Motivation

Andrew Carnegie, entrepreneur, business man and charity donor sparks this post with a quote on motivation.

Born in Scotland in 1835 Carnegie was raised by working-class parents in a small cottage with one main room. The Carnegie family soon left Scotland and emigrated to Allegheny, Pennsylvania.

Andrew landed his first job at 13 as a bobbin boy changing spools of thread in a cotton mill. He worked over 70 hours a week, making it his mission to remember details and faces of some of the town’s most prominent business men.

Through hard work and time spent educating himself intellectually and culturally, Carnegie climbed the rungs of various corporate ladders. He eventually formed his own steel company and secured numerous other investments.

Later, in his sixties, the profit from the sale of his steel company in 1901 left him with close to 230 million in gold bond notes. The notes were housed in a vault at the Hudson Trust Company in Hoboken, New Jersey for safekeeping. It was reported that Carnegie did not want to visit the vault, which was the accumulation of his life’s work in the steel industry.

He believed that the first third of one’s life should be dedicated to education, the second third to acquiring wealth and the last third to dispersing that wealth to benevolent causes. Carnegie believed that the pursuit of wealth was the cause of illness in the mind, unless the reason behind amassing a fortune was to be used toward the betterment of society.

He died in August of 1919 at the age of 83. Carnegie is one of the top ten wealthiest individuals in history. With his money and time he began numerous foundations, schools, libraries and more.

Andrew Carnegie left us with the following quote:

“People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.”

Telling the Universe What We Want

Telling the universe what we want is essential for manifesting goals. Yet as much as we say we aspire to something, some of us are guilty of sending the Universe mixed signals. I’m thinking of myself as I read this. Like an ex-lover who calls us to reunite only to disappear a few weeks later, we fluctuate between putting our effort into a project and then retracting.

Affirmations are a great way to solidify baby steps toward our goals. Posting signs around the house or repeating an inner mantra starts the process moving forward.

One of the most notable writers on affirming and manifesting goals is Louise Hay.

Louise Hay was born in 1926. In her early years she endured sexual and physical abuse as well as a life of poverty. She dropped out of high school and gave up a child for adoption around the time she was 15.

Determined to live a better life, Louise left home at a young age.

Things fared better for Louise some years after. She held a career as a fashion model and married a prominent businessman. This seemingly better life took her into a new class and interesting set of experiences.

Louise’s life took many more twists and turns. She would later divorce, become a minister in a church dedicated to the New Thought Movement, and come down with cervical cancer. Louise felt that her cervical cancer was caused by resentment toward her prior abuse. Determined to cure her self of the cancer through non-traditional methods, Louise changed her diet, practiced reflexology and stopped her negative thinking. Within 6 months, Hay claims her cancer was gone.

Even before her Cancer, Louise had written a pamphlet about healing one’s body and the mental connection to health troubles. She believed all ailments were caused by specific thoughts.

In the 1980’s Louise began support groups for people suffering from HIV and AIDS. Her work with and acceptance of AIDS patients when most of the medical community was baffled by the disease led her to television and speaking engagements, including Oprah and Phil Donohue.

The little pamphlet on healing the body eventually became a book in 1984 entitled You Can Heal Your Life. You Can Heal Your Life remained on the New York Times best seller list for 13 consecutive weeks. She later began Hay House Publishing, continued to write numerous books, and developed You Can Heal Your Life into a film.

Paraphrasing Louise’s reminder that affirmations in whatever form do work, she says:

“Most people do affirmations for a few days and then stop, claiming that they don’t work. When the first little shoot comes up that closely resembles what we want, we stomp on it because it isn’t a million dollars. We have to give things a chance to grow.”

Self-Sabotage

Do you choose to sabotage yourself?

Most of us can see self-sabotage in others, but can rarely recognize it in ourselves. When it comes to managing our career or art, sometimes sabotage manifests itself as procrastination. Psychologists agree that procrastination is a common form of negating one’s self.

There are many reasons we choose to sabotage our efforts. Possibly we don’t feel worthy of success, we feel like an impostor, or even that we are a people-pleaser and think that if we win, someone else has to loose.

We say we want to achieve but when we get close to our goal we may feel guilty. We might even purposefully mess things by forgetting to set our alarm and end up late to an appointment.

