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| Bray, Dublin. Stepping out for a walk. |
Head cranked back, eyes trained to the distance, and a flickering light signals what it is I have been missing out on all these years.
There it is says Allison pointing upwards Cassiopeia and if you look between the two stars there is the North Star, and there to your left, the Big Dipper... and just over there, her finger gently wavering is Jupiter.
At that point I swear I could hear Gustav Holtz the Planets.
And just as well. The morning had been the stuff of combat, textual combat: trying to make an argument, constructing a methodology - this simple, but not simplistic pursuit.
The diffusion of our aims and ambitious, brought on in part from displacement of traditional methods, means there is no one way of doing something now.
Studying to be what ever it is you want, well the rule book has been torn up. Working in an institution for sustainability and profit? Well in our economic uncertain times, the rules have been shredded.
About the only constant is Cassiopeia. She was there from the crust becoming an earth, and she's still bang right there now, though some smart alec astrologer is likely to tell us she since moved a bit. Them stars, eh always moving.
Such disunity is perhaps one reason why we seek structure. It's another reason why we crave solutions: good points- bullets in blogs to cut past all this gunk. The gunk preceeding this. If we can keep it simple, but not simplistic - job done.
But the simple things are often the hardest, distilled from years, hours of work to generally assist in what it is we're after. Point. You try writing a story captured in 25 words, when 40 will do. All of a sudden you're admiration for tabloid journalism becomes, well, stellar.
So after all that star gazing I headed back in and reflected on the things said to me to get me over those gordian knots and in the spirit of simple, but not simplicity. Here they are:
1. Get angry - if you must, get frustrated. You will. Step out for a walk and then ask yourself what are your options. Realise there is only one. Risk winning or failing? Step in and go for it again.
2. Be practical about what you aim to achieve and the time you can put to it. There are two variables in your equation for accomplishing a task: Time and You. One of them refuses to be moved about.
3. It's said you get to know yourself when you push past your limits. Mental strength untapped exists for the taking. It's what will get you back onto the task.
4. Imagine where you want to be, rather than where you are. Skiers and F1 racing drivers do this as a matter of course. They know something we don't?
5. Then work backwards how you make that journey work. What is it you need, where is it that needs looking..? e.g. what do you need to do to make films like Kendy
Release (Director's Cut) from Kendy on Vimeo.
6. Stay close to those who know what they're talking about. The wisdom of crowds is only as good as who is in your crowd. Smart people (stars) aren't generally born, takes a lot of work, and often working within the crowd.
7. The Bell Curve is prescriptive at how you might be, where you are placed. Prove the Bell Curve wrong...
8. Think through your methods, and construct for yourself your own methodology - how others go about doing what they do, will undoubtedly help you. Methodologies can be thought of a series of methods strung together that yield a unique strategy to accomplishing a task
9. See if you can make up tips approaching a nice round number such as 10.
10. There!
Now where's that star gone?
