The campaign was launched to help me raise money to create an eBook inspired by this blog, Courage 2 Create.

The money raised from this campaign will be used to help me hire a professional editor and graphic designer who will then help me create the eBook.

(Read the post where I first introduced the eBook fundraising campaign by going here.)

After the campaign was launched, dozens of you responded, and, so far, we’ve managed to raise over $200 dollars! Wohoo! Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far!

But the fundraiser isn’t over yet, and we’re still far from our goal of $2,000. And if we don’t reach this goal by February 9, 2012, I won’t be able to get this eBook made.

So, I’d like to take some time today to convince you why you should contribute to the campaign, before time runs out.

Here I go.

10 Great Reasons You Should Contribute to C2C’s eBook Fundraiser

If you contribute to the fundraising campaign today…

1. You’ll get the finished eBook at no extra cost to you.

If you contribute just $4 or more to the campaign today, you’ll get the eBook at no extra cost to you when it’s done!

How cool is that?

2. You’ll help me create a version of Courage 2 Create that’s leaner, meaner, and sexier.

In eBook form, C2C’s best ideas will be sharper and more organized. The content will be put together more logically, seamlessly, and intuitively. Finally, the text will be paired with a sleeker, sexier design made uniquely, and exclusively, for the eBook.

3. You’ll finally get a deeper explanation of my holistic approach to writing and life.

A huge chunk of the eBook will have brand new content that has NEVER BEFORE been featured on Courage 2 Create or anywhere on the internet–including everything that helped me survive a very challenging year in my life. In my first year of writing my novel, as many of you know, I managed to follow my passion while my life seemed to be falling apart all around me. It was an impossible feat, but with the help of my holistic approach to writing and life, I was able to pull off a miracle, and I got the writing done.

In the eBook, I hope to go more into detail about my holistic approach to writing and life, and give you the tools that’ll help you overcome your own life challenges.

4. Your input will be taken into consideration.

Over the next few months, I’m going to be asking for your input on the eBook. So, if you donate to the fundraiser today, think of yourself as an investor in a really great product that you already know is going to be specifically designed to YOUR needs and YOUR wants.

5. You’ll be able to read Courage 2 Create on your Kindle.

The eBook won’t just be in a PDF file, but it’ll be in a format that works on your Kindle, too.

6. You don’t have to go through Kickstarter. You can contribute directly to me.

After I experienced serious glitches with Kickstarter—and then, after I realized that Kickstarter uses Amazon Payments, a site that I know many of my readers don’t like because of dubious ethical practices they’ve engaged in over the years—I decided to opt out of using Kickstarter.

Instead, I decided to run this fundraiser straight through my blog in order to make the fundraiser straightforward, easy, and more comfortable for you, my readers.

7. You could land a guest post on the C2C!

If you contribute $50 or more to the campaign today, you could land a guest post on the C2C! And, in fact, the more you contribute, the bigger the incentives are!

(Check out the fundraising page for details about incentives for higher contributions.)

8. It could help prevent Courage 2 Create from shutting down in the future.

When the eBook is all good and done, I hope to sell it on this blog to new readers. Then, I’ll use this revenue stream to help keep this blog going strong.

So, as you can see, this fundraising campaign is just the start of my attempt at creating a steady revenue stream for the blog.

Why does the blog need a steady revenue stream?

Well, the bigger the blog gets, the more work I need to put in to maintain it properly. The more work the blog needs for it to be maintained properly, the more I might have to start paying people to help me keep it up.

Unfortunately, without a steady revenue stream, I won’t be able to pay people to help me. And, eventually, I’ll reach a point where it’ll be no longer financially, physically, and emotionally feasible for me to keep this blog going all by myself.

I haven’t reached that point yet, and I hope I never will.

But if you contribute to the campaign today, you can help me prevent that unfortunate scenario from ever happening.

9. Because it’s cheap.

If just two-thirds of my readers donated $4 dollars today that would be more than enough to cover the costs of putting the eBook together.

10. Because there’s only two weeks left.

The fundraiser ends in two weeks, and, if we continue at this pace, it’s clear that we might not reach our fundraising goal in time.

So please help me to make sure that doesn’t happen by contributing to the fundraising campaign today!

Thank you.

much love,

Ollin

You can use the PayPal button below to contribute $4 or more to the campaign. Thank you for your generous contribution!

You can also visit C2C’s eBook Fundraiser page to find out more details about the campaign before you contribute.

P.S. If you want to help me further, I encourage you to leave a comment on C2C’s Facebook page. In your comment, let everyone else know that you’ve made a contribution to the campaign, and then encourage others to do the same. Thanks for your help! (Click here to visit C2C’s Facebook page.)

P.S.S. Also, you can: tweet this post, let people know you’ve contributed to the campaign, and then encourage other readers to contribute to the campaign as well. Thank you! (Use the buttons at the bottom of this post to share this post with your followers.)

P.S.S.S. Finally, you can: share this post with everyone you know to help me build momentum for the campaign! Thanks so much!

I don’t think anyone wants to stay feeling jealous for very long:  it aches and it tears in all the wrong places. But just like all the other emotions we tend to feel, jealousy is simply another note on the spectrum of human emotion we can’t avoid feeling.

So, how do we deal with jealousy? Well, whenever I experience jealousy cropping up in me (when I see someone succeeding in their writing career in the way I wish to succeed), I try to acknowledge the ways in which this jealously is not serving me. I examine what jealousy is doing to me, and notice the ways in which jealousy is tricking me into believing its nasty lies:

How Jealousy Isn’t Serving You

1. Jealousy Gives You A False Comparison

When I get jealous of someone, I usually notice that this pang of jealousy carries with it a deep sense of unfairness.

When you grow jealous of someone you might feel the same way:

You are convinced that you and the person you are jealous of have been working off the exact same “owner’s manual,” but somehow the both of you are getting different results. His plane is soaring, while your plane remains grounded. So, if you’re convinced you’re both working off of the exact same owner’s manual, the only way you can explain his success is by coming to the conclusion that he just got “lucky.” But the idea that someone else “just got lucky,” no matter how great it is for the other person, always stinks of unfairness to you.

But this, I find, is where jealousy is at its meanest: it starts convincing you that life MUST be “favoring” this person over you.

But that’s a lie. Because you and the person you’re jealous of are not the same, and, what’s more, your journey’s in this life are not the same. It’s not as if life is an unlevel playing field–where some get all the lucky breaks and some of us don’t–it’s that we’re all on completely different playing fields. So, comparing your lack of achievement with another person’s achievement is like comparing apples to oranges.

