Plot-driven stories put major turning points, especially the inciting incident, beyond the character’s control … Character-driven stories do the opposite. They put major events in the character’s hands.*
Robert McKee

Perhaps the best strategy for lottery tickets is not to buy one. Your odds go up when you do useful and remarkable work for people who care.**
Seth Godin

In reality, our stories are a mix of the
plot-driven and character-driven, yet
what they hold in common is the possibility of
bringing and developing our best self.

Marcus Aurelius shares some habits he found to be helpful:
1. Accept only what is true.
2. Work for the common good.
3. Match our needs and wants with what is in our control.
4. Embrace what nature has in story for us.^

The apostle Paul adds to these with some
personal virtues that aided him in imprisonment:
Humility, gentleness, patience,
Forbearance, and love.^^

*Robert McKee’s Character;
**Seth Godin’s blog: How to buy a lottery ticket;
^Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic;
^^Ephesians 4:1-3.

Doodles from this day through the years.

From the disparity between the immensity of the possible and the smallness of the human being there springs the torment and the energy of the flâneur. Persecuted by frustration, he is sentenced to a sort of perpetual motion.*
Federico Castigliano

Why shouldn’t an anonymous career spent quietly helping a few people get to qualify as a meaningful way to spend one’s time? Why shouldn’t an absorbing conversation, an act of kindness, or an exhilarating hike get to count. Why adopt a definition [of achievement] that rules such things out?**
Oliver Burkeman

We may never achieve “great” things –
As others see them,
We may not accomplish everything we want,
We may never finish the “to do” list or empty the inbox –
And all of this is okay, the reality of our smallness
and finiteness.

Whilst the spirit of the flâneur and the flâneuse illustrates
the importance of wandering and
slowness, openness and
wonder, curiosity and
questioning, this doesn’t have to result in
persecution and frustration,
Rather, in embracing rather than fighting our
finitude, we may ease into the
meaningful and satisfying life that awaits us.

*Federico Castigliano’s Flâneur;
**Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations for Mortals.

Another day through the years of doodles

Movement gets us unstuck. It restores agency by giving us a feeling we’re acting on our situation.*
Bruce Feiler

although it may appear paradoxical, in order to acquire a profound view of things, you most first of all move randomly**
Federico Castigliano

Keep moving;
Against stuckness,
Stand up, turn around, or go for a walk,
Have a doodle pad by your writing,
Open a book for a page or three,
Have a conversation with someone.

To your “steps” add randomness,
Welcome nonlinearity,
And make the steps smaller and allow them
to be slower:
A long time is not the same
as never.^

Move with randomness, smallness, time, and
keep things simple:
‘How do you do it?’ said night
‘How do you wake up and shine?’
‘I keep it simple,’ said light
‘One day at a time’^^

*Bruce Feiler’s Life Is in the Transitions;
**Federico Castigliano’s Flâneur;
^Seth Godin’s blog: A long time is not the same as never;
^^Lemn Sissay’s let the light pour in.

noun: hello; plural noun: hellos; noun: hallo; plural noun: hallos; noun: hullo; plural noun: hullos
used as a greeting or to express surprise

To meet with someone – whether
we know them or not – is
an occasion for surprise,
They are, as my friend Alex reminds me,
A mystery wrapped in a question,
Always,
So enjoy.

A daemon is a calling, obsession, a source of lasting and sometimes manic energy … when you are looking for a vocation, you are looking for a daemon … You are trying to find that tension or problem that arouses greatness of moral, spiritual and relational energy.*
David Brooks

The fairy godmother replied that true magic is to help each thing become its best and most free self.**
Rebecca Solnit

Herminia Ibarra suggests that when it
comes to who we want to become, we ought to:
Test and learn,
not plan and implement.^

Don’t rush into deciding
“This is it!” nor believe that you are
stuck in who you are where you are,
It’s okay, cut yourself some slack.

Then you may begin to notice
your truest energy, wrapped around
the gloriously inscrutable
problem inviting your attention and focus.

We may want it to be swish, but
the most real and meaningful things are more likely
full of lostness, incompetence, failure, and messiness
before the imperfect beautiful emerges.

We may think to put this off, but as
Oliver Burkeman suggests, there is a difference
between working towards sanity and “working from sanity”^^ –
The place and time is here and now.

*David Brooks’ The Second Mountain;
**Rebecca Solnit’s Cinderella Liberator;
^David Epstein’s Range;
^^Oliver Burkeman’s Meditation for Mortals.

Free and alone in the maze of the city, the flâneur craves a revelation that might change his life and destiny.*
Federico Castigliano

Spray lifts from the coast
Who loves truly lives
Who lives loves most
And most of all, forgives**
Lemn Sissay

The flâneur and flâneuse practice their seeing
towards change;
We do not require their city nor
Lemn Sissay’s coastline to begin,
It is not our geography, but our
noticing that leads more deeply into
something more, to love what we see,
A love able to forgive where necessary –
Whom and where and what –
Especially ourselves,
That love
will
lead
us
into
an
unfathomable
life.

You pick something you genuinely care about, and then, for at least a few minutes – a quarter of an hour, say – you do some of it. Today. It really is that simple.^

*Federico Castigliano’s Flâneur;
**Lemn SIssay’s let the light pour in;
^Oliver Burkeman’s Meditation For Mortals.

Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.*
Derek Sivers

Central to the act of writing is a process of growth, of slowly gaining control of their narrative … The act of writing speeds up the act of meaning-making.**
Bruce Feiler

Mastery is what you make from your talents –
And everyone has talents –
And mastery needs a narrative, a story to live in:
Writing things down helps us develop it, be it list, poem, or journal.^

*James Clear’s newsletter: 3-2-1: On growing fast vs. growing slow, the value of mastery, and climbing the right mountain;
**Bruce Feiler’s Life Is in the Transitions;
^Free or reflective writing is a great place to start, writing out whatever you are thinking about, going with the thoughts and ideas, without a concern for quality; set a timer for 5-10 minutes to begin with.