Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Questions/Answers

I am quite excited to begin 2009 by committing to some more coaching education! I am in a telecourse now to complete my basic coach training and lead to certification from the International Coach Federation. My instructor kicked off the first class with the following quotation, which is from Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Letter #4:

"Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which would not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answers."

Monday, January 19, 2009

Dare to Be Stupid

My husband has finally made a New Year's resolution. He usually doesn't make them. It is this: He resolved to follow through on his "stupid ideas" this year. 

Now, I have to laugh a bit, but he has a valid point here. I'd like to quote my good friend Mur Lafferty when she heard about this resolution. She says (and I quote at length, with her permission):
"How many times have you thought of something and then cast it aside thinking, 'Nah, that's stupid.' Were you really thinking you didn't want to spend the time to see if it would be cool? Were you afraid stupid = failure? And how many things that are awesome (or at the very least successful) can you see, if written down on paper, looked stupid to begin with?
  • Let's make a video game where you roll around a sticky ball and pick stuff up (Katamari Damacy)
  • Let's make [insert any popular reality TV show here]
  • Let's scream at people who have different opinions than we do (any political talking head show)
  • Let's bottle water and sell it.
"I don't like resolutions, but I do like this philosophy. I wonder how it fits for long-term projects--stupid ideas--that I've had. 'I should start a new magazine/podcast/audio drama/novel!' But it's a concept I just might consider doing. What is worse: one success, or ten successes and three failures?"

Let's all try to be a little bit stupid this year, and see what happens.


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Revolutions

It's a new year! Time to shine in 2009. I think it's time for some resolutions... and if we all keep them, we'll have a revolution.

My resolutions for 2009 mainly have to do with reading. I'm a big fan of fiction, and I'm a member of a feminist fiction book group. Last year, my resolution was to read all of the book group selections, as in 2007 I had only managed to read about half of them. I did quite well in 2008, and I think I read all of them. So I'm going to continue for 2009, plus I've been reading lots more novels lately. 

The turn of a new year--the promise of a clean slate--is a great time for taking stock of things and figuring out where one would like improvement.

What resolutions did you make? What are you excited about this year?