The first tip I want to address is this: live wide, and live well.
Some quotes from the book:
- "When you are out and about, you are watching the gaudy show called life and are trying to learn from it. This is harder to do if you are busy being the star of the show."
- "Interesting people are interested people."
- "This kind of life experience is not distracting you from your appointed task of writing. It is, rather, the roundabout blessing of giving you something to say."
- "The world does not exist to provide raw material for your notebook."
Living wide simply means going out and getting some life experience outside of your comfort zone. Comfort zone-living is dangerous because it's difficult to learn something new from the same people, places, and participation you've always had. There's also no risk involved. There's no danger. Without risk and danger, you can't practice facing and overcoming adversity, being excellent in less than ideal circumstances, or feeling nervous. And feeling nervous is living. If you haven't felt nervous about anything in the last year, it's probably time to lay something on the line and show some passion.
Many of the greatest moments of my life are times I went out and did something outside of my comfort zone: spending the summer working at a camp in Pennsylvania when I was 21, moving out to western Nebraska, dancing the fox trot in front of 300 people, trying Chinese food. What these experiences provided was not only adding variety to my life, but also adding quality to the rest of it. I have better stories to tell as a writer. I have deeper empathy as a friend. I have events to celebrate, pictures to show my kids, and mistakes to learn from. With every test of uncharted waters, I also built relationships founded on the shared trials of risk.
To live well means simply to live. Quit viewing your time as a resource only for improving your skill. Instead, improve yourself through actually being in the moment with the people you are with, doing what you're doing, soaking in whatever life is giving you. As a writer, I'm constantly looking for material. The danger for me is for everything I read, every conversation I have, every prayer I attempt to be viewed immediately through the lens of How can I write about this? When I first got Facebook and Twitter accounts, I often thought if what I was doing was worthy of sharing. Instead of living well, I (and I assume many others) are too busy living through the lens of how what we're doing can be used to our advantage. Stop it. Have conversations, and not to hear yourself talk. Drink a cup of coffee slowly, reading a magazine or an article for fun, not necessarily to learn or to share. Watch a game with a friend, regardless of how busy you are. Ask about your spouse's day, and listen for longer than ten seconds. Eat with good people.
Don't do it because you're building contacts or building knowledge or building future opportunities for whatever success it is you're chasing. Do it because this is life, this is the stuff that matters, and these are the moments that will feed whatever it is you're chasing.
The success you seek won't matter if you don't live wide and live well. And it will probably be all the more sweeter if you are.
Many of the greatest moments of my life are times I went out and did something outside of my comfort zone: spending the summer working at a camp in Pennsylvania when I was 21, moving out to western Nebraska, dancing the fox trot in front of 300 people, trying Chinese food. What these experiences provided was not only adding variety to my life, but also adding quality to the rest of it. I have better stories to tell as a writer. I have deeper empathy as a friend. I have events to celebrate, pictures to show my kids, and mistakes to learn from. With every test of uncharted waters, I also built relationships founded on the shared trials of risk.
To live well means simply to live. Quit viewing your time as a resource only for improving your skill. Instead, improve yourself through actually being in the moment with the people you are with, doing what you're doing, soaking in whatever life is giving you. As a writer, I'm constantly looking for material. The danger for me is for everything I read, every conversation I have, every prayer I attempt to be viewed immediately through the lens of How can I write about this? When I first got Facebook and Twitter accounts, I often thought if what I was doing was worthy of sharing. Instead of living well, I (and I assume many others) are too busy living through the lens of how what we're doing can be used to our advantage. Stop it. Have conversations, and not to hear yourself talk. Drink a cup of coffee slowly, reading a magazine or an article for fun, not necessarily to learn or to share. Watch a game with a friend, regardless of how busy you are. Ask about your spouse's day, and listen for longer than ten seconds. Eat with good people.
Don't do it because you're building contacts or building knowledge or building future opportunities for whatever success it is you're chasing. Do it because this is life, this is the stuff that matters, and these are the moments that will feed whatever it is you're chasing.
The success you seek won't matter if you don't live wide and live well. And it will probably be all the more sweeter if you are.
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