Merce Cardus's Blog, page 67

TUESDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-Publishing & Better Living: Fear

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Quote of the day

The only way to ease our fear and be truly happy is to acknowledge our fear and look deeply at its source. Instead of trying to escape from our fear, we can invite it up to our awareness and look at it clearly and deeply.

~Thích Nhất Hạnh, author ofFear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm.

WRITING

Creating your protagonist: Inner demons, Jennifer Blanchard| Tweet

In this Periscope I talk about character inner demon...

3 1/2 Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Said

10 1/2 Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Saidis the antidote to those cotton-candy platitudes that are all too familiar to anyone who’s ever worn a mortarboard, Wheelan’s 101 head-turning aphorisms―backed up by a PhD in public policy and extensive social science research―set the record straight.

1. Don’t make the world worse

I know that I am supposed to tell you to aspire to greatness. But I am going to lower the bar here for a minute. I am going to ask first and foremost that you do...

Your Inner Zen Chef Isn’t Afraid of Failure

Cooking is a big part of what makes us human, says legendary food writer Ruth Reichl, author of My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life. And just as we err in all other facets of life, to make mistakes while learning to cook is only natural. In fact, it’s through these small bits of failure that we improve in our abilities and heighten our passion for food.

Cooking is a big part of what makes us human.

And it is our natural activity. Anybody who’s ever spent much time with a kid kno...

MONDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-Publishing & Better Living: The Morning Routine

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Quote of the day

Waking up to a new day presents you with the opportunity to start again. Don’t worry about the past, don’t stress about the future. Focus on the now.

Your first step is to choose a time to go to sleep and wake up consistently. This will condition the body to adapt to this sleep cycle, lessening sleep inertia.

~S. R. MARIN, author ofThe Ultimate Morning Routine: Master Morning Rituals, Craft Good Daily Habits, & Operate at High Opti...

A Balance Between Automatic Pilot and Consciousness

Joy cannot be compared to pleasure or happiness, since they depend on external circumstances and are ephemeral. Joy is at theheart of any search, and at the same time the clearest sign that a human being has reached the harmony to which philosophy, art or spiritual paractice made him aspire.

WithThe Doors of Joy: 19 Meditations for Authentic Living,Daniel Odier has discovered the trip-wire that keeps us from experiencing lasting joy and he gives us the tool kit that will bring it back into o...

Master Your Craft

If your goal is to become masterful at what you do, the formula is simple: stay focused and do your time.

In this lesson, Malcolm Gladwell author of Outliers: The Story of Successteaches you how.

The kind of notion that geniuses, people who are extraordinarily good, invariably have put in an extraordinary amount of effort, this notion of the 10,000 hour rule, that anyone who has mastered a cognitively complex field has almost always put in this extraordinary level of practice first — So tha...

WEEKEND LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-Publishing & Better Living: The Charisma Myth

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Quote of the day

Human beings remember “firsts”- the first time something happens, or the begining of an experience- and we tend to remember “lasts” as well. So when you are about to make a critical/negative delivery, start your criticism with a positive begining, it will affect the rest of the experience. Start by giving them solid ground to stand by expressing the fact that you value them and they matter. Once they are reassured of their own worth, peop...

We Are Free, Even If Everything Is Written In Advance

Human Kindness and the Smell of Warm Croissants: An Introduction to Ethicsmakes philosophy fun, tactile, and popular. Moral thinking is simple, Ruwen Ogien argues, and as inherent as the senses. In our daily experiences, in the situations we confront and in the scenes we witness, we develop an understanding of right and wrong as sophisticated as the moral outlook of the world’s most gifted philosophers. By drawing on this knowledge to navigate life’s most perplexing problems, ethics becomes...

3 Tips To Boost Your Confidence

Working women today are better educated and more well qualified than ever before. Yet men still predominate in the corporate world. In The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance—What Women Should Know, Claire Shipman and Katty Kay argue that the key reason is confidence.

When faced with a big challenge where potential failure seems to lurk at every corner, you’ve probably heard the advice, “Be more confident!” But where does confidence come from, and how can you get more of i...

THURSDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-Publishing & Better Living: Daily Rituals

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Quote of the day

A solid routine fosters a well-worn groove for one’s mental energies and helps stave off the tyranny of moods.

~MASON CURREY, author ofDaily Rituals: How Artists Work

WRITING

Writing Fish-Out-of-Water Characters, Write on Sisters| Tweet

The fish-out-of-water character is one of my favorites. It is remarkably versatile and there are so many story situations it works perfectly for (18 according to TV Tropes). I’m currently writi...