How can we stop self-sabotage? It starts by getting outside of our heads, getting active, focusing on what we want until it's complete and stopping criticism of ourselves and others. If you commit to write seven pages of a script in one afternoon, the plan to empower yourself would entail that you follow through with that promise, instead of writing three pages and berating your work.

Have you ever looked at a successful person and thought, I can do better than that?

It’s interesting how people with less credentials, less talent, or superficial things like average looks and little money, plow through and achieve because they aren’t caught up in over thinking things or the dreaded “analysis paralysis.”

We close WITH our quote of the week from French romantic painter Eugene Delacroix who reminds us that:

“The Artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.”

Fighting for Your Limitations

Fighting for one’s limitations is a pessimist's game.

Hopefully, this quote can remind us all to question ourselves when putting a ceiling on success.

Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White leaves some food for thought.

Dana White was born in 1969 in Manchester, Connecticut. He attended two years or so of college before dropping out. Dana held jobs as a bellman, aerobic boxing instructor and a fighter himself.

By 1995, Dana White had three boxing facilities in Las Vegas called The Gym.

Over a decade ago, Senator John McCain pushed to outlaw the sport of Ultimate Fighting calling it human cockfighting. In 2001, White learned that the near bankrupt UFC was looking for a buyer. He contacted a childhood friend and the friend’s brother. Those men were the famous Fertitta brothers, Las Vegas casino owners, who also happened to make the Forbes’ Magazine 400 richest Americans’ list. Within a short time the Fertitta brothers bought UFC, making Dana White president and 10% owner of the newly acquired UFC’s parent company.

Dana has mentioned that part of what has fueled his success is the desire to be happy with what he does for work. He believes 90% of Americans go to a job hating what they do everyday and White did not want be part of that statistic. Dana has admitted he’s not the smartest guy one could ever meet, but he knows about fighting. Dana is quiet about his net worth, which is not public, but is most likely something to be very proud of.

20 years after his graduation, Dana was asked back to his high school to give a commencement speech.

Dana says:

“It was pretty cool. If you would have asked me ten years ago if this is where I would have been in ten years, I would have laughed in your face.”

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe left the world many gifts before her death. One of those gifts was her truthful take on life, captured in various statements she made to the press.

Born Norma Jean Mortensen to an unsteady home life, the would-be-star lived some of her youth in orphanages until marrying at age 16 to escape foster care.

Young Norma Jean was discovered by a photographer while working in an airplane parts factory. On recommendation that Norma Jean pursue modeling further, she followed suit, her pictures received much attention and her career commenced as the great Marilyn Monroe.

Despite Marilyn’s status as one the sexiest women alive, adorned by millions, and the recipient of attention from several powerful men, Marilyn struggled with herself and life. Her bouts with self-doubt, addiction, depression and insomnia became ever-increasing despite her success.

Monroe died at age 36, a probable suicide by barbiturates. No evidence of homicide has been documented. Many question the details surrounding her death. Her popularity still lives on in movies, books, songs, fan sites, and in the public’s mind as a wounded beauty taken from us too soon.

From the scores of genius quotes Marilyn has left the world she summed up hard work with this:

“A career is born in public- talent is born in privacy.”

The Power of Thoughts

We've all heard how powerful thoughts can be in shaping our success. Discussions on thoughts come from Artist, Writer and Metaphyschics teacher Florence Scovel Shinn.

Shinn became an expert on the power of thoughts and the energy which flows from them into our lives. Born in New Jersey in 1871, Shinn became a spiritual writer during her middle age. Florence was part of what was what was termed at the time “The New Thought Movement,” a spiritual group which developed in the late 19th century of philosophers, writers and such who believed that thoughts either created or stopped one’s sickness through the law of attraction.

Ms. Shinn left several books including The Game of Life and How to Play It.

Florence Shinn believed that our positive thoughts (which were another form of energy) and affirmations made one a success. Her books gave countless examples of individuals taking control of their destiny through the power of their minds.

Quoting Florence Shinn:

"Every great work, every big accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and, often just before the big achievement, comes apparent failure and discouragement."

Something to keep in mind should you feel like quitting or are exhausted.

Competition

Depending on your personal view, competition can provide fuel to become more or destructively consume one into comparison. As a filmmaker, you may be embroiled in competition, whether entering film festivals, vying for the highest box office numbers, or simply challenging yourself to actually complete that script and not let it collect dust in some drawer.

This quote comes from American businessman and politician Dwight Whitney Morrow.

