I think one of the saddest fates for a person is to realize their imminent death and regret the time spent in this life.

I have said it before and I will say it again.

There is no tomorrow

Tomorrow, you wake up
you are eighty-five, in
a hospital bed

Tomorrow, he dies and
you missed your chance to say
I love you

Tomorrow is another
life without the friends you
know today

Tomorrow is a dream
a mist that anything
can steal away

Today is your only
chance to get it right and
live that dream

–Michael Wulf, 2011

Everyone needs this once in a while. There’s nothing new here, but this is a beautiful rendition of the basic reminder to keep seeing the world through a fresh eye, titled 29 Ways to Stay Creative.

The Mind

Check out this collage of people texting! Sound boring? Try it out and see; it’s provoking in every way. Enjoy.

Find long words pulchritudinous? Or do you suffer hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia? I didn’t, until I saw this word. What the bleep is that?

The Martial Way

Struggling with your confidence? Wondering if you can really make a difference? Receive a devastating rebuke? Check out a few famous faces that ignored the critics.

The Craft

Mary DeMuth guest blogs about how she published her first e-book at Rachel Gardner’s blog.

K.M. Weiland blogs about techniques for writing characters of the opposite gender.

Liana Brooks talks about Amazon’s 99 cent books as an alternative to publishing short stories via traditional methods, and the pros and cons of each. Brilliant!

There is a wonderful article on Sara Zarr’s SCBWI speech over at Notes From the Slushpile.

The time between when you are no longer a beginner but you are not yet in the business is the hardest … and one of the biggest frustrations is: no one can tell you how long this phase will last.

Many, many great gems in that post. Please read it now.

Also, thanks to Natalie Whipple who linked it from her blog, and also offered her own insights, over at Between Fact and Fiction.

In that moment, it felt like she’d unlocked the handcuffs I’d unknowingly put on myself. Her advice was the exact opposite of everything I’d ever heard. It may not be for everyone, but it’s what I needed very, very much.

Quite the question, is it not? Not an easy one to approach without squirming in the seat a bit.

These days I feel pulled in so many directions. It’s not that I haven’t always been, it’s that now I have a greater realization of this whirlpool momentum. I have a more intimate understanding of the value of an hour and the worth of a hundred dollars. I see the inexorable way in which these small details add up. I sense how the big catastrophes and successes are nothing more than accumulated decisions and moments. I see how, when viewed in reverse, they form a mammoth shape that becomes its own entity, obscuring the bits and pieces that culminated into the moment of change.

Thinking on this topic leaves me with the inevitable feeling that so much of my time is wasted. This is not because the activities I choose are not worthy of pursuit. This is not because the efforts are vain or misguided. This is because they are diluted; because the difference between a good effort, a great effort, and a masterful effort are subtle details accumulated over time. Focusing them into a single pile, if you’ll entertain the metaphor, produces a single, massive result. Dividing them over many areas gently coats the surface but never amounts to a grand outcome.

My humility would argue that this is also a fine result and that the purpose of my efforts cannot be fully understood while immersed in the moment, with only one piece of the puzzle to examine. At the same time, I understand that visibility is power and power is not merely a force of evil. Power is the authority to invoke change. Change is the opportunity (and burden) to invoke a greater purpose in oneself and those touched by my words. But without creating a theater for my work, I cannot hope to achieve any lasting influence.

Thus, my scattered efforts and interests, my many loyalties, keep me from building the pillar upon which I could stand, visible to my audience, and offer what I have to say. And perhaps this is part of the Greater Plan. Perhaps this is for the Greater Good. For who is to say that anything I would offer would be more beneficial than destructive to those who would listen? Certainly I can’t claim such wisdom, standing here with one piece of an infinite puzzle, speculating on how the picture might turn out, based on which way I turn my pegs and slots.

Motivation is a strange thing for most of us. Today a good friend over at Flexbandit forwarded me a video that captures the spirit of our motivation as people. It also captures something that I feel is wrong with many businesses today.

Below are a few highlights from the video, which I hope you will take a moment to watch and think about, whether you’re a writer, animator, programmer, martial artist, or just a person interacting with this world of commerce and business.

We are not as endlessly manipulable and predictable as you might think.

Money is a motivator. If you don’t pay people enough, they won’t be motivated.

But once they are paid enough, money is taken off the table. There are three factors that lead to better performance:  Autonomy, the desire to direct our own lives; mastery, the urge to get better at stuff and achieve; and, a sense of purpose.

Companies that are flourishing are animated by [a transcendent purpose]

The video begins a bit abstract and vague, but then really gets into some interesting details. You should take a few minutes and watch this video now. And, for more detail, the one on TED.