The Direction of Intention

392.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Two years ago Sean said, “I want to write a book.” He had the idea, he had the desire, and he had no belief that he could do it. There is always a first painting, a first strum on the guitar, a first time at the keyboard. Usually, there is a desire to do something and no reality to the dream. There is an image of “how I will be” when the dream is complete, but no image of the hours and hours and hours and hours of pursuit of the dream.

Sean wrote 500 words a day. Sometimes he wrote more and sometimes less. He wrote on his commute to work because a more-than-full-time job, 2 kids, a wife, school activities, in-laws, and all the other demands of a busy American life consumed his energy and his time. On the train to work each day he had some uninterrupted creative space and ample energy to turn the idea into words on a page. He wrote on his blackberry, more than 70,000 words in the only way possible to capture his thoughts given his circumstance.

On the way to a completed manuscript he doubted, he feared that he was not good enough, he wondered if there was an end, whether he was crazy, whether he had anything worth saying, he lost sleep, he rejoiced when ideas expanded, he celebrated milestones, he got to know his characters and their backgrounds (and his characters got to know him). He was full and empty and full and empty. He realized that writing the book was only a part of the journey. He attended classes about publishing, conferences about how to get an agent, seminars about publicity. He made a strategy. He wrote letters to agents. He interviewed editors. He asked a million and one questions and made no pretense about needing to know anything because he didn’t; he wanted to learn.

Somewhere along the way he recognized that the book was going to be written. It was no longer an abstraction but an actual dream being manifest. It was little steps, everyday, that accumulated over time. His first book, Colter’s Hell, will be available to the public in the next few months. He’s about to pull the trigger on his publicity plan and he’s excited to start letting the world know that his book is complete because he’s already chomping at the bit to write his second book. He knows the story; he has the idea. He has the desire. And now he has the belief that he can do it. One step at a time; there is glamour in the fire of creativity, but mostly it’s a slow walk. Sean said, “I’ll get there when I get there.”

Filed under: Heroes, Truly Powerful People | 1 Comment »

345.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

The woman was very old. Like an old tree her spine was weathered and bent so she was incapable of looking ahead. Instead, she stared into the ground, occasionally flicking her eyes up to see what lay ahead. She stood with the help of her cane and waited; the task before her was daunting. It was a task that most of us probably take for granted but for her it was herculean. Or so it seemed to me. She needed to cross the road to get to the other side. Between her and the other side was 8 lanes of traffic and a river of impatient drivers.

The light turned red, the walk signal illuminated and began its counts down: 18, 17, 16, 15,… and the old woman stepped onto the asphalt. Her gait was halting. Her steps unsteady, more of a shuffle than a walk. 10, 9, 8, 7,… and she’d barely crossed a single lane and the drivers were already edging forward, impatient to get on their way, many of them unaware of the small bent woman in brown and green crossing the road.

I was in one of the cars stopped at the light. The thoroughfares in Tucson are wide avenues with broad left-turn lanes; I am young and fit and sometimes have to race to get across in a single light. I felt the low panic of impending disaster. She wasn’t going to make it.

Ellen DeGeneres has issued to her audience a dance dare; she’s asked people to record themselves secretly dancing behind other people; the videos are hysterical, people dancing wildly behind unsuspecting shoppers in the grocery store, workers at the bus stop, analysts in the cubicle. Like one of Ellen’s dance dare tribe, a jogger ran up behind the old woman and began hopping wildly so all lanes of traffic might see! The old woman tottered forward, unsuspecting, with the secret jogger gesturing wildly to the now captive audience of drivers. The light changed and no one moved. The secret jogger skipped back and forth behind the old woman, arms pumping and waving, a crossing guard gone funky chicken.

The old woman stepped safely onto the sidewalk on the other side of the road; the jogger continued her jog as if nothing unusual had happened in the middle of the road. We drivers edged forward, released from the spell of generosity spun by the secret dancing jogger and continued on our way.

Filed under: Heroes, Truly Powerful People | 2 Comments »