Running A Marathon

I know, crazy title for one who can barely jog. But really quite apropos, methinks (though methinks hates to admit it, methinks has been wrong at times…).

Ran across (pun not initially intended) a cool article that talks about “Going For The Dream.” And here are some of the most juicy parts:

A – Make sure you have a vision.
Well, I have lots of those, so check. Do you?

B – Give yourself the time to make it.
Which is really hard for me. Hey, I grew up in this modern, immediate-gratification society too (contrary to what others might think, Belgium is pretty up-to-date. And no, smurfs are a long extinct, like the dodo. Unless…).
However, as mentioned in the article and in this interesting book (Outliers: The Story of Success), if one works hard for 10 years, one will become a pro. So the key is to stick with it, and work.

C – Kaizen
This one I added myself – but I feel it really encompasses what the remainder of the post says. For more info, see my previous post here and ScreenwritingU’s more detailed version here.

So really, the key is to not give up on your dream, work hard, improve, and be patient. You’re in it for the long run, after all!

Kaizen

"You can achieve incomparable levels of skill through incomparable spirit and commitment." ~ Michael Jordan

Yesterday, on a conference call with my ScreenwritingU fellows, I learned about various philosophies that are to help me as a writer. And this is when I (re-)learned of this fabulous Japanese philosophy: Kaizen (改善).

It was a breakthrough. The concept is simple--try to improve yourself (or in my case my writing) every day, by just 1%. And by the end of the year, you'll have improved by 365%!

So I've decided to follow the Kaizen way and find a way to improve my writing, every day. Be it conceptualizing, improving my grammar, my descriptions, my dialogues, my characters--anything! But this way, one day, I too will achieve incomparable levels of skill!

Goal #1: Wake up 1 hour early every day and actually get some writing done!

PS: If you're interested in listening to more philosophies that help a screenwriter achieve success, ScreenwritingU will be hosting a class starting January 31, 2011, for free, on facebook and twitter!

Unfinished Waltz

One.
A single step—yet a hard one to undertake—
Propelled me beyond the ocean blue; across lake,
Mountain and valley, on to the edge of the world.
Alone and lost, in the land of dreams was I hurled.

Two.
The years slipped by, quicker than water through a sieve…
Has anything changed? Such goals had I to achieve!
Yet I’m no different from the little girl of yore
My lifelong wishes so far, my future unsure.

Three.
I’ve found the key to my passions and desires
It’s lit in my heart and soul voracious fires
That always want more; no longer to be confined.
Yet my heart still longs for what I have left behind.

One.
I work and toil and my dreams seem to draw nearer
My fingers graze their ethereal veil with fervor
I’m scared to go back now, to stray a few inches
For surely once I do, it will turn to ashes

Two.
Another impasse. Should I keep going or not?
Endless questions spring forth in a bloody onslaught
Doubts assail me and drag me to aphotic depths
Where awaits me the yoke of a thousand one deaths.

Three.
I search in vain for the support I once received
But it’s gone; from my family have I been cleaved,
And I must now fly on my own; forge my own way
And hope to find haven elsewhere somehow, some day.

One.
The world is so vast, the horizon infinite.
My frail wings are tired; my quest I wish to forfeit
I seek to land, but push myself ever onward
Till in blissful Hesperides I am harbored.

Alessa Ellefson
November 2010