Comments on: Committed to What?

By: Ruth

Ruth — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 22:43:14 +0000

Thank you, Steven. Your line “my commitment is to the spirit inhering within me” completely hit a nerve. And your analogy on the acorn becoming an oak was perfect. I was asked this question just yesterday and felt completely deflated because I didn’t have an answer. But now I realize my eternal search for purpose IS my commitment. That while my purpose is predetermined, my commitment is in making sure I find it and live it! Totally love this way of looking things and am so grateful for this insight.

By: karenlee

karenlee — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 19:37:14 +0000

Thank You…

By: Bankowe

Bankowe — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:15:26 +0000

Just finished reading your War of Art and just dropping by to see if there’s something more from you online.

You seem to have reached the sort of commitment that to me and many others might look quite abstract, but I do get you point and agree 100%.

One good thing you can do for yourself is stop drifting and dedicate yourself to something. Preferably something creative and constructive. Thank you from Poland

By: ilona

ilona — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 03:16:07 +0000

Beautiful, powerful (and, to those in the mainstream, threatening) words: “I’m not committed to any specific endeavor. Not a family or a cause or a field of enterprise. Not an ideal of service or sacrifice, not an art, not a people or a calling.

My commitment is to the spirit inhering within me.”

By: skip

skip — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:09:32 +0000

thanks….excellent as usual. apathy is a killer. i discovered the daimon in the book “love and will” (rollo may). one mindblowing book now 50 years young. HNY and S/F, Steve!

By: Katrina Costedio, Surfer/Writer/Designer

Katrina Costedio, Surfer/Writer/Designer — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:24:46 +0000

I agree with David: YES.

By: P...

P... — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 05:00:16 +0000

There are moments when the leisure of time is not available, so I delete your emails. No longer will I take the action of deleting without reading first.

For half my life I operated with a misconception about commitment; it was limiting, operating as a trickster to trap me. How wrong! My day of realization about commitment was a turning point. IT’S FREEING to have and operate with commitment. It lends for clarity and confidence. It brings certainty to a cause, be it internal or external.

Your email was my reminder, and we all need reminders, that commitment gives freedom a new wave to ride upon.

All the best!

By: Gretchen

Gretchen — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 23:20:29 +0000

I’ve just recovered from the wave of sobbing that started when I read, “My job is to wake up.” I’m bored and paralyzed atop Maslow’s freaking hierarchy and I want to be different. I’m also considerably older than that guy living in the halfway house basement. Your post is helping me think. Is it really that I can’t hear my “voice” or is that when the voice speaks, I keep saying “no?”

By: Angelique LaCour

Angelique LaCour — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 23:06:11 +0000

I recall vividly reading this passage in Turning Pro and I realized that I too confirm my commitment to living and working authentically every time I create what I call “self-discipline rituals/routines” and then stick to them! Just those small daily actions are so important. When I get sloppy about doing them, everything starts to unravel. Really great stuff, Steven. Thanks!

PS Does anyone know what happened to the Dec. 30 post titled Opportunity is Bullshit? I received it by email, but can’t find it on the blog–link from the email gave me the old Error 404 (not found). I’d really like to comment on it…just wondering where it went.

Happy New Year everybody–remember to dream big–the universe will give back a million times greater than you can imagine, but you gotta put it out there!

By: Laura Stamps

Laura Stamps — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:45:33 +0000

John, I agree with Joel in one respect…you may need some tweaking. But I have a bit of a different viewpoint on that. I’ve been a published author for 25 years, and 55 of my books have been published by various publishers. But I haven’t always been a genre novelist (romantic erotica).

I started out in the small press as a literary poet. Five years later I began writing and publishing literary fiction as well. Then in 2005, after the first volume of my collected poems was published, I went into the genre market, writing fiction exclusively and haven’t written any poetry since.

Each time I made a change it was because I felt I was spinning my wheels. I realized it was because I had either accomplished everything I set out to do in one medium (poetry), or I had a yearning to explore something different (the long form of novels and novellas). It’s been my experience creative people grow and change as they work their craft every day. And our focus can change every decade or so.

Maybe this is what’s happening to you. The only way to know is if the kind of books you’re writing now still make your heart sing and the process of writing them continually fascinates you. If not you might be on the verge of a change in medium, genre, or whatever. It seems to happen to me every 8-10 years.