Asa Rodriguez's Blog, page 14

Give your best

Seek that feeling of accomplishment

Push yourself to give your best. Make sure at the end of the day, as you go to sleep, that you feel proud of the work you did. Life is really about nurturing this feeling. It took me a long time to truly understand this, but it is real because all that really matters is how you feel about your work.

Knowing that you are giving your best in your creative process, in your career, in your job, in your relationship, and in whatever it is. Even if things do not go as you planned, just having that safety and accomplished feeling inside you knowing that you did your best. This is what we all want.

Just do your best and let the rest go

So, please, do not let yourself be troubled if life is tough right now, or if nothing seems to be working at the moment. Keep pushing, but do it always giving your best and knowing that you are confident in yourself. Let all overthinking, overanalyzing and judging go.

Don’t allow yourself to be full of doubts and fears, just make sure you are certain you did your best. Doing your best builds a strong character. Doing your best speaks of your self-discipline and professionalism. And this, with patience, leads to great life success in general.

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Developing art…

Creating great art

You know, there’s a common pattern among people who do art–like authors, like painters, like dancers, like craftspeople of all kinds. They often have no strategy, or not a very precise strategy. Sometimes we just have a vision or idea in our minds, and we just create as we go.

You may get a gut feeling about something. Your intuition could be guiding you to something, or to somewhere. Yet you can’t see the whole road ahead. I personally think this is, sometimes, really good. The mystery and the unknown force you to challenge yourself to develop great art forms.

Following your intuition

Now, the thing with going with your gut feeling, or intuition, is that if you spend too much time analyzing, or even overthinking, you may get lost or confused and thus lose your main focus. (This is not saying that having a strategy, a detailed development of your art process, is not good).

I’m just reminding you that if you are to follow intuition that you shouldn’t analyze everything perfectly. For example, as an author, I have a simple idea to start a story, and then, as I write, I immerse myself in the story itself and develop new ideas to develop further that story.

I recently learned from Twitter that some people call my creative process being a ‘pantser’. (Not really into labels). I just like to develop ideas as I go, and as I live the emotional roller coaster of the story I’m writing. In this sense, following my intuition without overanalyzing anything is what brings great art to life.

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The greatest discovery

Burdens of the past

In order to fly and go after your heart’s desire you have to let go of what’s weighing you down. When you carry the burdens of the past you then are unable to see your own worth.

And when this happens you cannot move forward and find the freedom to envision a better life for yourself. You, like everybody else, seek to be loved, cherished, accepted for who you are. Moving forward without burdens is what will make you unique to others.

To know you now

Being accepted and truly loved by others, can only be acomplished when you are truly yourself, which means letting go of what was. Because to be yourself is to know yourself in the present, not in the past.

Holding on to the past, even a little, is holding you back and blinding you from discovering who you really are in the present, and also from who you can become.

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Growing true love

What true love is

The truth is that true love is not shown in the gifts, in the grand gestures, in the poetic and passionate words. I have nothing against these popular displays of affection, but true love lies in the mindset, in the empathy, in the time and effort put into the simple things.

Giving your time, listening, trying to understand and feel what someone else feels, comforting someone in need, hugging and sharing uplifting words, guiding someone to see their own worth in difficult times for that person. This is what true love is.

In the simple things

So, if you put your time, your effort, your energy into the opposite, into the gifts and grand gestures, then you are really going the opposite direction of love.

You are creating excitement, passion, a burning desire; however, love is not there. Love lies only in the simple, heartfelt things; and that is every day, faithfully, and not just in the moments of passion when everyting seems perfect.

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Find your next read

Great storytelling

The value of reading. The increasing of our imagination. What reading does to our minds is something I truly value. A great book not only entertains and teaches, but it opens your mind, expands your awareness of the struggles of daily life.

It must bring empathy, a better understanding from a different perspective. At least, that’s what great storytellers must do, which is bring you different perspectives and emotional sensations to better your own life.

Following I bring you some bookfairs to find your next read:

Click here for “Trilogies”

Click here for “Ancient Scrolls”

Click here for “The Remains”

Click here for “Epic Fantasy and Sci-fi Quest”

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For all creators

Don’t think but create

We all know how difficult can be to sit down and focus on something, especially something highly creative like writing or painting, and especially when we are dealing with worries, anxieties, pressures of life and such. But it can be any task that requires that the mind becomes peaceful and serene to focus wholy. This happens to me, and it really can be frustrating.

What I have found is that the secret is to sit down and do it, no excuses, no overthinking. Thinking that much makes it seem even more difficult. Our mental energy is depleted quickly if we think too much. Just write and do whatever you have to do. You’ll polish it and fix it later. First, allow your mind to get into a flow and start creating.

