How About a Legacy?

by Robert L, Gisel

The post by Chris Guillebeau of Creating a Legacy Project strikes a familiar chord. I said:

"Hi Chris,
It's interesting to me I had just posted on my ThinkTankMan.blogspot.com about creating Drive and it came out as, first you need to clarify your goals. This idea of a Legacy Project is a good way of putting it. Sometimes I think this morbid thought maybe I'm spinning my wheels only to have my most genius ideas realized after I've passed on. An army of remarkable followers is a good community to have in the here and now. I mean you wouldn't want to have an empty room at your wake!
All kidding aside, when you do something decide on a path and leap into the fray it always amazes me when I see how the physical universe starts to toe the line. Not that there aren't bumps and obstacles but the experience of having materialized something, a legacy, is a special creation.
I set up some larger legacy projects which take more than a few days to complete (I say tongue in cheek), but complete they do, a couple major plans completed (blogs, screenplays) and these others (Novel, EV Retrofit) coming along one of these days. I think my 'Take Hill 10' might be facilitated with more baby steps, like, 'Gather up the available ammo'.
Robt.
WhoWouldWrite.blogspot.com (one of my legacies)"

The idea of a Legacy Plan is really intriguing. It puts out there the long view. It encompasses the idea that one is cause over the world well beyond oneself. So true, and so worth contemplating.

How to Create Drive.

by Robert L. Gisel


(This blog is dedicated to the self development of qualities of genius.)

"1. DRIVE. Geniuses have a strong desire to work hard and long. They’re willing to give all they’ve got to a project. Develop your drive by focusing on your future success, and keep going." Dr. Barios

There is no better time than now to be an entrepreneur for one who is not allergic to work. With business layoffs of thousands and tens of thousands at a time making the news with increasing frequency more security is afforded to one who would follow his dreams in self employment.

Working ambitiously for today's corporate executives more often than not comes with the understanding that one will give his all, which usually includes many extra hours on evenings and weekends. When you look at it though, if you find yourself putting in 60-80 hours a week for your corporate boss you could put in the same amount of time working for your self with your own business with the prospect of much greater rewards.

This is not for one who is not a self-starter, has difficulty getting motivated or is simply lazy. At the same time, actively pursuing activities dear to oneself overcomes the lack of motivation that can come with enforcement to someone else's dreams. Following one's own goals creates a juggernaut of beneficial energy.

The reason that this vibrancy emerges from being on and working with one's purpose lines is as simple as how energy is produced within the laws of physics. A base that holds apart two poles, in proximity, with a difference of potential produces energy. The plus of operating from the stable datum of one's goal versus the unknowns of the problems to overcome in creation makes for endless energy creation.

A person without goals is hard to get to do anything for very long, but just as one can be enthused by a well done inspirational movie, creating along the lines that light one's bells endows a lot of life. Blunted reach or failed accomplisment, on the other hand can make one feel exhausted. Still the solution is to reafirme your goals. Start orienting your drive to that which gives you hope with several simple steps.

1) Ask yourself what do you really desire most in life?

2) What really lights your bells, what do you get excited about?

3 )Do your life activities align with this purpose?

4) What do you need to do to get more in swing with your purposes?

5) Get started doing that, even if only one small first step towards the goal.

Once you have established yourself in the right direction, setting tasks and pushing these through to a done comes more naturally. Achievement then begets happiness and the rehabilitation of life force aids success.



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What Does It Take To Be Focused?

by Robert L. Gisel

"3. DEVOTION TO GOALS. Geniuses know what they want and go after it. Get control of your life and schedule. Have something specific to accomplish each day."

To be focused one first have to have goals, long term, sweeping and star-high. The lessor activities in one's life should align with that.

Determining what your dreams are you only have to look at what you desire most to accomplish. From that you can decide what path will take you there, and thence the steps you need to take. This is what dictates sequential action, tells you the things you need to accomplish daily.

Write these down where you can refer back to these points and reaffirm your direction when needed. A useful tool is to keep a journal, blank but lined pages, that can always be to hand, not hidden away in a drawer or filing cabinet. Investing a few bucks in an inexpensive leather bound journal provides a nice record you'll always want to have handy. This does much to put in the needed organization.

Persistence to a goal requires keeping one's eye on the mountain one has to climb. A myriad of day by day actions with the goal in mind is what gets one there. Write down daily tasks to accomplish. Then be diligent and self disciplined in getting done the things you have listed. Determine how much time you will take and compartment your schedule accordingly.

Will power can never be underrated. Knowing where you're headed overall is necessary to focus.

Another related post: Be in Control, Take charge

To view all of the 24 Qualities That Genuses Have in Common go here.

