ghunterhanks

Live the dream?! Part 1

ghunterhanks — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:12:15 +0000

It’s official, sportsfans. I have informed my supervisor that I will be resigning from full-time teaching in order to write for a living. Teaching is a calling, and there’s good work to be done at the community college. I will pursue my dream, however, and move back closer to family. Also, I’ll live more in balance, something that mostly eludes me during the school year. There will be room to teach a community-interest creative writing class, too.

I’m excited! So many ideas for stories, so little time! I’m learning lots about how to get people to notice my writing. The last three summers writing have helped me to find my stride and to learn what works. I can do it. The first novel wasn’t a fluke or a one-off; it’s repeatable. Writing and study and chores and exercise and family and friends and odd jobs make Greg a really, really happy, (almost) self-actualized, energetic boy! (The workplace term is flow.)

So far, Lightning Strikes Twice is ready for publication; I’ll either catch a print publisher’s interest or publish it as an ebook this year. Sister Moon: Stories of the Supernatural is published as an Amazon Kindle ebook. A set of three short stories that I wrote over Christmas break is ready to publish as soon as copyright registration is complete.

Will it be easy or all go perfectly smoothly? No. I have some savings and a dream, not a guarantee of success. Do you want to help? More on that next time.

Quote of the Day

ghunterhanks — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:21:46 +0000

“What this country needs is more people to inspire others with confidence, and fewer people to discourage any initiative in the right direction,” mused Father James Keller.

He may have been writing some time ago, but it seems like massive understatement today. The country really needs leaders, and people willing to try. Discouraging someone doesn’t require any knowledge or understanding. Any idiot can tell us five reasons why our new ideas won’t work! But does the critic have any better ideas? If so, pay attention, but usually not. It takes real understanding, effort, and courage to try to change anything for the better. It takes tenacity to persist after the nay-sayers jump in. We desperately need changes for the better, though, so please keep trying!

Quote of the Day

ghunterhanks — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:48:47 +0000

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so,” wrote Douglas Adams.

Sometimes I have to remind myself to keep my mouth shut and my ears open, so that I can learn the easy way… from someone else. Frequently I watch people I care about walk smack into brick walls because they refused to listen to everyone trying to give a little advice. People clearly have to learn the hard way sometimes, and make their own mistakes. That’s tough to watch.

Time-Management Part 3

ghunterhanks — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:59:42 +0000

Wow, the four quadrants really help! I keep a dry erase marker (poster board sized) on the wall to list what I need to do, and it used to be in calendar and day format. For New Year’s, I erased all that and redid it in the four quadrants. So far, it’s given a clearer picture of what really needs doing. Also, because “important and urgent” tends to get stressful, it really encourages me to knock things out BEFORE they become URGENT! I knew that, but it’s easier to keep track of now. If you already know this, it’s probably pretty obvious, but Covey’s four quadrants has really clarified my thinking and helped me keep quick and easy tabs on multiple projects.

Time-Management Part 2

ghunterhanks — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:58:24 +0000

The second insight that Stephen Covey has about the four quadrants is that we should focus on what’s important before it becomes urgent. Today there are way too many things in the important and urgent quadrant, which is stressful. I’ve either put off doing things or I’m trying to do too many things at once. I’m hoping over the next chunk of time to see more of my tasks in quadrant II, the important but not (yet) urgent. This will get just as much done towards my goals but feel less stressful because I knock tasks before they become high-pressure. We’ll see how it goes.

Time Management Part 1

ghunterhanks — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:57:41 +0000

One time-management idea of Stephen Covey’s that I’ve latched onto is the four quadrants. Things to do might be important and/or urgent, with one quadrant for each combination. The first insight is that things that are not important and not urgent are time wasters. There should be a little time for fun after work, or there’s no point in living. When I feel like I don’t have enough time to do everything, though, it usually indicates I need to cut back on the not important, not urgent activities. That frees up time for what matters.

Merry Christmas!

ghunterhanks — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:36:52 +0000

I’m looking forward to spending some time with family and friends for Christmas. I live farther away from them than I really want to. It’s tough to travel to visit, so I don’t do it as often as I would like. So I’m thinking about you if you have loved ones far away today. If you have the chance, spend some time with your people, or at least know that you are loved. Merry Christmas!

Persistence Part 2

ghunterhanks — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:08:09 +0000

The bonus question is: how can people recognize the butter zone of persistence? How can I tell when I’m being determined enough but not too stubborn? First, people need to have clear goals in mind. People must set their own goals because working toward someone else’s plan is just busy work. Second, they’re making steady progress, little steps, towards those goals. Small steps daily may work best because if I don’t do something every day I tend to get out of the routine. (It’s not that I make progress on everything daily, but it’s only a good day once I’ve made some progress on something.) So if I’m not taking a few small steps daily, then I’m not being persistent enough. On the other hand, there’s the danger of getting stuck in a rut. I might be beating my head against a brick wall if I keep trying the same small steps over and over again but see no progress. That just means try it another way. I might look for a door in the brick wall, or go around it, or go over it. Also, I try to live a balanced life, which means recreation and spending time with friends and family. Life should be fun, too, so the work ends before the day does.

Persistence Part 1

ghunterhanks — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:06:08 +0000

Persistence. Like a lot of things we tend to take this to one extreme or the other in our society. On the one hand, a lot of young people with some great goals and some positive ideas about their lives, but they don’t want to put any work into it. Many of them won’t take any steps whatsoever to reach those goals. At the other extreme, a few fanatics (like Churchill said) just don’t change their minds and won’t change the subject. Also, there are lots of people who repeat the same mistakes over and over again without learning or adapting, and of course they get the same results. There must be a balance in there somewhere where people steadily and consistently work towards their goals without becoming so narrow minded that they blindly repeat the same ineffective actions.

“The Best Revenge is Living Well”

ghunterhanks — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 22:17:36 +0000

I’m usually motivated by more positive things, but occasionally, just occasionally, I’m looking for vengeance. Then I remember this quote. Living well is delightful, an excellent goal to strive for, and best of all, it doesn’t actually hurt anybody. I try to let anger go, but it is awfully, awfully hot fuel for the fire. So just every once in a while, I take my vengeance by striving just that much harder toward my goals.