Chalkietalkie is a businessman and writer.
He has lived in Australia, Canada, England and France.
Despite his love of education and working with young people, he would rather stick pins in his eyes than work within an everychanging Big Brother system of fear.
There are better alternatives.
I am grateful to the people in my life and want to make a bigger contribution to a better world.
Suggestions?
Drive
I have been reading ‘Drive’ by Daniel Pink, and for the second night in a row, I find myself out of bed, so that I get some thoughts down from idea excitement.
For a long time now, I have been stuffing around in the face of what would seem to be obvious serious repercussions. It is bizarre, perhaps understandable given the year that I have had, but really it is unnecessarily frustrating.
I am starting to think that I am exhibiting ‘indifference behaviour’, where I am literally torn between my business, which has the potential to support my family very well over the next 5-10 years or more, and my creative, artistic ambitions to be a writer.
There is no time to lose. I must do both.
Trusting myself
Fortunately, my powers of perception are honed. I cannot attest to whether it is consciously deliberate or not though. It is evident that there was great intention when I packed this bag and took off for a change of scene today. What treat lies within? What is guiding my future, besides one pen that ran out and one that fortunately didn’t… ( Read more…Collapse )
1. To-Do List from a few days ago. Only three points on it, which is highly conservative for me. Number of points completed, zero. The VAT return, albeit nil, is a must. So is the rekindling of industry knowledge to boost my confidence. The course on procrastination, coincidentally from my birth state of Western Australia, is something I will get around to eventually…
2. Goal List for the month of March. Mmmmm. I didn’t start that well. I slept in past the Daily Pages time of 6;30. I did make it to the gym, although not the pool. The relax part, yes, the get prepared part, no. The calls did not happen. I did not even pick up the phone. A little worry. Goal 2 over restricting recreational computer use a little bit of a failure. Time drifted by with the downloading of mediation and de-stressing audios, and yoga videos I will probably end up deleting without watching. Again. Along with the Alan Watts and Deepak Chopra collections. Goal 4 regarding having only a healthy diet was completely blown with a trip to KFC. Again, this week. At least this week is over. What a disaster.
3. Notes from listening to Deepak Chopra audio on happiness. Waiting for enlightenment.
4. Including this one, four notebooks. Reasons for four to follow…
5. Writer’s Forum back issues.
6. The Artist’s Way book.
7. Men’s Health supplements - Get a Body Like a Cover Model (I should be a pin-up for Timed Out); Fat Burner’s Bible - waiting to be saved.
8. Focus book. Oh save me.
9. Weekend Novelist book. Have made a bit of a start on this one. The proof will be not in the planning, as usual, nut in the word count. Amen.
10. Master Achievement book. Oh self-help me.
11. Cold Calling for Chickens book (oversight and after thought for this list.) Along with….
12. What’s Stopping You book (I think that is abundantly clear) and
13. Pitching to Win book (maybe I will work on this next)
14. Phone. Flat. I am an expert at not charging my phone, while my dear wife struggles on a daily basis to get a firm connection with her plug…
15. Small diary. Not the very little one, nor the big one that I remember seeing on the floor. Two months in and they are a mess.
New penname for the day: Phineas Anfield
New protagonist persona for the day: Maxwell Cornelius Tuffrey
Let the distillation trickle down!
So let’s revisit our goals for the month
Chief Goal: Business to take off this month, with 4 weeks of total productivity.
Along with i) VAT return finished this weekend
ii)Training/retraining and industry notes finished this weekend, despite Saturday out (going to see Helen Mirren, Edward Fox, Nathanial Parker and others in The Audience!)
iii) Lost 4 kg, despite KFC today. Extra swimming and double daily sessions seem like a good idea. Healthy mind, worn out body….
iv) Daily writing. channelled into my writing personas Phineas and Max. Creative outlet, healthy mind, happy body
v) Daily exercise. See iii) Healthy mind, healthy body
vi) Complete procrastination program
vii) Don’t spend much money. Gain sanity
viii) Review therapist’s notes and implement whatever seems pertinent
ix) Arrange some training to help with business
x) Finish at least one story for musemuggers, and ideally for a competition as well.
xi) Restricted FB, chess, email, etc use
xii) Get a couple of sales from several meetings.
