Month: June 2011

#30trust, Writing

Wholly Strange And New: A Blog Post

Sanjay Sabarwal
Janss_Steps,_UCLA
Image via Wikipedia

Wholly Strange and New by Bridget Pilloud
When good is near you, when you have life in yourself, it is not by any known or accustomed way; you shall not discern the foot-prints of any other; you shall not see the face of man; you shall not hear any name;—— the way, the thought, the good, shall be wholly strange and new. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Can you remember a moment in your life when you had life in yourself and it was wholly strange and new? Can you remember the moment when you stopped walking a path of someone else, and started cutting your own?

Write about that moment. And if you haven’t experienced it yet, let the miracle play out in your mind’s eye and write about that moment in your future.

(Author: Bridget Pilloud)

I remember the first time I started free style writing, it was under a timed essay for NCTE (National Council for Teachers of English), where we would write about anything.  We had practiced many themes and topics in preparations but when the test started, I began to write about the time pressure, the room, describing my reasons for writing and it was then I truly knew I would win the contest.  At that moment, my grammar was perfect, the words flowed, and although we had 5 page minimum with 2 hours, I ended up writing almost 12 pages about my life with my horrible handwriting, but it was bliss.  It was clear.  It made sense. I knew I would end up going to UCLA and win the only scholastic award in my life that meant anything.  I don’t remember erasing much and at that time typing was not allowed yet my hand was sure and steady as I wrote about the room, setting my future in motion.

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Some Not So Great Resumes :) (I Am baccckkkk)

Sanjay Sabarwal
Some  Not So Great Resumes

 1. "I demand a salary commiserate with
   my extensive experience."

 2. "I have lurnt Word Perfect 6.0 computor
   and spreadsheet progroms."

 3. "Received a plague for Salesperson of the Year."

 4. "Reason for leaving last job: maturity leave."

 5. "Wholly responsible for two (2) failed financial
 institutions."

 6. "Failed bar exam with relatively high grades."

 7. "It’s best for employers that I not work with
 people."

 8. "Let’s meet, so you can ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over
 my experience."

 9. "You will want me to be Head Honcho in
 no time."

 10. "Am a perfectionist and rarely if if ever
 forget details."

 11. "I was working for my mom until she
 decided to move."

 12. "Marital status: single. Unmarried.
 Unengaged. Uninvolved. No commitments."

 13. "I have an excellent track record,
 although I am not a horse."

 14. "I am loyal to my employer at all
 costs…Please feel free to respond to my
 resume on my office voice mail."

 15. "I have become completely paranoid,
 trusting completely no one and absolutely
 nothing."

 16. "My goal is to be a meteorologist. But
 since I possess no training in meterology,
 I suppose I should try stock brokerage."

 17. "I procrastinate, especially when the
 task is unpleasant."

 18. "As indicted, I have over five years of
 analyzing investments."

 19. "Personal interests: donating blood.
 Fourteen gallons so far."

 20. "Instrumental in ruining entire operation
 for a Midwest chain store."

 21. "Note: Please don’t miscontrue my
 14 jobs as ‘job-hopping’. I have never quit
 a job."

 22. "Marital status: often. Children: various."

 23. "Reason for leaving last job: They insisted
 that all employees get to work by 8:45 a.m. every
 morning. Could not work under those conditions."

 24. "The company made me a scapegoat, just
 like my three previous employers."

 25. "Finished eighth in my class of ten."

 26. "References: None. I’ve left a path of
 destruction behind me."

#30trust

One Thing: A Blog Post

Sanjay Sabarwal
Grave of Ralph Waldo Emerson at Sleepy Hollow ...
Image via Wikipedia

One Thing by Colin Wright
Do your work, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Take a moment, step back from your concerns, and focus on one thing: You have one life to achieve everything you’ve ever wanted. Sounds simple, but when you really focus on it, let it seep into your consciousness, you realize you only have about 100 years to get every single thing you’ve ever wanted to do. No second chances. This is your only shot. Suddenly, this means you should have started yesterday. No more waiting for permission or resources to start. Today is the day you make the rest of your life happen. Write down one thing you’ve always wanted to do and how you will achieve that goal. Don’t be afraid to be very specific in how you’ll achieve it: once you start achieving, your goals will get bigger and your capability to meet them will grow.