If we understand that our jealousy is a false comparison, then we might find that we we’re not meant to live out the successes of the person we are jealous of. We are meant to live out our own.

2. Jealousy Is A Waste of Your Energy

You can’t help but feel jealous once in a while, but when you let jealousy consume you and motivate your day-to-day actions then jealousy can become a tremendous waste of energy.

Jealousy can even become dangerous to your health if, after a while, you begin to think about ways to thwart this other person, sabotage them, or try to pull them down to your “level,” or even below your level. You must catch yourself before you start to slip this deep into your jealousy.

You need to ask yourself:

Do I really want to spend another minute of my life wasting my energy on trying to sabotage someone else from succeeding? Or is that energy better spent doing something more productive for me, in my own life?

3. Jealousy Perpetuates The Scarcity Myth

Jealousy’s most potent venom consists of one very innocent-seeming–but very deadly–lie. The lie is that there is only a scarce amount of success, love, and abundance in this world. It is no wonder, then, why jealousy often leads people to want to thwart or sabotage another.

The jealous person is convinced that the other is actually harboring something that belongs to him, and if he doesn’t get it back, the jealous person is convinced that he’ll be without it for the rest of his life.

The myth of scarcity is the most dangerous way in which jealousy does not serve us. To think that love, abundance, and joy are limited is to live in a world filled with envy. If everything is scarce, then we must rush to cling, to hoard, to grasp, to steal, to lie, to cheat–whatever it takes to make sure that we hold on to the scarce resources of this world. The last thing we want is to look like a fool when we discover that, after the scuffle, we are the ones left empty-handed, and the other is left coveting the riches we were after.

But this is what often happens when you use the negative energy of your jealousy to try to thwart the other. Despite tearing the other down, you end up lifting the other higher up, and you feel exhausted and wasted by the end of the process. Scheming a devious plot, or mastering a cut-throat technique to thwart another person is unnecessary and, in the end, counterproductive.

How To Make Jealousy Serve You

Here’s how you can use the energy of jealousy to serve you:

1. You Can Use Jealousy To Remind Of Your Own Unique Journey

Jealousy can remind you that your journey is unique, and that it has its own unique challenges that are incredibly different from everyone else’s.

When envy rears its ugly head, let the nasty emotion remind you that there’s nothing wrong with you. Let it remind you that it’s not that you haven’t tried hard enough, or that life is unfair, or that god doesn’t love you as much as someone else. Realize, instead, that god loves you too much to give you a journey that is exactly the same as someone else’s. God wants you to have your own unique story to tell, and he’s got unique lessons only you can learn and teach to others.

In this way, what you lack, or what you think you lack, becomes holy. It becomes essential to who you are and to who you are slowly becoming. To look at it another way: the big gap between you and the person you envy is meant to be there. Because that big gap is going to push you in a direction the other will never go, or experience.

Who knew that what you lacked could end up becoming something that others could be envious of? But it’s true.

2. You Can Use Jealousy’s Energy to Propel You Forward In A Positive Way

Before jealousy can get to its most venomous state (the state of needing to sabotage others) you must shift jealousy’s energy and utilize it, instead, to put energy behind your own projects. Use jealousy’s energy to make your own dreams come true.

3. You Can Let Jealousy Remind You That There’s Enough Love, Wealth, and Success To Go Around

When you feel jealous, be happy for the person you are jealous of, and then realize that their happiness doesn’t threaten your own happiness. Realize that love, success, happiness–all things worth having in life are in abundant, limitless supply. You don’t need someone else’s treasures. Why? Because you have your own to find.

(FYI: The more you waste time chasing after someone else’s treasures, the longer you leave your own treasure abandoned.)

What To Do When You’re On “The Other Side” of Jealousy

Finally, there may come a time when you’ve moved past your own jealousy and you find yourself on the other side of it. When we are on the other side of jealousy, we may fear being happy or successful because we are wary of attracting the jealousy of others.

But we shouldn’t fear our own happiness or success. Because when we are happy and successful, it’s not because we’re stealing happiness or success from the rest, it’s simply because we are tapping into the well of abundance that is available to all of us, all the time.

To not let ourselves be successful and happy, simply because we fear the jealousy of others, is an injustice. Think about it this way: if none of us ever allowed ourselves to be successful and happy, just because we feared the wrath of jealously, then who would be left to show us that happiness and success is even possible?

The Antidote To Envy

Call me a dreamer, an idealist, or a foolish optimist, but I truly believe that we are all brought into this world to live out our highest potential, fulfill our dreams, and help others to do the same. We are not brought into this world to teach others how to steal; we’re here to teach each other how to give. We are not brought into this world to hoard “the scarcity of riches,” but to teach others how to find their own, unique riches. We are not brought into this world to steal the happiness away from others, but to be happy for others, and then find out what that happiness means for us.

much abundance,

Ollin

What do you do when jealousy starts to get the best of you? Please share your wisdom with us in the comments below!

Frequently Asked Questions

“What’s the story behind your pen name?”

Ollin is an Aztec symbol that means “movement” and “change.” Ollin is written with two “l” ‘s, not one, and it’s pronounced “O-leen.” Please don’t call me Ollie, Oly, Olly, or Olé. Not a fan of those nicknames. Sorry. Thanks!

“Why do you use a pen name?”

I went with a pen name because I felt that my real name was way too common.

“Where do you live?”

Southern California.

“So, what do you do?” 

I’m writing a fiction novel! Isn’t that enough?

All right, all right. You mean my “day job”? I’m a freelancer and a ghostwriter.

“Uhhhmmm… Watchusay?”

Basically businesses, organizations, companies and websites pay me to write content for them (articles, commentary, reviews, etc.)

As for ghostwriting–that means I may write for an author, as that author, but I don’t use my own name. Which means I get paid for the work, but I don’t get credit for the work. (If you’re interested in hiring me as a freelancer, ghostwriter, or blogger please visit my Hire Me page for more information.)

“What is your novel about?”

It’s a children’s fantasy story inspired by Mexican-American mythology, history and culture. (See also: What Are You Writing About?)

“When are you planning on finishing it?”

The first step was to get a 1st Draft done by 2010, the second step was to get a 2nd Draft done by the end of 2012. As far as the next step goes… well, I’ll just have to get back to you on that.

“Is it just one book, or is it a series?”

I’m not telling.

“How do you come up with your ideas?”

The process of picking the idea for my novel was detailed in this post: Hooked On The Right Idea. For more on how to find really great ideas read: The Frustrated Writer’s Guide To Generating New and Amazing Ideas–All The Time.

“Where do you get your inspiration from?”