Born in 1873, Morrow graduated from Amherst and later law school at Columbia. He made partner in 1913 at JP Morgan and Company. Morrow later died in 1931 as one of the richest men in New Jersey with an estate worth millions, despite the ‘29 stock crash just a few years prior.

Morrow says:

"The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There's far less competition."

New Year's Resolutions

I'd like to think 2009 was one of the toughest years I'll ever have to endure. Possibly it was just a taste of what struggle is really about. Maybe 2009 just skimmed the surface of "hard times." 2009 possibly was a time many people would like to leave behind, with the Madoff ponzi scheme, the death of Michael Jackson, the balloon boy thought to have gone missing through the Colorado sky, to the continuation of the Great Recession. 2009 also marks the year that Film Courage first graced the Internet radio waves. Born from David’s Film Courage blog, we’ve generously received interview requests beyond our wildest dreams. Beginning Film Courage - The Radio Show change my life, as well as David's.

Which brings me to the topic of New Year’s resolutions. I’ve asked several people in the last month if they plan on making a resolution for 2010. Some have replied that they want to make more money or improve their health. Most have said and I QUOTE “I never make resolutions because I usually don’t keep them.”

The anticipation of the New Year is like universal permission to begin again until you get things right. Whether your career is progressing at a pace that helps you thrive, or you are still waiting for that infamous big break, a New Year is a great way to step back and evaluate your course.

A quote from Pulitzer prize winning writer, speaker, and columnist Ellen Goodman closes this year’s Film Courage.

Ellen says:

We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential."

Lucky Break or Effort?

Poker and day trading spark lots of debate amongst people. Are the two pursuits based on chance or do they take skill to win? One thing is certain, when working toward big goals in entertainment, leaving your career to chance can cost you.

Unless your parents or best friend went to school with ...well, fill in the blank for today’s hottest producer, director, or casting agent, ...you will probably need more than luck to launch a career in filmmaking.

True, so much of getting a job in any field is who you know. Minus being in tight with a Hollywood powerhouse, it takes nurturing the right relationships and building up a body of work to even begin getting your foot in the door. It takes time and discipline to shoot and edit a film, submit to festivals, get critics to review it, have a screening, look for distributors or build a website and sell it yourself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote might apply to this.

Emerson was born in the sign of Gemini in 1803 to the son of a Unitarian minister and his wife.

Faced with mortality at an early age, Emerson lost his father and three siblings while in his childhood.

His first wife, Ellen, later died at the age of 20, just two years into the young couples’ marriage.

Although Emerson married twice, this did not stop him from writing erotic poems about a male student with whom he went to college.

Emerson is mostly remembered for his essays and speeches on the subject of Transcendentalism. A core theory of this belief is that spirituality be experienced through intuition rather than other methods.

Emerson leaves us with:

“Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. “

Perception

In late 2009, David and I had the extreme fortune of receiving tickets as a gift to watch violinist Joshua Bell perform live at the world famous Walt Disney Concert Hall. Joshua received several standing ovations to a packed house after an amazing performance. What is fascinating is that Joshua Bell gave a free anonymous performance not long ago to a train station in Washington D.C. during rush hour. Dressed in plain clothes, Bell played on as hurried pedestrians rushed to their trains. It was reported that a few people stopped for a minute or so to listen to Bell’s performance, a few others put loose change in his violin case, but that was it. For all the D.C. commuters knew this was a starving artist playing for his supper.

The truth was - it was world famous violinist Joshua Bell playing a 3 and 5 million dollar violin. Most of his concerts are sold out shows averaging a $100 a ticket.

Most independent filmmakers, actors, writers and more can identify with the perception of the starving artist. Once thought of as creative vagrants maxing out credit cards to finish a project and beholden to the man known as the Hollywood studio system, these newly empowered artists’ identities are changing. The DIY and DIWO Movements are enabling us to raise money through sites like Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, Crowdrise, and Biracy. Equipment that produces a quality product is more readily available and cheaper than before. We can post our finished films and merchandise for sale from our very own sites. We are able to build our own branding and audience through social media and the spreading of our content.

In short, as hard as it is to generate the buzz about a project, now more than ever before we are able to create our own following, without the permission of the traditional gatekeepers. The perception of a helpless, starving artist is changing.

In keeping with the idea of self-empowerment in unconventional ways, our quote of the week comes from Jim Rohn, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and writer.

