first 2014 post

My first 2014 post … It’s going to be on the four agreements … a book by Don Miguel Ruiz.  I am going to just write the four agreements here…perhaps I will revisit at some later date.  What’s the point of writing the four agreements?  Not my words?  because I have found that the process of reading and typing of flowing from eyes to brain to fingers as a good form of processing information, that’s why…

 

BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD

  • Speak with integrity.  Say only what you mean.  Avoid using the word to speak against yourself of to gossip about others.  Use the power of your word i the direction of truth and love

 

DON’T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY

  • Nothing others do is because of you.  What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream.  When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering

 

DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS

  • Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want.  Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.  With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

 

ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST

  • Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick.  Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret.

 

Easy to say, easy to type … harder to do, but the benefits are clear.  So do.

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End of the year

I don’t know whether 2013 is ending in a bang or a whimper.  Nothing is black and white nor gray.  This year had it’s ups and downs.  How to tally the good vs. the bad?  I don’t want to go through a full accounting here and have no obligation to do so anyway.  I was far from perfect, could have done much better, and I will leave it at that…

So I will instead talk of 2014

Let’s look at my list of commitments that I made at the last Vance Caesar session:

  1. To develop trust/understanding with subordinates and clearly help them achieve org objectives
  2. Develop Vision and Purpose
  3. Read Materials and incorporate two processes in my life
  4. Develop plan and go out to the field to learn +/- every 4 to 6 weeks
  5. Begin writing blogs, stories, some form of writing that feeds that goal

Of the five, I have started the 1st and the 5th.  I have not gotten any further with vision and purpose, nor have I read materials and incorporated two items into my life yet.

Instead, I have been spending spare time reading and relaxing this holiday.  Now I could give myself a pass and say that it was okay to read and relax…maybe that’s true, but I also need to work on the other items on this list and I will add two more items

6.  Clean up and streamline the Tustin place
7.  organize work on todoist

And with that I will sign off for 2013 …

 

 

 

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My first post

Everything has a beginning, this is one of my beginnings.  I talk about how I love to write, I think about how I love to write, but I never write…and that just isn’t right.

I just finished my second session in my leadership training course taught Vance Ceasar, sponsored by my employer.  One of the commitments I made to myself was about starting to write…so here’s my first blog.

My vision is to write novels.  Perhaps some of my novels will be science fiction; it is the genre that I have read the most.  My favorite science fiction / fantasy author is Stephen R. Donaldson.

I love the freedom the genre affords.  However, what I really want to write are novels like James Baldwin, novels like J.D Salinger … novels that drag a person through the emotional mud, so good, so painful, so raw that I end the book emotionally drained, mentally exhausted and spiritually inspired.

James Baldwin did that for me.  J.D. Salinger left me thinking, thinking, thinking.

I have fodder; I have my family:  crazy, unique, irritating, funny and tragic.  Toss in some Jewish guilt, art imitating life.  Life imitating who knows what, and a dose of meshuga.

I saw Ray Bradbury talk a lifetime ago.  I liked his writing, but his talk, wow he seemed so arrogant, it was such a turn off that I never read anything else of his, but he did say something important in his talk.  Something I should have listened to back then.  He said, he wrote 2000 words a day, every day.  That writing helped keep his skills sharp, helped figure out stories, helped make explicit ideas, phraseology, moiling amongst all of his unconscious and semiconscious thoughts.

Anyway, I am going to write and this is a start!

Steffush

 

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