If we’re lucky, we eventually wake up to the fact that life is a process of continuous learning. I consider one of the great blessings of life is getting to know myself on a deeper level each day. Not that I achieve this every day but it’s the intention and the goal.
I see so many people who’ve crossed the threshold of youth foolheartedly ignoring the advantage their wisdom affords them and pining for their younger days. As I inch ever closer to fifty I do notice it’s harder for me to stay up past 11pm or recover from a night of one too many drinks but otherwise I feel pretty good, considering. Given a choice, I’d choose to accept a few physical limitations rather that go back to that phase of greater naivety.
“Know yourself. Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” ~ Ann Landers
Part of getting to know myself, strengths and innumerable weaknesses, has been to learn about how the elusive creative process works for me. It was only recently that I came to understand exactly how it works. Since I was in my early twenties, when working on writing projects, I experienced the creative equivalent of a data dump. Huge concepts come to me at once as if they were downloaded and then I had to process the data and break them down into smaller, more detailed chunks. The concepts come to me effortlessly but the process of deconstruction is where the sweat equity comes in.
My first novel took me nearly a decade to write and when I was younger I always chalked this up to inexperience. This wasn’t entirely the case, the process of writing the book also took so long because I didn’t fully know how my creativity worked. The entire novel existed in my head for years but my largest challenge was learning the mechanics of how to get it into story form. Since then I’ve learned this is how my brain works. An epiphany has come to be since beginning work on the HardFork series…my creative funnel is upright. I’ll explain more about that a few paragraphs down.
When working on Alarm Clock Dawn sometimes ideas would come to me in my dreams and I would wake up and jot down page upon page of material. The process has been the exact same way with HardFork. Ideas and visions of our futuristic world come to me in chunks. After working on the series for a year now it’s as though a fairly large part of my consciousness resides in a futuristic dimension...the year 2035 to be exact. Our characters have become like living, breathing people. Considering our world’s current state of affairs maybe I can partially chalk this up to escapism.
It’s only within the past few months that I’ve learned this isn’t how creativity works for everyone. When I said before that creative funnel is upright, I mean I begin with large ideas and work my way to the finer details, I deduce. Some people’s creative process starts with the finer details and then they work their way up to the larger concepts. In some ways I envy them but, as they say, vive la différence. I now realize why I was such a late bloomer career-wise.
After being in the crypto space for over two years now I recently read a statistic that surprised me (and also made me a bit giddy.) Only two percent of U.S. investors own Bitcoin but sixty-eight percent are interested in learning more about it. The HardFork Series is on the precipice of changing this. We are poised to bring the world-changing concepts of blockchain and cryptocurrency to the masses.
We’re right on the cusp of sharing something with the world that I'm extremely proud of. It feels so good to, after 47 years, finally be in the driving seat headed towards my destiny.
What is something you’ve recently learned about yourself?
(Gif sourced from Giphy.com)
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LOL!!!!
“Know yourself. Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” ~ Ann Landers
In returning to reading your posts I'm really seeing that you have such a talent for framing contemplations in a way that they are interesting and accessible to all of us, nicely done!
Thank you Ruth! I was perusing quotes about knowing yourself and this one really stuck out. : ) I'm so glad you're back and can't wait to hear how the move went!
what an adorable little guy .. :)
I enjoyed reading your post. Your work is important and I am glad I get to know about it and you. Learning is something we do every day, it is one of the wonderful things about life. There is always something new to learn.
Take care, my friend.
On numerous occasions we are so dedicated to observing and learning from other people that we do not care about ourselves. About what we are capable of doing, or how we can improve things in our environment. Knowing ourselves should be paramount for every person, and it is, only many people don't know it yet.
So good of you to share yourself with us and the process of your discovery on how your grey matter works. We are all wired differently for sure, it would be nice if we got an as built plan of the wiring to refer to instead of having to do a lot of wire tracing to figure out just how it all works.
I totally agree that the learning process never stops and the key to that is to ask questions. Our education system has a major defect in that it doesn't encourage questioning things, instead it pushes memorization of "facts". So many of those facts don't always turn out to be correct and get passed along way to long, before some one actually questions the fact and then sets about to see if it is correct or not.
The thing I have discovered about myself has been to trust my senses and question things more often than I have in the past. It has opened a whole new world for me, the things that I have learned in the last 15 years of my life have completely changed the way I look at things.
Thanks for sharing your story with us and I look forward to the series.
Haha, yeah personal schematics would be wonderful to have access to wouldn't they? Eventually the diligent among us do the wire tracing and figure it out themselves but a shortcut would be nice.
The more I learn about how the world works, the more I question everything. Since joining this platform I've really had my eyes opened. I would say I have more of a Libertarian slant politically than I ever have. This last Presidential election especially left me disgusted to the corruption on both sides of the aisle.
Can't wait for you to read (or listen to) that book Fingerprints....I'm 26 chapters in now and it's given me some missing pieces to the puzzle of humanity's history that make a ton of sense. I won't say any more but after you read it for yourself we'll have to compare notes.
Thanks for your comment!
We will do that on the book, I have about another week left in the book I am currently reading, but I think I will get Fingerprints in the audio book.
I find myself as truly an independent politically, but if I had to align myself with a party it would have to be the Libertarian party.
But as we both know, party politics is just meant to be a distraction, we don't elect a president, the electoral college does and you can bet your last dime that the people who run the country (bankers) get who they want elected when they want them elected.