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Be in Control, Take Charge

by Robert L. Gisel



"3. DEVOTION TO GOALS. Geniuses know what they want and go after it. Get control of your life and schedule. Have something specific to accomplish each day." Dr.Barrios

It is a recurring theme in comments from others on the subject of genius, this sort of envy, of the ingenuity and brilliance of the Edison or the Einstein. The truth is, it is in you, should you choose to bring it out.

A correspondent expressed a difficulty she was having, something I've observed occasionally in myself and others, getting a mind to work at all, what with all the life problems and situations one has to handle or resolve. This is something more basic than having goals and being in control of your life and schedule. This is about being in control of your mind and decisive factors.

First off, one can be distracted by having a lot of things going on at once, which is okay, but keeping and juggling so many things in one's head at the same time becomes counter-productive. Sure, that is the purpose of the mind, but you won't control anything if you can't control one thing. To control one thing you have to focus on it. Even if it's only to take hold of something out of the corner of your eye, it's a focus and thus controlling something.

Here is a short set of actions that cures the dispersal. To do be able to do these you must disappear from all distractions for about 20-30 minutes; go somewhere you won't be interrupted.

1. Make a list of all the actions in your life (or work, separately, unless they are the same) that are open actions to do.
2. Make another list of anything in your life you do not feel in control of.
3. Another list, what do you feel in control of.

You should have experienced some relief at the point, a plateau by itself. Now you can do this short set of actions:

4. Go back to the first list and highlight realistically what MUST be done as opposed to what is just nice or desirable to do.
5. Pick one of those that can be done now (not something unreal, like contact the Court Clerk at 2 AM).
6. Do it. If it appears it has necessary sequential sub-actions like a, b, c, d, do a.

After this you can start to complete actions on the rest of the first list, one by one get some things done and cross them off. At some point you can re-write the first list and it will be more real and increasingly pertinent.

Get with me after you have done the steps 1-3 minimally, or preferably after step 6. Also get with me if it this bogs down for any reason, tell me what you are experiencing and I'll address that with you. This shouldn't be the case, unless some fiasco happens like you get arrested for loitering while doing 1-3. A fiasco has a different handling.

If you can't get started on any of this, if it's all too bad, select someone to take you out back and shoot you (just kidding). Seriously, your ability to do or accomplish anything you desire is your most valuable asset. Even if you don't believe that still take the baby steps 1-6, then write to me.

No one is devoid of the 24 Qualities That Geniuses Have In Common. Some IQ geniuses have said they don't have them, which is basically poppycock, being a put down of oneself. You innately have them. If only working on one trait at a time you can enhance or enrich these traits in yourself and be the next Edison, if you so desire.

gisel_creations@yahoo.com

My blog is free and so are you. Contributions of any amount help keep me funded, if you so desire.




I also talk about this exercise from a bit different view at http://WhoWouldWrite.blogspot.com .

If you only laughed a little you'd be better for it; go here for a humorous viewpoint of blogging.

Another one, unique, designed to make you laugh, here.

Invest in yourself here:

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Jobless Not Hopeless

by Robert L. Gisel


On my other blog I wrote about the economics and mechanics in earning income as an entrepreneur. As it occurs to me this has a lot to do with a number of the points of a genius it was appropriate to re-publish it here.

Being a writer means working and making a living without being somebody's employee, in my mind. Being not an employee but genuinely an entrepreneur. This web site of Barbara Winter lends support to the idea.

At one trying period of my life I went off purpose taking up a state government job. This for sure took no great creativity but the warranty of a regular paycheck versus the insecure returns of self-employment income was cozy, like an electric blanket in a bitter cold night.

Sooner or later the secure steady job will reach the limits of tolerability for the entrepreneurial minded.

If you have an avenue towards the attainment of income, exchange of products for funds that does, or will, realize subsidence it can be as creatively variable as people are different. There are commonly several mileposts you will have to accomplish to be "joyfully jobless" as Barbara flaunts above.

1) Create The Bright Idea. The new idea creates from thin air. Somewhere I heard someone say inspiration only comes around just so often you have to take advantage of it when it comes along. Not true. Decide to think of something new and do it.

I wanted to make a friend of mine laugh this morning. She is a Doctor of Dermatology so the idea was simply, how could I un-define Dermatology. At first hadn't a clue how to make a play on that term. With help from the dictionary I got inspired:

Dermatology is the field making kishke (from derma: a wrapped beef dish stuff with a flour mixture). It is the reverse of "Where's the beef?" that being epitomized by Beef Wellington.

It's strange I don't see that in her office...