The true, although unclear, answer is: everywhere.

“What’s your writing schedule like?”

I would say I average about 5 hours a day, which works up to about 20 hours a week. UPDATE: Because I’m more busy these days with my freelance career, I’ve been averaging about 4 hours a week. For more on fitting writing into your schedule read: The 4 Essential Elements of A Writing Schedule That Works For You.

“I always wanted to write something, but I never had the patience or discipline.  How do you do it?”

It’s not really about discipline. It’s about having the right tools at your disposal and a lot of support from family and friends. Read How to Get Off Your Lazy Butt and Start Writing Already for some great starting tips.

“Can you please promote my blog, my product, my organization, my website, and/or my book?”

No. I have been criticized in the past for being “anti-promotional” because of this type of response. I am not against people promoting themselves, I just know that just asking a blogger to promote your work doesn’t work–or at least isn’t as effective as getting to know the blogger first. If you really want to get more readers and eyeballs on your blog, product, organization, or book, I recommend you read my interview with Michael Stelzner: How To Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul. I agree with Michael’s new, more subtle approach to marketing. My blog is an example of how Michael’s strategy works wonders. 

What blogging advice would you give to beginning bloggers?

My best advice is to write about what moves you the most. Blogging is one of the most toughest forms of writing out there, and you have to be absolutely in love with the content you are writing, and the form you are writing it in, for it to be successful. For links to posts that give my best advice on blogging, check out the bottom of my “Start Here” page.

What happened to all the your blog post pictures?

This is a recent change I made. I’m trying to simplify the blog and also reduce my workload. Believe it or not, finding really great blog post pictures takes a long time, and, after a while, you run out of great free pictures you are allowed to (legally) use on your blog. Instead of spending time finding new pictures for blog posts, I would rather spend that time interacting with my readers in the blog comments and through e-mail. It’s all about priorities, and blog post pictures are just no longer a top priority for me. Plus, I agree with Leo Babauta that, often times, blog pictures can be a distraction from the content of the post. It’s like having a billboard announcing the location of a tree below it. In that situation, it’s very likely that the billboard will get more attention than the tree it’s supposed to highlight.

“I left a comment on a post, but I don’t see it anywhere. Why wasn’t my comment approved?”

Whenever you leave a comment on the C2C you are agreeing to the following comments policy:

Courage 2 Create is a welcoming and supportive environment for writers and non-writers to share ideas and debate opposing viewpoints. For that reason comments are carefully moderated. Please be patient as it may take up to 24 hours to approve your comment. Also, please note that comments on each new post close after two weeks. 

Personal attacks and negativity are not welcome in the comments section of the C2C. If you launch a personal attack on the author of the blog post or a fellow commenter, your comment will not be approved. If your purpose is simply to promote your product, service, book, or blog, your comment may also be marked as spam and will not be approved. However, constructive comments or points of respectful disagreement are always welcome. (If you are not sure whether your comment is negative or constructive I recommend you read this post.)

If you believe your comment should not have been deleted (or marked as spam) please contact me at courage2create@gmail.com. In the past, readers’ comments have gone directly to my spam folder by accident. I usually catch comments that have been accidentally marked as spam, but sometimes I don’t–so please inform me if you think this is the case with your comment.

“I want to leave a comment on an older post you wrote, but the comments on that post are closed. Why is that?”

Yes, the comments close after two weeks.

Why? I used to keep the comments open indefinitely, but the problem was that this caused more work for me.

I don’t have as much help as I need at the moment when it comes to looking after the blog (read: I don’t have ANY help), so losing comments after two weeks gives me some extra time to have a social life… and you do want me to have a social life, right?

“Can I be a guest blogger on your blog?”

Unfortunately, I am no longer accepting guest posts. Sorry.

“I would like to read one of your short stories but can’t seem to find them anywhere on the blog. Where are they?”

Ahhh…. You caught on that the two short stories I previously shared on my blog have mysteriously gone missing, eh? You’re a clever one. Don’t worry, I plan on featuring all my short stories together in one place, in an eBook, and I hope to launch it sometime in the near future. Now, if you don’t want to wait, I have given a challenge to my readers that if they help me reach 1,000 subscribers they’ll get another, brand spanking new short story written by me featured on the blog. What are you waiting for? Recommend me to your friends today! 

“How can I get an answer to a question that isn’t addressed here?”

You can send me any of your unanswered questions to courage2create@gmail.com. I’ll send you a response as soon as I can.

Your blog has been incredibly helpful to my work and my life. Thank you. Is there anything I can do for you in return?

Yes!

You can help me by contributing to my new eBook Fundraising Campaign.

The campaign was launched last Friday to help make C2C’s first eBook a reality. The money will be used to cover the cost of the eBook. I am not looking to make a profit with this campaign, I’m just looking to break even on the real costs of putting a quality eBook together.

Unfortunately, I cannot make the eBook a reality without your support. The good news is that I’m only asking for a minimum contribution of $4. (If you can contribute more than $4, that’s great, too. There are incentives for bigger contributions detailed on the fundraising campaign page.) I’ve calculated that if just two-thirds of my readers donated $4 to the campaign today, that would be more than enough to cover the costs of this eBook.

So, please visit the fundraising page today and contribute your $4! (Visit the fundraising page by going here.)

Thank you to all those who contributed to the campaign so far!

much love,

Ollin

Do you have any more questions about me, my novel, or my blog that you want me to answer? Ask me in the comments below!

“The closer he got to the realization of his dream, the more difficult things became.”

    – from The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho

As I come close to the end of my second year working on my novel, I’ve come to notice something pretty shocking about the entire process. Logically, you would think that the longer one endeavors to make a dream a reality, the easier this endeavor becomes.

But I’m finding that this isn’t true. In fact, I’m finding that the complete opposite is true: the more you work to make your dreams a reality–the harder it gets. It’s as if, in pursuing one’s passion, in answering one’s calling, you set off a switch in the universe. That switch sets of an alarm that sends a vibration through the world and alerts some mysterious force. This mysterious force then rushes over to wherever you are located in the world, and then begins to work on you, pressing down on you, harder than all the rest.

The Closer You Get To Realizing Your Dream, The More Difficult Things Become

For those who do not live in the realm of pursuing and realizing dreams, the journey is relatively smooth. Unfortunately, those who put off their dreams are not aware of this fact. (If they did they might go about their day more relieved.) The small hills and valleys they face seem like mountains and gorges to them–because small hills and valleys are all they are familiar with. But the dreamers, and the pursuers of dreams, we leave the world of small hills and valleys, and enter a world where all that exists is one big mountain we must climb–a harrowing landscape that only gets higher and more daunting the more we climb it.

