So if the work you are creating demands completion before you can find fulfillment, it’s doubtful the creation will be finished, and perhaps more doubtful it will be any good when it’s done. You’ll labor through it, pushing it up a hill like a broken cart. But if you can love the actual work, not the finished product, you’re on to something. If you have a rhythm, if you get up every morning and work for a few hours, and you like the getting up and the work, and you don’t think about how great it will be when it’s done, but rather how great it is every day that you get to get up and do the work, your creation will be tremendous. Don’t think about the finished product. Stop rewarding yourself with something that doesn’t exist, and may never exist. Instead, think about how delightful it is you get to do this, you get to make this, and how delightful it will be to get up and do it again tomorrow.
I’ve loved them for years now and love them no less years later. This morning, enjoy The Be Good Tanyas:
Caught The Civil Wars at their Portland show las month, just down the street at a renovated funeral home called The Woods. Great, sold out show. I think a lot of us felt like we were seeing them “before” they became huge. They were terrific. Sometimes it’s obvious a band has peaked with their first release, but with The Civil Wars, it feels more obvious their very best will be rolled out year after year. I loved this cryptic cover of You Are My Sunshine. Enjoy The Civil Wars:
Instead of committing to lose weight this year or write that book, simply commit to do the work. Five days a week you are going to write, who cares whether a book comes of it or not. Five days a week you’ll walk two miles, or you’ll cut your carbs down to whatever. If you want to be more grateful this year, then break that down into something you can do, and commit to that. Every Thursday you’ll write somebody a thank-you card. Do you want to be more professional? Commit to shaving every day (Please. Especially if you are in your twenties, because while you think it looks novel and unique, it actually looks like an identity crisis and it’s costing you) and sending your clothes to the dry cleaner once a month. And add to that finish the work you’re supposed to finish. Want to find romance? Commit to asking a girl out once a week (talk to Henry Cloud if you think that’s too much) or, if you’re a girl, put yourself on a dating site on the internet and say yes when you get asked out. Don’t commit to an idea, commit to a tangible act [...]
Last month Tom Hooper released his movie The King’s Speech, written by David Seidler. The film tells the story of King George VI, played by Colin Firth, who took the throne a short time before World War II, before Churchill became Prime Minister and while Hitler was amassing power. England, indeed the free world needed a King, a statesman, and while George VI had moral fortitude, he also had a stammer. He’d be the first king to broadcast his voice widely on the radio, and at a time when all of England would be in need of comfort and resolution. And so the story of The King’s Speech involves George VI and his unlikely friendship with a failed, Australian actor named Lionel Logue, played by Geoffrey Rush. Logue is sought out by George IV and his wife to help the soon-to-be King through his oratory problems. A critical scene in the movie takes place near the end, when Logue is walking George VI through the paces of the crowning ceremony. They are alone in Westminster Abbey. George VI is stammering through his lines, gets up from the throne and throws a tantrum, stuttering on about how the people need a [...]
