May 20

Positive Thinking & Positive Actions

A forgotten key to harnessing Positive Thinking, Manifestation, and the Law of Attraction.

Introduction:

In a world filled with challenges and uncertainties, the power of positive thinking, manifesting our desires, and the law of attraction offer a beacon of hope and transformation. These concepts empower us to shape our reality, attract abundance, and live a more fulfilling life. In this blog post, we delve into the profound impact of positive thinking, explore the art of manifestation, and unravel the mysteries behind the law of attraction.

The Power of Positive Thinking:

Positive thinking is not merely about plastering a smile on our faces or denying the existence of challenges. It is a mindset that embraces optimism, resilience, and the belief that our thoughts shape our reality. As we cultivate positive thoughts, we create a fertile ground for personal growth, happiness, and success. It is the key that unlocks our potential and propels us forward, even in the face of adversity.

Manifesting Desires:

Manifestation is the process of bringing our desires into physical reality. By aligning our thoughts, beliefs, and actions with what we want to attract, we open the doors to unlimited possibilities. When we vividly imagine our goals, feel the emotions associated with their achievement, and take inspired action, we set in motion a powerful force that guides us toward their fulfillment. Manifestation is a dynamic dance between intention and inspired effort, where we become co-creators of our destiny.

The Law of Attraction:

At the heart of manifestation lies the law of attraction, a universal principle that states that like attracts like. According to this law, our predominant thoughts and emotions send out energetic vibrations that magnetize similar experiences, people, and opportunities into our lives. By consciously directing our focus toward what we desire, we create a magnetic field that draws those experiences closer to us. The law of attraction reminds us that we are not victims of circumstance but powerful creators of our reality.

Your mindset is a magnet, attracting experiences that align with your thoughts. Embrace positive thinking and watch your world transform with endless possibilities.

Gratitude should fuel your journey each day. Take a moment to appreciate the small joys, kind gestures, and the lessons learned. Gratitude opens doors to abundance and invites more blessings into our lives.

Positive Actions:

The hardest part for most of us is moving from POSITIVE THINKING to POSITIVE ACTING, or, if you will, POSITIVE ACTIONS. Note that I didn’t say “Action” which can be singular or plural, rather I said “actions,” which is undeniably plural.

In his masterful work, “The Success System That Never Fails,” W. Clement Stone in essence distills Napoleon Hill’s 13 Steps for Success, which Hill received from Billionaire Andrew Carnegie, into Three Keys:

  1. Inspiration to Action: That is, your burning, driving desire, your Life’s GOAL.
  2. Know-How: Doing the market research, and the education, on the steps needed to achieve that Life’s Goal.
  3. Activity Knowledge: This is the further knowledge you gain by actually DOING the necessary work, going the extra mile, being persistent, grinding it out, day in, day out, through trial and error. As inventor William Painter said, “The only way to do a thing… is to DO it.”

Conclusion:

Positive thinking, manifesting our desires, and the law of attraction are not merely abstract concepts, but powerful tools that enable us to live a life of purpose, abundance, and joy. By cultivating positive thoughts, visualizing our goals, and aligning our energies, we tap into our innate potential to create the reality we desire. Let us embrace the power within and become conscious creators of our destiny. As we navigate life’s journey with optimism and unwavering belief, we unlock the magic. Then, once our mindset is right, we must get to work, using Positive thinking AND Positive actions.

Mar 13

The success system that never fails?

I have written before about my early experience with the writings of W. Clement Stone. I recently found a PMA Coin on eBay, similar to the Challenge Coin I was once awarded in Combined Insurance sales school in 1986. The bronze coin has Mr. Stone on it along with “PMA” and the three keys to Mr. Stone’s “Success System that Never Fails.” The three keys: Inspiration to Action, Know-how, and Activity Knowledge. To a modern reader, the first two steps are fairly self-explanatory, but let’s break them down:

Inspiration to Action

This is when you are motivated to do something, to get something, to achieve a goal. It could be something as simple as making some extra money. The key is turning that want, that need, that goal, from a simple desire to something actionable. Doing something. Adding the Action to the Inspiration.