The higher we climb, the more gravity pushes us down. The more the air becomes thin and harder to breathe. The more cold and isolated the journey gets. Looking down from this great mountain, from up this high, we now understand why people rarely journey this far in the pursuit of their dream. The higher you get, the more naked you feel. It is frightening. Dizzying. Tremendous.

This mountain we climb is the journey toward fulfilling our destiny. And no, it is not easy. And we are often reminded of why so many refuse to even begin this journey. Although others may see our great efforts to fulfill our dreams as admirable, little do they know what it takes to stay up here, so high, closer and closer to our dreams (and yet, in a strange, paradoxical sort-of-way, further and further away from them). Little do they know of all the cold, wet nights. Of all the few provisions we have on with us at all times. Or how we fear that, behind every corner we scale over, we might encounter a bear, or a tiger, that will eat us for lunch. We fear starving. We fear illness. We fear complete and utter abandonment. We fear death. Up here, we know we may be higher up, but we also know that being higher up and closer to our goal makes us more vulnerable. (The fall is greater from up here. People tend to forget that.)

What Do You Really Really Really Want To Do Today?

I often look back at these last two years and marvel at how much I have had to put up with in order to try to make my own simple dream of writing my fiction novel, and getting it published, a reality.  (I’m not talking about the writing part of the novel, I’m talking about the life part. How life always manages to get in the way of our work.) How I’ve managed to survive it all, I can only attribute to something bigger than me. How I continue to survive it all, I can only attribute to something bigger than me.

I would only be lying to you if I said the path to realizing your dreams gets easier the longer you’re on it. It doesn’t. It only gets harder.

That’s why you need to ask yourself this question, right now, before you even begin your journey:

“Is this the dream I really want to make a reality? Is this the dream I really want to come true one day?”

Because the closer you get to the realization of your dream, the more gravity pulls you down. The more exhausted you become. The more isolated you feel. And, at that point, the only thing that’ll keep you going is if you still have that insatiable desire, down in your belly, to bring that dream into reality.

If you asked yourself the question above, and you find that you do have that insatiable desire, then you may proceed to pursue that dream. But if you don’t have that insatiable desire to pursue your dream, then you need some time to reflect about what it is you really want out of life.

Elizabeth Gilbert recommends you wake up every morning and ask yourself: “What do I really really really want to do today?” The fact that there are three “really’s” in that sentence is not a typo. It’s intentional. Because you really really really need to know the answer to that question before you begin the journey.

How to Defy Gravity

Very few of us really take up the journey to realizing one’s dreams. I know this because I often find myself looking around, searching for fellow travelers, only to find a handful of others who are taking up a similar path as me.

It is important to note that this path is not anything to be envious of. We are not “better off” than anyone else. No, the more real truth is that, for many of us dreamers, the path to realizing our dreams is our only hope. And that is why we pursue our dreams so relentlessly. That is why we will sacrifice and endure harsh climates and altitudes. That is why we will put up with the barrage of people who do not understand us and who look at us like we’re from another planet.

We don’t take up our adventure just because it’s fun to be on an adventure (although that’s an essential part of it). We take up our adventure because, in many ways, the adventure is us. The adventure is who we are, and to give up the adventure would be to give up who we are.

If we’ve made it this far on the path, it’s often only because the dream is our only hope. It is our one and only salvation. The dream is what saves us day-in and day-out. For many of us, to climb back down this high mountain, at this point, would only be to walk down into our graves.

We endure exhaustion, defeat, confusion, and isolation in pursuit of our wildest dreams because, somehow, we know that we were born to do this. We were born to defy gravity.

And that, I think, is the difference between those who can defy gravity, and those who don’t. Those who can’t defy gravity believe they are ill-equipped to do so. While those who can defy gravity know that, somehow, they were born to defy it and, in the process, inspire everyone else to do the same.

much love,

Ollin

How do you defy gravity? Or: how do you keep on trying to realize your dreams in spite of everything that gets in your way? Please share your wisdom with us in the comments below!

But first, I want to say that in February 2010, when I started this blog, my only hope was that it would encourage me to write my first novel. But I had no idea that in less than two years this blog would grow to become more influential than I had ever imagined. The blog has touched lives all over the world, and has inspired hundreds of people to not only create great art, but to live great lives.

My Top Secret Project Revealed

And now, today, I’m happy to announce that my new project will be…

An eBook inspired by Courage 2 Create!

YAY!

This eBook is finally being developed thanks to the urging of my readers. Ever since my first year of blogging, my readers have encouraged me to put the thoughts and ideas I have shared on this blog into a more organized, easier-to-read format. Now I hope to make their request a reality.

What Will The eBook Be About?

Not only will the eBook organize and sharpen many of the ideas that I’ve already shared on the blog, but it’ll also feature brand new articles on writing and life written by me–including, hopefully, some stories from readers who have been inspired by the blog over the past two years.

The journey of my blog, Courage 2 Create, has been a moving and uplifting one, and I hope that this eBook can finally serve as a way to capture some of the blog’s inspirational essence in a more accessible format.

The eBook’s tentative title is “Simple Writer Wisdom,” and my hope is that it’ll be just that: a simple handbook for life and for writing that one can easily access on the days when one feels most alone and hopeless. Simple wisdom has got me out of some pretty tough of spots in life, and I know that simple wisdom can get others out of some pretty tough spots, as well. Simple wisdom has even saved my life at times, and I know that simple wisdom can save the lives of others, too. This is the power of simple wisdom (and it’s not to be underestimated).

The eBook will feature the same kind of humor, insight, and helpful advice you’re used to on my blog, but the added benefit will be that, with the eBook, I’ll be able to organize my ideas into a better, more logical progression. I’ll also be able to show how my ideas connect with each other in a more seamless manner, thus, making the eBook infinitely more useful to readers of my blog.

Can I Offer My Input?

Yes. In the next few months, I’ll be asking you for your input, specifically on what you would like the eBook to be. I’ll be asking you for input on the eBook’s title, its focus, and I might even ask some of you to contribute short, personal stories to the eBook, illustrating how the blog has inspired you to write a great novel, or live a great life.

But I Need Your Help First

I want Simple Writer Wisdom to be the best eBook it can be. I don’t want it to be just like any ol’ eBook–just like Courage 2 Create isn’t just like any ol’ blog.

But I don’t have enough extra resources to fund this project all on my own. That’s why I decided to start a fundraising campaign on the blog to help get the eBook made. So, here’s where I’ll need your help.

I’ve estimated that the total cost of creating the eBook will be $2,000 (this amount covers everything from editing to graphic design.)

