Category: Inspirational

Create your own book of wisdom

Neera

I started my first journal at thirteen. It was an old hardback notebook that belonged to my father.

I started collecting quotes, little anecdotes, and bits of writing that inspired me.

As my collection grew, and I had a bit of money, I bought a nice notebook and transferred everything on it.

That journal stayed with me all my life. Whenever in a conundrum or needed the company of a wise counselor, I would open it randomly and would always find something to soothe me.

After that journal, I started several more. So many that I am running out of space to store them.

I know, one day, when I move to a smaller apartment or move on to another existence, they are going to end up in the recycling bin.

I want to save the wisdom collected in them. It has served me well over my life. I want it to serve others as well.

Today, I came across a book, where Kevin Kelly (of 1000 true fans fame) has collected hundreds of bits of, advice, in the form of aphorisms, concise observations, and quiet insights.

The project started with him collecting insights to share with his children.

He writes on his website: “I’ve been jotting down bits of advice I wished I had known earlier in my life, and then sharing them with my children. Each one is like a tweet — a wisdom tweet. This year I have put 450 of them into a pocket-sized book.”

Kelly is not claiming to have originated all the advice he presents in the book. Instead, he says, “I am primarily channeling the wisdom of the ages.”

The book is a pleasure to read straight through or jump around at random.

It has been put together in an effortless way. Not overthought, not made to look overly intelligent.

His book gave me the idea!

I, too, should turn the wisdom collected in my journals into a book. It will survive much, much later than me. And might end up helping someone else.

Here are some nuggets from Kevin Kelly’s book:

“For a great payoff, be especially curious about the things you are not interested in.”

“That thing that made you weird as a kid could make you great as an adult – if you don’t lose it.”

“If you are stuck in life, travel to a place you have never heard of.”

“Taking a break is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.”

“Don’t keep on making the same mistakes; try to make new mistakes.”

“If you stop to listen to a musician or street performer for more than a minute, you owe them a dollar.”

Dare to create

Neera

Twenty-something years ago, a forty-something, overworked full-time middle manager, mother, wife, and daughter-in-law wrote a story in her head while washing dishes. She then typed that story and saved it on her desktop.

That little story gave her confidence. So she wrote another one. Then another.

Work, home, and family commitments took all her time and energy but she vowed she will continue to write little stories even if she gets to do them in the cracks of her busy days.

She didn’t share those stories with anyone. She just let them sit in a folder on her computer.

Each story boosted her confidence a little. So much so that one day she quit her job and became a full-time author.

She went on to write books and publish them.

Today she got an email from Medium.com, telling her that she is a verified author and that, one of her books will
feature on her profile page and a blue ‘Book Author’ badge will appear next to her name across Medium.

All because she dared to create.

Don’t just consume information as if it is food. While you are focused on consuming from the outside, you’re losing nourishment already inside you. Don’t make learning an excuse for not creating. Creating is more valuable than consuming.

Write a story.
Draw a sketch.
Create a melody.
Paint that painting.

Treat every new idea as an experiment

Neera

We are surrounded by endless knowledge, yet more often than we’d like, we are starving for wisdom.

We are exposed to countless strategies and solutions to every problem under the sun, yet too often, we don’t apply them.

Slow down to treat each new idea as a practical experiment, and to wait to see what results it produces before rushing on to the next fascinating concept.

Three weeks ago I started an experiment. To share 100 insights on LinkedIn with a splash of humour.

I was struggling at first to come up with ideas and to illustrate them. But it is getting easier now and I am enjoying it.

I called it a challenge then, but it is in fact an experiment. You can fail in a challenge and feel miserable. But if an experiment fails, it’s no big deal. You start again.

Embrace the suck

Neera

When I was learning to draw, I read a phrase somewhere, that was weird but powerful. “Embrace the suck.”

I instantly knew this will be my new mantra.

