Life | BAReed Writing, Business Writing

Illuminating Your Ideas

We are each varying combinations of light and dark – and the writer must figure out how to articulate both.

“The more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be.”

~ Shakti Gawain

It is true that we need both to gain understanding, but embracing light while understanding the dark will be most helpful.

The Availability of Helpful Advice

Do this, don’t do that; you should, you shouldn’t – so many people want to help us.

“Let me listen to me and not to them.”

~Gertrude Stein

Listen, consider and decide how much if any of the advice to enact.

Keep Striving

Business Writing, Writing July 19, 2013 Leave a comment

If we keep working at something, we are bound to understand it better and improve in our ability.

“Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.”

~John Quincy Adams

We are usually the only ones who expect ourselves to have mastered something right out of the gate.

Thoughts on Thinking

Business Writing, Writing July 17, 2013 Leave a comment

Sometimes when we don’t know where to start, or how to move forward, we might take some time to look into what others think, say and do. But then we should internalize the information that we find and compare it to what we already know.

“Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.”

~ Doris Lessing

We might have to go through some trial and error, but we are the experts of how best to think through all of what we experience.

It’s the Little Things

Business Writing, Writing July 12, 2013 Leave a comment

We just have to keep our minds open for the solutions that we seek:

“Minor things can become moments of great revelation when encountered for the first time.”

~ Margot Fonteyn

Solutions don’t have to be large and loud, or even complex.

Don’t Be Afraid

Business Writing, Writing July 10, 2013 Leave a comment

Sometimes those folks that led the sink or swim school of thought were on to something.

“Courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run, it’s easier too.”

~Eleanor Roosevelt

The hardest part is often that moment just before you start.

This IS the Time and Place for Action

Business Writing, Writing July 8, 2013 Leave a comment

I have believed for years that a time of fear and anxiety is one of the best times to step forward into hopeful action. (Carefully considered, of course, and not rash.)

“The time when you need to do something is when no one else is willing to do it, when people are saying it can’t be done.”

~ Mary Frances Berry

Be the solution, or at least be the start to a solution.

Daring to Be

Business Writing, Writing July 5, 2013 Leave a comment

As a society, we seem to have left behind the ‘how dare you?’ vibe in the past couple of decades.

“All serious daring starts from within.”

~Eudora Welty

Dare yourself to step into something that you have always wanted to try, but for whatever reason hesitated.

Independent Thinking – Holiday Style

Business Writing, Writing July 3, 2013 Leave a comment

I gave a speech at Toastmasters last night in which I used the line, “independent thinking was prized in our household and words were savored like candy”.

“Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence.”

~ David Ben-Gurion

Be open to information, filter it through your own understanding and decide how to make it your own.

For all in the U.S. on the eve of a new Independence Day, I hope that you have a Happy and Safe 4^th of July holiday.

What Will Be

Business Writing, Writing July 1, 2013 Leave a comment

Have you ever said to yourself, ‘I can’t do (x) because I will be (y) when it is completed’?

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

~George Eliot

You will get to (y) age, whether you take action on (x) or not, but how pleased you will be with yourself when you get there depends on your actions now.