Merce Cardus's Blog, page 74

TUESDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-Publishing & Better Living: Finding Your Element

Quote of the day

If you are considering earning your living from your Element, it’s important to bear in mind that you not only have to love what you do; you should also enjoy the culture and the tribes that go with it.

~KEN ROBINSON, author ofFinding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life

WRITING

Editing Your Novel After NanoWrimo: Can You Clean The Mess?, The Authors’ Nook| Tweet

Whether you did NanoWriMo or just decided to write a 50,000-word...

How To Identify A Mess

Everything is getting more complex. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of information we encounter each day. Whether at work, at school, or in our personal endeavors, there’s a deepening (and inescapable) need for people to work with and understand information. Information Architectureis the way that we arrange the parts of something to make it understandable as a whole.

Messes are made of information and people

A mess is any situation where something is confusing or full of difficu...

Compassion is Natural. So Why Is It So Hard for Us?

If we understand compassion to be the natural sense of concern that arises when we encounter someone in need of help, then the main inhibitor of our natural compassionate instinct is fear.

Thupten Jinpa, author of A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Liveswho is perhaps most well-known as the long-time translator for the Dalai Lama, explains in this video interview that social fears and pressure often lead us to repress our compassionate inclinations.

Defin...

MONDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-Publishing & Better Living: The Myth of Multitasking

Photo Credit: Davide – Dusk photographer via Compfight cc

Quote of the day

The widely talked about and common word “multitasking” is a lie – but nearly everyone in our fast-paced world has accepted is as something that’s true. We’ve all adopted it as a way of life. People are proud of their skills at multitasking, but the truth is that multitasking is neither a reality nor is it efficient.

~DAVE CRENSHAW, author of The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done

WRITING

Wr...

Be a Rebel, not a Revolutionist

Decades after the rebellions of the 1960s a new generation is again challenging and rebelling against outdated structures and values, focusing on political and economic systems and their failings. But this generation has the opportunity and responsibility to move the development of human freedom to the next level.Living on Your Own Terms: What Is Real Rebellion?will support this new generation in expanding its understanding of freedom and pushing toward new systems for humanity.

The rebel si...

Positive Thinking Works Even When It Fails — By Making You Resourceful

The world-famous mentalist The Amazing Kreskin explains in this video interview that your life is like a meal and you’re the chef. You’re much more likely to enjoy the taste of things to come if you’re not just throwing random ingredients in the pot without direction or vision. And then, even if you fail, maintaining positivity will help you fail better and lead you to future successes.

The real positive thinking is having goals

I’m passionate about positive thinking from the early books...

WEEKEND LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-Publishing & Better Living: Happiness

Photo Credit: hang_in_there via Compfight cc

Quote of the day

We try to fix the outside so much, but our control of the outer world is limited, temporary, and often, illusory.

Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment, not the gratification of inexhaustible desires for outward things.

~MATTHIEU RICARD, author ofHappiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill

WRITING

An Interview with C.S. Lakin:The 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction, StoryFix| Tweet

The more you read abo...

Time to Think Twice

Why is it so hard to make sound decisions? We fall victim to simplified mental routines that prevent us from coping with the complex realities inherent in important judgment calls. Yet these cognitive errors are preventable. In Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition, Michael Mauboussin shows you how to recognize-and avoid-common mental missteps

When to think twice?

You needn’t think twice before every decision. We all make a lot of decisions every day, and the stakes are very...

Be Biased in Favor of Taking Action

Broadcaster Claire Shipman, author of The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance—What Women Should Know,explains the positive aspects of allowing confidence to grow within yourself. The best way to do this is to erase any fears that keep you from leaping toward professional and personal challenges.

Confidence as a kind of energy

Most of the time people tend to think confidence is important because it helps us with success and that is certainly true. We’ve certainly seen that...

THURSDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-Publishing & Better Living: Leaders Eat Last

Photo Credit: agitateslowly via Compfight cc

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

~SIMON SINEK, author ofLeaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Dont

WRITING

Can A Writer Produce Too Much?, My Bookish Life| Tweet

The New York Times published an article last week authored by Stephen King in which hecomes to the defense of prolific writers such as himself. In short, he puts forward two arguments.

On Writing...