Ockham Media

I attended a business seminar several months ago. One of the core teachings of this teacher was “clarity equals power”. Sure, that’s great. But there’s one problem…how do you get clarity in the first place?

I am finally at a point in my life where I have unbelievable clarity. I KNOW what I want to do in this life that best utilizes my talents and passions. Clarity is indeed power. I know that now. Getting to the point of clarity however was tough. I want to share with you my process. This may not work for other clarity-seekers out there, but maybe it can be helpful.

1. Make amends with the past. There were people I needed to make peace with, either by talking to them, or forgiving them in my own mind. There were movies I needed to see again, music I needed to hear again. These things helped me make peace with difficult times in the past. I learned to embrace that young girl I once was and realize that she did the best she could with the limited knowledge she had back then.

2. Become quiet. You want to get to a point where you can hear that tiny voice in your heart. Once you can hear that, clarity will come easily because it tells you exactly what to do. But I had to distance myself from the “outside world” as much as possible. I didn’t listen to any news or other media, no tv, I didn’t hang out with any friends during this time, not even phonecalls. I tried to put myself in isolation as much as possible. Once I blocked out the outside, then it was time to block the chatter of my own mind. Super tough! But I would make an effort to focus on the present moment. It was during this time I really started to dream big again. I’d forgotten how to do that. But I found my passion and the clarity was very apparent.

3. Make fear your friend. Once you hear that little voice and you know what needs to be done, the absolute hardest part is DOING IT. It is so scary. Sometimes I feel like a total fake pretending to be something I’m not…yet. I had to come up with a way to push through the discomfort. Also, I make sure to be uncomfortable every single day. It’s so easy to say, “Ok, I stepped outside my comfort zone now I’m gonna relax the rest of the week.” No, you have to keep pushing it everyday. Otherwise you loose momentum and have to start all over again. And what a drag that would be! That’s a great motivator right there!

This is the most un-thought-provoking post ever. But frankly, I can’t believe it’s Thursday already. It feels like I’ve been working hard and not getting much done this week. Can I blame the weather? I have been naughty about getting up at 5am this week. It’s just too cold out there. I can’t do it. Also work this week is a drag. I am wading through hours and hours of footage for an educational DVD. Every time I start working on it I practically fall asleep. Boring, big time! Anyway, I’ll just post my updates because…. that’s what I’m into right now. I am using this blog as an accountability tool.(this works well, by the way)

Music Video #1- no new progress. big shoot coming up on Saturday and after that the shooting is 95% done.

Music Video #2- I spoke with the singer who wrote the song to get his story behind the lyrics. Good stuff. This video is going to be awesome. I’ve never been so excited for pre-production as I am for this one. I’ll start that in mid-October.

The Book- No action.

So much is going on it’s hard to keep up. I got some hugely exciting news on Friday. A band I’ve been wanting to work with gave me the go-ahead to make a music video of one of their songs! This is going to be my most ambitious project to date. I expect to take this one into pre-production in mid-October. I’m giving myself three months to get through pre-production. I hope to start casting in January/February and start shooting in March or April. We’ll see how the reality ends up being, but that’s the goal.

The Book: No word from the editor, but she won’t start it until October. The soonest I expect to hear something is mid-October. I’m trying to not think about it but it’s hard. I really miss writing! I’m even starting to think about plots for book number 2. I know that’s way premature, but I just can’t help it

Music Video number 1: Going well. Shooting is half way done. Working with child actors is always a blast (sarcastic). Ugh, we had a shoot at a bookstore over the weekend and boy was my talent distractable that day! I knew I only had a matter of minutes to get my shots before things turned ugly. So I was able to get 5 shots in 25 minutes, which is pretty crazy. We have our long shooting day coming up on Saturday, so I hope it goes well. We may have to break it into two days. When working with children you are really at the mercy of their moods. But when she is on…..she is stellar!

Real Estate: I am learning the science of wholesaling short sales. This opportunity will be so awesome once I learn the ropes. I now have a joint venture with one of the top short sale companies in the country. Super exciting. Also I got 2 people to put on my “buyer’s list” so that makes me feel official I hope to start going after my first deal in 3 weeks or so.

This Week: I’ll be in the editing suite this week. I’m editing an educational DVD for adoptive families. It will be nice to work on something totally different from what I’ve been doing. Also, I booked an editing job that actually pays for October. Time to replenish the funds! Once I’m a wealthy real estate investor I can fund all my own creative projects and not worry about it!

I am coming out of the tunnel this week. You see, last week was “tunnel vision” week. I HAD to get the first draft of the novel DONE. I lived it, ate it, breathed it. Now it is finished. (apologies to friends and family who thought I must be dead.) I mailed it off to my editor on Saturday. Now… I wait. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I’ve been a closet writer my whole life, but this is the first time I’ve had anyone Pro look at my stuff. I have no clue what to expect.