I know, it seems like a lot, but if just two-thirds of my readers donated $4 today, that would be more than enough for me to cover the costs of making the eBook.

If you contribute $4 (or more) today, you are also guaranteed to get the eBook absolutely for FREE when it’s done. (I hope to finish the eBook by September 2012.)

Now, if you decide to donate more than $4, I have also listed some extra rewards and incentives you’ll be receiving for donating more to the campaign, on the new C2C eBook Fundraiser Campaign page. (Extra incentives and rewards include getting mentioned in the eBook, landing a guest post on the C2C, or even a one-on-one dinner with me!)

So, please help me bring Courage 2 Create’s first eBook to life by contributing to C2C’s eBook Fundraising Campaign.

Thank you in advance for all of your support. Your contribution is very much appreciated!

Wait, Before You Donate, Here Are More Details About The Campaign

I have created a new page that will track this fundraising campaign up until February 9th, 2012 when the fundraising campaign is set to end. On this new page, I’ll be keeping you updated, daily, with the total amount that’s been raised until the fundraiser ends on February 9th.

For a break down of the estimated cost of the eBook, a list of incentives for higher contributions, and more details about the campaign, visit “C2C’s eBook Fundraiser” page by going here.

You may use the PayPal button below to make your contribution.

(Please make sure to include your name and e-mail with your contribution. Thanks!)

Thank you for your contribution. I can’t wait for C2C’s eBook to finally become a reality!

much love,

Ollin

Sometimes the most difficult thing to do in life, is to live exactly where you are, and as who you are today.

Growing up no one teaches you how to do that–to just live.

No one teaches you how find and hold onto that delicate balance between your writing, spending time with your family and friends, making a career transition, or taking care of your self and health.

No one teaches you how to change your life and grow your self, while having to juggle all the other daily responsibilities.

Each morning you wake up constantly caught between the person you once were, and the one you are becoming; between the life you once lived and the one you are creating.

Just like your writing, some days are effortless, flowing smoothly and serenely. You’re confident, excited, happy and filled with faith that you know exactly where you’re headed.

But then there are those days when everything seems to stop. You’re writing is fragmented, and the words just torn from your being. You’re frustrated, exhausted, afraid and doubt everything you thought you knew.

You’re left to wonder if it’s possible to ever find some peace in that space between yesterday and tomorrow.

Learn To Love Your Yesterdays

When you’re in the midst of changing your life and growing your self, the last thing you want to do is remember those yesterdays.

You’ll turn away from those past moments out of fear, shame, anger, disappointment, grief, remorse, sadness, and a number of other reasons.

I know, because I’ve been there.

I’ve gone through my own dark ages, where I had no idea what I was doing with my life, where I was going, or who I was being. I was living an unhealthy lifestyle, miserable in my career, and single.

When I set out to change my life I focused one day at a time, concerned only with making different choices and decisions like working out, eating healthy, and writing again.

I thought I could ignore that person and life I had once lived, but I was wrong.

You cannot continue to grow if you are constantly terrified of falling back and becoming your old self or reliving that life.

You start to learn how to love your yesterdays when you stop running from them, and instead use them to help you see how far you have traveled.

If you’re struggling with your yesterdays try this:

Go back exactly one year ago and write down everything you have done, decisions made, things set in motion, and how you’ve reacted to unexpected events.

If you keep one, look back at your journal. What were you thinking and feeling and how does that compare today?

You don’t always feel the change and growth that happens daily. Sometimes you need to look back in order to see how far you’ve travelled.

Remember your yesterdays, and allow your self to see and feel proud of what you’ve done this year, who you’ve become and what you’ve created.

My today is simply the reflection of all my yesterdays, and had I not gone through my own dark ages I may never have discovered this inner strength, determination, confidence, courage, faith or belief in my self.

I know that yesterday I was exactly the person I needed to be, in order to become the person I am today.

And so are you.

Learning To Dream Of Tomorrow

There are moments when it seems the only thing that changes is the date on your calendar.

You’ve been working so hard on finishing that novel, meeting all your deadlines for clients, losing weight, changing careers, forming stronger connections with loved ones, changing your life and growing your self, that it feels like you’ll never reach those dreams of tomorrow.

You are so focused on a particular future, on crossing those finish lines, that it’s all you can think about.

Suddenly instead of your dreams providing you a moment of zen, of making your heart smile and glow, all you see is what you don’t have in your life.

You become anxious, stressed and desperate over the “what if’s.”

What if I don’t finish my novel, or it’s never published. What if I don’t make that career change?

What if that future I long for never arrives?

When this happens write down everything and person you have right now.

Sometimes you can focus so much on what may come, that you lose sight of what is already here.

You need dreams, for they guide you toward what makes your heart smile, something that gives you a warm loving glow throughout your being. Dreams are hints as to what you need to add to your life today in order to help create a new life for your self tomorrow.

But with dreams there are no guarantees.

It doesn’t matter how hard you work, or how badly you want it, some dreams will come true, others will change or vanish all together, and still others will lead you to new dreams.

Hold loosely to your dreams.

Have them, let them guide you, but be willing to let them go, to change and grow as you do.

Learning to Embrace Today

No one teaches you how to live, because they can’t.

Only you understand and discover the truth of how to live your life. Only you know what matters most in your heart, what makes it smile, and what you want to create.

I know there are days when living exactly where you are, and as who you are, is the most difficult thing you’ll do, and yet it is the only thing you have to do.

As a writer you are really a translator–a storyteller of life and this experience.

It doesn’t matter what you write, novels, articles, press releases, web content, grants or non-fiction pieces, everything is, and has, a story.

Through your words you help others to understand the ups and downs of life. Those moments of pure bliss and bitter heartache.

You teach others a little more about love and relationships. About finding and sometimes losing ones dreams.

You remind them that while everyone has their own unique journey through life, no one is every really alone.

But you have to live your own story.

You my friend, have to experience the peaks and valleys, the sadness and happiness, the fear and faith of everything in life.

So live.

Live today, wherever you are, who ever you are being, and write.

Know that even in this moment you are changing your life.

Every day through your decisions, actions, emotions, and reactions to unexpected encounters and events, you release your past and create your future.

Embrace your self.

Embrace your life.

Embrace your today, for it is only by stringing together lots of todays that you complete your book, make that career transition, get healthy and fall in love.

Find some peace in today, for it is but an echo of your yesterday, and a glimmer of your tomorrow. 

A. Kathryn Trombly writes about the journey to change your life and grow your self at Just Daily Living. She has no idea how that project or her life will unfold, but she has finally found some peace in that unknown. 

