From shame to lame to blame to aim to fame to game
- ESD: Beyond the Habit
- Today is a whole lot easier to see as yesterday than as tomorrow.
- Because “Every other day plus weekends is too complicated.”
- If you could practice more, would you?
- You do it even when you don’t want to do.
- You’ll never again say, “Oh well. Another day where I didn’t get it done.”
- This is how you live to be 103 years old.
- Study Every Single Day
- Every Single Day launches on October 17, 2017!
- Yes, you can force the Flow State. Here’s how.
- You know those things you never seem to get done? What if you could get them done?
- Meditation is the single thing that has helped me create Every Single Day for the past 1,698 days in a row.
- How do you know if you’re ready to make “The Leap”?
- This is what happens when you don’t take ESD.
- When you hear about how a person changed her life, it changes your life.
- When you’re a practitioner of Every Single Day, the “how” no longer matters.
- Sneak Peak: Every Single Day Table of Contents
- How has “Every Single Day” changed your life?
- The gift of the technique comes when we transcend it.
- Don’t have time? Here’s how to make time.
- The ESD Avatar — Who is the Every Single Day reader persona?
- The secret about that “big burst of creativity” you’re waiting for.
- It’s probably not a good idea to upload my book to Amazon while I’m in the train. Unless, of course …
- “Every Single Day” is available for pre-order on Amazon
- Mr. Pantser, meet Miss Plotter.
- 100 Reviews in 30 Days
- A prescription without a pill?
- From shame to lame to blame to aim to fame to game
- Can we become more creative?
- The Conundrum of Comfortable
- Every Single Day: Weight Loss
- If you think you need to do more, it might be time to do less.
- Very little stability in my life at the moment. Oh, yes, well, except for that. #creativelystable
- 2019 is going to be different. AKA: the mountain goat.
- Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.
- Ghost with a Toast
When you’re at the “shame” level, something as light and fun as “game” seems like a miracle — oh, and impossible.
But what if there were a clear path to get from A to B? Or rather, from A to B to C to D to E?
I keep coming up with new subtitles for the upcoming Every Single Day book and this is one of them: From shame to blame to aim to fame to game.
In order to dig deeper into the meaning of the subtitle — both for me and the reader — I’m going to dissect it.
If there’s a path to getting where you are now to where you want to be, do you want to know all of the grisly, dark steps? If not, will you believe it?
Let’s have a look at each of the steps that helped me form one of the subtitles of the book after I typed “game” into the RhymeZone dictionary.
It’s basically trying to illustrate the path from _________ (unhappy / failing / not where you want to be) to_________ (happy / successful / where you want to be).
It’s roughly the path I feel that I went through. Thus, the tagline. Let’s dissect. Scalpel!
Shame
Your so-called Passion should just better be left unsaid. Keep it to yourself so no one can make fun of you and you don’t have to try to maybe make a case for it being a good idea. Just stay hidden under your rock. It’s better that way.
Lame
You take a step out from under and it’s bad. Ooh, really bad. You suck. Well, you probably suck. You don’t really know. But it’s probably better to not try too much harder in case you fail again. And again. Yeah, better off back under the rock.
Blame
It’s certainly not your fault that you’re there (under the Rock of Shame). It was probably because you did the wrong study in university. Or maybe your father’s (unconscious?) guidance had you choose a path that wasn’t really what you wanted to do. Or it was your mother. Just blame it all on her. She’s always an easy scapegoat.
Or best of all: just blame yourself for not having the strength to climb out from under that slimy, moldy, and dark Rock of Shame. It’s all your fault anyway. Just rot away and continue to blame yourself. It’s simpler this way.
Oh, and don’t tell anyone any of this.
Aim
Crawl out from under the rock. Hopefully, it wasn’t so long that you can no longer feel your legs. Stand up and dare to point towards where you’re heading. It’s now or never. You know it. I know it. It’s time. Well, it was probably time seven years ago, but this is the second best time.
Take aim and you’re going to go for it. You’re on your way. You’re not turning back. You have purpose.
Fame
Someone, whether it be a regular human or some spirit, taps you on the shoulder and thanks you. You don’t quite know what they’re thanking you for but then it’s clear: they thank you for crawling out from under your rock, escaping, and putting your passion into the world.
They know that your passion out in the wild is better for everyone as that energy hidden under a rock is a bit like what happens to cow dung: it’s gassy, smelly, and combustible.
If one person acknowledges your fame, you’re famous.
Game
I openly admit that from the perspective of the level way back at Shame, “Game” is hard to comprehend.
“How could this ever be thought of as a game?” “Games are fun, light, and easy. Uh, no. Not there yet.”
I get it. I’ve been there. Remember? So you’re just going to have to believe me.
There comes a point and I can’t pinpoint when it happens — or even when it happened to me — where there is a lightness to your life. No, not just your passion or your goal or your whatever, but your life, yourself.
But lightness doesn’t fully cover it either. It’s playful. It’s fun. It’s easy. It doesn’t cost you any energy — it supplies it. Words describe you that way-back-when you wouldn’t have dreamt of: confident, focused, clear, powerful, knowing, light, joyous, carefree.
Then there’s the good part: it’s only going to get better.
It’s as if you reach a certain level where there’s no return — not that you’d want to. But not only do you not want to go back but there are paths ahead that are grander, wider, and more _________ than anything you could have imagined.
I also completely admit that I’m probably not describing it accurately, but it’s a bit like a dream for me: it’s hard to get into words. It’s more of a feeling, a space, a way of being.
“Game” rhymed nicely with the other words for the subtitle, but other ideas that are in the same realm might be: play, light, carefree.
OK, I’m going to go out on a limb here and freak some people out, but the word that just came to me was: heaven.
As in, “I died and went to heaven.” But I didn’t have to die. I’m there.
There. There’s your path. Somehow I went from Shame to Lame to Blame to Aim to Fame to Game to Heaven.
Because dreams that I didn’t know I had have come true and I feel like I’m just getting started. I’m so blessed. I’m so grateful. I want to give back. I want to give it to you, I want to show you the path, take your hand and at least give you a glimpse.
It’s simple. It’s not easy until you figure out it’s simple. Then it’s easy and simple.
It’s Every Single Day.