What Kind of Writer am I?

My friend from graduate school Pushpendra Mehta is working on his second book. Push has decided to get my take on some things for inclusion in the book. I feel Push and I show a small glimpse of what is possible in the world because even though we don’t see eye to eye on some topics I respect Push greatly because I know his heart is filled with love and he believes what he says.

It also happens to be his birthday today. Happy Birthday Push!

Push wanted me to write a bio. I don’t know if this is what he had in mind, but here is my journey as a writer.

When I was in elementary school I thought being able to write children’s books would be a great job. I wrote stories about an imaginary rabbit and an imaginary dog that eventually was named Ruf Ruf. I became discouraged when no one could read my handwriting, thus keeping my story inaccessible to everybody else.

When I started to understand how a library worked. I thought, “Man, it’s going to weird to see RAT on the side of my book.”

I sure didn’t show any talent for writing in sixth grade when this A and B student got a C- on his book because I over used the word things.

Sometime in high school I decided I wanted to be a sports journalist. I even wrote a few game reports for my school’s website.

I became discouraged when I talked to a local journalist who told me how hard his job was. Suddenly I let fear take over my decisions and decided I would study business.

Writing was not a big part of my life in college. I took four writing classes over the course of eight semesters and somehow I was completely oblivious to the fact that those writing classes and my higher-level marketing classes made up the majority of my memories in the classroom.
After my undergraduate years I decided marketing as I knew it wasn’t creative enough for me. My next stop was the Integrated Marketing Communications program at the Medill School Northwestern University.

I started really learning about writing at Northwestern even though I didn’t realize it at the time. Marketing Communications is more about the ability to convey ideas then anything else. Public Relations really boils down to treating people well. Convey a clear and honest message and be good to people.

My advice is learn wherever you can. Truly grasping communication for the first time happened in a café in France. Understanding the power of silence and white space happened in a copyrighting class.

Suddenly my formal education comes to a close and all I know I want to do with my life is move down to Birmingham and play some wheelchair rugby. I sit on my butt for nine months waiting to figure out what to do. All I pretty much do is read books and watch DVDs. One night I’m reading this book about remarkable people. I’m on this chapter about Mark Twain and it hits me like a lightning bolt. Mark Twain was a premature baby and had a hard time sleeping! I could write a book too!

Just as quickly as I came up with the idea I dismissed it. If I wrote a book who would want to read it?

Long story short Birmingham has been a wonderful journey, but I have fallen on my face so many times. I started trying to write my first book about a month after I moved down here, I was so embarrassed, so scared. For a long time I only told about three of my friends what I was working on while sitting in my apartment. I gave up at some point on my first attempt.

In the time span of a couple of years I tried and failed at doing online research, selling vitamins, a custom shirt idea, search engine optimization and oh yeah six other attempts at writing books. I used to be so embarrassed by my writing and I don’t know why. I figured it was something cool people did; something creative people did, and I never categorized myself as either of those.
Through all those failures I gave myself an education. I made mistakes and I learned. I read a lot. I read the bible, I learned about the law of attraction, Joel Osteen showed me it was okay to give praise the way I wanted to give praise.

I took the skills IMC gave me and learned to see the world in a new way. I have learned so many life lessons from the music of John Mayer and Jason Mraz. Somehow, someway their way of looking at the world rubbed off on me. Lines just pop in my head all day. They come from all genres of music, movies, books and life experience. I can’t write a piece of music, but I can write a piece for the web.

Nine short years ago I was scared to talk to most of my classmates because I was sure they didn’t like me. Now I have the confidence to proclaim to the entire world I think just like a world class rock star and I’m proud to be that bold! As John has taught me have the courage to be “Bold As Love”!

I now know you don’t have to consider yourself to be cool or creative to be an artist, you just have to believe in yourself and find your medium. I fully believe God wants every single one of us to create. Art can be anything. Broaden your definition and keep your mind open.

What kind of writer am I? I’m a human being just going down my path. There are more then seven billion paths out there for the more then seven billion people out there in the world.

Sometimes I stumble and sometimes I fall, but I always get back up eventually. My human siblings please remember to love yourself today and everyday. Growth is the objective, not perfection. Anything is possible!

As always thank you for reading!
Chris

Darwin Was Right . . .

But that’s not the whole story. Darwin was right because only the strong survive, but the way he presented his conclusions indicated that there must be weak creatures for the strong to dominate.

That might be how the animal kingdom works, but that doesn’t mean human kind has to be run like that.

God gave us big brains, free will and dreams planted in our hearts for a reason! The universe wants us to step it up. Only the strong survive, but we can all be STRONG.

Let’s set our minds for success! The beautiful thing about the dreams planted in our hearts is that we all have different dreams. So we can all be champions in the fields we choose from our hearts. As my wonderful teacher Joel Osteen says God plants dreams in our heart for a reason and he gives us all the tools to see them come to pass.

Sometimes barriers arise and we fall down, but please always have the courage to get back up. Some think it is weak to fall down, but this is not the case. It is only weak to stay down. Getting up is the strongest thing anyone can do! If you set your mind for strength no obstacle is too large to overcome.