How do you embrace today? Please share your wisdom with us in the comments below!

Pseudo-forgiveness is the act of forgiving someone before you have experienced the long string of complicated and painful emotions one MUST feel before one is ready, and capable, of bestowing true forgiveness on someone else. Basically, pseudo-forgiveness is “pretend forgivness” posing as real forgiveness.

I spoke of forgiveness before on this blog, in an article entitled 6 Ways to Regain A Sense of Power. In this article, I said that forgiveness was an important step in regaining a sense of power, and that’s true.

But now I realize that I had not truly forgiven the person I had said I had forgiven in that article. I had only “pseudo-forgiven” them.

You see, at the time, I had forgiven this person because I knew, intellectually, that forgiveness was a part of the process of letting go and moving on. But little did I know that I had skipped an important step. Little did I know that in rushing straight to forgiveness, without allowing myself to experience the full range of complicated, painful emotions I had to experience in order to truly forgive this person, I had not really learned my lesson.

Now I know that forgiveness is far more complicated than just saying: “I forgive you.” Now I know that you have to mean forgiveness–all the way down to the very core of your being–for forgiveness to be true.

Why Skipping A Step Is Not The Same As Mastering It

I suppose I was naïve to think I could forgive right away, and skip all pain I needed to feel to arrive at true forgiveness.

But now, I understand: I do this. In fact, we all do this. We skip steps, we over-intellectualize life’s big challenges just so we can avoid experiencing them. Through our over-analysis, we grind life’s big lessons down into a pulp—hoping the meaning behind a challenge we’re facing will reveal itself more easily this way.

It’s a clever, more roundabout, way to thwart our own progress.

While some don’t even start the race for fear of where the race will take them, others will try to bypass the race all together. Instead of experiencing what it’s like for their feet to hit the track, these people will go rent a golf cart, zoom to the end of the track, jump out of the cart, and cross the finish line before the clock runs out.

They become so obsessed with winning the race, that they avoid the race completely, and then they hold out their hand for a trophy they haven’t earned yet.

Pseudo-forgiveness, and other pseudo-acts like it, are simply clever ways to avoid the hardships of our life’s journey. 

But who can really blame us for attempting to pull this clever rick on ourselves? Who wouldn’t want to bypass all of life’s pain, confusion, and complications by zooming straight to the finish line, and just getting it over with already?

But that’s the mean trick of “pseudo-learning” a lesson. Pseudo-learning a lesson makes it seem to us as if we’ve crossed the finish line, when we really haven’t. Our celebratory dance is also premature: we’re fooling ourselves. We think we’ve outsmarted life by rushing to declare that we’re masters of our own story—when our story isn’t even finished yet.

But life isn’t easily outsmarted. It knows we’re only fooling ourselves. It knows we’re really just putting off what will catch up to us eventually.

Pseudo-Charmed Kind of Life

There is not only pseudo-forgiveness, but also pseudo-peace, pseudo-enlightenment, pseudo-compassion, and many others.

For instance:

I have often rushed to declare my compassion for someone who did me wrong, only to find out later that–despite my light-speed act of compassion–I was still very angry and bitter at the person who did me wrong. I would be shocked to discover that I wasn’t the perfect compassionate being I thought I was.

I now realize that feeling anger, bitterness, and hatred is actually necessary before I can finally arrive at true compassion for someone who has done me wrong.

You see, just learning a lesson isn’t enough. You must also experience it.

And this is our work. This is our work. To understand life not only with our heads, but with our hearts, with our bodies, and with our souls. We cannot rely solely on collecting “the data” of our lives, and then analyzing this data in order to arrive at a concrete solution to all our problems.

No.

It may seem counterintuitive, but to arrive at a concrete “solution” to life, we have to stop analyzing it, and simply experience it.

To learn to forgive, for instance, we must hate someone first, and then feel that hate long enough to the point where forgiveness becomes the only thing that can soothe that hate. To be compassionate, we must feel the full extent of our distrust and disappointment with another, until compassion becomes the only way we can be saved from our misery. To arrive at true peace, we must experience chaos in its entirety, until peace is the only thing we’re left thirsting for. To arrive at true enlightenment, we must experience confusion, loneliness, and loss to its highest degree, until enlightenment is the only thing that can heal us.

This is not a happy lesson for me to share. It’s a sobering lesson to say the least. But it’s a true lesson. And every time we try to skip the process of life, every time we try to skip all the ugly, smelly, dirty parts of life, every time we try to ”cut ahead of the line” so to speak, we’ll find ourselves right back where we started.

Because skipping a step is not the same as mastering it.

John O’ Donohue and The Fish

I had a dream in which the Irish poet and philosopher John O’ Donohue appeared to me. He was standing in a river, fishing. He had a very warm and loving energy. He smiled at me and then started to tell me a story:

He told me how he used to buy boneless, skinless fish from the supermarket. He would then cook this fish for his family, for dinner, and they would all love it. The fish was not only delicious, but it was very easy to eat, and it slid down their throats very nicely.

Then, one day, John didn’t go to the supermarket to buy fish. Instead, he went directly to the river itself to catch the fish at its source.

Later that day, John cooked this freshly caught fish. After the fish was cooked, he served it to his family. His family ate. Although his family tought the fish was more delicious than anything John had cooked before, they complained about the bones in the fish (that scratched their throats) and the skin (that made it hard for their teeth to chew on the meat).

When John finished telling me his story, he explained to me that this simple story illustrated the true nature of the spiritual journey. When we begin the spiritual journey, he said, it is like we’re eating that store-bought fish. At first, the spiritual journey is boneless, skinless, and easy to digest. We believe that this is what the true spiritual journey is like.

But, after a while, we find that, in truth, the real spiritual journey is more like the fish John caught from the river–it is far more delicious than anything store-bought, but it’s tougher to chew, and it’s filled with sharp bones that often cut us, if we’re not careful.

I never knew John O’ Donahue, but I think that his appearance in my dream was meant to assuage me. It was meant to remind me that life is meant to be a hard journey; and that the “hardness” of life, far from making life unfair, is what makes it more (dare I say it) authentic and delicious.

Don’t Analyze It. Just Experience It.

Now, at the end of my first post of 2012, I leave you with this thought:

What if the challenges facing you right now don’t require your “analysis”?

What if the challenges facing you right now are just asking you to let go of your relentless need to over-analyze everything in life?

What if your bridge to “a better place” is made up of the very stones of pain and remorse you feel you must avoid at all costs? What if it’s your experience—and not the analysis of your experience—that’ll make all the sores heal? What if it’s the living of your life, and not the analysis of your life, that’ll finally lick all the wounds clean?