It is just a lot less people that they have to buy off in order to get their way, and that was done by design by the Crown in England. They played a bigger part in our "freedom" them most people will ever realize and it wasn't a good part.
I've never agreed with the electoral college system. I'd like to hear more about England's role in influencing it!
I will find a time to work it in, I am sure others might be interested also if they had an idea that might be the case.
Can't wait to read it! Have a good Wednesday my friend.
You too. I got the book and started listening yesterday.
A very shrewd judgment about our life, my friend and I totally agree with you that crypto space has changed our life in almost everything. I was also an ordinary person before crypto, went to work and had what most of us have, but now I'm waiting for big changes, I try to do everything for this and it's great! Thank you, Eric.
Wow excellent writing my dear friend and gif is awesome. I like your writing, your writing skill is very good and your writing skill are like a professional writer. thank you very much for sharing with us wonderful post
really your writing quality always awesome.everyday you showing very new tropic thing in your blog.i have got new idea to read your everytime post.its obviously shrewd judgment about our life.i am always agree with your opinion.because your thought anytime perfect and real. The thing about life is you have to spend so much time figuring.you are a professional writer and this gif is very fantastic.thanks to sharing for your great post.very well done. best of luck of your great work.. my dear friend. @ericvancewalton my best wishes anytime with you..thank you sharing for your awesome creativity knowledge skills thought..
Interesting message. Indeed, with age we are wise and all our former actions are perceived differently. As they say "They learn from mistakes"
Hi, nice to meet you ... I have always admired the writers, they are people with a lot of eloquence ... something that costs me. Many times we are so busy getting to know those around us that we forget to know ourselves better ... excellent advice. That you are very successful, I hope to continue reading more of your publications. :)
I would love to read this book. Wow!. That's one thing about life, seeking to know oneself.
What i recently know about myself recently? Ah quite a lot sir.
I love your your depth and sense of reasoning sir. You are worthy of being followed to learn a lot from.
Very valuable article, thanks for sharing @ericvancewalton!
I understood your feelings a lot. I'm 49 and it now seems like I learn something valuable everyday I wish I'd learned sooner BUT some never learn anything at all so I feel lucky.
@ericvancewalton, Yes, understanding ourselves is most vital thing to know our true path in life.
Many fail in life because they concentrate upon other Aspects but they never look into self and they never try to understand what they want for themselves.
And yes, everyone don't hold the same type of creativity but for sure everyone holds something unique in them it's just matter of understanding.
And yes, Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency Sphere brought great opportunities and our stories are getting exposure for sure.
Wishing you an great day and stay blessed. 🙂
nice writing
Nice post sir I like it keep it up..it is very interesting I am waiting for your next post
Why does this need to be done? That is nothing but knowing yourself is more difficult, especially to conquer personal ego.
In many cases, finding and knowing people is far more than just diving into our hearts. Because of this, there are many people in this world who don't know themselves, especially not recognizing it.
Knowing yourself is very important, especially as a strong foundation for self-development. In other words, the more we know ourselves, the easier we develop the potential we have in achieving success.
How wonderful it is to be able to read you. I feel in your words a maturity that can only be reached with years and experience. That's a good thing! Especially in these days when people are looking for youth and rebellion. You can be rebellious and creative at 50. I've discovered that I have to delegate. Let others do, it's not all in my hands. Before I needed to have everything under control, even my feelings. Like you, my creative processes range from the big to the small. Nice Saturday and thanks for sharing! Frohes Morgen
To be honest yes it sure is important to know thyself in order to be a real human being and in that process you will get to know the value of life and the way the whole world works and that is how we can evolve in our life :)
Thanks for the words buddy it really means a lot !
@ericvancewalton I have personally learnt that my best moments of creativity are early mornings - when my head is the clearest. It may not sound like much, but I manage to get a whole lot done during g this period.
If I could only know when I was 20 what I know now, my life would be so much different. The thing about life is you have to spend so much time figuring it out. I am glad you are getting a handle on it.
Interesting text. I would agree that creative proccess is multilayered and difficult to penetrate, to self-penetrate even. Is this about elusiveness in my case, i do not know, though.
Very true, life is a process of continues learning and you proved it . Good story from your life . Your childhood pic is very cute .
We must know that whats ours weakness and strength point and never cross the limitations . Nice story and cute childhood pic .
Always be a student , we can learn many more in every time of ours life . You are close to 50 in your life journey and sharing good experience with us .
This was a good read. Being a late bloomer creatively, appreciating the years of experience life has given, and continually learning are all things I can relate to. I’m also the same in that I start with a broad concept and fine tune it down.
I write very roughly to get the sequencing and broad ideas down. It’s just a skeleton chapter, it’s usually sparked by a single idea. It could be a flower, a person, a situation. I have an idea on how to start and how to end.
It’s an awful alpha read. My husband’s eyes bleed because I get him to okay the concept in the very early stages. It’s part of my process, not to waste time on a flawed idea, but it’s proven to work.
Not sure how all this ties in with the HardFork, so I’ll just enjoy the writing aspect of your post. :)
Knowing and keep going on the path of self exploring :) that was really an incredible post
Great one and just love reading it and the fact is that one needs to look in ward and see as an observer to the inner self and I am pretty sure there will much more our innerself is offering than from the other people.