In order to become good at our craft, we have to, not just accept but ’embrace’ all the weird, annoying, inconvenient emotions that come with the creative process, including fear, self-doubt, vulnerability, and shame.

Moving through fear and other negative feelings requires accepting that they are normal and a natural part of the creative process.

Fear and self-doubt are trying to protect us. But in doing so, they also stall us.

Whenever I am stalled (like I am now) I set myself a challenge and then force myself
to create, no matter how bad.

I tell myself, ‘Let me create some rubbish.’ And then force myself to draw or paint just about anything. Or to write about anything.

That gets me going. And in no time, I am producing decent quality work. Stalling is part of the creative process too.

Embrace it and keep going.

Seek bigger problems…

Neera

We humans can move mountains, build miles-long tunnels and can land on the moon, but not fix the little things around us.

We put up with little nuisances – a broken door handle, a fused fridge bulb, a leaking tap because these are not big enough problems
to demand our attention.

The smaller the problem, the least motivated we are to solve it. The bigger the problem, we roll up our sleeves and get on with solving it.

That’s why seek bigger problems, you will be inspired to solve them. And aggregate the smaller problems and set tackle them in one go.

When everything else fails…

Neera

“When everything else fails, just tell your story. That’s what makes you unique. Isn’t that why you fell in love with writing in the first place? To tell your story.”

I stare at the above lines I had scribbled in my notebook years ago. I don’t know whether I wrote them, or I copied them from somewhere. But today they are speaking to me directly.

What story can I tell today?

I pulled out a pile of notebooks from various drawers and boxes at the start of the year with the intention to get rid of them. I pick one, go through a few pages, wondering if there is anything I can salvage in there, and stop in track. How can I go past such profound insight?

“There is an unbelievable amount of noise in the world,” I had written underneath that quote, “It’s everywhere. Social media, television, streaming, apps, ads, music devices, and screens. It’s hard to focus on anything in a meaningful way. So hard to find direction, especially in writing. Rather than contributing to that noise, why not tell stories? Your stories?”

I am doing a storytelling course, with Dan Manning. He has mastered the art of personal storytelling. Last week he asked us to make a list of ten stories from our lives. I listed fifty. Some were just ordinary everyday stories such as When I didn’t buy Rayban sunglasses or When I skydived but then there were really painful ones, How a slap on the face stripped me of self-confidence for life and the Humiliation I felt after a pathetic presentation at work. These stories were like scars on my soul, painful and ugly. But writing about them lessened the pain and helped me move on.

Find your scars and write about them. Reflection is a great tool for writing. That’s why writing is considered a form of therapy. It can help you view the trauma of an incident from another perspective.

Reflect on your life and see the scars, then write about how you got them. Easier said than done, I know. But once you start putting one word in front of another serotonin starts peaking and you’re reminded why you wanted to write in the first place.

At the end of the day, we all want to tell stories. Our stories are our connection with the world. They tell us that we are not alone.

Write about your struggles and about your achievements. Where are you in your life and how you got there? What price you had to pay? Who helped you? Talk about your mentors. Writing about the people you look up to is a great way to solidify the lessons they taught you. We are not here just to entertain others but to extend ourselves.

Writing is meditative and constructive and there is no comparison to the feeling of finishing a writing project. Sure writing and resistance go hand in hand. Resistance only wins if it succeeds in “not letting you sit.” Once you put your butt in the chair and write the first sentence, you win. I started this letter with a single sentence I found in my diary. The whole story developed from there.

One of many things Lynda Barry has taught me: “If you don’t know what to write in your diary, you write the date at the top of the page, as neatly and slowly as you can, and things will come to you.”

“Going through the motions” is the writers’ great secret for getting started. Austin Kleon wrote in his book Steal Like an Artist, “If we just start going through the motions, if we strum a guitar, or shuffle sticky notes around a conference table, or start kneading clay, the motion kickstarts our brain into thinking.”

Get your pen moving, and something will come out. It might be trash, but it will be something.