What if…?

much love,

Ollin

How do you make sure not get too ahead of yourself when it comes to learning life’s big lessons? Please share your wisdom with us in the comments below!

> > > Novel Update: As I mentioned before I went on break, I’m done with the second draft of my novel! So, right now, I’ll be taking a much-needed hiatus from writing the book. In the meantime, I’m having my sister read it and offer me feedback on basic structure, character, and story. This is the first time anyone has every read a draft of my novel in its entirety (other than me) so I’m very nervous, but also very excited! I’ll get back to you with the next goal for my novel in 2012, but, in the meantime, I’ll be enjoying this brief hiatus from my fiction work.

> > > Top Secret Project News: I’ll be launching a brand new project this Friday that will require your help and involvement. It is something that many of you have been asking me to provide, and soon, I hope, it will become a reality. So stay tuned!

When I finished the first draft of my novel, my first impulse was to dive right into revision. I had been on a roll for months and thought: “Hey? Why stop? I’ll just keep writing!”

But I couldn’t get myself to do it. I started to push myself harder, and keep writing, but then I caught myself. I was doing it again. I was demanding more than the situation called for. I wanted to fill in the empty space, before the empty space made itself known. You know what empty space I’m talking about, right? The empty space that comes between the end of one phase, and the beginning of another? That empty space.

I didn’t want to dwell in that empty space, so I tried to force my writing. But it was no use. I couldn’t move forward, no matter how hard I tried. So I let go. I let the novel go and now I’m dwelling in that empty space.

I’m starting to realize that my habit of trying desperately to fill in the empty spaces of life was learned from growing up in a culture that demands that its members fill in EVERY empty space in life.

For instance, if we are not busy talking to someone, we’re texting. If we’re not texting, we’re twittering. If we’re not twittering, we’re facebooking. If we’re not facebooking we’re watching TV, or listening to music, or surfing the web, or watching YouTube, or working, or exercising, or reading and if we’re not doing any of those, we try to frantically search for the next thing to do that will fill in the empty space in between one thing and the next.

We are desperate to fill in every silence, every piece of stillness, with something–something we deem more desirable, more worthy than that stillness. Something we think is more important and urgent than that damning quiet underneath everything–that damning quiet that always exists. That quiet that starts to drives us crazy when we first notice it, in those brief moments when we accidentally drop our guard, and all the clamor we worked so hard to create dies down.

It’s as if we are afraid that the empty space in between things is so large and so vast that it might swallow us up. Sallow us up into what, we don’t know, because we’ve already filled in the empty space we would have needed to think of an answer to that very question.

Stillness makes us nervous. Quiet is disturbing. The empty space is seen as the enemy. In that empty space, boredom can sneak through. So can laziness, apathy, sadness, depression… Or at least that’s what we fear might happen. Inaction is like a death to us. If we stop, we think we will die.

If you believe this is an exaggeration, then you might start to observe some of the people around you. Notice how they frantically move from one thing to the next, never allowing for an empty space. As if they fear that if an empty space was allowed, they’d die. In fact, you might notice that these people do the very opposite of allowing room for an empty space: they will cram two, three, even four things into one, single moment. Texting while listening, while typing, while watching TV, while cooking…

I wonder if the more clamor we bring into our lives, the more this might be a sign that we are trying to run away from that empty space, and what it might reveal to us.

Because empty spaces are revealing. They reveal how you feel and what you think at any given moment. They bring you to observe the life around you.

You fear that if you put on the breaks and look around for just a moment, that your life might reveal to you something you were already starting to suspect: that there is no need to rush, or to be frantic, or to be busy. Everything will still be there if you allow for an empty space. Nothing terrible happens in that empty space, and most importantly, you notice that if you stop, you DON’T die. In fact you feel a little more ALIVE.

I’m beginning to learn that, more often than not, life begs us to stop. Not go. We rush forward, and life pulls us back. We get angry and say: “Why are you asking me to stop, Life? I’m on a roll!”  Life responds by saying: “Because you need to stop.” But we’d rather not listen to life’s advice. We always think this advice is wrong and that we know better. We think we have to do what everyone else is doing: keep busy, fill in the empty spaces or else–or else what? No one knows, because we don’t have any empty spaces left that will allow us to think up an answer to that very question!

But as much as we ignore life’s urging for us to stop, life will keep pulling on us until we are dragged to the very bottom of the ground, and at that moment we will have no choice but to let go of all of our frantic busyness. We will have to give ourselves a chance to rest in the empty spaces of life.

We will have to surrender.

Of course, surrendering takes courage. You have to trust something not many people want to trust: the empty spaces of life. Others would rather battle it out until they are near dead–even if they know all their fighting is useless. To surrender and let your work and your life flow to where it has to go, is a scary thing. You have to release your need to control and have faith. You have to be a tiny bottle carried by the flood. You have to become a delicate piece of glass that has to spin whenever and wherever the raging current takes you, and trust the journey.

If you are forcing something, fighting against something that is only causing you to become fatigued and drained of your energy, if you are locked in a battle that has not produced any results, then maybe it is time for you to surrender.

Surrendering is not putting up a white flag. It’s not giving up. Not necessarily.

It’s letting go of something and trusting that this something will come back to you, when the time is right, and when you are ready.

much surrender,

Ollin

Is there something or someone who you need to surrender to? How do you find the courage to let go and dwell in the empty spaces of life and the writing process?

“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.”

- Rosalia de Castro

The first couple of steps towards a goal is the hardest.

I wonder if every new day is just that, a new step. Never an old, tired one. We wake up, and the window’s wiped clean, and in comes a sun we had never seen before. There are new possibilities, several different ways in which things could end up, you never really know where you are going, but you do have an idea of where you would like to end up.

Not Knowing Where I Am Going In My Writing

When I write, I often let the journey happen first. I let it all spill out, in its raw form. From beginning to end. This may be different from other authors, but I like the journey, the not knowing what’s going to happen as I travel down the path. At this point I am only a reader, a watcher, an observer of the events as they unfold. I don’t take many notes at first, I just let the birth of a new river take shape, let the water cut through the sand and anchor itself deep within the earth.

Not everything comes at once, but enough does. Enough to have a good idea of where the story needs to go, of what I need to do to return and flesh out a character, create a motive–how I might have to set up certain plot shifts.

But the initial tale is set, and sometimes you feel like you are the first explorer of a brave new world. What you discover, and the wonders that you find, you have to keep secret and closed to those around you, because you can’t possibly describe it all in one sitting. You don’t want to. You need time to perfect its telling. It’s a good story, you know, but you have to be able to tell it well. Why? Because you are the only who has made that journey, the only one who has a key to that magical world, where everything is so different, exciting and new.

