Have you ever been caught in a rare moment when it feels like your child is growing up in that very second, right before your eyes…and not wanting it to happen? I had one while visiting the Atomic Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan.
The Rejuvenating Power of Time Out
What is it so many world leaders, renowned entrepreneurs, inventors, artists and authors all have in common in their pursuits for excellence, their chasing of dreams?
Surprisingly, it is not high IQ, or work obsession, access to buckets of money, or absurd luck, although all those things would be very nice.
The one common denominator is that they embrace and deploy ‘the power of time out’ as a deliberate high-performance strategy. They get away; switch off; disconnect to create mind space to create, invent and problem-solve. With examples from John Cleese to Mozart; Bill Gates to Churchill; Microsoft and others, as well as a few silly anecdotes of my own year out, my recent TEDx talk, delves into this concept, highlighting the irony that in the future, there will be an awful lot of business and technology developed to help us stay away from busyness and technology.
In fact, it’s already started; an explosion in digital detox holidays, apps teaching us mindfulness, net-blocking software deployed so we can avoid distraction. With technology addiction centres being one of the fastest growing property uses in Asia, 300 of them in China alone in the past few years, join the revolution of those seeking ‘time out’ as a strategy to achieving personal greatness.
Click here for the link to the 13 minute TEDx talk, presented at Australia’s no 55 world-ranked university, the University of Queensland.
As Socrates once said, when overwhelmed with busyness, “beware the barrenness of a busy life.”
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My Path to Publishing; Wannabe Author Turns ‘Pro’
For years I worked on my book, scratching away in the back room of my house like a mad hermit, telling no-one, battling the sweet little voices that kept telling me I was fantasising to think I could be a writer.
But the words kept flowing and after thousands of hours of crafting, with much of that time joyously lost in intense blurs, it dawned on me that I loved this act of writing, that it was more than a hobby. I had to finish the story and get my message out, but the manuscript was rough, irreverent and wordy; it simply wasn’t good enough.
Searching for inspiration I studied Hemingway, and after reading of his extraordinary path to publishing, decided to copy his success secrets; I would move to Paris, get drunk regularly, hang with reprobates and have multiple affairs. But I couldn’t; I had to do the shopping and my wife would kill me if I was late picking up the kids.
Instead, in sports analogy terms, I turned ‘Pro’ … in my own head anyway. I figured that if I was ever going to be an author, I better start acting like one. Fake it to make it. It was like a light switch coming on in my head; for the first time I took my writing seriously. I joined writer’s centres and the Australian Society of Authors; listened to author podcasts and TED talks; stalked bookshops and attended classes, workshops, and lectures, often way out of my comfort zone. Generally, for me to discuss feelings was about as natural as a cat barking, but in many writing sessions I was the only male and exposing feelings was the curriculum. At first excruciating, these workshops became my favourite development activity, sharing the dream with other wannabe authors.
I kept writing, editing, slashing, showing not telling, and killing precious words while uncovering others, just like real writers do, till eventually, continuing on my pro-sports theme, I went to a ‘super coach.’ This manuscript assessor, in the legendary term from the movie The Castle, did not teach core skills, but rather, helped me with the ‘vibe.’
My book was published within a year of my turning ‘pro.’ It won Queensland’s People’s Choice Book of the year. After its release, I was in the Channel Nine TV studios, headset on and staring into a camera, waiting nervously for the cross to presenters David Campbell and Sonia Kruger. In those few seconds, I sat there thinking, ‘Wow, this is it. No more faking it, I’ve made it; prime time and national TV. My genius is finally recognised; there’s no going back to that doubt-ridden scrawling hermit,’ when suddenly a static-riddled voice came through my earpiece. ‘Hey John, sorry mate, we’ll have to cut you short. The vacuum cleaner ad is going really well!’
John Ahern is a Gold-Coast based author. His travel memoir, ‘On The Road With Kids’ won the Queensland People’s Choice Book of the Year 2015 and was released in the UK in May 2016. www.johnahern.co
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Kurt Vonnegut on How to Make Your Soul Grow
Shaun Usher’s book ‘More Letters of Note’ is a compilation of correspondence from and between famous people. This is one such extract from author Kurt Vonnegut to a high-school class that he was to visit at age 84, but couldn’t make.
” I don’t make public appearances any more because I now resemble an Iguana … What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.”
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The Top 5 Things to Do with a Lonely Planet Guide, Except Read It.
You may glean from the photo of the bookshelf above my desk that that I am a bit of a Lonely Planet fan. Having romped my way across over 85 countries, it is my primary travel guide of choice. But even so, I have found other great, unusual and possibly confronting uses for a Lonely Planet guide than just reading it; here is my Top five:
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Vietnam – 5 Great Travel Tips
In preparing to go to Vietnam with my family, I decided that ‘planning’, normally the anathema to my independent travelling ethos, would have to be embraced. Prior to our 30 day sojourn in January 2015, I did more trip research than I have ever done. Once on the road, my crew of four travelled from south to north, from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, with stops in the Mekong Delta, Hoi An, Sapa and the world-renowned Halong Bay. We were on a tight budget to make this trip happen. I booked internal flights direct with the local airlines, direct booked hotels and travelled for under $100 a day for the family. I could smash down a hundred tips and hacks from many great sources but there were a few I simply did not discover until we were there. Here are 5 great tips that were not easily discovered. [Read more…]
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Somerset Celebration of Literature – An Author Insider
I had always dreamed of being backstage in the ‘green room’. Mingling with other ‘stars,’ I could indulge in outrageous demands such as having coconut water shipped in from a remote island or insisting that I receive a foot massage every thirty minutes.
To achieve that fantasy I probably shouldn’t have been presenting at a school-run book festival. But the green room at the Gold Coast’s Somerset Celebration of Literature remained a highlight. [Read more…]
