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Trust30 – #30 – DeFault

This is it. The last one. Thank goodness. I think. Here’s the quote.

I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

And here’s the prompt.

Think of all the things that are not working in your life. That job you don’t like, that relationship that’s not working, those friends that annoy you. Now turn them all on you. Imagine that everything that’s not working in your life, is your fault. How would you approach it? What would you work on to change your life to the state that you want it to be?

Oh, thank you, Carlos Miceli, author of the flavor text and writing prompt to finish up Trust30, for feeding the very thing that I was trying to kill off yesterday. Of course it’s my fault. It’s all my fault. But that’s what’s killing my ability to move forward right now. So maybe fault isn’t the right word here. It’s not my fault. It’s my responsibility.

This is a preview of Trust30 – #30 – DeFault. Read the full post (588 words, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)
Shooting for "Leopold".

Trust30 – #29 – I’m Just a Soul whose Intentions are Good…

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The prompt for this talks about posting an embarrassing picture of yourself online. Like the one I just put up. Look at that hair. The baldness. The unsightly… is that a chin? Are you sure? It just sort of… gently wanders town into the neck, doesn’t it? Egads.

I’m not going to compare myself to Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, or (heaven help us) Jesus. There’s really only one person I can compare myself to… and that’s my own vision of who I SHOULD be.

And you thought your potential audience was bad…

This is a preview of Trust30 – #29 – I’m Just a Soul whose Intentions are Good…. Read the full post (427 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Trust30 – #28 – Hard Words

Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing is one of the ways I figure out what I’m thinking, and while I haven’t been doing a lot of it here (or in my fiction projects), I have been doing quite a bit of it in other, more private venues. And it’s been fascinating, on one hand, to get to the bottom of some issues that go right to the core of who I am and what I think. It was this Trust30 challenge that I’m horribly late on that got me started down this road and I’m grateful for what I’ve learned through the process. And at the same time it’s been hard and a part of me wishes that I’d never started.

This is a preview of Trust30 – #28 – Hard Words. Read the full post (985 words, estimated 3:56 mins reading time)

Trust30 – #27 – The Triumph of Principles

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The prompt for this day says to take a big hairy life goal that you haven’t started yet, or that you have been having a hard time with, and write down three uncertainties – fears – that you have concerning it. Then break that down a little further and write three reasons for the fear. That’s a good idea, and I may get to that in a future post, but first I have to address the quote. I have a fundamental problem with the first part of this little couplet, because I believe it may contradict the second part. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself? Yes – By submitting to and following correct principles. Because it’s too easy to use that first part to say that “I am a law unto myself.” Without the appropriate perception and attitude, you can spend a lot of time beating your head into walls and thinking that you’re pursuing peace. You don’t get to the moon and back without an understanding of life sciences, gravity, metallurgy, navigation, physics, etc. With the right understanding of the principles involved, even the sky isn’t the limit.

So, what are the principles that we have to adhere to? What principles exist that we can cling to? Are there any?

This is a preview of Trust30 – #27 – The Triumph of Principles. Read the full post (611 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Trust30 Not Quite Complete Review

I’ve taken some time over the last few days to start reading the actual Ralph Waldo Emerson essay, “Self-Reliance”. While there’s a lot in here that I agree with and find admirable, there are things in here that I find myself disagreeing with. That’s going to happen, and it’s nothing to worry about. It wasn’t really the point of the #Trust30 exercise in the first place. The main value of Trust30 to me (which admittedly I came up a few posts short in) has been in discovering what I think, and what I believe, and what I hold to be bedrock foundational true. And disagreeing with Emerson is probably something Emerson would have been totally okay with, looking over what I’ve read of his essay so far.

This is a preview of Trust30 Not Quite Complete Review. Read the full post (379 words, estimated 1:31 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 – #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)