Tag: Writers

Day 154

Posted on by philipdodson

154

This is my 154th day of continuous blog writing.

I’m aiming to do a whole year.

If there is one thing to come out of the journey so far, it is the simple fact that the more you practice something, the better you get.

Success often comes from taking small steps regularly, best on a daily basis, and doing those little tasks as best as we can.

The next step to master is to gradually apply them to more and more things, to build up slowly but surely, more daily success rituals.

This is something I have been working on over the last couple of years, and it is a challenge. In periods of extreme enthusiasm, I can manage for a short burst to stick to 15-20 daily rituals.

However, keeping that many going from a ‘cold’ start is hard. To form any lasting habit you have to do it for a long period without letting up.

So to try and form so many habits all at once is never going to go well.

This year I have been trying to build up slowly and being kinder to myself too when I slip occassionally. Slowly I am building lasting habits, a few things at a time.

Consistency comes from habit and consistency leads to turning plans and ideas into reality.

One habit at a time is what works, not changing everything at once.

Don’t queue to be an ‘Atmospherian’

Posted on by philipdodson

atmospherians

I was listening to a podcast from 99%Invisible, Roman Mars, all about film extras, and the now world famous Central Casting in Burbank California. The story behind how Central Casting came to be is fascinating and it was born out of the exploitation of mainly women by the Hollywood film industry.

Extras were referred to as ‘atmospherians’, which I thought was a wonderfully descriptive phrase for people who are the mute crowd in films.

It’s interesting that these people will literally queue all night and through the day just get a chance to register with Central Casting, that’s not to get a job as an ‘atmospherian’, that’s simply to get a chance of getting on the database.

There are two points here:

1. The words we use are important, if you want to stand out don’t use the normal, mainstream and unremarkable, use words like ‘atmospherians’ or even better create your own unique words that are rich and descriptive.

2. Don’t queue all your life to get chosen by others. Choose yourself, bypass the heartache of waiting for others to notice you. Bypass the process of queueing day after day hoping to get on a database. Create your own stuff, make yourself the lead role not the extra.

You can become a ‘creatorian’.