But what action do you take? That’s where the second key comes in:

Know How

Now I realize that “Know-how” is kind of an archaic term that sounds kind of folksy and quaint, but we all know what it means. Know How is the knowledge we get when we research our Action to see what steps are necessary to achieve our goal. For example, say we’ve identified our goal of making passive income from home. We must then research the various ways to make passive income then see which strategy appeals to us as being achievable. We have to weigh the pros and cons of each method, each product, each service. Once we’ve decided on the plan we wish to do, based on our Know-How, then come the next step:

Activity Knowledge

This is the Test phase. We learn, through Trial and Success, how to sell our product, how to monetize the thing. If our product, for instance, was a copywriting Sales Letter, this would be the Test Letter phase where we learn whether or not our Sales Letter is the Control… the one that motivates customers to buy. When it does not work, we try something else. As Mr Stone put it, “Through Trial and Success.” Note, that it’s not through Trial and Error, but, rather, through Trial and Success. That’s the PMA way.

Conclusion

Note that the Three Keys not only segue from one to another, they actually contain aspects of each other because it’s basically Desire-meets-Action-meets-Result. So this continuum of Thought-meets-Action is an organic process. If I want a Pepsi, and I know that there is a Pepsi in my refrigerator, then I must get off my couch, walk across the room, open the refrigerator, and grab that Pepsi. Then I must cross the room back to my couch, open the bottle, and drink that Pepsi.

Whether my goal is to get a Pepsi, or to make $1000, the process is the same:

Inspiration to Action: Make a Goal

Know-How: Learn How To Achieve that Goal

Activity Knowledge: Execute the Plan

Dec 30

Conceive, Believe, then Achieve

“Whatever you can conceive, and believe, you can achieve, through hard work and a positive mental attitude.” W. Clement Stone.

CONCEIVE IT:

The first step in manifesting your destiny is to conceive of what you want. This means taking the time to think about what you want to achieve and how you want to live your life.

It is important to be specific and to focus on the positive aspects of what you want to create. Once you have a clear vision of what you want, you can begin to believe in it.

BELIEVE IT:

Believing in your vision is essential to manifesting your destiny. You must have faith that you can make it happen and that you are capable of achieving your goals. This means believing in yourself and in your ability to make your dreams come true. It also means believing in the power of the universe and trusting that it will help you manifest your destiny.

ACHIEVE IT:

The final step in manifesting your destiny is to take action. This means taking steps to make your vision a reality. It could be as simple as setting goals and taking steps to reach them, or it could involve more complex actions such as networking and finding mentors.

You’ve heard the maxim: Necessity is the mother of Invention? Throughout human history people have looked for solutions to everyday problems and have invented tools and technology to solve those problems.

Whatever it is, it is important to take action and to keep taking action until you reach your goals.

Conceive, Believe, then Achieve: Manifesting your Destiny is a powerful concept that can help you create the life you want. By taking the time to conceive of what you want, believing in it, and then taking action to make it happen, you can manifest your destiny and create the life you desire.

Dec 28

Surefire Hacks to Supercharge Your Writing

This article is for all the writers who want to improve their writing skills. It will provide tips and tricks on how to write better, faster, and smarter.

Some of the tips and trade secrets that will be discussed in this article are:

  • How to write more efficiently.
  • How to use your time wisely.
  • How to use your writing skills more effectively.
  • Some hacks that will help you create more engaging content.

Setting The Stage:

There are many tips and tricks that we can use to help us become better writers. These include reading, writing, and taking care of our mental health.

It is important to read to improve your writing skills and to be aware of what other writers are doing in the industry. Reading will help you understand different styles of writing and how they work. It will also make you more knowledgeable about a topic if you read books on it or articles on the subject.

Reading is not the only way to improve your writing skills though; it’s just as important to write. Writing allows us to practice our skills, build our confidence, and get feedback from others. The more we write, the better we’ll get at expressing ourselves through words. All the craft books in the world will not teach you how to write a novel, or a screenplay, or a short story, or a brilliant Twitter thread.