Self-development for month
a) Procrastinate not, lest you be castigated
b) Worry less, anxious not
c) Cold Calling, those chickens can go roost
d) Focus, well now we are getting somethere
e) Business, it will be handy…
So, I am a writer, an entrepreneur, a consultant and a very funny bastard. As long as my luck holds out.
Hey, Phillip Selway just walked in…He didn’t make the last football match between our sons, but he is back and here in Starbucks.
P.S. Despite my protest at Starbucks for not paying any tax, it is close and I can sit in here and write…
I wanted to ask Phillip about something his wife told me - how much he practices the drums. I was hoping to get some tips on persistence and all that, but I guess I know the answer. It is in following sound advice where I have fallen down before… Besides, somehow I managed to sneak into the conversation that last time I saw him that the first time I met him was one of the worst nights of my life, due to my lushty tramp of an ex-wife. Trust me to sound like a loser as well as be one. Hopefully for not much longer. Although the signs are not good… What can I do to overcome the enormous crater I have landed myself in?
It is time to trust myself and get working on it.
Now is the mid-morning of my discontent
Bruce Lee said something about working with laser-like focus. If I am a lens, then right now someone keeps smearing vasoline all around the edges and the picture is soft. My vision is repixilated intermittently to my distraction of choice, this computer and then to something else. Probably the giant purple Swiss ball that lurks behind my chair and won’t fit through the door. I am reminded of it because I chose to put a mirror on my chair so that I could check that I was smiling when I call up my clients. It will have taken two hours to get everybody out of my house this morning and then I can settle into my new routine. For now, I shall clean the lens, check the batteries, change to a macro lens and chuck the wide angle in the bin.
William Nicholson, screenwriter. Notes from BAFTA Screenwriting series
I create stories. The script is there, but I write the story. I imagine what happens. I write what you see. I ask the questions for you and come up with the best answer. I will be writing about my experiences, where there is reality and truth. I need the structure which mirrors the reality that my audience is familiar with. If somebody acted like that, that would follow. I want to make stories that are breathtaking. I want to be able to create a structure on a single piece of paper. Micro and macro at the same time. Micro for energy and macro for holding it together. Caring about the characters, especially the central character is incredibly important. I want my voice to be heard, and I want it to be insightful. I want deeper and more truthful characters. Pacing is important. Quiet, building, what do they want, when is there a big change, all of these are important. We want emotions in our stories. True characters and true stories lead to emotion. I have to know where it is going to end. It is a journey. Start writing when you have an ending, when you have the structure, the main characters and the obstacles in the way to get to the end, including the great moments in the story. And the key emotions. Be a writer - director. A cinematographer, designer, assistant, because they want to know what result you want to produce. You have to get out there and learn and live. Your greatness as a writer is your greatness as a human being. You don’t have to think in terms of themes. It is fun to create the characters. Going through the whole film to get to the afterlife! Baddies when you know why they are a baddy are the best. Provide characters with a privacy, interior life and exterior life. What is it like to be…? Voice over to take something higher, when you have wound it so tight. Need talent, can be learned, self confidence tempered by self criticism, discipline, you do it every day, you make your write even when you don’t want to write and you need a particular temperament, as it is unmitigated hell, as you will be ripped to pieces. You are lucky as a writer, you get to live your life twice, once as a reality and once through your interpretation of it.
Afformations
1. What makes me so confident when it comes to calling potential clients?
2. Why am I so good at getting new referrals?
3. Why do I get meetings every day?
4. Why am I the best Associate?
5. Why do I get so many sales in my work?
6. Why are my clients so happy?
7. Why am I such a specialist with schools?
8. Why is my voice so clear and powerful?
9. Why am I so effective with gatekeepers?
10. Why am I such an effective communicator?
11. Why am I so focused when I work?
12. How did I conquer my fears?
13. Why am I such an effective businessman?
14. Why am I so great at getting leads?