Rohn says:

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

Following the Herd

As a creative person, you may feel trapped by what society expects of you. You may dislike the way you feel strangers view you. Our parents, schools and even peers have rules of what’s expected of us. The pressure to be something big and make money can wreak havoc with our sense of self. Society may have branded you many things, despite your own identity as a misunderstood inspired soul. Most creative people are like square pegs told all their lives to fit into round holes. We like to stay up late, we don’t care much for 9-5 jobs, and aren’t usually following the crowd. Actually, the crowd is usually snickering about us behind our backs, probably secretly wishing they were more oblivious to what others think of them.

If this is you, a free spirit who marches to his or her own drummer, have faith, on Film Courage you are amongst friends. Our guests are like-minded people, who didn’t follow the crowd, and have blossomed into something great, only to have the crowd follow them.

In the words of another kindred character, playwright, poet and writer, Oscar Wilde, a man no stranger to following his own internal compass, he reminds us that

“Only Dull People are Brilliant at Breakfast.”

Networking

Networking is a necessary part of any venture. Some people are blessed with the ability to master this art form and can naturally work a room. They flow easily in and out of social situations, introducing themselves, finding out others involvement in a cause or business and connecting. For those of us more introverted, networking becomes a struggle. Maybe your project is mind-blowing, but you clam up at the thought talking to strangers. You want to express yourself but shameless promotion scares you. You are not alone. Social phobia effects many Americans. Even if your aversion to networking does not debilitate you,… it is still intimidating to approach a person and turn on the Anthony Robbins’ power charm.

The following quote comes from Bob Burg, author and influential speaker. Bob has written many books including, “Gossip, ten pathways to eliminate it from your life and transform your soul,” “Winning Without Intimidation,” as well as books about Go-Giving. Go-giving focuses on winning by giving back instead of cut-throat competition. Burg advocates changing one’s business vision from GETTING to GIVING—putting others’ interests first and continually adding value to their lives, which he claims ultimately leads to unexpected returns.

Piecing together two of Burg’s quotes he says,

“Position yourself as a center of influence - the one who knows the movers and shakers. People will respond to that, and you'll soon become what you project.

The successful networkers I know, the ones receiving tons of referrals and FEELING truly happy about themselves, continually put the other person's NEEDS ahead of their own.”

Cognitive Dissonance

According to Wikipedia the meaning of the term Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously.

How does this relate to filmmaking you might ask? Well, we cannot hold someone down without holding ourselves down in the process. If you subscribe to the theory that there is enough abundance in the universe for us all, our next quote from author and medical intuitive Carolyn Myss might interest you.

In Carolyn Myss’s book Invisible Acts of Power Personal Choices that Create Miracles, she says:

“We might lend a friend $1,000 dollars to pay their rent, but we won’t lend them $1,000 to start a new business. I will help my friend get by, but I won’t help them pass me by.”

The same could be said for a career in entertainment. We are all competitive creatures. We are human. The news of someone else’s success while we are trying to break down a door just to be visible might irritate us a little more than we’d like to admit.

Giving a thousand dollars might be harder to come by for lots of us now that The Great Recession has ravaged many bank accounts. Don’t get me wrong, money can make or break many things. But honest praise goes along way to an artist looking for validation.

Time Management

The reality of keeping a roof over your head until everyone knows how talented you are is a tough act to maneuver. Getting to a job on time, fighting traffic, household chores and other life obstacles can zap energy and kill one’s creative fire. For myself, I know stress can make me want to give up and take the path of least resistance. Sometimes I waste time on something mindless (like watching an entire hour of a reality show just to see how bad it is) instead of working toward what I really want.

Henry Ford closes our show with his quote on success as it relates to how time is spent. Founder of the Ford Motor Company and business model pioneer, Ford began one of the greatest automobile empires. He rewarded his employees handsomely, but not without a price. He believed in keeping tabs on their personal lives with a group he called The Social Department, several individuals hired to delve into his workers’ habits to make sure they were of good moral character.

Despite his faults, prejudice, and paranoia, Ford had a keen sense of people and how things worked.

Ford is quoted as saying:

“It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.”

Indie Reality

If you’ve ever watched a movie on the Lifetime network you might agree that the films rarely mirror how most people live. Lifetime movies often consist of a put-together woman in an incredible home who is cyberstalked by a jealous neighbor or PTA rival. The protagonist appears in a great combination of outfits throughout the film. And she is sure to be seen in her gourmet kitchen as yet another call from her harasser comes in.