The 10/1 Rule:

It’s often been said that it takes writing ten novels, or ten screenplays, to learn how to write one really good one. We’ll call that the 10/1 Rule

Another way for improving your writing is by taking care of your health – this includes eating well, exercising, getting enough sleep, etc., all of which can have a positive impact on your mood and productivity levels.

 12 Hacks:

1. Know your audience.

2. Use strong verbs.

3. Keep it short and simple.

4. Be consistent in tone and voice.

5. Keep a journal and write every day, even if it’s just for five minutes.

6. Read as much as you can in your area of expertise.

7. Learn the basics of SEO and keyword research so that you can optimize your content for search engines.

8. Use a variety of sentence structures to keep readers engaged with your content, not just the same old structure repeatedly (ex: “I think” vs “In my opinion”).

9. Always be open to feedback from readers, editors, and mentors to get better at what you do best: writing.

10. Read out loud. This will help you catch mistakes in sentence structure and word choice.

11. Read what you have written to someone else. This will help you find typos and grammar errors that you might not have noticed on your own.

12. Invest in a good dictionary and the AP Stylebook. Use a thesaurus sparingly.

Conclusion:

Most of the tips tricks, hacks, and fixes above may be familiar. That’s because they are time-tested and they work.

Here’s a few bonus tips that have worked for me:

  1. For fiction writers: Write your scenes first in dialogue. You can write the exposition later.
  2. Write long Exposition passages in bullet-points.
  3. When drafting, type your longer pieces like novels in the Comic Sans font. Then covert it to a reasonable font like Courier, Times New Roman, or Garamond later. Writers who try the Comic Sans trick swear that the fun of writing in such a silly font makes them write faster. Plus, writing should be fun, right?

Nov 04

Writing To Understand The World

WRITING TO SORT IT ALL OUT:

A famous writer once wrote that writers write to understand the world. I believe that this is an incontestable truth. There’s simply too much well-documented evidence that we writers think with our fingers, per se. As Natalie Goldberg says in her seminal books “Writing Down The Bones” and “Wild Mind” it is of paramount importance that a writer keeps their fingers moving.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE…

There’s a famous old joke about the tourist who stopped an old violinist on a Manhattan street, asking, “Excuse me… how do I get to Carnegie Hall?” The old musician replies,” Practice! Practice!”

In the same way that a baseball player needs to hit hundreds of baseballs off tees, pitching machines, soft-tossing, and batting practice pitchers in order to hit well in an actual game, a basketball player must shoot hundreds of free throws before a game, and a painter must draw hundreds of sketches before tackling the canvas, so must a writer “Write our way into” a piece of writing. It’s how we get to Carnegie Hall.

You Write Because You’re A Writer

But enough about writing practice. Back to the original point of this post… writers write to make sense of the universe. In my humble opinion, this is far more important to our Souls and our Art than the old idea that writers write because they have “Something to say.” A platform, a soapbox, a bone to pick, an axe to grind. Boring.

My Message?

Sorry. Don’t have one. I’m a wordsmith, a storyteller, a comedian, a provocateur, and a salesman. But it’s all to entertain, to educate, to irritate, to stir up your emotions. The writer, the artist, the Content Creator is, at best, a Catalyst to help us feel. As I overheard someone say once, it doesn’t matter if it makes you feel good, or feel bad, as long as it makes you feel.

Oct 23

ADHD and Creativity as an Older Creative

Confessions of a Grizzled Newbie

As I’ve said in previous posts, I’m a veteran writer, because I’ve been writing seriously since I was 14, which was in 1973, and I’ve been writing for publication since 1982. However, I’ve never earned my living from my writing, so I’m also a newb in that sense. I suspect that I’m nowhere near unique. The American Capitalist economic system being what it is, many talented writers have had to wait til they retired from their day jobs to write full time.

Don’t Quit Yer Day Job

I’m 63, and I have not yet retired from my day job. So, until I do, I have a hard time coming up with the energy to crank out novels the way many younger people seem to be able to do so effortlessly. It’s intimidating for me when I look at my 3 titles on Amazon, 1 short novel and 2 standalone short stories, and I see that successful Amazon authors, some of them in their 20s, have anywhere from 12 to 50 novels in their catalogs. How can I ever catch up to that?

