Everyone needs more chances, more benefit of the doubt, more opportunity. But what turns a chance into a big break is what we do with it once the chance arrives.* Seth Godin
You are anything but impotent, you are, in fact, exquisitely and frighteningly dynamic, as are we all, and with all respect you have an obligation to stand up and take responsibility for that potential. It is your most ordinary and urgent duty.** Nick Cave
Humility: You and I did nothing to be here; Grateful: We can be thankful, realising how much we have; Faithful: Small acts and steps made of humility and gratitude.
And when things go wrong, Embrace the chance, the opportunity to start over, and begin again, differently, but humbly, Gratefully, Faithfully.
One of my core beliefs is that human potential is one of the only infinite resources we have in the world. Most everything else is finite, but the human mind is the ultimate superpower – there is no limit to our creativity, imagination, determination, or ability to think, reason, or learn.* Jim Kwik
My fascination with genius and my openness to God were both rooted in a desperate search for something to translate my life from the mundane to the transcendent.** Erwin McManus
The human mind is quite something, the human soul even moreso – You and I have so much more still to explore.
Prosody (n) the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry; the patterns of stress and information in a language
The what if always springs from what is known. The writer understand that it may take the mavericks rather than the beautiful people to overcome great odds because every work of art is the discovery of a new planet, and it may well be a hostile one.* Madeleine L’Engle
There are more than we know, and you may be one of them – To live prosodically is to be what if rather than what is people, to be “on the hook” when it comes to being who we are and what we can do, to be an unfolding story rather than some finished tome.
To be an artist is to be on the hook, to take your turn, to do the thing that might not work, to see connection, to embrace generosity, to change someone, to be human.**
It is the nature of the earth and our dust to be in constant contact with the impulse of life. If we listen, we will hear the continuous tread of love, moving up our limbs like sap, like an electric current impelling us as we to “stir and step out.* M. C. Richards
You have the right to remain silent. But I hope you won’t. The world conspires to hold us back, but it can’t do it without our permission.* Seth Godin
Circumstances, when combined with visions and dreams, can call forth extraordinary powers from within an ordinary person.** Alexander McManus
There are many voices wanting to prevail: Stop! You can’t You mustn’t Do this, not that This isn’t the time This isn’t the place You’re not the right person.
If what you hope for comes from your deep soul, Then do not listen; Yes, there are historical, geographical, sociological, technological shapers of our contexts, Circumstances that we are responding to, but these shape our stories rather than quash them.
A well-written story elicits two key responses from an audience … Curiosity … Concern …^
Here are two signs that you have your deep-soul story: Fascination that fuels you forward, Concern to make things better for others: These are your permission.
*Seth Godin’s The Practice; **Alexander McManus’ FutureU; ^Robert McKee‘s newsletter: Are You Giving the Audience What it Needs?
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.* William James
“Hayah asher hayah.” Those words are mistranslated in English as “I am that which I am.” But in Hebrew, it means “I will be who or how or where I will be,” meaning, Don’t think you can predict me.** Jonathan Sacks
We are all capable of glorious unpredictability – The only thing to beware is unpredictability goes down and predictability goes up if we try to do and be everything.
Nothing kidnaps our capacity for presence more cruelly than longing. And yet longing is also the most powerful creative force we know: Out of our longing for meaning came all of art; out of our longing for truth all of science; out of our longing for love the very fact of life.* Maria Popova
The problem with getting what you want is that now you have a hole, because you don’t want that thing anymore, you have it … There’s a more resilient path: To commit to wanting what you have.** Seth Godin
To be present to something in life is the most important thing of all, Too many focus on the hole in their life rather than celebrating the fullness – What they have and what they can do with it; Carlos Castenades, in passing on the shaman wisdom of Don Juan, suggests we ask a question: Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn’t. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.^
It is important to find a path with a heart, The telling confirmation of what you have rather than What you do not have; It doesn’t matter what it is save for this one thing – It must have a heart: Nothing has inherent meaning. It is what it is and that’s it. We choose to project meaning onto things. It feels good to make stories.^^
We are meaning-making creatures, responding to a universe which asks the questions of us: What will you do with your life?, and so, To turn our meaning into something we can live out over a lifetime, we turn it into a story: We do not go to a storyteller to learn what we already know. We go with a prayer: Please let me gain insights into life I’ve never had before; let the characters be originals I’ve never met before.*^
One study found that people who were directed to doodle while carrying out a boring listening task remembered 29 percent more information than people who did not doodle, likely because the latter group had let their attention slip away entirely.* Annie Murphy Paul
I like to share this information wherever it feels appropriate and helpful.
Everyone can doodle, so this is a superpower we can all develop.
As well as doodling to listen, I also aim to create a doodle that represents what I’ve been hearing.
Here are a few other benefits to add to listening and creating that I enjoy:
Doodling derives from dawdling, so it helps me slow down.
I can then be present and absorbed in what I’m hearing and doing.
It provokes imagination whilst it exploring representation.
It legitimises adaptation and anticipates transformation.
Don’t start a business until people are asking you to.* Derek Sivers
By escape into the mass, man loses his most intrinsic quality: responsibility.** Viktor Frankl
In the “mass” there are those who tell and those who are told, And to those who are telling, all those who are told look the same; In a community, there are those who are asking and those who are giving, And those who are giving have many different gifts, so the important thing is to respond to the right ask.
Those who are told say, It’s your responsibility, but you already know what those who are giving say – after which there is only who? and when?
THIN|SILENCE 
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