Lifetime Movie Network ended the 2008 first quarter with its highest total day and primetime delivery since its 1998 launch. It averaged 371,000 female viewers, 18 years and older, during primetime.

Obviously LMN has anything but trouble attracting female audiences. Maybe I’m in the minority. But I’ve always been drawn to the reality of indie films for the mere fact that I walk away at the end of it with an ability to put my own life in better perspective.

In May of this year, Ted Hope, among other industry professionals, interviewed with Fox Business News regarding the struggles of independent filmmaking. Ted closes this week’s Film Courage with the following quote (slightly paraphrased for time). Ted says:

“Indie filmmakers go into filmmaking precisely because of the type of story they want to tell, true stories that capture real emotions, that show the world as it is today. Not necessarily the big fantasy. And those stories have smaller audiences, so you sleep in the bed you make.”

“Some of the most exciting things happening right now ARE by filmmakers saying “I am not going to leave it to the distributors to find my audience.” I am going to use this great tool that is the Internet and aggregate those people before I even make the film. I am going to actually start to collaborate with that audience.”

“Independent films, because the budgets are low, can afford to be more innovative and take more risks. And I think we are going to see a lot more of these strategies eventually adopted by the big studios.”

Inspiration

Making a living creating something from a blank page takes a combination of inspiration and discipline.

Some days ideas will arrive easily and at other times it’s like a trip to the DMV, you really have to push yourself to get going. Thoughts for a story often come when you least expect it. Possibly an idea will spark when in line at the supermarket, next to some fascinating person…. You might envision WHAT their life is like, in turn making them the main character of your screenplay. Or maybe you’ll receive an answer to a question of how a scene should play out while driving and listening to the news. You hear a report of a woman giving birth in her car during a blizzard and it fits well with your story.

Ernest Hemingway once said we should write when we are drunk and edit when sober. Whatever inspires you, that special pen or a trip to Starbucks with creative material slurping coffee all around you, is a matter of experimentation.

Some times inspiration doesn’t come to us. You’ve had a bad day or that check you’ve been waiting for didn’t show up, again. Whatever the reason, it’s a skill to push one’s self even when our environment is chaotic.

Our quote of the week is from Ernest Newman, English music critic who reminds us that:

“Beethoven, Vagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day to his figures. They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration.”

Persistence

When doubt surfaces about our creativity, persistence just might save us.

We all know a well intentioned but pesky doubting Thomas that lurks somewhere in our lives.

That naysayer might be a friend, co-worker, audience member or even family. They give you encouragement about your latest project, but with a stick in it. The ‘wow, sounds great. But can you really make any money from that?’ type of conversation that leaves you with a bad feeling.

Yes, most of us are dreamers. We are well aware that our financial lives might have been better if we’d gotten an MBA. But would we be happy? We are all know of the pitfalls of filmmaking. The maxed out credit cards, an editor that doesn’t return phone calls, or even the location with a neighbor who pesters about a permit.

Filmmaking, screenwriting, just about anything creative takes a tremendous leap of faith. It is usually done without a huge entourage of support. That’s why indie filmmakers, venture capitalists, day traders and like, who succeed are heroes, because it’s usually one against the world when it comes to achieving your goals. Yes, the odds will be stacked against you, but people out there do make it.

At the same time, we are all still human. We toss and turn at night over a bad comment someone’s made about our work. Or we secretly doubt ourselves and wonder if we can pull this off.

The words of Calvin Coolidge, the 30th American president captures this thought:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”

Creative Frustration

Let’s talk about the people in our lives who are sexually frustrated. Hopefully that got your attention. Now let’s try this – do you know someone who is creatively frustrated? Could be a power hungry fellow employee at your job, your self-loathing brother, or maybe it is we who are creatively frustrated.

What are the signs of creative frustration?

Depression on Sunday nights before the beginning of a work week

Major depressive/psychotic episodes on Monday mornings

Rapid heartbeat during a film

Extreme sweating while reading a great novel.

Oh yeah, and criticizing someone who is artistic because we don’t grant ourselves permission to pursue something.

How do we treat creative frustration?

Well, administer lots of free time, since creatively frustrated people are known to over schedule themselves so that they are so busy, they never get around to creating that masterpiece.

Taking walks in nature, being forced to forget everything that is going on at the day job rife with its power struggles and politics. Also good, is administering walks in crowded public places where we find inspiration for characters all around us.

