Learning How to Be A Successful Writer

I have learned that there is more to learning than I first suspected.

I am an autodidact who has been very, very lazy since graduating high school.

I have taught myself many things, but I have not been teaching myself what I really want to learn.

I really want to learn how to be a successful writer.

What can I do to learn how to be a successful writer?

1. Read books that teach me how to write.

2. Write as often as possible.

3. Read as much as possible.

4. Read books that teach me the lives of those who have written before me.

I think the only one that will really make much of a difference is #2. above.

WRITE AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE.

That is the only advice I am going to take right now.

The more I write, the better I will get.

But it has to be the right kind of writing.

Deliberate practice.

Destruction of ideas and synthesis of the pieces.

That is what it requires.

Change, Positivity, Goals

I need to change my outlook and my mindset.

I can do what I put my mind to.

Don't be afraid.

There are so many dreams to remember. 

I am wasting my time doing nothing. I am wasting my time on this writing. I am not creating or learning anything.

So what should I do?

I have plenty to give and use up, but at the same time I really don't have much to share around. Energy that is. I guess.

I don't know what to do.

Take action. Make action. Take and make action.  And run with it from there.

Give it a shot I guess. Accentuate the positive.

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So much negativity being shone down on how I am living and moving through my life.

I want to change that negativity into positivity.

Apparently positivity is not a word.

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Trying just to write what needs to be written in the time that I have.

The morning pages today were not written in the morning, but they were written. They weren't all written longhand (though some were), but in the end, the words were written, and the thoughts were processed, and that was/is the main goal.

What I want to do with my writing is express that what I am thinking about and learning is important.

I am reading The Writing Diet, and it is interesting, but basically a rehashing of The Artist's Way in many ways.

But that is okay. I shall not judge.

There are many ways in which I would like to be able to be more myself in every single way and every single trial and opportunity.

How can I be more myself?

Allow myself to be.

Allow myself to act.

I have stifled myself for quite some time and it is no longer working to keep my mind at bay.

"I am freaking out in my mind." - Car Seat Headrest

There are many things that I want to accomplish.

That is not true.

I want to accomplish only a few things:

1. Lose 60-70 lbs.
2. Make a living as a writer.

Okay, so maybe that is only really two things that I want to accomplish.

Let me go back to my other goals and see what they say for 2017....

1. Wake up on time every day, and stay awake until bedtime
2. Earn more than $100,000 / year creatively
3. Exercise daily
4. Quit smoking
5. Lose 50 lbs
6. Maintain goal weight less than 200 lbs

I have reduced those goals to fewer than six before I even started on this however.

1. Wake up on time every day, and stay awake until bedtime

I am working on this one, but it is slow going, since I have sleep apnea, complex, central, and I need to get an Auto SV treatment in order to get a restful night's sleep. I hope to get this contraption by the end of October, and be sleeping well in November. That is the goal.

I have clarified the remaining six goals into something less....

2. Get healthy

a) exercise daily
b) quit smoking
c) lose 60-70 lbs
d) maintain goal weight less than 200lbs

3. Make a living as a writer.....

a) Can I do this?
b) Is this possible?
c) What would I write?
d) Do I have anything to share?

So, in summation, I really do have only two goals...

1. Get healthy
2. Make a living as a writer

That is my goal, and that is what I want to be doing.

Now, what am I thinking I will do for the rest of my time here?

What do I think that I will be doing here and now?

1. I want to get healthy
a) lose 60-70 lbs
b) stay smoke free
c) exercise daily
d) maintain goal weight less than 200 lbs

2. I want to make a living as a writer
a) sell books on Amazon.com and at local bookstores
b) give away the blog content (it's how I give back)

Now what am I thinking about?

What am I thinking about doing now?

What am I actually going to do?

I am spending some time writing, writing away.

Time to move on.

What I Want This Blog To Be About

Making a statement like the above title of this blog post makes it seem as if I have any idea of what I am trying to do here.

One thing that I know I want to do and enjoy doing is publishing something new to the web on occasion. I would definitely like that occasion to be more often than it is right now though.

In addition, I want this webspace to be a repository for all my creative endeavors, one place to place all the creations over the course of a lifetime.

Before now I had basically been writing random thoughts and expressions of ideas here, and little of it made that great of sense.

Now I am going to use this space more as an online journal.

