The scene with you going on walks through Tooting Common reciting affirmations out loud cracked me up! So good :D :D
And this gave me pause: “Hell is story friendly. But ... Paradise is not a story. Paradise is about what happens when the stories are over.” - Charles Baxter
Haha yeah, that really was me walking around the park talking to (shouting at) myself.
You know what tho? It worked!
I guess Tony's stuff was really really useful for me when I was younger and wetter behind the ears. As I've gotten older, I feel less of a need to practice the principles he teaches, but that's not to say his work isn't useful to me any more. I still find myself quoting him a lot, which tells you something about how effective his exercises were for me and how much I appreciate his mission. For me (maybe this is an essay), he was the closest thing I had to a father figure since my own dad wasn't really on the scene and my relationship with my step-dad wasn't the closest. So I really inhaled Robbins' audio tapes when I first heard them. I remember the first time I ever heard his voice. I was driving in my car and I put one of his tapes on and I was in awe. Pure awe. It was my first time hearing self-help. Imagine! And the first time I'd heard an older man talking about self-care and goals. Robbins was massive for me
I’m so pumped you found the power in the tension. I truly believe the best thinkers, writers, and creatives are those who battle amidst seemingly opposable ideas. It’s there that the answers are found.
I think we so often try to get out of tension to remove the fear and pain. What we miss are the lessons we are supposed to learn in those moments of tension. The one who wishes to grow will embrace the difficulty.
I will say tho, I’d like to get better at distinguishing between the challenges I SHOULD embrace because there’s a worthwhile lesson in it for me, verses the challenges I don’t NEED to embrace. Can’t climb every single mountain ⛰️
...really enjoyed this Harrison...i feel like i should add gratitude to my inkwell, if for nothing else to practice improvement and expansion...that said i really enjoy just grumping...ah but life is balance...will take this as a call to action and will attempt to write form a space of gratitude in the next few weeks and see where it takes me...appreciate this distillation of gratitude's value and utility...
Thanks so much Fis. As I said in another note, I can't write sh*t without the feedback from you and other WOPers. The best thing about your feedback on this piece is hearing that it came across as a distillation of gratitude. That really surprises me because I felt like I hadn't managed to do that. But I guess it just goes to highlight the amazing power that writing has to transmit meaning beyond what you intended. I'm always surprised how no matter how much we try to be clear and say a certain thing in a certain way, it never quite gets interpreted like that when other people read it. It's amazing. I love this art so much
...yeah it is odd it works that way right? Communication so fluid, transportive, confusing, surprising. I think for me it was that the anecdote gave me such a clear reason for why gratitude is important and how it can be useful (to communication/authenticity)...by setting that against the other main types of fuel you use i can see the value to a grateful perspective...now to test (today) if i can turn that into anything in my own writering...
If you try it, do share mate. Josh Knox mentioned that he often writes about his kids and uses gratitude a lot. So my experiment is obvs just one viewpoint from one person at one time
The scene with you going on walks through Tooting Common reciting affirmations out loud cracked me up! So good :D :D
And this gave me pause: “Hell is story friendly. But ... Paradise is not a story. Paradise is about what happens when the stories are over.” - Charles Baxter
Fascinating stuff, thanks for writing this!
Haha yeah, that really was me walking around the park talking to (shouting at) myself.
You know what tho? It worked!
I guess Tony's stuff was really really useful for me when I was younger and wetter behind the ears. As I've gotten older, I feel less of a need to practice the principles he teaches, but that's not to say his work isn't useful to me any more. I still find myself quoting him a lot, which tells you something about how effective his exercises were for me and how much I appreciate his mission. For me (maybe this is an essay), he was the closest thing I had to a father figure since my own dad wasn't really on the scene and my relationship with my step-dad wasn't the closest. So I really inhaled Robbins' audio tapes when I first heard them. I remember the first time I ever heard his voice. I was driving in my car and I put one of his tapes on and I was in awe. Pure awe. It was my first time hearing self-help. Imagine! And the first time I'd heard an older man talking about self-care and goals. Robbins was massive for me
Whoah, that really does beg to be an essay!
🎣
I’m so pumped you found the power in the tension. I truly believe the best thinkers, writers, and creatives are those who battle amidst seemingly opposable ideas. It’s there that the answers are found.
Thanks Tim, I get that! It’s so true! I think I’m as scared of comfort as I am of discomfort
I think we so often try to get out of tension to remove the fear and pain. What we miss are the lessons we are supposed to learn in those moments of tension. The one who wishes to grow will embrace the difficulty.
That’s defo been true for me in my life.
I will say tho, I’d like to get better at distinguishing between the challenges I SHOULD embrace because there’s a worthwhile lesson in it for me, verses the challenges I don’t NEED to embrace. Can’t climb every single mountain ⛰️
Truth! Difficulty for difficulty sake...not great 😁
...really enjoyed this Harrison...i feel like i should add gratitude to my inkwell, if for nothing else to practice improvement and expansion...that said i really enjoy just grumping...ah but life is balance...will take this as a call to action and will attempt to write form a space of gratitude in the next few weeks and see where it takes me...appreciate this distillation of gratitude's value and utility...
Thanks so much Fis. As I said in another note, I can't write sh*t without the feedback from you and other WOPers. The best thing about your feedback on this piece is hearing that it came across as a distillation of gratitude. That really surprises me because I felt like I hadn't managed to do that. But I guess it just goes to highlight the amazing power that writing has to transmit meaning beyond what you intended. I'm always surprised how no matter how much we try to be clear and say a certain thing in a certain way, it never quite gets interpreted like that when other people read it. It's amazing. I love this art so much
...yeah it is odd it works that way right? Communication so fluid, transportive, confusing, surprising. I think for me it was that the anecdote gave me such a clear reason for why gratitude is important and how it can be useful (to communication/authenticity)...by setting that against the other main types of fuel you use i can see the value to a grateful perspective...now to test (today) if i can turn that into anything in my own writering...
If you try it, do share mate. Josh Knox mentioned that he often writes about his kids and uses gratitude a lot. So my experiment is obvs just one viewpoint from one person at one time