True or False: Questions for your Ever-Expanding Self

You are not a finished product.

You were not finished at the age of 5, or at the age of 10, or at the age of 15, or at any age you have reached since.

You are an unfinished product - and will remain so until you breathe your last breath.

You are not a product in the sense of a gadget or gizmo, a robot, or a process; you are a work of art; and moreover, a work of art continuously in the making; at no stage in your life will this artwork be complete; and at no stage in your life will this artwork ever be a write-off.

There were problems you had as a child which you overcame as an adult, and this is proof that you were an unfinished product as a child; likewise, there are problems you now have, which you will find solutions to - proof that you are an unfinished product as we speak.

You are a unique work of art, and you are meant to overcome problems in a unique way. The solutions that work for you may not be universally perfect or ideal solutions, but they work for you. They are related to the uniqueness of who you are, and everything that has gone into the making of you, and your life till this date.

Many artists were involved in the making of the work of art that is you, and more will be involved in the future.

Your parents, your caregivers, your teachers, your childhood friends, and other people involved in your childhood, were the artists of your childhood.

You have been able to choose your own artists since you became an adult.

You have been able to choose from a range of intellectual artists, social artists, physical artists, and spiritual artists.

You were also blessed to have some artists enter your life accidentally; you got lucky to have those artists enter your life; some of them were life-changing.

Finding new and unknown artists is marvelous and miraculous.

Some artists that you let into your world will challenge you to become a better version of yourself. They will be a source of motivation and inspiration.

Motivation and inspiration is often superior to physical help, it teaches you how to plant instead of handing you a bag of produce.

Opposer, obstructors, and questioning artists are valuable, and not to be overlooked or shunned; they help you find errors in your thinking. By forcing you to defend your ideas, choices, beliefs, and goals, you can be clearer about why you have chosen the path you have chosen.

Disappointing, distressing, and discomfiting events - which can be caused by direct, indirect, or master artists - will also have an effect on your life.

Because you are a work of art that's ever in the making, your life may not necessarily go in a straight line. There may be tangents, and even u-turns along the way.

True or false - you are an unfinished product and a work of art in the making.

Suggested next reading: The Other Artist

And a quote from Carl Jung - “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

True or False. Questions for your Inquiring Self...

The areas of your life in which you have the least self control will cause you the most trouble.

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The more you give in to irrational fears and beliefs, the smaller and smaller will be your life.

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To the extent you find fault with the world - your own private world, or the world at large - you deny yourself of awe, wonder and gratitude, from which many wonderful things spring.

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The biggest traps and truths in your life are your habits and your habitual thinking. A change in your habits and habitual thinking will result in a change in truths, and the freedom to explore ideas and possibilities you aren't aware of.

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People who have different views from you are similar to you. In fact, those who have the most different views from you may be the most similar to you in their personality type and their desires, and if they are thinking, researching types of people, they spend most of their time thinking and researching, but have come to different conclusions from you.

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If you examine the things you believe in, you will find you are more a product of conditioning, than a product of your own thinking.  And then comes the big question - what do you keep, what do you discard?

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Weak ideas persist and work for a short time, the best ideas work for a long time, and if they are timeless, they persist into eternity.

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You are at your best when you are immersed in something. You can be immersed in something that produces value only for you, something that produces value for you and a few others, or something that produces value for you and many people.

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Wake-up calls are the best things that can happen to you, whatever you are, and whoever you are at the time - employee, manager, parent, spouse, child, business owner, customer, government leader or government employee, man on the street, or celebrity. A wake-up call can change your life.

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Happy Sunday and here's what to read next, dear reader - an old post from 2014. Hopefully, you will find some ideas in it that are of value.

True or False: Questions For Your Creative Self

(yes, you have one - everybody has a creative self)

Your discipline and industry will determine your long-term success, influence, and impact more than your talent.

Creativity requires you to entertain one possibility after another after another - you don't stop at the first or second idea.

Worrying too much about how much money or praise your work will get, will only get in the way of your creativity. You should think only about what you want to do when you sit down to create.

You can take up a new activity at any age, and in fact your creativity and art may come to its full flourishment only as you age.

If you dedicate yourself to getting better at what you do, you will find better tools and better ideas as you go along - it's the way of creativity.

Creating things will bring you as much joy as consuming things. That is why everyone who cooks finds it as much fun to cook, as it is to eat what they cook.

If you are fully present and do not allow yourself to be distracted while working on what you are creating, you will enjoy it more, and your results will be better too.

Your age is not determined by your wrinkles, or a bent back, or your inability to walk far or fast, but by your willingness to be open, curious, and continuously interested in making, growing, understanding, and creating things.

You have a better chance of creating when you are “interested,” “excited,” “enthusiastic,” and “inspired”, so you should do whatever it takes to get into that state and stay in that state.

As you keep going down the creative path, you will find challenges entertaining more than frustrating. "How do I do this?" becomes an interesting and engaging puzzle.

Finally, time flies when you are creating. You realize that your back or your hand is hurting, or that mosquitoes have chewed you up, or that it's way past your mealtime or bedtime, only when you stop.

🐥🐣🐰🐥🐣🐰 Happy Easter Dear Reader. To you and yours. And to your creative self. Hope you create wonderful memories (not just wonderful things) today and everyday🐰🐣🐥🐰🐣🐥

When You Write...

Some may find you entertaining,

Some may find you trite,

This is what you can expect,

When you write,

When you write.

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Some won't give you the time of day,

Some will send likes and compliments your way,

This is the price you have to pay,

When you write,

When you write.

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Some will say you don’t get to the point,

Some will with pleasing words your prose or poetry anoint,

Don’t let the lukewarm and less than hearty responses get you out of joint,

When you write,

When you write.

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Some might tell you they take inspiration from your words,

Some might only point out what they find lacking or absurd,

For both good and bad feedback, you must gird,

When you write,

When you write.

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Some might review you in glowing prose,

Others might tell you where you were shoddy or verbose,

Reception to your writing will be different, both amongst friends and amongst foes,

When you write,

When you write.

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And if all of the above makes your spirits sink,

And you think it must be avoided by copious red ink,

My advice to you dear reader is to edit but not overthink,

When you write,

When you write.

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Yes, stay strong dear writer, whatever it is you are inspired to say,

Don't let the lack of perfection, or the fear of negative reactions, scare you away,

Let your words be seen and heard, and let them fall where they may,

Hit the submit or publish button,

When you write,

When you write.

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Dedicated to writers everywhere.

Professional writers like Stephen King.

And amateur writers who got to 645 posts by practicing what they preach (guess who).

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Read this next…How Do You Upset The Status Quo? 

Or this: What Are the Downsides to a Person Being a Striver?

And last but not least, read this quote on writing regularly. Writing and publishing regularly is what serves a writer most of all:

“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice.” ― Octavia Butler