This guest post is by motivational and inspirational writer, Bryan Hutchinson. Bryan is the author of Positive Writer, where he shares encouraging messages about writing and creativity. In his spare time, Bryan enjoys exploring castles across Europe with his wife and best friend, Joan Faith. You can follow Bryan on Twitter and Facebook.There have been too many days when I didn't know what to write about. I sat here waiting… waiting… waiting, but nothing came to me.
I used to think that some mornings I just wasn't meant to write anything. Inspiration did not visit me, and instead I wasted hours drinking cold coffee while staring blankly at my computer screen.
Well, frankly, that sucked. So I started something new.
Provided by Dreamstime.com
Now when I am totally stuck, instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, I pick a random quote and start writing about it.
I love quotes. Who doesn't?
Here’s today’s quote:
Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they’re yours.
~Richard Bach (Tweet This Quote)
You’re better than you think you are. It doesn’t matter where you are in your life right now you were meant for more!
You are more.
The human spirit within you urges you every morning to get up and create something, anything, and you want to.
You need to.
The problem comes when you don’t think you have anything to write, paint or design that matters. That whatever you create won’t be good enough, accepted or appreciated.
When those thoughts start to take root and turn into beliefs nothing anyone says will change your mind. You start feeling lesser than others, incapable of being more, and you start to believe that you will never achieve greatness.
The fact is: that’s not true.
But I am not here to convince you. I am here to help you realize:
Whatever you argue for will be (and is) true for you. (Tweet This)
If you think you’re not good enough, if you think you can’t create something that matters and if you believe in your heart of hearts no one will appreciate your work, well, then, that’s your reality.
So consider this:
If you think you are good enough, that you can create something that matters, and you believe in your heart of hearts that people will appreciate your work, well, then that’s your reality.
You choose.
Every day you must make this choice, so why not make it a good one?
What do you choose to argue for today? Share in the comments.
You are awesome! (By you, I do mean, you!) Believe it. It's true.
PRACTICE
Pick a random quote and write a blog post about it.
Then come back here and share the link to it in the comments. Or, if you're not a blogger, write about a quote in the comments. We’d love to read it.
(Also, feel free to use the picture above for your post.)
“There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done
There’s nothing you can sing that can’t be sung
Nothing you can say, but you can learn to play the game
It’s easy”
Before I started taking writing more seriously, I always thought arts is about
transmitting unique ideas, ideas that change mankind and their perceptions,
ideas that shape the new world of tomorrow, making people more sensitive to the realities of their fellow men and women.
With arts, you feel deep and you think big.
But the reality, when you sit on your bud for hours, trying to put on paper one tiny, little sparkle of genius idea, is very different.
In the morning I wake up, motivated maybe by a dream or some episode my brain put in order during my sleeping hours, and I feel like fire and flame to get it out and into the world. But once that first writing urge is released, and I have to revise what I just wrote before publishing, doubts start crawling towards me,
like ghost-zombies. They approach me like shadows, from the corners of my room, start climbing my legs, immobilize my body, get into my head and are longing for my heart, darkening everything.
Where do the zombie-doubts come from?
It’s the knowledge, that the genius idea I am just working on has already been covered by that famous author I read last year or by a newspaper article that falls into my hands just a few hours after putting the last full stop on my text.
It’s my younger brother answering sober, that this is sort of the same idea one
of the old Greek philosophers was pounding about for years. Nothing is new;
everything has already been there thousands, maybe millions of times. Nearly
everyone has had this idea before once or several times in their lifetimes.
I feel like a failure.
But then, …
“all you need is love. ♫ Tatatarará. All you need is love. ♪ Tatatarará. All
you need is love, love. Love is all you need.♫”
Lennon should have changed some parts of the choruses to “all you need is faith”, meaning faith in yourself and love for your work. Because it is true… you have to learn how to play the game. It’s a craft, therefore a lot of work to master it. You have to learn how to express one thought, which has been thought all over millions, trillions of times before in a way that is non-superficial, hiking the depths, pounding the vein of your zeitgeist, reaching out to your readers, who actually have millions and trillions of these thoughts every day, but who generously will accept to stop for a minute in their train of life, to grant that one specific idea a few minutes more, and maybe, that can change their perspectives and their lives a tiny, little, sparkling bit.
