Terrible Twins of Discipline and Focus

I’ve made a list of What I Want To Achieve over this New Year, 2014. It’s long, with a variety things that I know I want to have completed/done/tried in the weeks and months ahead. One of the items on this list is ‘writing more often and regularly’. The question is, what has to happen for that to happen? And for the other items on my list? What do I need to do to ensure I am successful, to have tried something new, completed some tasks or done things differently? How about failing something so *spectacularly* that I won’t be able to help but be spurred into action in the next 358 days or so?

The list is divided into three columns. In the first column Things to Do, I’ve written the ideas swirling round my mind. The next column is how my world/self will be transformed when I’ve accomplished those Things and in the last column, what my first action needs to be to achieve my goal. (Big thank you to Brian Colbert for teaching me the importance of this method).

Usually, ‘Discipline and Focus’ are the Terrible Twins that taunt me when I’m getting active, actually writing. The joy is, by using this method, it is possible to interrupt my notion of the Terrible Twins and actually enjoy the freedom that does come from being disciplined & focused. Once I make them part of my everyday existence, they enhance my life rather than cause me angst.

Added to my use of the three columns to get my mind focused and my subconscious primed for action, I returned to a familiar source of inspiration, Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. Instead of treading the same floorboards of life every day, he calls on us to go beyond the familiar, to do things differently, to look from a new perspective. I heard somewhere that the only way to become a good writer is to read great writers and actually write. This book isn’t only about whetting my appetite for writing; it is to egg me on to do something I relish, to ensure that when ideas come forth, I use and nurture them. That I create.

“My only advice for you is this. Go within yourself and probe the depths from which your life springs, and there at its source you’ll find the answer to the question of whether you must write. Accept this answer, just as you hear it, without hesitation. It may be revealed that you are called to be an artist. Then take this lot upon you, and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without asking for any external reward. For the creative artist must be a world for himself, and find everything within himself—and in nature, to which he is devoted.”

Paris, February 17, 1903

Letters to a Young Poet

When we write it can seem that every combination of words has already been made and I sometimes feel I’m merely tripping over the remnants of the great renowned when I ponder. No matter. The world is viewed differently by each and everyone one of us and, with a unique perspective, innovation is born.

This is a year of going into the place from where life springs, using that fantastic imagination we’ve all got & relishing the ache of fumbling for that *great* idea we had just a second ago…

Even as we might fumble on the writing quest, all the while we know the expression of our imaginations is as vital as the creative spark.

Enjoy the New Year Folks and thank you for reading my own creative fumblings! I welcome your comments and for Chatter that Matters let’s talk on Twitter @emmadragon