Making a list, checking it twice...

It seems if you listen or even read any self help book or embrace a snippet of wisdom in the form of a Youtube video. Most, if not all of the guidance or call it advice, you could even consider them tips - the secrets of the gods, or put simply and to include a pun; The secret. Ways of living, practices published in bullet point, encapsulated in a magenta slogan, a two-line symbolic journery into metaphorical imagery. Could all these soapy words and phrases be a mere pseudo-science? Call me Ned Flanders because I don't believe in insurance.

 If you choose to watch the 2020 film 'The Secret: Dare to Dream' with Katie Holmes, penned and based on the book by Rhonda Byrne. Well, firstly I wouldn't actually bother. It's almost as tripe as my wildest writing dreams. Watch it, make up your own judgement, ot quickly tear it back down. It's a far cry from anything you might expect and it will not change your life or offer any insight into your own challenges. Use your time more wisely.

Anyway, as I was saying: these self-help books, and other media forms, all mention 'lists': 

"You gotta write shit down!" What is this mysterious and oh so powerful 'list'? I'm asking myself the same question. I've gone through the process, as we all have, of making note of aims and goals. That's all well and Johnny B. Goode, but with that list comes a responsibility. The call to arms, formulation of actual work and the gritty massage of your own creativity. I'm attempting to make a clear list and stick to it. I won't bore you with the intricacies of my own, other than to say and include: bullet pointed, I add parenthetically.

  • Guriella style documentary of a chance meeting with Spike Lee in Brooklyn
  • Write a 70's, trash style horror novel
  • Make that horror novel into a self-produced micro film and post it to youtube, the motivation being that it's seen
So, of my list, these three could be completely far fetched, but now I'm committed to the premise. Along then with the other goals and practices that make up my scrawl to the Universe, I've added independence. No room for a Bill Pullman speech, although if he wanted to get involved in my wood craved monologue. it would probably sound slightly more throaty and delivered in a soft peanut butter accent.

I think its important to plaster and spread yourself across different mediums, keep doing what you're doing. If you wait for that one publisher, that one promised litratary agent or just simply do something because you're told to, playing within the rules....you might get lucky, but I think we all need to get stuff done and stop waiting for others to save us. I want to be all very Michael Parks about life.

I'm in control of this. Stay in control of your own output. Make it with pride and honour your own voice.

Stay in touch with that Malcolm Gladwell premise of 10,000 hours. Put the time in, make it count. Someone will subscribe to it. When I use the word 'subscribe', like so many words they lose all meaning. A subscription is not the mere counting of numbers on youtube, twitter or instagram. It's about the real lives you touch. Make a real change inside yourself and stimulate your chance at living.

Don't forget that Amazon remains a rainforest and Apple is something also beyond a brand. Cut it up into chunks and you've got yourself a mid-afternoon snack.

With that said, continue to do something that makes you happy everyday you're alive. If you have the gift of an 'Outlier', be sure to thank your lucky stars.

No mere mention of Christmas, not just yet.

Until Next Time...

Do Good Things

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