Like Walt Whitman said: “The powerful play goes on, and you can contribute a verse”.
Thank you Brian for this charming inspiration!
My blog: http://balladofaseeker.blogspot.com/2013/05/all-you-need-is.html
I think you just put all the problems I have ever had with writing into *words*. Wow. I didn’t think that was possible. 🙂
haha, thank you. so nice to hear that.
You said it: “Faith in yourself and love for your work.” that’s what living one’s passion is all about.
– You’re welcome 🙂 and thank you, too!
Wow, you, my friend are a creative good writer! I teach creative writing and especially love it when I come across a writing treat such as yours. This is definitely going in my good writing file. 🙂
I can so relate to the fear that you don’t have anything new to say. I have the same problem in writing my current book.
But my friend, you just did it. You had a whole new way of expressing doubts which gave me a greater and more indepth understanding of what happens to me. have a new understanding of
The next time those zombie doubts crawl up your legs, you scream at them, “I am a creative, good writer. Someone saw something in a fresh new way they’ve never seen before because of my writing. Those zombie
I’ve come to the conclusion that even though timeless truths may stay the same, people change. Each generation needs new symbols. Plato or Aristotle may have said it first, but they used language and symbols from their own time and experience. Their experience is not as close to mine as yours is. We are contemporaries, so even if you say the same thing, if you say it in a new way, it will resonate with me in a different way than old writers will.
http://charlieeatmybook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/writing-exercise-from-write-practice.html
I really enjoyed writing this, it was a lot of fun! 🙂
haha, you really made me laugh. That was a gorgeous and witty ride. Didn’t thought of making a real story out of this exercise… Damn! Very classy! I will keep it in mind for next time. I prefer stories to essays…
Thank you! 🙂
Stories are definitely better than essays, I agree.
I agree, too! Loved it! Keep writing.
Thanks! 🙂
light hearted and entertaining about a potentially un-lighthearted subject! I really enjoyed reading about your “near-death” and the accompanying quote. I look forward to reading more of your work.
Thanks! 🙂
Love the twist.
Thank you 🙂
ohh you turned a corner real quick there – loved it.
You know you have to write that full story now don’t you… 😀
Thank you. And indeed, that story will bug me until it is written.
Would you believe I had this quote rolling around my head all week… never thought of applying it to a post tho… Here’s my ponderings 🙂 http://auntyamo.com/2013/05/25/freedom/
FREEDOM! Somehow that made me think of Braveheart 🙂 Oh, those kids don’t know what they are getting into! Thanks for sharing with us, Annmarie.
I almost posted a photo of Mel Gibson in his Braveheart gear 🙂
lol – I’m kind of glad you didn’t 🙂
nicely put! Freedom comes in many forms but it’s choosing wisely that truly makes us free.
Thanks Jay 🙂 that’s it in a nutshell!
Wonderful 🙂
This is actually relevant to me at the moment as I am currently finishing off with my GCSEs, and (though I will have to do my A-levels next year) the freedom feels half exciting and half scary. I’ve had to spend a lot of time thinking over even the tiniest decisions and the largest ones, from doing five minutes of bass practice instead of revising or which Sixth Form to go to. The whole world is suddenly a dangerous place.
Ripping pages out of books is a lot of fun!
Thanks Charlotte. The excitement of the impending freedom – which brought a whole new set of responsibilities and decisions!
I hope it all goes well for you.
oh and I did a bit of page ripping and BOY it felt good – even if it was in my bedroom and it all went straight into the rubbish bin 🙂
Bryan, I love the way you express things in a fresh new way which affirm me in my writing.
My limiting thoughts have to do with, “I’m not good enough. I don’t measure up. I’m not perfect enough or say things right enough. Or what if I make too many mistakes (especially since I teach creative writing!)”
