Coming Events--end of July

I want to apologize if I've seemed a bit frustrated with being behind schedule in recent updates. I knew when I set this schedule it would take a miracle not to fall way behind and I did it anyway. For one thing I like the way impossible goals force you to think outside the way you normally accomplish things. ie if I were to cut my time to complete a novel down to four months how could that happen. Well, I can pick up a lot of time in the drafting phase via some speed writing techniques and participating in NaNoWriMo. I really have to put a draft aside for awhile before I edit it, which creates downtime...or does it. I can draft one book then draft another, then edit the first and then edit the second. So even if I can't actually finish a novel in 4 consecutive months I might be able to to finish 2 in 8 months. Things like that. So I set to work, and life happened. I wanted to blog about the adventure because even if I fail this time I want to glean some info out and try again next year. I think it can be done and I'll be faster for having tried. I also took on some big health and organizing projects this year so I'm fully committed. Some of the things I took on I had a good idea what I was in for and others were completely new territory. The writing was actually the part I felt most sure of. I'd already completed 3 ghost biographies, one fantasy novel and coauthored a non-fiction. I also had a half finished draft of one of the books and a completely finished draft of the other book. So I should have been jump-started. But alas I'm behind my projections. However, when I go back to look at my reasoning for setting this crazy set of goals in the first place it's paid off, big time. The out of the box/creative innovation that has resulted from setting simultaneous stretch goals in three, massive areas of my life has resulted in life expansion on a scale I hadn't predicted. When I read a self improvement book on one topic and an organization book and a book on writing/marketing sometimes they clash and stress me with dissonance, but occasionally they line up and speak to something that the authors of these books didn't mean to speak to. The irony here is that I've most recently learned some giant lessons about focus. According to the book "The power of full engagement," which I wish I could get more into, there are 4 kinds of energy. 1. Physical 2. Emotional 3. Mental 4. Spiritual. I've only read about 20% of the book and it's mind blowing. Anyway, Spiritual energy is measured in alignment. When contemplating this, among other things, I got some clarity from God about the topic of seasons. I have a well-honed ability to see the direction events will take an organization. God pointed out to me that I will increase my satisfaction in life when I reduce the influence of both the past and the future. I've heard all the hackneyed advice on this topic, but this time it really sank in. For me, it has more meaning when stated the way God put it--enjoy the season you are in, even while accounting for the future and releasing the past. So there you have it. I don't know how you need to hear it but it all starts fitting together. Forgiveness is giving up the possibility of a better past. Faith is believing that God will do something good with the outcomes of your decisions even when you screw it up. And the secret to enjoying this day is single-mindedness, accepting that good or bad, hot or cold, fast or slow, there's something good in it for me. Be fully in this time and place regardless of what else you could be doing. Be grateful for the opportunity to be here even if it's not what you'd expected it should be like. This is a big key for me and I'm not describing it well, but if you can hopefully decipher what I'm meaning you'll be blessed by it. In short, you don't have to give up planning or anticipating future good things in order to be completely present to here and now, BUT you do have to willfully reject the distraction of everything that the present might have been if you'd somehow been wiser/smarter/luckier. I always try to do better than before but the degree to which I rob from my present to accomplish that is the degree to which I burn energy without producing anything right now. I think I'll dub this new philosophy, "redeeming the present" (someone probably already has that, I should google it). Well it's a good working title. Quick update: I'm going to somehow finish about half my edits on my WIP between now and the end of this month and I'm going to start "the virgin diet" with my friend Kristin next Monday. Very Scary! We are both nuts but it's going to work out, somehow. Now to the Coming events: Loyal Local will be August 4th from 10AM to 4PM, at the Hilton Downtown Vancouver. I'll be joining awesome local authors like Gregory Zschomler, and Phil Silver. So please come out and support us. Have an awesome day!