Archive for April, 2010
10 Empowering Quotes About Writing and Living the Creative Life
From Writing FAST by Jeff Bollow
“And the reason you hate writing so much is because you start analyzing your work before you’re done pouring it onto the page. Your Left-brain won’t let your Right-brain do it’s job … Your Right-brain gets the words on the page. The Left-brain makes them sing.”
From Escaping Into the Open by Elizabeth Berg:
“There are people who have never studied writing who are capable of being writers. I know this because I am an example. I was a part-time registered nurse, a wife, and a mother when I began publishing. I’d taken no classes, had no experience, no knowledge of the publishing world, no agent, no contacts … Take the risk to let all that is in you, out. Escape into the open.”
Short Video Case Study: How to Monetize Your Passion
Here’s a brief video case study that shows how Dan Maynard makes money from his passion. Dan is passionate about piano and piano keyboards, so he built a content-rich website that not only helps other piano fans, but also provides him with a steady source of passive income. Hopefully, this will stimulate some creative ideas about how you could do something similar.
Diary of a Recovered TV Addict: How I Reclaimed My Life and Gained Two Extra Months Per Year
My girlfriend doesn’t own a TV; a fact that puzzled me when we met 18 months ago. What does she do for entertainment, I wondered. How does she get the news? Doesn’t she get bored? How can she live without Seinfeld?
I didn’t ask her those questions directly though, because I really didn’t care. In fact, on a deeper level, I respected and envied her for that choice.
Until a few months ago, I watched 5-6 hours of television almost every day. As evening approached after a long, hard day, I’d plant myself on the couch and vegetate till I fell asleep around midnight. Eight hours later, I’d wake up with the TV still on and me still feeling tired.
If you do the math, at that rate, it works out to around 2000 hours over the course of a year. That’s about three months. THREE MONTHS. In front of a TV. Hypnotized. Tuned in, but zoned out. Disconnected from the real world. Ahh yes, life was grand.
Actually, life wasn’t grand. In truth, it was quite the opposite, and TV had become a full-blown addiction; an escape mechanism. Medication for the deeper wounds and issues I refused to deal with in my life. For me, TV filled the void of an otherwise empty life; a life barely lived by a soul knocked to his knees and struggling to get back up.
“In its easy provision of relaxation and escape, television can be beneficial in limited doses. Yet when the habit interferes with the ability to grow, to learn new things, to lead an active life, then it does constitute a kind of dependence and should be taken seriously.” – Robert Kubey & Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Scientific American (PDF)
There’s more to the story, of course, but that’s for another time. For now, it’s enough to say that – although my legs are still a bit wobbly – this soul is back on his feet and moving forward; due in large part to a commitment to gradually wean myself off television.
Marketing that Makes a Difference: The Confidence Guy
Here’s a creative video that both informs and entertains. It gets a tad risque at the end, which makes it all the more memorable. After you watch this, ask yourself if you could do something as creative, bold and entertaining to get your message out to folks. From The Confidence Guy.
Hi there. I'm Michael Pollock. I inspire and teach creative entrepreneurs how to use the Web to make a difference in the world, make more money and live a bigger life ... 