Into this lie, you speak this truth which sets me free.
“If you think you are good enough, that you can create something that matters, and you believe in your heart of hearts that people will appreciate your work, well, then that’s your reality.
Your writing is like a flashlight in the dark which show me that the monsters are not really there. 🙂
Hi Sharon, glad you enjoyed it. I think we all need a flashlight from time to time. The writer’s world can get dark and lonely, and every now and then we have to remember it’s what we love to do and that’s what matters!
I may persist and on relating to however nice your article is, however i might rather tell you I appreciate your dedication to writing quality content.
Today, I went to an antique fair where I came across a woman selling books. What made them so special was they were state and local authors, among them Flannery O’Connor and Eugenia Price. What impressed me was the number of local authors that continue to write. It gave me more incentive and motivation to keep going on this path I’ve embarked on. Thoughts of doubt jump out every now and then, but not near as much as they used to.
That means you are becoming stronger, more confident in who you are and your abilities. You go girl!
Great post, Bryan. I really liked how you reiterated you are what you think. And I am a writer with something of value to offer the world. I appreciated this post.
Thanks, Anne 🙂
This was one assignment I found particularly interesting.
I chose a quote by Oscar Wilde and wrote a blog post about it. You can find it at http://www.portals2stories.com/Blog.html
Jay, you’re so right. There are people who give off such a vibe that you just want to go away, or, you want them to go away. I think you did the right thing because a person’s attitude can bring you down, or, it can lift you up. So it’s much better to be around those who lift you up — in another library 🙂
exactly, you hit the nail on the head.
It’s such a shame when brilliant things, places, and people are twisted by the negativity of others, and it’s such a shame you felt the need not to go to the ibrary anymore. Libraries are certainly brilliant places. 🙂
I still go to libraries. I had been working at this one particular one, and because of the negativity I moved on to work somewhere else (as a writer!). The library can indeed be a brilliant place, and so often the people there can set the tone (as anywhere) with their positive energy if they choose. Some people are naturally positive, and some aren’t.
Indeed. Luckily, my local library is 95 per cent full of extremely smiley people.
Jay, I loved your post and left a comment. You have a terrific blog. I wonder if you would mind an unsolicited suggestion? The spam blocker with captcha code is really hard to read, I had to try three times and almost gave up. There are spam filter plugins that are so good at weeding out spam, you don’t have to moderate comments, might be worth investigating so more people can read your thoughtful words!
Bryan Great idea if you run out of ideas.
Thanks, Kath 🙂 And I am going to work on that other post you mentioned on FB TW!
Love this idea Bryan. I look forward to reading everyone’s posts this weekend. Here is my take http://www.christasterken.com/grow-up-and-tell-us-who-you-are/
Way to go, Christa! Keep writing.
WoW Christa! It’s wonderful when we finally grow up by going back to what made us happy before we grew up.
I love that quote Christa and have it on my wall to remind me. Loved seeing your pictures to go with your trip down memory lane – what a treasure to have those bits of your past and hold them in your hand…
Good idea! My quote is from Einstein – http://adecadeofwanderers.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/bare-necessities-journal-entry-4-life-is-like-riding-a-bicycle/
Agreed!
Very nice, Elise, and good for you for finding a way to save and keep moving forward.
A nine hour shift? I moan about doing an hour or two of exam revision! It’s inspirational to see someone with so much to do still able and willing to write, too.
great quote, Elise. I loved your post so full of gratitude and positive energy – nice job!
I love quotes, words or sentences that I hear, shamefully I walk around with a little notebook and write any sentence or quote that I hear, specially on internet or t.v, it can be news, movies, or porn…just kidding about this one. It does give me ideas to write about.”All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.”
I have to admit, I’m a quote collector, too. It’s like an addiction. They never fail to provide me with the writing prompt I need when I am stuck.