Write. Then Write Some More.  At some point, the words have to matter, have to make sense, have to fill out the thoughts swirling around my head, have to come out onto this blank space or paper before they are lost forever.  So Write.  That’s the ultimate goal.  That’s the end line.  Think, ponder, wonder, question and then write.  Write until it all bleeds out, and the hurt lessens, the past firmly finally deal with. write until there are no more issues left, write until all the indecision’s, regrets and what-ifs are put away and just focus on that one precious goal.

 

Write.  Then Write some more

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Photo

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#30trust, #trust30, Writing

Fear: A Blog Post

Sanjay Sabarwal
Cover of "Fear of Writing"
Cover of Fear of Writing

Fear by Lachlan Cotter
These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Is fear holding you back from living your fullest life and being truly self expressed? Put yourself in the shoes of the you who’s already lived your dream and write out the answers to the following:

Is the insecurity you’re defending worth the dream you’ll never realize? or the love you’ll never venture? or the joy you’ll never feel?

Will the blunder matter in 10 years? Or 10 weeks? Or 10 days? Or 10 minutes?

Can you be happy being anything less than who you really are?

Now Do. The Thing. You Fear.

I knew it would be difficult to take on the 30 challenge more so than anything  else because it would require me to face my fear of writing regularly and perhaps on some sort of schedule.  The stories sit inside me cobwebbed, yet I feel great anxiety when I start to dust off the past to write about it mainly because I have not dealt with the emotional consequence as well as having a turbulent present.  So where do I begin? That’s the question I am stuck or similarly whenever people ask what I want to write about, I say Ziba but to be quite honest, I do not if that’s the first story I want to tell.

As I witnessed a good friends wedding from UCLA, and being around other UCLA friends, I realized how much I miss that perfect time when all that mattered was scholarship and friendship.  It was a perfect time when writing came to be easy and words just appeared when I sat in front of the campus desktop computer.  Yet more than anything else, I was not alone.  I remember spending nights on my friend’s couch when I had no money for dorm housing, and benefiting greatly from the generosity of true friends who I see now 15 years later, and it is as if nothing has changed.  We all have spouses now, and we are older but just for that one night, we felt like we were 21 again, laughing and giggling about the dumb things we did at UCLA.

Yes the insecurity returns when the 39-year-old me sits here and wonder what to write about and it hits me that more than anything else, I am fighting about my own story.  I do not who I am anymore.  Years ago, I had a defined personality and name away from Ziba Beauty but now I am just a co-owner and while the opportunities are endless, there is a sense of betrayal to my sense of what I should be doing: which is writing.  So more than anything else, as I sit in this hotel room in New York, I am determined now to keep writing regularly and hopefully have something published next year.

Divine Idea by Fabian Kruse
Imitation is Suicide. Insist on yourself; never imitate. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Write down in which areas of your life you have to overcome these suicidal tendencies of imitation, and how you can transform them into a newborn you – one that doesn’t hide its uniqueness, but thrives on it. There is a “divine idea which each of us represents” – which is yours?

Currently, I have a tendency of copying and pasting my own old writings and not really creating anything new so I need to stop “killing” myself and just sit down and write.

 

 

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Afraid to Do/Personal Message

Sanjay Sabarwal

In the midst of a humid and hot as hell New York, I stayed away from the laptop just taking in the alone time with her and some old family.  So far, it has to led to mixed results as we have become rusty at truly being alone together.  The constant calls and texts from others do not help sometimes only because we have become new at being with each other. Sad truth is, we are struggling more so because there are some old habits we have that are hard to break, and are creating constant friction.  Anyways, that is my long winded way of saying sorry, I didn’t get to the prompts for these reasons/

Trust30-Day 9-Afraid to Do

Afraid to Do by Mary Jaksch

The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson says: “Always do what you are afraid to do.” What is ‘too scary’ to write about? Try doing it now.

Writing for me has always been personal but recent comments by others in my family and others close to me have now made me scared to put down anything “real” or “off the cuff” for fear of offending them as well as coming off as harsh.  I feel as if I can no longer vent bout the issues that are affect my due to friends and family.   Unfortunately, I am in a position that I cannot blog about it but I did manage to find another outlet which is to write a blank document, rant and rave and then deleting so I don’t have the stress that I will offend someone. 

Your Personal Message by Eric Handler
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, that is genius. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is burning deep inside of you? If you could spread your personal message RIGHT NOW to 1 million people, what would you say?

My message would be a copy and paste of Pema Chodron.  To let things be, let emotion flow around you and don’t waste time on things that do not matter, spend time on the ones that make you matter. 

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