Finishing What I Started

As I speak, I have my second novel in my current trilogy almost done, plus a Cozy Mystery and 2 Westerns 1/2 to 3/4 done. So, I could finish my 2nd King Leary Crime Novel, and write the 3rd really quickly. Then I’d have the King Leary Trilogy, the Cozy, and 2 Westerns done. That’s 6 novels or novellas done in the next 6 months.

Trilogies We Have Trilogies!

The Cozy would be part of a series, at least a trilogy, and the 2 Westerns are the first novellas of 2 separate series, also trilogies at minimum. So the one novel I have published and the other 5 novels I need to finish could turn into 4 trilogies, 12 books total, in a year. To finish the books I have almost finished, I probably need to write a little over 100,000 words, that includes a full NaNoWriMo length 50K King Leary novel.

Crunching The Numbers

100K spread over 6 months is 555 words per day. I can do that. AND, if I could knock out 50K of that for NaNoWriMo, that makes the remaining 50K over 5 months a mere 333 words per day. Which gives me time to work on other projects like the Full-length Screenplay I’m writing for a Screenwriting class I’m taking from Michigan State University.

Screenplays, Short-Stories, and Sundries… Oh, my!

I’ll continue to write Screenplays and Teleplays, as well as short stories.

Today, as I worked to get my newest Mystery/Crime short story ready to be sent off to my Beta Readers, I was pleasantly surprised that two other short stories, both Mystery/Crime/Noir stories, were both self-edited and ready to go to my Beta Readers as well. I knew that one of those stories was done, but I’d remembered the second story as being not quite finished.

So, suddenly, thanks to my ADHD brain, I’m suddenly quite jazzed that I will soon have THREE short stories ready to submit to markets like Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and Mystery Weekly.

Writers Of The Future

The other day I signed up for the free WRITERS OF THE FUTURE ONLINE WORKSHOP course. Yes, the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of The Future. The course is taught by David Farland, and Science Fiction legends Orson Scott Card and Tim Powers.

The course promised that the diligent student will have a short story done by the end of the course. Although the course is a general fiction course, I , in deference to Hubbard, Farland, Card, and Powers, am using it to write my first sellable Science Fiction story.

My next step after getting those three Crime Fiction stories submitted to the aforementioned markets was to write some new SF stories for markets such as Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Analog Science Fiction Magazine, and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Not coincidentally, when I began writing for the markets way back up in 1982, I was submitting Mystery/Crime stories to EQMM and AHMM, and SF stories to Asimov’s, Analogue, and F & SF.

Oct 23

ADHD AND CREATIVITY

BLAME IT ON THE A.D.D.

You can find many, many more detailed, well-thought out and balanced articles online than what this article will be. My focus… or lack of focus… ba dump-bump… RIMSHOT… is going to be more personal. This article is about how ADHD affects ME, especially when it comes to Learning and Creativity.

CJB… JACK OF ALL TRADES:

Just the awkward way I introduce myself as an Artist and a Businessman shows my problem. Or, rather, reflects my disorder. So, here goes: I’m a writer, editor, comedian, and musician. I write Crime novels, comedy material, spec screenplays, genre short stories (mysteries, Crime fiction, Westerns, Science Fiction, Horror, even Romance,) Songs, Journalism articles, reviews, and other things. As a Comedian, naturally I write my own comedy material and have written for others, but I’ve also written Humor articles, newspaper columns, comedy screenplays and teleplays.

MASTER OF NONE

None of this stuff, all of the genres I write in, all of the instruments I play, are listed here to impress you or to make myself sound like some sort of Renaissance Man, or Polymath, Heavens no. There’s a point to all this madness, all these irons-in-the-fire, all these pots-on-the-stove. My point is this: I taught myself how to do all these things. How to write a screenplay, a mystery novel, a science fiction short story, all requiring different rules and traditions. I taught myself how to play guitar, mandolin, bass, harmonica, all requiring different tunes, scales, and chord shapes.

