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June 2011

Trust30 – #26 – The Integrity Of Your Mind

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. If we follow the truth, it will bring us out safe at last. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The question for today had something about being alive. When was the last time you felt alive, what did you feel, what did you smell, etc… Again, it’s maybe an interesting question, being able to go back and search and feel those and call upon that experience when you’re writing or working. I don’t really see what that has to do with the Emerson quote. I feel alive as I’m writing these posts. But enough about that. Let’s talk a little about the integrity of your own mind. You need to watch your inputs.

This is a preview of Trust30 – #26 – The Integrity Of Your Mind. Read the full post (1065 words, estimated 4:16 mins reading time)

Trust30 – #25 – The Recipe (not) to Follow

I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Think about the type of person you’d NEVER want to be 5 years from now. Write out your own personal recipe to prevent this from happening and commit to following it. “Thought is the seed of action.”

(Author: Harley Schreiber)

I never planned on being the kind of person who worries. I used to look forward to each day with a kind of happy enthusiasm that lately seems to escape me. I had a conversation last night when I asked my wife if I was trying to take on too much, and she responded “You’ve already taken on too much.” And then “I don’t think there’s anything I can do to help you not to worry and stress out so much.” It’s not a very healthy way to live, and the weight I’ve put on over the last year is probably due, at least in part, to worry.

A year ago, I was working in a job where I was desperately unhappy. We had anticipated some growth that didn’t come, and I had been looking forward to a promotion that seemed ever further and further from my grasp. And in the course of that, it occurred to me that I wasn’t all that crazy about the job in the first place, and that a promotion was not necessarily going to solve any of my problems.

And then I was invited to resign.

This is a preview of Trust30 – #25 – The Recipe (not) to Follow. Read the full post (762 words, estimated 3:03 mins reading time)

Trust30 – #24 – The Call to Arms

The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What if today, right now, no jokes at all, you were actually in charge, the boss, the Head Honcho. Write the “call to arms” note you’re sending to everyone (staff, customers, suppliers, Board) charting the path ahead for the next 12 months and the next 5 years. Now take this manifesto, print it out somewhere you can see, preferably in big letters you can read from your chair.

You’re just written your own job description. You know what you have to do. Go!

(bonus: send it to the CEO with the title “The things we absolutely have to get right – nothing else matters.”)

(Author: Sasha Dichter)

Welcome to my world. As the Managing Editor of FlagShip, and a co-founder of Flying Island Press, the team looks to me for guidance. This prompt is a good excuse for me to sit down and do just that – chart out the next 12 months, and the next five years. What is that going to look like? Heh.

Good question. I’ve been treating the Trust30 challenge as a personal issue – something to improve my own writing, and clarify my own plans for the future. But it’s probably time to expand that focus just a bit. In the meantime I have something to say about the path, and joy, and freedom.

This is a preview of Trust30 – #24 – The Call to Arms. Read the full post (549 words, 1 image, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Trust30 – #23 – Your Ordinary

I’m catching up on my Trust30 writing while I’m in the waiting room of a local hospital. I’m all right, here for a friend. But it’s a chance to get some writing done here and so you may see a BUNCH of these today. Playing catchup.

Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are our most potent at our most ordinary. And yet most of us discount our “ordinary” because it is, well, ordinary. Or so we believe. But my ordinary is not yours. Three things block us from putting down our clever and picking up our ordinary: false comparisons with others (I’m not as good a writer as _____), false expectations of ourselves (I should be on the NYTimes best seller list or not write at all), and false investments in a story (it’s all been written before, I shouldn’t bother). What are your false comparisons? What are your false expectations? What are your false investments in a story? List them. Each keep you from that internal knowing about which Emerson writes. Each keeps you from making your strong offer to the world. Put down your clever, and pick up your ordinary.

(Author: Patti Digh)

Today’s question seems particularly apt. One of my own challenges is that of comparison. I’m not as ________ as that guy, my writing isn’t as good as ___________, Only a couple people really make a living at their writing, and I’m not as good as them… that kind of thing. I still think that. I should be better. Of course, you never get better if you don’t try, and you won’t get better if you’re afraid of making mistakes. You’ll do your best work if you’re not worried about doing the work and you just do the work. Does that make sense?

This is a preview of Trust30 – #23 – Your Ordinary. Read the full post (678 words, estimated 2:43 mins reading time)

Trust30 – #22 – Intuition

The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you could picture your intuition as a person, what would he or she look like? If you sat down together for dinner, what is the first thing he or she would tell you?

(Author: Susan Piver)

Back on the #Trust30 stick today. Intuition. I don’t think of my intuition as a separate part of myself. But if I did, and we sat down to dinner together, I imagine the first thing he’d say would be along the lines of “Boy, you sure have a hard time listening to me, huh?”

This is a preview of Trust30 – #22 – Intuition. Read the full post (486 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Being unpopular

In 2004, I was attending law school in Portland, OR, at what apparently is one of the most liberal law schools in the country. And I was a conservative who voted for George W. Bush. The day after the 2004 election was… odd. It was like a funeral. Everyone was so freaked out. And I couldn’t celebrate. I couldn’t even smile about it. I had people who saw me coming, and said to my face “I can’t talk to you today.” And then they turned and left. It was one of the weirdest experiences I’ve ever had.

