Never Trust a Catastrophe
I loved this quote from THE TOBOLOWSKI FILES (a podcast by actor Stephen Tobolowski), Episode 51 – “The Light of the First Day.”
“ . . . art gets a terrible reputation by people affecting the appearance of creativity without offering the product of it.”
He also said this little nugget:
“Never trust a catastrophe. It has a way of turning into a miracle when you least expect it.”
Truth.
We’re Supposed to Have FUN???
“I read once in a dusty, boring, difficult book that it’s okay to sometimes do stuff ‘cause it’s fun and not only because it is satisfying some sense of obligation.” Eric Linus Kaplan The Great
Show No Insecurity
An old writing client recently wrote, “I have a big meeting the following week with potential buyer/maker-happener and that wrecks me. I guess it’s exactly the same as auditioning for a part you really want. Any insights to send me in with???”
I responded, “Here’s the thing re that meeting. You have something THEY want. You will ONLY sell it to them if you’re in the moooooooood to sell it because you don’t neeeeeeeeeeeeeed to sell it. You MIGHT sell it. You might NOT. YOU are in charge. I know you THINK you’re HAVE to sell, but that is the exact stance that puts you at a disadvantage. Remember: your product will HELP them. If they want to HELP themselves, they will buy your fabulous product. If they want to continue suffering without your product, that’s their business. You don’t NEED them. You are a lovely, kind person who is taking time out of her fabulous, busy day to meet with them to see if you can help them be less miserable. KEEP THE POWER. DANGLE the CARROT. If they say, “We think your script is too x,” you respond, “Oh, that’s too bad. Everyone else seems to love the xness. So and So and Such and Such particularly commented on it. But hey, if it’s not for you, that’s ok. I hope you find what you’re looking for. Have a wonderful day.”
She wrote back, “It helps, I just don’t know if I have it in me to pull it off. The picture-them-naked thing NEVER works for me.”
So I sent her this amazing quote I heard from my teacher Tej (who came so highly recommended by many, including Angelique C and Courtney P) at Golden Bridge today. I think Yogi Bhadjan says it a LOT better. Don’t you?
Yogi Bhajan – 7/4/89 – “Show No Insecurity”:
Be in command. The statement is, “Be in gainful command.” Your posture should not be aggressive or shallow. It should be gracious, slightly bright, self contained. There is one thing every woman should learn. Show no insecurity. This is a key to royalty. If you take on this conscious behavior in forty days, seventy percent of your problems will be gone. Just show no insecurity, even if you are deadly insecure. “God, he is going to tell me to get out of the house, ‘pack up, you bitch’.” Show no insecurity even then. Men love that kind of woman.
You may be beautiful, intelligent, rich, working, supporting, and blindly in love, but show insecurity and you are done. Man by nature is a super insecure idiot. It is true, believe me. This whole macho thing unbuttoned shirt and all that, is make-up. This is a rat who growls like a lion. First of all you do not know how to be mad, then you get mad and you don’t know how to get out of it. In one second men are dead mad and the next minute they ask you out for dinner.
Walk the Path
“There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” – Morpheus (The Matrix)
Honk Honk!!
“I think it’d be a lot easier to get around the city if like a million people gave up on their dreams.” Matt Knudsen
(See the whole Conan clip here: http://teamcoco.com/video/matt-knudsen-standup)
Make It Into Jazz
I really like this from Pete Carroll, the former USC football coach who coached them to several national titles, when he was talking to his players as they complained about running plays ad nauseum until they could do them in their sleep. – Kris E.
“From the discipline and repetition comes the ability to improvise and be creative. If you try to be creative and improvise without the discipline, you have chaos. But once you have the discipline, once you take care of all the details, you can play with it. You gain the ability to add accent, to improvise with trust and confidence, to make it into jazz.”
The Key to Failure
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone.” ~ Bill Cosby
Unplanned Thoughts
“The mind thinks thoughts that we don’t plan. It’s not as if we say, “At 9:10 I’m going to be filled with self-hatred.” ~ Sharon Salzberg