Strength does not mean perfection. I know I am strong, but I mess up in ways that frustrate me to the core.

Just this evening I had a hard time catching the ball at rugby practice. I know I let my cerebral palsy programming take over waiting for the ball and wondering if I was going to catch it instead of flat out willing myself to catch the ball. I can use positive energy to catch the ball, but instead I let myself slip back into old habits.

I compounded the problem by getting mad at myself. I know better then that, but I got caught up in the moment. I couldn’t see the blessing in the moment, but I see it now. I know I will be hard at work in the Lakeshore Fieldhouse today because I messed up so royally. I expect my next tournament to be my best to date. It will be in part because of the mistakes I made tonight.

Evolution did not happen over night and neither does true strength. Having a truly strong mind is a long time commitment that is worth it in any way you can think of.

Are you strong? Do you want to be strong? It’s all up to you. Choose to be strong. I promise you its worth it.

Thanks for reading!
Chris

Brain Poppings Test Run

Hey Everybody! I wrote pretty much the whole day today through a combination of emails, USQRA work, and a targeted piece that won’t be on the blog and many random sentences here and there.

I really wanted to share something with everyone, but a regular piece just wasn’t going to happen. Some days I start lists of ideas. Sometimes they are useful sometimes they are not, I thought why not share them with my readers and see what they think.

The late great George Carlin had sections in his books entitled brain droppings. They took on a very similar format, but I don’t like to think of my wonderful gifts from the universe as waste, so I changed the title up. The first half is thoughts I have been pondering or ideas that just popped into my head. The second half is quotes that have caught my attention recently.

Brain Poppings March 7-March 9

The most any person can do is speak and act on his or her truth. We would be able to accomplish so much more in this world if we just embrace what really is rather then guessing what the right answer is. The truth is always the right answer.

I read in a recent Joel & Victoria Osteen electronic devotional that said a new study concluded the average young child laughs 200 times a day. The average adult only laughs 4 times a day.

- Sign me up for preschool for the rest of my life. :) I challenge us to raise the average today and everyday. Decide to laugh 5 or more times today.

- Why is it considered mature and cool to keep joy inside while people outwardly complain about the Mun-days and how tired or sick they are as an acceptable convention of society?

Call me a geek if you want, but I’m happy and I know it. (Clap. Clap.)

You have a lot more time to observe the landscape while pushing up a hill when compared to pushing on flat ground.

You always control your mind. Don’t waste any energy wondering “what if”. Know you will be successful.

“It is always about the number of times of you get up; it’s never about the number of times you fall down.” -Modification of famous multicultural proverb.

Love BIG goals and embrace them. They will make you better even if you don't reach them exactly.

Outside forces are never the challenge. Being your best is the ultimate challenge and we can do it when we set our minds right.

Before we can eat a great meal, we must set the table. Enjoy setting the table and be thankful for your hunger being satisfied before you get to eat.

“I’ve got a plan, I gonna find out just how boring I am and have a good time.”

-John Mayer New Deep (One of my favorite songs of all time.)
I interpret this to mean don’t worry about being cool; just be happy.

“You can turn off the sun, I’m still gonna shine” -Jason Mraz The Remedy

“It’s takes a hole to make a mountain.” -Jason Mraz Life is Wonderful

“To be a prisoner of something means to always be attached to it. Be a prisoner of hope.”
Joel Osteen

“There comes a time in everyone’s life when all you can see are the years passing by and I have made up my mind that those days are gone.”-Rascal Flatts I’m Movin’ On

“I can’t sleep, I’m dreaming way too loud.” -Eli Young Band So Close Now

“You do know that any time you decide you want to be different you can just start, right?” - John Mayer via Twitter March 1st 2009

I hope you enjoyed this experiment. I would like to do this more often because I feel sometimes having the nuggets of inspiration without any further details could be most helpful. Please let me know yeah or nay.

Thank you so much for the continued support! Thanks for reading
Chris

It's Your Time By Joel and Victoria Osteen

Even though I have never met the man, Joel Osteen has been a great teacher to me through his words and broadcasts.

I am blessed to recieve daily emails from him. For the second time since I have started the blog his message speaks so loudly and perfectly to me I have to share it with everyone who reads the blog.

It's Your Time

Today's Scripture

“The vision is yet for an appointed time..." (Habakkuk 2:3).

Today's Word from Joel and Victoria

God has planted seeds of greatness on the inside of you, and He has predestined that those things in your heart come to pass. You may have had more than your share of unfair things happen in your life. You probably have plenty of reasons to just settle where you are. But understand, the depth of your past is an indication of the height of your future.
If you’ve been through a lot of negative things in the past, it just means that your future is bigger and brighter and greater than you can even imagine. It’s your time to step out and embrace all that God has for you! Are there dreams and promises that you’ve let go of? Are there things that God has placed in your heart, but because of time, because of disappointments, you’ve given up on them?
Today is the day to give your dreams a new beginning. Today is the day to allow faith to rise in your heart. Remember, what’s happened to you is not nearly as important as what’s happened in you, and you are stronger and wiser than ever before. It’s your time; it’s your season to move forward into the destiny that God has prepared for you!

A special thank you to the Osteens.

Thanks for reading
Chris