You wish you could bring everyone along with you, you wish, but you can’t. So you have to get really good at telling everyone about it. And in the meantime it can drive you crazy that you have to keep it all to yourself until the time has come. Secrets too large to fall all at once.

After the very first journey, I must retrace his steps.  So again, it may seem that I am taking a first step, even though I have been there before. It’s like waking up each new day, with a new sun and a new way of seeing the world.

Not Knowing Where I Am Going In My Life

Writing along the uncertain path of life is a lot easier than Riding it, however.

Unlike Rosalio de Castro, I am not sure that not knowing my life path inspires me to take it, but I want to make it so. Generally, the truth is I feel great fear, impatience, and uncertainty–not much inspiration.

But I am not alone in this. Not only us writers, but we are all beginning a new path, each in our own way, and we may not know where it will lead us and what detours we may have to take to get there. We are all afraid, uncertain, and impatient, wanting to get at the end already. When we begin, the end seems very very very far away. That’s why our lives sometimes may seem too daunting, too big, too insurmountable.

I want to learn from the wisdom of this quote and take it to heart. That the uncertainty of this path, of my life, of the process of writing this story, may lead me to be excited about life, instead of dreading it. That it might inspire me, that it might infuse me with vitality and strength. All we seem to live with is uncertainty, so I’d imagine being able to cherish it would bring us great peace and joy.

Writers, out of all people, may be able to take on this idea more easily. Uncertainty is what great stories thrive on, it’s what makes us excited about writing and about reading. Maybe we can imagine our lives as a story that is unfolding. After we experience a dramatic climax, instead of fearing it getting worse, or leading to disaster… maybe we could wonder, is it time to prepare for the dénouement?

If we begin to falter, maybe we can ask ourselves:  ”What kind of hero would I be if I gave up, just as I began?”  So, we trudge along, enduring the worst of life’s sufferings, in order to, at least, find out what happens to us in the end.

If we seem too imperfect and hesitant, we can ask ourselves:  ”How would I look to the outside world if I approached each challenge, each new subsequent event with fear and indecision?”  As human, maybe.

Then good.  What’s wrong with that?

Too perfect, and no one would read you. With all of your flaws and mistakes, your audience will gobble you up. So, writers, cherish your uncertainty, embrace your shortfalls, make friends with indecision. Let it all inspire you, instead of bring you down.

much love,

Ollin

A puzzling question for many authors, like myself, is this one:  Where do I begin my story?

Do I begin in the middle of the action? Do I begin with the backstory of the setting and characters? Or do I begin, unconventionally, at the end, and then proceed to explain everything that lead to this end?

Beginnings are important and that’s why authors are always anxious about them. Why? Because we know that beginnings are only a set up. A set up for the end.

As I approach the climax of my novel’s first draft, I am reminded of my beginning. I have to remember where I started, what I set up, so that I could follow through with it, so I can tie up all the loose ends, so I can make sense of what I foreshadowed, so I can think about creating closure for my characters, or lack thereof. Like two ends of the same string, the beginning and the end must be tied together, into a knot, in order to finally make a complete circle.

At this point the question no longer is “Where do I begin my story,” but rather, “Where did I begin my story?”  So…

Where did I begin my story?

That is when I began to wonder (as you have noticed I tend to do): a string of events might sum up a character in novel, but does it really sum up a person–a real live person?

Recently, I realized that I had become trapped by the stories I told about myself.  These stories had not allowed me to move forward. The story that said that I was an actor, for instance, delayed me for 3 years to pursue the course that I knew all along in my heart was the right course: to be a writer.

I recently re-read the biography on my “About” page and realized that I was still telling the same story about myself that I had told my readers nearly a year ago. But the stories I told in this bio had passed. What’s more, I had moved passed them. The challenging events that lead me to writing this very blog, where no longer essential to who I was.

Although these challenging events led me here, and I am blessed for what they taught me and how much progress I have made because of them, I am truly passed them. With time comes perspective, and now I no longer saw these events as I had once seen them. I realized that I had become a lot stronger and more capable than I was only a year ago.

Keeping those events as part of my story was not doing justice to how far I had arrived and who I had now become. So it was time to shake that Etch-a-sketch completely, and start with a blank grey screen again.

Now it was with my life, and not with my book, that I asked:

Where do I begin my story?

We should not allow ourselves to be trapped by our stories. You know the ones I’m talking about: I was always the poor kid, the bratty kid, the youngest, the oldest, I never win, I always lose, I’m the nerd, I’m the loner, I was never good at that or this, I went through a hard time once, long ago, I had an awful childhood, my teenage years were just terrible, college was the worst, my middle age what a waste, I fell in love, lost him or her, and I was never the same after that, this person I cared for passed away, I lost my faith, or ran away, or I was lost, or this happened and that happened, etc., etc., etc.

I hate to admit this as a writer, because my work is all about telling stories, but it’s true that we are all more than the stories we tell people about ourselves. A person is far far more than an amalgamation of anecdotes. A person is a growing, changing organism, far more beautiful in his or her constant transformations than as a static, 2-dimensional reenactment plastered on a museum wall.

We are not our history. We are so much more. History doesn’t move, but we move. We must do justice to this constant flux. We must shed all the old stories, to make room for all the brand new ones.

Let us choose more carefully what we say about ourselves. Let us be thoughtful about the stories we tell and cautious about where we chose to begin in the telling of them.

…

Now, the other night I couldn’t sleep. So I decided to pull out one of the books I was reading, and this one happened to be Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. While I was reading, I landed on this quote, which although it is widely popular, I never quite understood until now:

” ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’ (said Alice)

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the (Chesire) Cat.

‘I don’t much care where–’ said Alice.

‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

‘–so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added in explanation.

‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long enough.’ “

…

Can we give up the stories we tell about ourselves? The ones that say I am the one who battles with depression, or the one who can never catch a break, or who never has the confidence, or who always finds it hard making friends, or who is always the victim?

I think that not only can we get past these stories, but that we must get past them.

You see, as long as we don’t care much where we end up in life, and are content with just ending up somewhere, then maybe, the Chesire Cat is right:  it doesn’t matter in which direction we choose to go, or where we choose to start, because in the end, we will always end up at that somewhere. All we need to do is travel ”long enough” and we will arrive there.

So, where do I begin my story?

You might still be asking. Well, the answer is simple, even if it isn’t clear:

You may begin wherever you like.

much love,

Ollin