Do Less, Achieve More<\/em><\/a> by Chin-Ning Chu, and since then I\u2019ve read it five or six times (it\u2019s a fast read). Her mes\u00adsage is that if you fight Life, con\u00adstant\u00adly push\u00ading and press\u00ading for the things you want, you\u2019ll have a much hard\u00ader time achiev\u00ading suc\u00adcess than if you let go (sur\u00adren\u00adder to forces greater than you) and allow your des\u00adtiny to unfold nat\u00adu\u00adral\u00adly.<\/p>\nFor those of you acquaint\u00aded with works of East\u00adern phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy like the Tao <\/em>Te<\/em> Ching<\/em>, this idea of \u201cgoing with the flow\u201d is noth\u00ading new. How\u00adev\u00ader, Chu\u2019s book has a num\u00adber of unique ideas and anec\u00addotes, and one of my favorites involves one of the few celebri\u00adties I would love to meet: Clint East\u00adwood.<\/p>\nIn her book, Chu describes the idea of \u201cprepar\u00ading for suc\u00adcess,\u201d and the great Clint East\u00adwood fig\u00adures promi\u00adnent\u00adly in the anec\u00addote. Rather than para\u00adphras\u00ading, I\u2019m sim\u00adply going to give you the entire page where she dis\u00adcuss\u00ades this con\u00adcept. Here it is:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Before the Angel of Suc\u00adcess arrives in your life, you should devote your\u00adself to prepar\u00ading your wel\u00adcome for her. Pol\u00adish your craft and strength\u00aden your body to be fit so that you can do your job and enjoy suc\u00adcess when it comes. Sharp\u00aden your mind and spir\u00adit so they are ready to face the chal\u00adlenges that accom\u00adpa\u00adny a vis\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtion from the Angel of Suc\u00adcess.<\/em><\/p>\nIf you are not ready when the angel knocks, she will flee. And who knows when she will make it back around to your door again? One night in the 1960s, Clint East\u00adwood and Burt Reynolds were din\u00ading togeth\u00ader. Clint has already become a famous movie star, but Burt was still strug\u00adgling, try\u00ading to get bit parts. Burt asked Clint what he had done before he got his big break. Clint answered that he had sim\u00adply \u201cpre\u00adpared myself for suc\u00adcess.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nThose unadorned words, prepar\u00ading for suc\u00adcess<\/strong>, were the advice that was worth ten thou\u00adsand ounces of gold to Burt Reynolds. He heard the words, under\u00adstood the pro\u00adfound prin\u00adci\u00adple that they held, and went on to star\u00addom.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n
Since I read that, over six months ago, I\u2019ve been work\u00ading dili\u00adgent\u00adly behind the scenes to pre\u00adpare myself for suc\u00adcess. I\u2019ve beefed up this web\u00adsite. I\u2019ve tak\u00aden up golf. I\u2019ve changed my diet and lost almost 20 pounds. I\u2019ve start\u00aded lift\u00ading weights again. I\u2019ve bought myself a cou\u00adple of tai\u00adlored suits, includ\u00ading a fab\u00adu\u00adlous Hick\u00adey Free\u00adman num\u00adber. I\u2019ve orga\u00adnized my writ\u00ading and my office (well, Alexas did). I\u2019ve got\u00adten my com\u00adput\u00aders and type\u00adwrit\u00aders in good work\u00ading order. I\u2019ve got\u00adten an agent, who is get\u00adting my book read. I\u2019ve been build\u00ading a fan base. I\u2019ve had a pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal take author pho\u00adtos of me. And I\u2019ve said yes to lucra\u00adtive writ\u00ading assign\u00adments, even though they aren\u2019t direct\u00adly rel\u00ade\u00advant to my ide\u00adal career path as a nov\u00adel\u00adist and screen\u00adwriter.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe in pes\u00adsimism. If some\u00adthing does\u00adn\u2019t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it\u2019s going to rain, it will.\u201d \u2014 Clint East\u00adwood<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n
The one thing I haven\u2019t done much of over the past six months is the very thing I should be doing with every breath in my body and that\u2019s writ\u00ading<\/strong>. Blog entries and jour\u00adnal\u00ading and emails and cor\u00adpo\u00adrate writ\u00ading notwith\u00adstand\u00ading, I\u2019ve done next to noth\u00ading in the cre\u00adative are\u00adna. Up to now, that is.<\/p>\nInspi\u00adra\u00adtion has struck, and I\u2019m pre\u00adpared for suc\u00adcess, so now I have no excuse for not writ\u00ading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On a snowy day in Jan\u00adu\u00adary, I wan\u00addered into a Bor\u00adders book\u00adstore and did some\u00adthing I always do when I\u2019m seek\u00ading answers\u2014I let syn\u00adchronic\u00adi\u00adty guide\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9216,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/9216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}