and BOTH ARE LIKE the shame of the NON DIETING CHUB!
Thought for the Day --Everybody wants to be thin, but nobody wants to diet.
Everybody wants a better government, but nobody wants to be an activist.
Everybody wants more money, but nobody wants to do more work.
Successful people form the habit of doing things that unsuccessful
people don't like to do. WORK!
The bookends of success are - commitment and consistency.
Without commitment you'll never start.
Without consistency you'll never finish.
Getting started is the hard part.
That's because we've so many reasons not to start. They're easy to tumble over. It's stuff like, 'oh I"m really no good at writing,' or "I can't change how life is in our country". Or I'll never be thin, I was born to be fat."
Well here are some helpful suggestions about beating all those neuroses that combine to form a mental BLOCK
(1) Start with yourself. Are you really impassioned about this project
or are you just FORCING yourself to do something that's a vaporous head
trip with you? There's no substitute for really being on FIRE to start
that work, to mobilize that group. So check for fire under the hood.
If you have it, if you care, you don't have to be Mandela, or Mother Teresa,
or Shakespeare, just enough fire .. one little match can light the darkness.
At least in any room that you and your friends are in. They probably have
no fire about anything. If you're trying to start any group business or
activism project, one man's spark can ignite things.
(2) SPEAKING of group, if your project requires one, it's easier than seducing ten horse flies into the house. First you make snacks (See the VERY NOT COSTLY PARTY FOOD INDEX PAGE) for the special friends and aligned minds that you're going to maybe be working with, get started inviting them over. Subsequent parties, create different GAMES PEOPLE CAN PLAY! They will become so addicted to your fun after work week night 'do's ' that they'll bring chums from their office, their social set. You will be the hub of an immense wheel.
3.) If your FRIENDS are not impassioned or committed now, don't worry.If
they're uncaring and you want those
around you to respond differently, give them a different set of attitudes
and actions to respond to. Phrase any invitation in words they resond to.
Back in the seventies, I loved Mexican imports, folk art. An activist chum
of mine easily got me to attend what she said was an art show of central
American folk art. It was, lots of B&W photographs of Indian artisans
on all the walls, their Guatemalan art. Then a meeting of some kind
started. We all took our chairs. A man who looked like Sigmund Freud did
a slide show of the american trained Salvadoran
army killing entire villages, every child, dog, man and telling us
that this was how Washington took over cheap labor countries, they killed
dissenting union leaders and school teachers .WHAMMY That Started
me on a
40 yr path to activism against the American government's concept of
what control of unions looked like. So my point is, one friend voices the
invitation in another's language and easily can convince someone to 'join.
4.) Start early. There's an old saying that Noah didn't wait for his ship to come in; he built one. Hard work is just an accumulation of the easy things you didn't do when you should have. The truth is, the work doesn't seem quite so hard when you stop putting it off. For me that's breakfast, and sit down to the old PC. Write up your articles, email them to your lists if it's activism. If you're doing chapters on a book, do them while fresh.
(5) Start small. Just take the first step. You can't do step two until you've done step one. Taking the first step to prioritise your life focuses you in the right direction. Don't expect to understand all that's required. You'll know as you go. Just take the first step.
(6) Start now today on ALL your various aims, one might be rejuvenation, a thin muscular body, facial exercise to banish sag. a stock market account. finding three other pals with a downpayment, all of you saving for a 4 unit bldg. Writing that book of poetry, that novel, screenplay? Getting brushes and painting like KLEE or MATISSE. What are you waiting for? Until you finish school? Get married? Have kids? Until your kids leave? Until you retire? If you wait until you're senile, you'll have one big regret - that you didn't start now.
7.) Go to the library and get JULIA CAMERON'S THE ARTIST'S WAY.
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