 24-hour period. If you’re interested in figuring out your number, there’s a simple calculator on my website that will tell you.
  2. Ask yourself two questions that will keep you in constant motion: What’s important now? What’s next? If you focus on these two questions, it will be almost impossible for your intensity level to drop. They will get you up early and keep you up well into the night.
  3. Honor your family members and close friends. When you keep the people who matter most as top priorities in your life, you will constantly be reminded of a major reason to strive to do better. Seek to honor them in all that you do.

Keeping your intensity level up will not only make you more productive, it will make you more aware. Time will no longer just slip away and get wasted on the things you know are not important, in both your professional and personal life. When you’re able to focus in on only the things that truly matter, amazing things will happen.

What do you do to keep your intensity level up?

Robert was gracious enough to share a copy of his new book, “20,000 Days and Counting,” for our community! Comment below if you’d like to have the free copy; best comment as judged by me wins the book. –Rosemary

Author’s Bio: Robert D. Smith is the author of 20,000 Days and Counting and a consultant to numerous best-selling authors, speakers, and entertainers. You can find out more at TheRobertD.com.

Getting out of Bed on a Dark Day

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By Chris Brogan

I got diagnosed with severe clinical depression over a year ago, and for a while, I really hung to that diagnosis. It helped me frame a lot of what had been going wrong in my life. But then, I realized that I was really clinging to it. A lot too much. And so I decided that I’d try a new tack.

“YES AND” THINKING

Improv actors have a rule: you must never say no in a performance with another improv actor. If they start with, “You seem tired today,” you may not say, “No, I’m not.” You must say, “Yes, and…” and say what will keep the performance moving. I decided that with my depression, I’d adopt some “Yes, And” thinking to the process.

If it’s a dark day, and if I feel down, I don’t want to get out of bed. Bed makes for a great sanctuary when you’re depressed. But here’s what I’d tell myself: “I want to stay in bed. I’m depressed. I have severe clinical depression.” Pause. “Yes, and though I want to stay in bed, I’ve got work to do, and I really like to eat, so I’d best do some of that work. Let’s start by just getting out of the bed for a minute and see if you can walk around.”

SHAKE THE LABEL

I found something else out: once you earn a label, you really hold onto it, good or bad. If you’re labeled as the show-off, you start thinking about ways to do so. If you’re labeled the rebel, you ask, “What would a rebel do about this?” If you’re labeled as severely clinically depressed, it’s easy to say, “Well what do you expect? I’m depressed.”

But my girlfriend, Jacq, got me thinking about ways to shake the label. She said, “You’re down. You’re not feeling well for a moment. That’s okay. But let’s not let it shake the rest of the day.”

Now, realize that when you’re suffering from depression, the last thing you want is for someone to cheer you up. That’s not okay. But what I did take from her perspective was that I didn’t have to stay depressed. And just that one thought got me to really shake off the label. Now, even if I’m really feeling bad, I don’t immediately label it as “depression.” Instead, I look at what’s hurting, acknowledge it, and then try to let that hurting continue while I go about my day. I don’t tamp it down. I try to feel it.

THIS IS JUST MY RECIPE

Everyone is different with how they face their day. But in figuring out these few little details, I’ve been able to get more done. As someone working on being the SOB that Liz wants me to be, that’s how I accomplish as much as I can. I’d love to hear your own recipes for getting out of bed on a dark day.

Author’s Bio: Chris Brogan is CEO & President of Human Business Works. We help you learn to do work the way you want to do it. He’s the author of a new book, It’s Not About the Tights: An Owners Manual for Bravery. See him at SOBCon!

Beach Notes: Do You Love You?

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

Walking on the beach we came across this beach inspiration left by another beach walker.

In the busy world of business we so often put our work before ourselves. It is important that we give ourselves the time and care and remember that to love ourselves is to be of greater value to others and the world.

When did you last look in the mirror and say I love you?

I love you

With gratitude and in abundance always,

– Des Walsh & Suzie Cheel

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Writers’ Resolutions for the New Year

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By Tiffany Matthews

One of the things that resonated with me as a writer during the new year is a wish that one of my favorite authors shared:

It’s a New Year and with it comes a fresh opportunity to shape our world.

So this is my wish, a wish for me as much as it is a wish for you: in the world to come, let us be brave – let us walk into the dark without fear, and step into the unknown with smiles on our faces, even if we’re faking them.

And whatever happens to us, whatever we make, whatever we learn, let us take joy in it. We can find joy in the world if it’s joy we’re looking for, we can take joy in the act of creation.

So that is my wish for you, and for me. Bravery and joy.

If you are familiar with this, then you know I’m talking about Neil Gaiman’s New Year’s wish. This is a wish that I feel resonates with every writer who is shaped by his or her experiences.

Bravery is a mantra that I think everyone should embrace this year, especially when we’ve been given a reprieve on doomsday last December. This is the year to make things happen and here are some resolutions that will help you achieve your writing goals.

Cruise, Drive, Fly

No matter how busy you are with writing, always set aside time for travel, to de-stress and unwind. Most writers, myself included, tend to be perfectionists and workaholics, which when combined can lead to being overworked and burned out. This is why taking a break every now and then is vital to keep your creative juices flowing.

Still not convinced? Perhaps this checklist can help shed light on why writers need to travel. Before you go on your adventure, keep in mind that travel is very unpredictable; therefore, it’s better to be prepared for the worst that could happen. Always take travel insurance with you as your backup plan.

Make a Booklist

You might wonder how a must-read list of books will help you achieve your writing goals. Author Stephen King in his book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, shares this valuable piece of advice to writers:

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”

The importance of reading is reiterated throughout his book, which is woven with his often humorous insights on writing as a craft. He further states, “Good description is a learned skill, one of the prime reasons why you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot.”

One Word at a Time

Getting published is one of writers’ dearest dreams, a dream that is riddled with hurdles like trying to survive daily life. Dreams don’t come true overnight and the reality is you have to work to survive. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can just abandon your dream of becoming an author. It can still happen, if you make it happen.

Set aside time to write for yourself and not just for work. You might feel overwhelmed at the sheer volume of words needed to create your book, but it’s never really about the words. It’s the story that you’re telling. Like what a friend of mine said when he paraphrased Lao Tzu’s famous quote, “The journey of a thousand words begins with one word.”

Swallow your fear and try to be brave as you take it one word at a time. Take comfort in what Stephen King said:

“The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.”

Author’s Bio: Based in San Diego, California, Tiffany Matthews writes about travel, fashion and anything under the sun at wordbaristas.com. You can find her on Twitter as
@TiffyCat87.