Mental silence

Anything we do really requires that our minds are silent. A silent mind is a mind that is not making excuses, judging, fearing and overthinking. We live in a world that is busy and running 24/7, so it is of the most intelligent and brave among us to stop and look into our minds to seek this needed silence.

And from this silence many great ideas are discovered, and solutions to problems, and depth in understanding, and the wisdom to know what love and happiness are. In this silence we also find guidance for our lives. I, as an author, find that from this same silence my best ideas emerge.

Like if I’m stuck in the middle of the story, or if I don’t know what path to create for my characters next. It doesn’t have to be a struggle, not if we practice daily to silence our minds; thus teaching our minds to get used to a new lifestyle where mental silence is priority.

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DaRk, EpIc, CoMiNg-Of-AgE Fantasy…

This epic story begins about 5000 years ago, in Sumeria, as they came from outer space. Ancient gods, ascended masters, beings of light, above all war and fear...

Some reviews of the #1 in the series

“While most of us wait until we are adults to go on a journey of self-discovery; Benjamin Jones, an orphaned son of a Sioux woman and a Pawnee Shaman; goes on his journey at the tender age of 12. Travelling with an old friend of his parents, and a young friend of his own, Ben learns…” Click to read more in Lynn’s website

“A really nice children’s book that adults who love fantasy will also enjoy, like Harry Potter. This fantasy tale has a unique take to it; I don’t think I’ve ever come across a coming-of-age fantasy book that deals with such subjects. The connection to Sumeria and the battle of good vs. evil was interesting. The spiritual battle between…” J. Minag (Amazon) Click to read more of this review

“Probably my favorite type of fantasy is that which incorporates real-life spiritual/religious beliefs into its own lore. Another thing I love is alternate history, and Benjamin Jones’ story has both! But unlike the more popular routes of focusing on humanizing the beings from religious texts or accounting for the war on evil spiritual beings, Ben…” Sahreth ‘Baphy’ Bowden (Amazon) Click to read more of this review

“Just started but so far I’m invested into this kid. Author delivers with this one. Can’t wait to read the next book in the series.” S.Real (Amazon)

“A great book. Fellowship, ghouls and the quest to find ones true self. I can’t wait to read Author Asa Rodriguez other three books. A indie author to follow!!” T.C. Lovejoy (Goodreads)

“It was not what i expected it to be but better. It has a very captivating character and plot line. I recommend you to read this.” Marie (Goodreads)

Right now “The Call of The Shaman” is free to download from Amazon, B&N, and Kobo. Please browse through my website to find out more about the book. Or click here

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A positive shift

Thinking positive

Thinking positive attracts better things into your life. Thinking positive changes the way you see, feel, experience life. So, thinking positive, especially when your mind is full of anxiety and uncertainty, shifts your whole mindset, your whole character and persona. In fact, positive thinking gets rid of all anxiety.

Improving your life

This leads you to a better lifestyle, because thinking like this is really self-care, which means you’ll grow passion to better yourself in all other aspects. It makes you more attractive. It gives you confidence and vision for a better future. So all your life improves as a consequence of this inner change.

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Chasing perfection

Better

Achieving perfection is impossible. But chasing perfection makes you better. A person with purpose is a person who builds his life around the best habits. Better in health. Better in love. Better in relationships. Better father/mother.

Better son/daughtet. Better in creativity. Never bilittle yourself and say you cannot do better. All it takes is passion, step by step, creating the best habits daily for your better development.

Just better habits

To be better human beings, thinking and feeling, beliefs and philosophies, desires to be better do not actually make us better. Only better habits that mold you into something better actually make you better.

But the more you think about this, the more excuses you’ll make about it. The secret is to stop thinking and overthinking it so much, just envision a better you and design better habits.

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Freeing yourself

Shielding yourself from the outside

No woman, as no man, should let society dictate what her strengths are, what her beauty is, what her place in the world is. The everyday pressures to think, feel, behave a certain way. The influences from social media, from celebrities, from friends, from family.

All this is causing major disruption in our thinking process. Much anxiety is being allowed in our minds by all this garbage. There must be a 100% focus on your inner world, taking care of your mental health and blocking or ignoring whatever is not uplifting and conducive to your well-being.

An inner revolution

After all, life is about discovering yourself; but for this, you must focus entirely on the way you think and feel without any bias or influence from anything or anyone out there. If there is no self-discovery, a person is like a machine. A machine follows set programming.

A machine follows and copies what others have programmed into it. But a machine can never be truly unique. And life, love, happiness, as a better human being, requires us to be unique and to study ourselves in depth in order to grow. Ponder this and start an inner revolution.

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