I´m following you on twitter(that´s creepy, I look like a stocker) and also joined adderworld community,never been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD but I sure day dreamed a lot during highschool and maybe that´s why my grades where that bad, or maybe it was the subjects didn´t interest me. Either way, I decided to learn more about it. Get new ideas and see if I had something similar to those who where diagnosed. Maybe I´m a closet ADD.
You know, it’s funny you mention that, most creative type people are considered to have several of the characteristics of ADHD, but that doesn’t always mean they have ADHD. However, the strategies for people with ADHD can be very helpful! (Secret: I share those strategies in all my writings)
In the US 10% of young people are diagnosed with ADHD, in France it is less than 0.5%. We are obsessed with having conditions – and excuses.
There is more wrong with school, the choice of subjects, the way we are trained, that we have to concentrate at a given time on a given subject, and so on. Don’t blame the faults of the system on the people having to go through it.
Maybe we found another name for creativity because we cannot handle it. Let’s just call it ADHD.
Top secret, that´s why I got registered into the adderworld community. Get one of your free books. What can I say..I broke.
Awesome post, Bryan! 😀 I did the exercise. http://themagicviolinist.blogspot.com/2013/05/blog-about-quote.html
I think you just took me to school, MV! Wonderful post and so true. We all have to go through some darkness to find the light, or how else would we learn to appreciate the light? Well done. Can’t wait to read your book! Put me on your waiting list.
Thanks! 😀 I’ll be posting chapters on my blog as soon as it’s done!
I’ll be keeping my eye out for them!
Ok, here is my take on this. I’ve been meaning to write about metta meditation for a while. http://www.completenaturalcare.com/2013/05/26/7-steps-to-more-positive-feelings/
Meditation and mindfulness has helped me in many ways. Great post. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you.
This is a really good idea Bryan that I will use often, as I am nearly always stumped for topics. I love good quotes! Here is my contribution, inspired by a quote by my favorite, Hemingway: http://kathleencaron.com/the-healing-art-of-listening/ Thank you for sharing your platform!
Nice post, Kathleen. Listening is hard work sometimes, but the payoff is worth it. Great quote by Hemingway!
Thank you Bryan, and by the way, you are awesome.
I love that Hemingway quote – not sure if I’ve seen it before and have to say after reading many articles about him as well as his books, I’d be hard pressed to seeing him as a great listener! Really enjoyed your post – loved this: “sunshine is a good disinfectant” – boy, that’s a truth…
Ha ha, me too Margaret, somehow can’t picture Hemingway hanging on your every word, much as I love his writing. Thank you for reading my post, I am so glad you liked it, that makes my day!
What a cool idea! I think of people pick a random quote and just ALLOW themselves to write about it, they could overcome their personal demons and get quite creative!
Right! Let’s get creative! 🙂
Thanks for pushing me over the edge Bryan!
I not only took a quote, I bought a domain, and set up a site, and wrote the about page: http://www.quotesonfire.com/
I checked it out, Bob. Good for you! Keep moving forward and I’ll keep pushing 🙂
You’re the bomb Bryan! Got two post there now. A much better post on the second one.
Cool! Keep posting!
While I do have a blog, it’s more of an industry-specific thing rather than a personal one. I hope you don’t mind that I write about the quote here instead, especially because your guest post came at a personally “down” moment. (must be coincidence, fate, or something…)
These past few months, things (especially finances and work) haven’t been favorable for me in spite of personal efforts to improve my situation. Sometimes I ask myself if I’m doing something wrong, if I delivering what is expected of me, if I’m really doing my best, things like that.
I came across that quote by Eleanor Roosevelt while researching online on a work-related topic. For what felt like eternity, that quote struck and froze me in my chair, staring at the screen.
The part that especially hit me was meeting “it” with the best I have to give. I somewhat don’t know if I’m indeed giving my best, but I decided – from then on – that I’ll give it my whole mind and heart while learning and improving myself, working, trying to deliver value, etc.
Admittedly I’m feeling desperate. But, I’ll face it with courage, too.
Bryan, thank you for writing this post. And thank you, everyone, for sharing your other thoughts as well.