IT’S ONLY ROCK N ROLL

As as Musician, I’m an ASCAP affiliated songwriter and music publisher, I sing, and I play guitar, blues harmonica, mandolin, bass guitar, Dobro, and some chord piano and organ, and some mediocre drums. I’m not a virtuoso on any of those instruments, although my Blues harp (harmonica) is really good, and I play a killer rhythm guitar and slide guitar. The positive part: I can play all of those instruments well enough to accompany myself on a recording, and it sounds like an actual band playing. That eventually became the entire reason for learning those instruments just well enough to get by.

I did it all because of my ADHD.

SO YOU WANNA BE A ROCK AND ROLL STAR

At the turn of the millennium, I was an Indie recording artist. Actually, I was TWO recording artists. I recorded Techno/House/EDM as DJ Blurry Guy, and I recorded original Singer-songwriter/Americana music as Chris Jay Becker.

I later resurrected the DJ Blurry Guy name by dropping the DJ part, becoming just plain Blurry Guy, and putting out a couple Indie Rock songs under that name. I didn’t feel good about doing that, so I changed the artist name to my fake band name… The Dreaded Telemarketers. That’s my conceptual band name, not unlike The Plastic Ono Band.

I never made any money, or for that matter, played any gigs, with any of these musical entities. I did, however, as DJ Blurry Guy, get fan mail from Spain, India, Belarus, and Israel. There was even talk of DJ Blurry Guy playing Ibiza. That was it, though, just talk.

TOO POOR TO PAY ATTENTION

ADHD made me flit from one interest to another. From one study subject to another. From one writing medium to another. From one musical instrument to another. My restlessness and dissatisfaction caused my to jump from one thing to another, and then my ADHD hyper-focus gave the ability to obsess on the new thing long enough to learn how to do it.

I’m not writing these things to brag about my accomplishments. I was not successful at doing any of these things for a living. I earned maybe $2000 spread out over 40+ years. But actually creating all of the things I created was rewarding in it’s own way. And I still dream of creating/writing for a living. Someday I will.

May 18

A Little Off the Top, Part 1

There’s something great about writing for ten minutes completely off the top of one’s head. There’s no time for thinking, no time for self-editing, just putting pen to paper or fingers to keys. Just write what you’re thinking as you’re thinking it. Like the title says, a little off the top. It’s kind of a funny expression that you would say to your barber or stylist, but, in this case, it means A Little Off The Top of your head. Note, also the happy coincidence that the first three words of the phrase just happen to be “A Little Off.” Coincidence? Yes. Like I said, a happy accident. It works for me, though. As Tom Robbins once said in an interview, If it works, it works. My ten minutes is not even up yet. Keep typing. There we go, there’s my timer.

May 16

About chrisjaybecker.com

What This Website Is About

This is the Official Website and Blog of Writer, Comedian, and Content Creator Chris Jay Becker. But we would this site to be a resource for other writers through CJB’s “A Writer’s Life” Blog, and through the Writers’ Resources links .

We hope that fellow writers, editors, and readers will find value on this website that will help them in their journeys, and with their writing lives.

Keep Reading and Keep Writing.

May 15

Surefire Hacks to Beat Writer’s Block

GOOD OL’ WRITER’S BLOCK

One of the questions that one hears in Writers’ Groups, especially online, is, “How do you beat Writer’s Block?” The simple answer? Write. I know, I know, easier said than done. How do you write when you’re blocked? you say. It’s the same thing you do to “Write your way outta the Trailer Park” per se.
You write.

WRITING YOUR WAY OUT OF WRITER’S BLOCK

I don’t keep a Journal or a Notebook. Those two things have always been a source of Tyranny for me. I buy blank books for Journaling, and Notebooks for, um, Notebooking. But I’m too inconsistent to Journal on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. So, those Journals and notebooks are a source of near-crippling guilt for me. Plus, in recent years I’ve developed diabetic neuropathy in all ten fingers. Writing longhand hurts. I can type on my laptop or phone and it’s tolerable. But pen and paper, or worse pencil and paper, are too painful. I save those for short pieces like poems, song lyrics, index cards, and Post It notes.

