Nuggets of Advice
Not to get self-helpy — except that I am going to get self-helpy — but so many of the thoughts in this article resonated with me. I didn’t agree with all of the advice, but there was enough here to highlight that I started pulling out my favourite quotes. They all seemed like good guides for 2018; moreover because the article was this random piece that popped into my feed — not something I’d normally read — as if the Internet was trying to send me a message.
- “Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.” Um, yes, a thousand times, yes. What else could drive action beyond desire? Certainly not hope that feels like someone giving you a hug when you’re down, telling you to hang in there because things might go your way. Desire makes you lace up the proverbial sneakers, right?
- “Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.” The idea of directing your sleeping brain is really really really enticing.
- “Once you get process-oriented, as opposed to results-oriented, you realize you too can achieve amazing results. The process, or your behavior, is completely within your control.” The results, of course, are not. But the process is, and that’s important to remember.
- “Quantity is the most likely path to quality. The more you produce, the more ideas you will have — some of which will be innovative and original. And you never know which ones will click. You just keep creating.” Enough said.
So, figuring out your desire, telling your brain to imagine achieving that desire, focusing on the process instead of the result, and trying a lot with the understanding that each try is a chance to get to that desire. Hello, 2018. I really am going to be become a mermaid this year. Success will be miiiiiiiiiiine…
In all seriousness, what is the best advice you’ve gotten in the last year?
3 comments
Last year I read the book Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids by Dr. Laura Markham, and I started doing one of the things in her book that she suggests to foster connection with your kids: spending some one-on-one time with them each day.
One-on-one time is hard with twins, even harder for a work-outside-the-home mom like me. However, I have gotten into the habit of spending 10 minutes or so with each of my sons alone in his room at bedtime, and it has been great! My sons both really look forward to it, and they have told me things during those moments that I probably wouldn’t have heard about otherwise.
My favorite piece of advice is “Sometimes done is better than perfect.” I’m often a perfectionist and won’t start something if I know I don’t have time to do it perfect. This often means things like baby books don’t get done. I’m trying to just do something now even if it isn’t perfect so I can enjoy it later and not stress about procrastination.
When I had the wild idea to write a book, I had an advisor who said those same exact things you have on points 3 & 4. She said to write the proposal because you want to write the proposal, not just to get a book published. And she said to just keep writing.
Oh, yeah. That was you. 🙂