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Posts Tagged ‘how to’

My New Favorite Song

Has anyone heard this song?!

Gym Class Heroes (feat. Ryan Tedder) – The Fighter

If you haven’t, go listen to it!  I heard it on the radio today and it is simply amazing.  It is the kind of song that gets me motivated to do the things I know I should do, but don’t feel like doing.  A song that resonates with you can instantly create an emotional high.  And during such a high, you ought to pay attention to what your emotional state becomes associated with.  If not, it will become associated with something automatically–the person you’re with, your environment, a particular object, or even a particular thought.  This is often how couples find “their song.”

That’s all well and good, but if you’re aware of this process, you can take control of it, consciously associating it with a personal goal, for example.  Don’t underestimate how powerful this can be.  For most of my life, I’ve had very poor study habits.  In college, I used to wait until the morning of a midterm or final to tear off the shrinkwrap on my textbook, and begin studying then.  But for my Optometry Admissions Test, I was actually able to prepare a month in advance, putting in 8 hours a day thanks to Eminem’s “Till I Collapse” and Madonna’s “Die Another Day.”  I listened to it almost every 90 minutes of every day during my study sessions.  That may seem a bit excessive, considering how psychotic it made me, but you have to understand: I was really freakin’ lazy!  And that’s what it took to keep my nose to the grindstone.

Anyway, great song!  Go listen to it.  It will make your day.

Love

A. T. Bui

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A bonfire

This post is a continuation of Part I: Inspiration and it is meant to be read in order.

Part II: Ideas

A fire needs not only oxygen to continue burning, but also fuel. Even the most formidable conflagration can be extinguished by a lack of lumber. If you are to take photos, what concepts will you seek to capture? If you wish to make movies, what stories will you tell? If it is songs you desire, what motifs will you compose? Once you feel that inspiration, that urge to create, you will need ideas to fuel your fire. Even a gym rat needs to come up with novel ways to reinvent his routine.

Sometimes it’s difficult to get those creative juices flowing, especially when that sponge between your ears may feel all dried up. Here’s what I do to overcome my own periodic writer’s block:

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An ominous red train

A lot of what I write deals with overcoming adversity, taking on new challenges, or navigating the complex web of human relations. I write these under the assumption that you are able to exert some measure of control on your external environment. However, there will be occassions for which there seems to be no adequate recourse:

Heartbreak. Betrayal at the hands of a friend. A merciless twist of fate.

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A flame in the dark
Part I: Inspiration

Just as a fire needs oxygen to spark, so too your passion needs inspiration to give it life. And yet inspiration is often hard to come by. Artists desire artistry, but paint may be allowed to dry and clay to harden if inspiration is lacking. Writers wish to write, but many sit idle waiting for the spirit to move them. How much sand must pass through the hourglass, how many suns must rise and fall, how many wrinkles must beset upon one’s face before inspiration will take hold?

The fallacy most people make is that inspiration will wash over them automatically. They often end up waiting for either wolves to be at their back to terrify them, or sirens to be at their front to lure them with deceptive songs. A windfall may occur once in a while, but by itself, it is simply not enough. A fire may have even been ignited in such a way, but to keep it burning, the supply of oxygen must be continuous.

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A few minutes before midnight

For the most part, I subscribe to the philosophy of Look Before You Leap. Experience has shown that a single-minded focus on speed tends to result in many small achievements in the short term, while the achievement of long-lasting change is often quite time-consuming. However, there are occassions when we must instead pay homage to the maxim of Ready, Fire, Aim! Time may be scarce and you may only have a very small window with which to land an opportunity or evade certain disaster.

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