I think that’s very courageous and you’ve got what it takes to make it through with your positive point of view, even though your situation isn’t the best of times.
Thanks for sharing and best wishes.
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Psalm 147:3
Hello Bryan,
I wrote about my Uncle Edward, using the above quote for my story. He was killed in The Second World War, 18 days after VE day in Europe.
http://www.ipaintiwrite.com/2013/05/27/to-the-uncle-i-never-met-i-remember-you/
Thank you Mr. Hutchinson, a very well written and thoughtful post.
Sincerely,
Pamela
Very nice Memorial Day post, Pamela! Thanks for sharing with us. Oh, and, Mr. Hutchinson? Really? I thought we weren’t doing that anymore? 🙂
This was a lovely story, Pamela – thx for sharing Uncle Edward.
Hi Bryan! I have really loved reading your blog posts – your advice both practical and inspiring. (btw – I met Tom Cruise once too and he was charming, gracious and looked me in the eye the whole conversation about parenting). I don’t blog, but like you, I love quotes! In fact, I have an inspiration wall in my study that is papered with words of wisdom from other writers, sages and noteworthy types. I’ve been away a few days and am late on this practice. The quote I picked to practice on is “home is where my story begins”. Don’t know the source, but my son gave it to me on a little plaque for my desk because I write a lot about family….here’s my 15 minute practice:
I couldn’t believe Dorothy made such bad friends to
help her get home – one heartless, one brainless, and the other
terrified of his own voice. I was sure Dorothy would be better off
going it alone. How was she supposed to find her way with three such needy guys hanging off her? I was so mad at her for letting them tag along, I almost turned the TV off!
I’m glad I didn’t.
Turned out each of the guys already had the very thing they hoped to find and they needed Dorothy to help them realize it. And, Dorothy? If she hadn’t let them tag along, she might still be lost somewhere over the rainbow wearing those Ruby Slippers with no idea of how to use them…
Fun, Margaret!
Speaking of Oz I just watched the new movie yesterday and I liked it. It is not even close to as good as Dorothy’s, but it was good fun anyway.
I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying my posts over on Positive Writer. 🙂 Yep, Tom wasn’t at all as I expected him to be. I rarely meet someone who takes so much time to meet everyone in the room and give each a few minutes of his time.
Thank you!
writing and writing, how to pass it. the pain and challenge is the problem i want to pass over. thank alot
Well, I’m trying to post this to my personal blog, but it’s not working, so here’s the text:
This practice was given to me by The Write Practice, a website with articles for writers and writing prompts. This prompt is to pick a random quote and write about it. I picked the following quote: “If the right person finds you beautiful, you win. You win forever.” -Rainbow Rowell, author of Eleanor & Park
I really like this quote because it goes against everything today’s society teaches us. I’m a teenager myself, and I’m not skinny. I’m not tall. I don’t wear make-up, ever, and I don’t dress like a super model. I’m okay with that. But, form what I’ve just told you, I’m the opposite of what society wants me to be. Everyone wants to be skinny, tall, blonde, pretty, and likable. But I know that, as cheesy and cliche as it sounds, it doesn’t matter what you look like, it’s who you are as a person. And so, to sum it up, this is a favorite quote of mine, however not-well-known it is, because it says that you don’t have to fit our world’s standards to be pretty and loved. You just have to find that one person who doesn’t care about what you aren’t, they love you for who you are.
Beautiful, Emily. You’re the right person! Don’t ever let anyone tell you anything else.
thank you, bryan – i enjoyed this exercise very much. here is my blog post for this week: http://www.essence7wellness.com/courage-is-compelling/
WoW April, I’m glad you are okay that must have been frightening. I’ve been in such an accident, so I think I know how you feel. I was also lucky not to be injured in a life threatening way. Great post and thank you for sharing it with us.
Inspiration did not visit me, and instead I wasted hours drinking cold coffee while staring blankly at my computer screen.
very nice post
Great post, very inspirational, I love this topic, check http://www.findthedrive.com for more inspiration