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Posts Tagged ‘Just do it’

Just Do It

Posted in Art, Journeys, tagged on January 15, 2020| 21 Comments »

Art projects of one kind or another are always on my to-do list. Fortunately, I rarely use my dining room table for its designated purpose. So I’ve started keeping my watercolor materials easily available for when the just-do-it moment hits me. — Photo by Pat Bean

 

“If you feel like there’s something out there that you’re supposed to be doing, if you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it.” — Wanda Sykes

Morning Chat

It is January 15, halfway through the resolution-breaking month of the year. I’m not sure I ever made it this far without breaking my New Year’s resolutions -– even if they were as simple as to blog every other day and to mark three things off my lengthy to-do list every day.

Swan — By Pat Bean

These were the only New Year’s resolutions I made this year, but I also adopted a theme to go along with them: Just do it!

The reason my to-do list has become so long. Yes, it is actually several pages. The reason is that whenever I think of something I want to do — like write a letter to a 10-year-old grandchild discussing the upcoming movie Dr. Doolittle Movie, telling him that the Doolittle books were some of my very favorites growing up — I add it to my to-do list. And then promptly forget it.

No more. When I think of such things from now on, time and circumstances permitting, I am going to simply do it. This Just-do-it theme even prompted me to make my bed this morning before I even left the bedroom. Some days I surprise even myself.

Now if you will excuse me, I have a letter to write.

Bean Pat: Colline’s blog https://collinesblog.com/2020/01/15/reading-goal-2020/ Check out her New Year’s goal.

Pat Bean is a retired journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is a wondering-wanderer, avid reader, enthusiastic birder, Lonely Planet Community Pathfinder, Story Circle Network board member, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon, and is always searching for life’s silver lining.

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Writing for Writers

Posted in African Safari, Books, Journeys, Writing, tagged , , , on June 12, 2014| 7 Comments »

I learned to identify birds, like this lilac-breasted roller, one bird at a time, which is the same approach Anne Lamott suggests we use for writing. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I learned to identify birds, like this lilac-breasted roller, one bird at a time, which is the same approach Anne Lamott suggests we use for writing. — Photo by Pat Bean

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.” – Anne Lamott

Who Gives the Best Advice?

My favorite book about writing is Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird,” which by the way is also a good book for how to live your life.

Anne-Lamott-2013-San-Francisco

Anne Lawmott — Wikimedia photo

In it, Anne quotes E.L. Doctorow, who once said that “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

She thought it was right up there with the best advice on writing she had ever heard. So do I.

I also identify with this quote by Anne:” “Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you’re going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstance, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it, and find out the truth about who you are.”

As I said, “Bird by Bird,” is about living as much as writing.

As for her advice that perfectionism isn’t a good thing, I find myself fighting this battle each time I’m about half way through a writing project, and start thinking my writing is not good enough.

Then I find it’s time to take advice from a Nike slogan: “Just do it.

Blog pick of the day.

Blog pick of the day.

Bean Pat: A Recorder and Puberty  http://tinyurl.com/lhkptek This blog took me back to my parenting days, and I laughed because I got through them.

Bean Pat: Yellow-crowned heron http://tinyurl.com/ow8xjyu You can even find them in Queens New York.

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