A few people have been asking me about the book so I will try to answer your questions. It is a work of fiction. I did about 7 re-writes to get a completed first draft. This took me 3 1/2 months and I usually wrote for a minimum of 2 hours a day. I also took a week off at points when the story wasn’t making sense anymore because I would stare at it for too long. The reason I was able to do it so quickly is that the novel is only 31,500 words. An average novel is 90,000. So this is really more of an extended novella. This is ok though because of the way the story is being told. (more on that some other time). For me the ending was the hardest part. I think I changed it 3 or 4 times. I’m still not thrilled with it but it’s getting closer. The writing got increasingly difficult towards completing the draft. This is because I’ve looked at it and reworked it so many times that I can’t tell if it even makes sense anymore. Once I hit this point I just busted my butt to get the draft done. It needs a fresh pair of eyes on it now.

Writing this novel has been a thrill ride on many levels. I learned a lot about myself and my dedication to something I believe in. Also, I was constantly fascinated by how the story unfolded in my mind. I started with a certain vision but as I began writing, the characters seemed to take on a life of their own. They ended up going in different directions than I planned for them. It sounds sillly, but they came alive to me. When I had to kill off one of my characters I actually cried! (don’t tell anyone about that) The other surprise was how the story ended up being much darker than I originally planned. I didn’t mean to go dark. It just “went there” and I had to allow it to go that way. The process was so amazing. This story just breathed life into itself. It was my job to write it all down. That’s how it felt.

I now wait on pins and needles to see what my editor says. Then back to re-writing. I am absolutely dedicated to doing as many re-writes as needed to make it the best it can be. But for now it’s nice to be back amoung the living and able to think about something else

A friend recently encouraged me to make a “vision board”. I had wanted to make one for a while but didn’t even have enough clarity to know what to put on it, so I never made it. Well, I am happy to say that clarity has been received! Last night I was up until nearly midnight finishing my vision board.

A vision board is a visual reminder of what you wish to attract into your life. I hung mine right next to my monitor so it is in my line of sight anytime I’m am the computer. I can already see the effectiveness of this thing. Anytime I look at it I get pumped up and very happy. You know, there is really no reason why I shouldn’t be able to acheive every single thing on that board? Very empowering. I hope you get a chance to make one very soon! I highly recommend it. Here is mine:

One interesting thing happened while making this. When it was finished I hung it up and looked at it. By the beautiful Spanish-style home I had written “dream house”. By the BMW I wrote “dream car.” Then I thought, “Hey! That’s not my DREAM car… that IS MY CAR!! That IS OUR HOUSE!!” So I went back and changed that. To say those things are “mine” is much more empowering instead of “it’s just some far away dream.”

And as I’m also using this blog as a form of accountability, here is my update for the week…

The Novel: Nearly done with the completed first draft. I spoke with my editor and she has me booked for October!! I will mail out the completed first draft manuscript plus a few sample layout pages on or before September 21. (*ooops, I just caught myself again. In the previous sentence I originally put “I HOPE to mail out the draft”. Nope, that’s not acceptable anymore. I changed it to “I WILL…” See the difference? It’s amazing how one tiny word changes the entire context.)

The Music Video: Shot list is done. I’m gathering the props this week and shooting will begin this weekend!

Real Estate: Ordered a program that teaches a system for doing short sale wholesaling. A lot to learn. I was on the coaching call last night and found myself feeling intimidated. But, I pushed through the discomfort anyway. It’s always tricky at first because when you start something new you feel like a total fake. You know you have no clue what you are doing. But you must push forward to get the experience so eventually you WILL know what you are doing. Tomorrow I’m going to a networking group for fix and flips. Also I’m reaching out to my current network and getting introductions to other people who are successfull RE investors.

Most importantly I am very aware of the thoughts going through my mind. We have this idea that fear is our big enemy. But, I think the biggest enemy is DOUBT. I simply will not tolerate doubt thoughts in my mind anymore. I challenge you to watch your own mind and see how many times a day doubt creeps in. You may be surprised. It’s a sneakly little devil!

This is just a quick update on where things stand for this week. Suffice it to say I didn’t get as much done this week as I was hoping. I had a couple large time commitments this week that caused me to fall way off schedule. But, I’m celebrating the progress that was made… in spite of the lack of progress. Does that make sense? So here’s what I’ve got:

The Book: Finished another re-write and guess what? Doing ONE MORE re-write. Shocking, I know. I really hope this is the last one before sending it to my editor. I only got to page 33 this week, which is a total drag. My goal is to send it off to my editor ON OR BEFORE SEPTEMBER 21. I’m throwing that goal out there to keep me driving hard toward it.

Music Video Project: The goal was to have the shot list done, prop list done, and locations contacted.
Here’s the reality- shot list is a fraction done. Prop list is done. No locations have been contacted. However, it looks like I may start shooting a few shots on Monday, which I wasn’t expecting. So that will make up for my lack of progress in the other things. Of course, the shot list must be done before I can start shooting, so I’ll be cranking on that tomorrow and Saturday.

Real Estate Investing- I’ve been obsessively reading blogs, listening to cd’s, anything I can get my hands on. I have a decent grasp on real estate investing. There’s just so many ways to do it. I’m trying to decide on my angle. I think I’m getting very close to deciding this. Very exciting. I should maybe start another blog for the Real Estate, since it makes no since here. Although it might be cool to show one way an artist can make money, hee hee. Plus, I really need another blog to write…like a whole in the head.