Warning: Try not to stare too much at random strangers.

And commit to lots of bed rest, as dreams are a great way to conjure up ideas. Writers Steven King, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mary Shelley, and even musician Paul McCartney were said to receive inspiration for their work from actual dreams.

This very esoteric quote of the week comes from Author Shaun McNiff, who has written the book Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul.

McNiff says "Artists are not always healed people, but they can teach us how to engage the transformative aspects of emotional upheaval rather than experience the madness that occurs when imagination turns against itself."

Criticism

One result of putting yourself out there creatively is the varied opinions of others. So many of us are great at giving criticism; It’s another story to be on the receiving end of it. Some people boast that criticism never affects them, but deep down, most of us know it still cuts, especially when someone is lethal in its delivery.

Some use criticism directed at them as fuel to improve their craft, taking in what the critic has to say and making changes based on that feedback. The most creative are those who receive criticism and use it to excel, pushing themselves harder than they normally would, even if it is out of pure spite alone.

The thoughts on criticism by Singer/Songwriter Shania Twain close this episode of Film Courage.

Shania was born in 1965 as Eileen Regina Edwards. A Canadian native, she was the older sister to 3 brothers. Her beginning years were humble, recalling that as a child she often went hungry. Singing and songwriting for Shania was an escape from watching her parents struggle to make ends meet. Shania would often go into the woods and write songs with her dog and guitar.

She led a somewhat dual life growing up. On one hand, Shania would join her step-father as a reforestation worker in the Canadian wilderness. Her other life was that of a singer. Shania would perform in bars before she was 21. She recalls hating the smoke and the drunks, but her music kept her going.

When Shania was 21, she lost both her mother and step-father to a car accident. She was then left as the sole caretaker and breadwinner for her younger brothers.

Shania preserved. At the time she had landed a job at Ontario’s Deerhurst Resort, where she learned various styles of musical performance. Shania mentioned that her experience playing in clubs and bars was like music school for her.

Once her siblings were grown, Shania got her own place and changed her name from Eileen to Shania which means “I’m on my way” from the Native American language of Ojibwe. At the same time, in 1993 she landed a record deal and was indeed on her way to greater things.

With 6 albums under her belt, receiving the number 7 ranking in the 2002 Country Music Television’s 40 greatest women of Country Music poll, having been named 1999 entertainer of the year by the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association, as well as other accolades from her native Canada, Shania’s rags-to-riches success is well-deserved. Still, someone at this level is not immune from the rumblings of the peanut gallery.

Commenting on criticism, Shania says:


“I find that the very things that I get criticized for, which is usually being different and just doing my own thing and just being original, is the very thing that is making me successful.”

Complacency

Are you from the school of thought that believes an artist should endure extreme pain to be great at their craft?  Can you write an intriguing story if you’ve never slept in your car?  Can your film portray emotions that move people to tears if you haven’t experienced heartbreaking loss?  The answer… probably depends on the person.

I’ve known a number of talented people who’ve had it pretty good in life and have been blessed with great talent. 

One thing’s certain - complacency can kill creativity.  Bad situations, although yucky to be in, push us to do more.  They get us out of our comfort zones through pure frustration alone.  If we get too comfortable, the only thing that grows might be our waistline.

In challenging our comfort zones, our quote of the week comes from Author and Activist Peter McWilliams.  McWilliams has written many life-changing books on self-empowerment.  In 1998 he admitted to the world that he had AIDS and Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.  Peter McWilliams met an untimely end when in 2000 he was found dead in his apartment.  During the time of his death his elderly mother’s home had been used as a bond for his Marijauna arrest.  McWilliams had been using Marijauna to combat the nausea caused by his AIDS medications.  McWilliams fought for the use of medical marijuana as evidenced in a few of his books.  His advocating medicinal Marijauna sparked a DEA investigation which later led to his arrest.

The following quote is a paragraph from his book “Do It.  Let’s Get Off Our Buts.”

It goes like this:

“Whenever we do something new, its falls outside the confines of the comfort zone.  In even contemplating a new action, we feel guilt, unworthiness, fear, hurt feelings and/or anger---all those emotions we generally think of as “uncomfortable….The irony is that the feelings we have been taught to label “uncomfortable” are, in fact, among the very tools necessary to fulfill our dreams.  As it turns out, the bricks used to build the walls of the comfort zone are made of gold.”