- Are you serious?
- Really serious?
- Deadly serious?
- Not serious as in dull, boring, lack of lightheartedness.
- No.
- Definitely no.
- Serious as in:
- focused on...
- Investing in...
- light-footed about...
- responsive to...
- flexible concerning...
- in the zone for...
- on target with...
- knowing...
- what it is you want.
- Thus: have you read enough and it's time to act?
- Or have you not read enough and it is time to get rid of the TV, Facebook and Men's Health Ab Building Handbooks.
- That kind of serious.
- Serious about developing a mind so creative it will overcome anything.
- "we choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them" Kahil Gibran
- A body with such reserves of energy.
- A tenacity better than superglue.
- Are you serious enough?
- To be up at dawn writing?
- To leave work fatigued and yet still hit the gym.
- To say no for a few hours to good friends who are in the bar again when you have stuff to do.
- To say no to a crappy book deal because, because. Well, simply because.
- To laugh at yourself.
- "when a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth" George Bernard shaw
- Are you simply serious enough?
- Are you simply serious?
- Are you serious enough!
- Can you work at it until you perspire? Actually, drip.
- Can you work through lack of self belief which will hit you...
- ...TIME and TIME and TIME again.
- HOW SERIOUS ARE YOU?
- Is really the question.
- Can you stop using excuses?
- About block?
- Fatigue?
- Loss of mojo?
- Too many Responsibilities?
- Would you write if you only had paper and pencil?
- Would you work out even if you only had the park, a park-bench and your own body weight to shift?
- Would you still sell if you had to borrow a friends land-line because you couldn't afford pay-as-you-go?
- How serious are you?
- Seriously?
- Could you halve your personal expenses and hence save towards that project?
- You don't know your personal expenses?!
- How serious are you?
- Might you still be planning and plotting as the sun is setting?
- "you can sometimes count every orange on a tree but never all the trees in a single orange" A K Ramamujan
- Making calls when others say there is no point?
- Pushing t h r o u g h the dip when creativity wanes?
- Doing the right things when others are simply doing things?
- Will you think longer term?
- Will you put in the hours?
- As well as the miles?
- Forget about: job titles, car grades, corner offices and airline gold cards. Oh, yes. Trivia compared to the real bigger picture. But, oh so seductive.
- "there must be more to life than having everything" Maurice Sendak.
- Are you seriousness enough?
- To develop courage.
- Face fear.
- "courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear. Not absence of fear" Mark Twain
- Even ignore chocolate.
- And yet do the routine stuff too:
- Get enough sleep;
- Be polite;
- Turn up on time;
- Thank people;
- keep in touch with those who are important.
- Just how serious are you?
- Do you really know the roles in your life?
- Partner, sure
- Mother?
- Father?
- Son?
- Daughter?
- Wife?
- Husband?
- Girlfriend?
- Friend?
- Of course.
- And what about hero?
- A hero on a journey.
- A journey which is tough.
- Oh, so tough.
- Because:
- The original map is totally outdated in this brave new world of work.
- Bridges have been blown.
- Rules have been torn up.
- Signposts taken down.
- Are you serious?
- Enough to make your own way?
- To set your compass.
- To pack your own sandwiches.
- To decide your personal manifesto.
- And head off where others fear to tread.
- "without darkness there are no dreams" Karla Kuban
- Yep, you're serious.