There was another example of this where I was explaining to a friend how to go about the game of creating and licensing patents. Just for example, I said, what if you wanted to come up with a better mouse trap. On the spot, out of the blue, I invented one. I elaborated a box cage that triggers a guillotine trap door when the mouse approaches the cheese inside the box. Voila! A better mouse trap.

From nothing to something is the province of the artist: the new idea from thin air, the written word on a blank page, the painting on a empty canvass. All starts with a decision and that is easy. Just decide I am going to...

2) Physical Demonstration Aids Imagination. Sometimes when the ideas just won't gel into a variation what you're trying modify or originate it can help immensely to literally put it out there in front of you. Rather than molding it in your head put it in the physical universe using scraps of things from your desk drawer to shape a demonstrative model.

In the example above you could fold a piece of paper into a rectangular box. On the floor of the box fulcrum a strip of cardboard over a pen cap. Wrap a stack of credit cards with a piece of tape and slip it through a slot in the top of the box to form a trap door. Unwrap a paperclip to create a rod coming from the entrance side of the end of the ramp and upwards through the top of the box. Play around with a lip and a hook configuration on the trap door that holds it up in the open position until triggered, at which point it drops into place. Lay a piece of "cheese" at the far end of the ramp and await the mouse.

Demonstrating something in this fashion with bits and pieces of anything is a terrific aid to invention.

3) Checklist the Practicality of the Bright Idea. Make sure it withstands the tests of feasibility: it has to be something that fulfills a real need in a practical and usable fashion. This is simply done by considering it all the different ways that a consumer would regard it. Write these ways down for quick reference or as checklist.

In one's own area you have probably been thinking in this light automatically. It is your forte'. Where you don't quite visualize it, here again you give this beingness by actual doingness. Form the considering points into a checklist.

How can I think differently about this? What is a different point of view? Is this a brand new idea or does it improve upon an idea? Who would buy it? Why would someone want this? Is there anything else like it on the market? These are just a few of the questions that might be on your checklist.

4) An Economically Feasible Product Makes Good. The product should be able to be sold for 3 times what it costs to buy/make/deliver the goods. Whatever that price comes out to be has to be a value that a public will buy. The lower priced burger at McDonald's is offset by quantity, while the higher priced burger at Applebee's sells for more as it has a quality that people want and will pay more for.

A friend mine does quite well building and installing, at a much higher price, the same cabinetry middle America might buy for their homes as he deals exclusively with wealthy publics who are willing to pay more for the same product. Consideration and market has everything to do with the exchange.

With a product like writing it is your time that is valuable. Working all year on a product for $20,000 or one month for one that pays $10,000 and leaves 11 months open for more products makes it easy to see: you can only spend so much of your time at something.

5) A Lot at Bargain Prices Versus Little at a Premium. Writing, sculpting or painting alike face the same quality versus quantity issue. You should have both. The larger ticket item when sold pays a lot of bills accumulated but a steady flow of smaller introductory items keeps bread and butter on the table daily.

The biggest reason for both, why this is essential, has to do with new public versus the established clientele. You must always, always, always develop new publics to keep up an expanding client base.

6) 2% Inspiration and 98% Perspiration. This delineation of genius by Edison speaks sooth.

You could potentially sell your ideas and never have to be involved in the manufacturing or marketing. You can license patents and the purchasing company takes care of all the implementation and can get a flat fee or may negotiate a percentage return. Whatever it is it is less than the return if you yourself manufactured the invention and put it on the market as did Edison.

Even selling the idea it takes some hard work to package a bright idea that it can be sold. It may only be typing it up, drawing it out, naming it, prototype making, testing and surveying. Then you have to sell it to someone or a board of someones and may have to defend it from all manner of ploys to get without buying.

7) Administration is Too Often Foreign to the Artist. A number of my friends are the most outstandingly creative in the field but when it comes to the practical skills of administration and marketing the product they flop miserably. This is particularly true in art where the aesthetic mind stands by itself and produces exceptional product.

Where you have experienced this of yourself the answer is to get trained and educated in the skill areas lacking or hire a manager or outsource the activity.

8) Give Due Consideration to Operating in the Red Long Enough to Succeed. How much capital you will actually need to start a new activity or how much reserves will keep you funded while the returns build enough to put you in the black is more often than not underestimated. It is a different amount for each activity.

It is best to have some form of regular proceeds, monthly income or royalties while establishment occurs.

9) All Your Eggs One Basket Can Lead to a Nasty Surprise. When the fox breaks into the chicken coop if all the eggs are in one basket the loss may be total. When there are numbers of baskets he isn't likely to get into all of of them. Especially if there is more than one chicken coop.

It is a wise idea to have more than one source of income. While this applies to anyone it is extremely viable for the self employed. It might be large white eggs, brown eggs and turkey eggs, each having its own market share. It might better be from different areas altogether like eggs, goat's milk, cheese, Christmas trees and garden boulders.