MY SOLUTION

My solution? I get out my laptop and I write what Dorothea Brande and Julia Cameron both call “Morning Pages.” But, sorry Dot and Jules, I don’t actually write them in the morning. I write them whenever I find the time. I write them at night, sometimes after Midnight, so that could qualify as Morning. But, for me, the Morning part of Morning Pages is more a suggestion than a Commandment.
I don’t do mornings well. Writers writing at the crack of Dawn? Ha! Only if we’re still up. Am I right? You know I am, my fellow scribes and/or degenerates.

HOW MORNING PAGES WORK

Okay, now that we have things defined a little better, here’s what you do with your Morning Pages. You write whatever you feel, think, wonder, whatever. Natalie Goldberg, in “Writing Down The Bones,” called it Writing Practice. And what Natalie suggested was this: keep the hand moving. Keep the fingers typing. Keep the pen or pencil moving on the page. If you don’t know what to write, Natalie said, then write THAT. Write, “I don’t know what to write. This is stupid, my head hurts and I’m a nauseous. I can’t believe I have to write this stupid page for the next ten minutes…” Do this for, you guessed it, 10 minutes.
That’s what Poet Laureate Rita Dove calls, “A Ten-Minute Spill.” Don’t edit yourself as you write. Don’t stop to correct spelling and grammar mistakes. Write RELENTLESSLY for 10 minutes. In fact, if you want to be more productive as a writer, NEVER let your Writer and your Editor write at the same time. As Peter DeVries said, “Write Drunk, Edit Sober.” For 10 minutes, Let it fly, baby. When your 10 minutes are up, stop. Later on, you can experiment with 15 Minute Spills, 20 Minute Spills. I’ve done a 60 Minute Spill before, but it was terrible.

POMODOROS

When you start doing the 15 Minute or 20 Minute Spills, set a Pomodoro Timer AKA a Tomato Timer. These timers are usually set for 25 minutes. It’s a common Office Productivity technique to do timed-spills of 25 minutes. They call these 25 minute spills Pomodoros, with a 10 minute break between Pomodoros.
But, hey, we’re writers, not office workers. Let’s set our Pomodoro Timers to 10 minutes to start. with 5 minute breaks between each Pom. Four Poms to the set and we’ve done 40 minute of writing in one hour. Later, we can do 20 minute Poms if we want, or even full-out 25 minute Poms with that 10 minute break
I don’t mean to use the Pomodoro Method with Morning Pages. Using that method will come later.

HOW THIS HELPS WRITER’S BLOCK

How do you use Morning Pages, and Freewriting, to help your Writer’s Block? Simple. Once you start writing your Morning Pages, your mind to transition from, “I hate this. I don’t know what to write.” to “What if an alien became Pope? IS the Pope an alien, hmm,” or even something like, “It occurred to me that my Protagonist has TOO much backstory. If I cut that out of the story and gave my Protagonist more of a Mysterious past…” Those things will happen once you learn how to Free-write.
That’s how I do my Morning Pages. I keep my morning pages private. It’s okay to write Laundry Lists in there if I must. But I’ve ALSO given myself permission to cut-and-paste any story material I want to use or to develop. More on that in the section below.

FREESTYLING

Freewriting works apart from Morning Pages or from the Timed-Spill Method. Professional writers use a technique known as “Writing your way into the story.” It works like a Timed-Spill, but it’s not timed. Call it an Untimed-Spill. You write any old thing until the story or the scene starts working, then, later, you cut out the warm up material. If it’s good stuff, cut-and-paste it into a Tickler File. Or even into a dedicated Word doc labelled “Story Ideas” or some such title. Because, as my old friend Helen the Hoarder used to say, “Ya never know.”

CONCLUSION

Remember, fellow scribblers, writing is supposed to be fun. If you’re a writer and you’re not having fun WHILE YOU’RE ACTUALLY WRITING, then stop doing it. Or better yet, do what you have to do to make it fun again. Fall in love with storytelling again. Enjoy the process. Enjoy the journey, not just the destination. One day when you’re a Best Selling Author with-a-capital A, you’ll realize what so many successful Artists have discovered already…

The journey IS the destination.

Keep reading and keep writing.