These were people I loved and respected, and didn’t necessarily associate with politics. It just wasn’t part of my calculus. But it was made very clear to me that there are people out there for whom the politics was very important as to who they would or would not associate with. And now I’m really conflicted. I’ve been writing all month about integrity, pressing forward on the path, being who you are, etc. In the process, I’ve been very open about my faith, my perspective, and my starting premises. So it shouldn’t come as a huge shock that I think that the vote of NY to allow same sex marriage is, while not altogether surprising, maybe a little disappointing.

And I guess that to some people that makes me a horrible person, a hater, and a bigot. I realize this is an unpopular position to take in today’s culture. And it would have been very easy to just keep my mouth shut and my head down. I’ve done that plenty of times. But given everything I’ve been writing this month during the #Trust30 challenge, it would be hypocritical of me to do so in this case. So last night on Twitter and Facebook, I posted something that expressed my feelings on the matter, and the thought that apparently having that opinion makes me a bigot and a hater. A couple of people were kind enough to ask for a little clarification on what I thought about the issue. And I suppose this is as good a place as any to do some explication on the subject.

It’s not that other people were happy that same-sex marriage passed that prompted this response, and I wish those people who will be taking advantage of the law good luck with their families. No – it wasn’t the celebration. It was the belief that I saw expressed multiple times that anyone who thought differently must be operating from the basis of hate, must be an unthinking, reactionary bigot, unworthy to engage in conversation. I saw plenty of people saying that they were dropping people from their network because they were disappointed or upset that same sex marriage passed in NY. To those people – the ones who are using that as a litmus test for their social networks – the sound you’re hearing is my slow clap celebrating the public demise of your much-vaunted tolerance. So much for that, eh?

Now, to really justify you dropping me from Twitter, Facebook, or whatever…

This is a preview of Being unpopular. Read the full post (1386 words, estimated 5:33 mins reading time)

Trust30 – #21 – Integrity

Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The question for this post had something to do with reaching out to someone and connecting with them. And I’m sorry, but that’s not what I want to talk about. Besides, I’ve already done that fairly recently.

What I do want to talk about is integrity – Being Yourself no matter the circumstances, no matter the pressure, no matter the Resistance.

This is a preview of Trust30 – #21 – Integrity. Read the full post (871 words, estimated 3:29 mins reading time)

Trust30 – #20 – Holding Fast

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” is a great line from Emerson. If there’s no enthusiasm in what you do, it won’t be remarkable and certainly won’t connect with people on an emotional basis. But, if you put that magic energy into all of your work, you can create something that touches people on a deeper level. How can you bring MORE enthusiasm into your work? What do you have to think or believe about your work to be totally excited about it? Answer it now.

(Author: Mars Dorian)

Passion. Passion waxes and wanes. Enthusiasm waxes and wanes. How do we protect, nurture and develop our enthusiasm, our focus, and our passion for the work? How do we develop hope? Some might say “By doing the work,” but I don’t think that’s enough. It’s necessary, but it’s not enough to sustain under the corrosive influence of Resistance. I don’t know. I’m definitely not an expert on this, it’s something I struggle with all the time. But since I discover what I think by writing, here’s a chance for us all to find out what I think might be a good idea on this front. Especially since I had an idea that literally stopped me in my tracks yesterday. I’ve been working on figuring out the logistics of how to pull it off ever since, and am hitting the first waves of Resistance.

I don’t want this to die. I want this to kick ungodly amounts of butt. How do I do that?

This is a preview of Trust30 – #20 – Holding Fast. Read the full post (698 words, estimated 2:48 mins reading time)

Trust30 – #19 – Trust and Authority

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We live in a society of advice columns, experts and make-over shows. Without even knowing it, you can begin to believe someone knows better than you how to live your life. Someone might know a particular something better – like how to bake a three-layer molten coconut chocolate cake or how to build a website – but nobody else on the planet knows how to live your life better than you. (Although one or two people may think they do.) For today, trying asking yourself often, especially before you make a choice, “What do I know about this?”

(Author: Jen Louden)

Yes, I’m passing judgment on these discussion questions, and I deem this one… all right. IF we’re willing to accept some basic premises that some people in today’s post-modern, deconstructionalist, semiotics-obsessed culture may not be very happy with. 

This is a preview of Trust30 – #19 – Trust and Authority. Read the full post (1632 words, 3 images, estimated 6:32 mins reading time)

Trust30 – #18 – Duty

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know I. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The question’s author once received a fortune cookie that read: “Speak less of your plans, you’ll get more done.” Which goes against some people’s advice regarding accountability. I like accountability. I prefer the maxim “Performance which is measured is performance that improves.” It’s one of the reasons I like the iPhone app LoseIt. It lets people know how I’m doing on my goals. It’s also a part of what I’m thinking of doing with my own writing.

This is a preview of Trust30 – #18 – Duty. Read the full post (508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)