10) Be Consistent. Whatever it is you do for income it has to be regularly done. One time deals tend to be just that: a big spurt of income, then a draught. At some point success will roll over into floods of income you couldn't stop if you wanted to, but until that time comes a regular output of creation is necessary.

These are from within the realm of my experiences and observations. I welcome other viewpoints and exploration of other ideas. Leave your comments of ideas you have about this.

If you like this blog donate here to the aspiring writers of the Sacramento Area Screenwriters Group.

Why Isn't Potential Enough?

by Robert L. Gisel


Plenty of potential surely helps but what really counts is whether you go the distance. The post from Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity strikes a note as I have seen this in other artists as well. The necessity to realize out of potential is not limited to artists but seems to be more pronounced in that realm as therein lies the most creation from nothing.

A high capacity battery is great but if you never run the engine who cares. You have to make the trip, put in the time and exert the effort to carry through to a fully realized product.

Chris's hits a very hot button for artists provoking the question what to do about it. I couldn't resist putting in my 2 cents and am reprinting these here as I liked what I had to say and what to expound on it. My comments:

Tips for the Dip:


Be At Peace With the Ebb Tide

My all time success action at such moments in the illusion of failure is to go with the calm that occurs at the turning of the tide. After the incoming fury and wrath of the incoming tide when it looks like all is spent for naught and now the tide will recede the sea goes very calm. That's when I observe the calmness, tune in to the creative forces of the universe and set about a new onslaught. It's only failure if you fail to persist.

Have the Last Supper.

You have to follow the ebb tide calm with the Last Supper, so to speak. When it appears defeat has beset me or the game is lost I literally go fix myself a special meal in my kitchen or get something I really like at a restaurant and call it the "Last Supper". This is metaphorical for meaning it appears I just lost the title but the eye of the tiger will see it through to win anew. Always at this time a bright idea or brilliant new phase plan emerges and I know something remarkable and great is just around the corner.

Difference of Potential Creates Energy.

When you think about it no energy is created in the absence of a difference in potential; without that there is no flow. What has more difference of potential than the work of an artist creating something from a blank page, an empty canvass or a void of space.

How Do I know It's Genuinely Good?

What makes it good or not is 1) only that it be different and 2) the discipline in the application of craftsmanship.

1) If you can say what hasn't been said or express a new view of it like a clever metaphor it will stimulate thought in others, you can be assured. Be yourself and express what comes from your heart and that will take you the longest way.

2) A casual observer may say he likes it but the artist, who knows his craft well enough from study and practice will apply his skills with the finesse that entices the involvement and imagination of the intended public, knowing fully well what rules or methodology made it likable.

The smug pleasure from accomplishing my first screenplay was that only I did it; the screenplay itself is a far cry from acceptable. Same of the second screenplay first rendering on paper. By the ninth re-write following the advices of an excellent mentor it transformed to the realm of top notch. Now doing it right comes naturally.

Know what you have that is unique. Study up. Take time to improve your skills. Then success will follow your persistence.

Take a Walk to The Top of the Mount

When all else fails here is another metaphor. In the circumstance where it appears my work is crap after all, that I have really messed it all up, spun my wheels to go nowhere and may well be defeated and left for dead on the battlefield this calls for a walk to the top of the mount to come back with the holy tables. You have to take some time out and review where you stand and be honest with yourself. Get a new view from the highest point of the journey. This is best done by reviewing your goals and most heartfelt desires candidly and reaffirm these or adjust them as needed.

A lost battle only means that you still have to confront the war.

Robert
WhoWouldWrite.blogspot.com

I am interested in the experience of others in this light. Have you observed these things and how? Post a comment to let me know your thoughts on this.

Imagination IS Genius

by Robert L. Gisel



I have come across an interesting blog post that set me thinking about an interesting aspect of genius as it pertains to art and artists. In this post of Patricia's Wisdom the point is the art and artists making sand sculptures.

No small feat I must say first of all. The one piece she took a picture of, 3 - 4 foot bear, is actually quite well done as a piece of art in it's proportions and detail. Considering the media making something of this size at all is remarkable let alone one that is very good sculpture.

Imagination, in all that I illustrated in my last post, IS genius even if observed manifested for only 3 hours duration of the production of an art piece. The aesthetic mind seems to draw on all of the 24 qualities though, not just imagination. It just struck me how this relates to art seeing Patricia's post and is what prompted me to comment:

"There is a bit of genius in every work of art, so the focus and dedication for several hours as you pointed out actually strikes me as a genius quality, is what stood out when I read your blog post."

Go check out her post and of course the bear picture here, and let me know what you think of it.