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| Jinx isn't afraid of the 'impossible' - WallPapers.com |
I want to wind up 2023 with a meaningful idea, and the topic that comes to mind is What's Next? It reminds me of a piece I wrote a few decades ago after hearing Will Smith talk about doing the impossible. I've tweaked it to fit the NOW. Hope you enjoy, and have a wonderful holiday season, and New Year 2024.
Will Smith said in an interview once that it’s unrealistic to bend a piece of metal and fly people over the ocean in it but fortunately, the Wright brothers didn’t think so.
It all begins with this premise.
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| Michael Parkes |
A lot of advice for emerging writers, students, biz owners, teachers, apprentices, and entrepreneurs centres on ‘being realistic'. For example, you have to start at the bottom, take baby steps, like... forget about landing an agent if you haven’t published, and definitely forget about a major publisher without an agent. What you want to achieve is very hard work, $$$ will be tight, and rejection du jour so keep your day job... It's enough to sink your dreams into the sludge.
But is the advice realistic? Probably.
Do you let that guide you? No!
I highly recommend these five unrealistic tips to set yourself up to do the 'impossible' in 2024.
Tip #1 Forget about being realistic. Stop thinking about the practical advice and the ‘cold hard facts’ and develop your craft/heart/goals. If you have a dream, something you are enthusiastic about, develop the skills to deliver it. All the talent in the world won’t fly if you don’t have the skills to communicate your vision. Develop them!
Tip #2 Think in terms of component parts. In publishing, you don’t set out to write a 500,000-word, multi-book series. You don’t even set out to write a single novel. You get up in the morning and you write five hundred words. You do that for a time and get some confidence and maybe, after a while, you find yourself writing a thousand words a day. Then two thousand. Same with a new business plan, thesis, art show, album, you name it. Component parts, day by day.
Tip #3 Say you can do it. He who says he can and he who says he can’t are both correct. Confucius. Think about that for a while.
Tip #4 Know your motivations. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ motivation for your artistry. It might be that you want to prove something to the world. You might want to feel of value. You might be obsessed with telling a story that will touch people’s hearts. Whatever your motivation is, know it. Know thyself. The awareness of what drives you is your touchstone.
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| YaoYao Ma Van As |
Tip #5 Decide, devote, deliver. But first, just decide that you will do it, that you will achieve your dream. Devote your whole heart to it, and allow for compassion for others and the planet to be part of that devotion. Deliver what you promise to yourself and to others—one step at a time.
Bonus tip. Remind yourself to go for the unrealistic. I mean, what if we’d listened to any of this ‘realistic’ advice?
Everything that can be invented has been invented. Charles H. Duell, an official at the US Patent Office, 1899
The singer (Mick Jagger) will have to go; the BBC won’t like him. -First Rolling Stones manager Eric Easton to his partner after watching them perform.
I’m sorry, Mr Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language. –The San Francisco Examiner, rejecting a submission by Rudyard Kipling in 1889
With over fifteen types of foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big share of the market for itself. Business Week, August 2, 1968.
There will never be a bigger plane built. – A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin-engine plane that held ten people.
If anything remains more or less unchanged, it will be the role of women. David Riesman, conservative American social scientist, 1967. (Of boy!)
I hope these ideas offer you inspiration for the New Year 2024!
Blessings to all,
xxKim
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About Kim Falconer
Kim Falconer, currently writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is working on the third book, out in 2024.
Kim can be found on AKWilder Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Throw the bones, read your horoscopes or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site
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