I am going to be writing at first about losing weight and diets and exercise.

That is where I am going to start, but in the end, I will end up doing the same thing I have always done: sharing little nuggets from my life and brain.

So, without further ado, let's get started!

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Personal growth is what this blog is mostly about.

Personal, spiritual, physical, emotional, etc. growth.

Overcoming Fear: The Only Way Out Is Through

How do you overcome that which you are afraid of?

How do you get past the fear of doing something or not doing something?

What does it matter what we are doing here or there?

What is the meaning of life?

So many questions.

So few answers.

"If I plug away at the same thing, everyday, all day, then eventually I will get somewhere."

Where do I want to get to?

I want to get to the point where this is self-sustaining.

I want to get to the point where I have nothing to do but to write and write away.

1. Blog.

2. Exercise.

3. Eat healthy.

4. Write.

5. Share.

Overcome the fear of lacking anonymity.

Overcome the fear of being seen as this or that.

Overcome the fear of anything and everything.

The only way to overcome fear is to just do that which you are afraid to do, or face and stand straight in front of that which you are afraid to face.

That is the only way out... through.

Start where you are. Bring yourself to the point where you can get through this present moment, then make your present moment temporarily painful, then realize that you will get through this as well.

Everything passes away with enough time, including each of us... More on that later.

But for now, let's just worry about overcoming the fear that we each may have.

Yours Truly

"I've Looked at Life from Both Sides Now"

Recommended Listening:

Please play the song above (or with this link).

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A few words come to mind when I think of looking at things in different ways.

Perspective.

View point.

Perception.

Understanding.

Empathy.

These things make up how I assemble my reality.

And like Joni Mitchell and so many others, I have looked at life from both sides now.

I have seen the world through my own eyes, and I have tried to see the world through others'.

With empathy and imagination we are able to try to understand what life is like for someone else.

But we don't ever really walk in their shoes.

We will never know the consciousness of another person.

We can only empathize with the signs and symptoms of living.

But sometimes that, along with listening intently and understanding, is enough.

Just to listen and empathize does not mean to agree. Empathy and understanding do not imply agreement. But at the same time, these things bring us together, despite our differences.

Just as there is an asymptote toward perfection, there is also one toward understanding and learning.

We can go deeper and farther, but we will never. ever. reach the bottom.

"I really don't know life at all." - Joni Mitchell

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Take Action

Remove the emotions standing in the way of taking action.

The emotions surrounding a task may involve not wanting to do something, or feeling "not in the mood." This is a form of self-created struggle that need not be the case.

What I can do instead is push past these emotions and just get to doing what needs to be done. What needs to be done right now is that I write this post.

Perfection and the desire to achieve it stand in the way of making progress in some areas. There is no such thing as something perfect. There is only what is. What could be and what should be are only figments of the imagination. Only what is matters.

I must stay focused on what it is that I have set out to do. Don't take many small breaks, take larger ones, after having put in some long focused time on creating something that I want to create.

All I have to do is take action. Get things moving, start things up, get the ball rolling, set the fat to jiggling. That is all it takes. Initiative. Exercise.

I am creating something that I feel is worth creating. I am writing what I feel (at this time) needs to be written. I am focusing my energies on what I think is required of me.

And so, taking action is the best course of action.

Thoughts and emotions don't get anything accomplished in the real world.

"Like so many brilliant people, he believes that ideas move mountains. But bulldozers move mountains; ideas show the bulldozers where to work." - Peter F. Drucker

What is right action? It is merely the appropriate response to a stimulus. It is nothing more or less moral compared to other responses.

I am interested in all sorts of things. I am mostly interested in what it takes to take action right now though. And what it takes to take action is a little energy. I here to for had not had very much energy, but now that I am waking up and going for a short walk, I find that I have much more energy than I expected.

What gives energy then? Taking action. By taking action I actually have more energy to take more action.

There is an inspirational book called The Action Principles, written by Bill Fitzpatrick, based on his extensive learning in the martial arts. I read most of those action principles and at one point tried to apply at least a couple of them to my life. But obviously I never really got the hang of them. Because I still don't take all the action that I need to take. I still don't do all the things that I need to do. I still don't take the actions that I need to take in every situation.

I listened to a podcast this morning interviewing David K. Reynolds, the author of Constructive Living. He said that the book Constructive Living was written to help people be ordinary. I have no problem being ordinary, but part of me thinks that if I improve myself continually in the ways in which I want to that I will be either extraordinarily good or extraordinarily bad. I am not sure which it will end up with, but that is what seems to be the case.

Remove the emotions standing in the way of taking action.

But at the same time, I don't think it is possible to remove emotions, so what can one do? Minimize the emotions? Move past the emotions? Take action in spite of the emotional state we are in?

All of the above.

Regardless, take action.

Lifelong Learning

Learning how to learn is the most valuable skill that we can acquire. Learning how to learn is something that once learned, can teach us for the rest of our lives.

Learn to learn. How do you learn?

First start with learning to read. If you can read, and read quickly and comprehend well what has been read, then you can teach yourself almost anything. For almost any skill, a book has already been written on how to do it, and most times there are multiple books on the subject.

If you can read these books and comprehend and apply their concepts, you will be able to learn how to do that skill.

But nothing can replace doing. Nothing can replace application.

You can have knowledge of how to fish, but until you actually go out to the stream and use the fishing rod, you will not be applying your knowledge, which constitutes learning.

I am dedicated to learning for the rest of my life.

I am dedicated to improving my base of knowledge, my ability to synthesize ideas, and the general improvement of my mind.

How will you teach yourself how to learn?

How will you continue to learn for the rest of your life?

Who I Am and What I Am About

Inspired by a question I was recently asked to define myself, and by Mighty Oak Barbell's video, I have decided to delimit and describe who I am, and what I am about. The word delimit is used on purpose, because I have thought through most of my life, that by defining myself, I would be limiting any possibilities. Choosing one path prevents us from walking another. And so many times, I have not decided on a path to take, and yet, that is choosing a path as well. And who is to say we can't alter or change our direction once we have made a decision in life? It is a learning and growing process. This is...

Who I Am and What I Am About

My name is Dave Brey and I have lived for almost thirty-six years. I have seen, done, learned and forgotten millions of things. I have created new synapses and killed brain cells. I have formed new habits and held onto old ones. I have learned about myself and about others through trial and error, and through it all there has always been a pen, and there has always been paper.

There may have been computers and typewriters and keyboards and laptops and all sorts of writing technology, but even still, through it all there has been pen and paper. 

Pens I get from the dollar store. Most paper I get from Staples. 

So what meaning does the pen and paper give to my life?

Writing with pen and paper allows me to express myself. It allows me to jot down my thoughts and get better at thinking by creating a connection between the mental idea and the physical written words. So am I an author? I have written a book, so maybe I am. But certainly, I am a writer. I have twenty notebooks, a hundred and fifty blog posts and umpteen half-finished electronically written ideas and journal entries.

Do I get paid to write? I have been paid to write, and been paid by my writing, but I don't make a living at it. Even so, I am certain that I am a writer.

I am a reader. I like to read many things, though lately I am on a non-fiction kick. Reading helps to inform my way of thinking, expands my universe, and allows me to travel the world from the comfort of my home. I love to share what I am reading and have read with others, and to hear from them what they are reading also.

I also play guitar. I sing. I love to make music, by playing someone else's songs or creating my own. So, I am a musician. I am not as skilled as I would like to be, but I am light years ahead of where I started. I don't know the ins and outs of music theory or the fret board, but I am a musician. It is certain.

Do I make money from my musical endeavors? I do not, but I have in the past, and could potentially again in the future. But I don't make my living through music. However, that makes me no less of a musician.

I am passionate about reading, writing and playing music; reading books I find interesting or someone has recommended to me, writing thoughts, poems and prose, and covering or writing original music. That is what I do with all my free time.

So, who am I? I am a writer, a reader, and a musician.

What am I about? I am about learning on this journey of life. I am about developing my sense of self as I move through life. I am about trying to become a better and more well-rounded reader, writer, and musician. These are the things that I am about.

Now, what do I do? For a living? Something completely different. 

Ultimately, I would like to make what I am and what I am about what I do; to marry the three areas together is a lifetime goal of mine. And I am making progress. That is true. I am making progress. But it is slow going. So I will continue to do what I do in order to provide for my family, lifestyle, and for my passions. 

So, let's sum it all up again.

Who am I?

What am I about?

I am Dave Brey, a writer, reader and musician, passionate about creating writing and music that helps others through this journey of life.

That is who I am, and that is what I am about.