The Fractal System and “Star Wars”
More on Fractal’s “RPM” triangle. The EMOTIONAL JUICE of your idealized identity, purpose, and destiny is what will power your actions day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, through all the ups and downs.
So create an IDENTITY that is the person who could build the dream and live the destiny. Who is that person? Many, many years ago I learned a visualization called the “golden man.” This was a perfected version of myself physically, emotionally, mentally, financially, spiritually. I would see him when I ran, just a few strides in front of me. And I could either pace him, or seek to catch up with him. It didn’t really matter: either was powerful.
This is how it works:
WHAT: To finish the Star Wars book by Jan 1, 2024
WHY: Paying for Manila (physical), fun (Emotion), paying bills and thriving during the strike (Mind)
HOW: X pages per day/week. Researching. Planning.
I can define what I have to do every day to stay on track. But which version of me can do this?
Why, the Golden Man of course. A triangle with three idealized roles: Superdad, Grandmaster, and Master. I figure that if Larry is a Grandmaster of SF, I’m a Master. Actually, all three are connected here.
Each of THOSE is connected to my Ultimate Vision and Ultimate Purpose. My passions, and One-Year results. I’ve tapped into my “driving force”, what Harlan called the “burning core.” Something beyond ego and identity, the generative energy from whence consciousness arises. Fullfilling this destiny gives me EVERYTHING: freedom from fear. Joy. Service.
Catch this? The clearer I am on the ULTIMATE purpose, destiny, identity, etc, the easier it is to motivate myself to act.
“The ultimate success is to spend our time doing the things that are most important to us.” Being with my family, working out. Writing. Serving my community. When you are CLEAR on these things, you can motivate yourself to do whatever it takes. All you have to do is see how every activity is connected to your deepest meaning.
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Today Tananarive and I will dig into the TEN SECRETS OF HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITERS webinar, coming up this Saturday (only a few spaces left! www.hollywoodloophole.com)
We know our goal: to transfer the 20% most important lessons we’ve learned to our eager students. That’s the WHAT, and the WHY is multiphased, from survival to fun and contribution to the world, leading to personal evolution.
The HOW will be various models and forms of organization. “Ten Secrets” is a nice organizing structure: what are the ten most important things to know? Off the top of my head: plotting, characterization, accessing flow state, the Lifewriting Six. Screenwriting specifics: writing visually, dialogue, thematics and image systems. Building a career, pitch, spec scripts, lessons from the Writer’s Room. Overall career management and team building. Strategy and tactics.
If those are, roughly, the things that have to be communicated, then structuring them in a specific order is important. Teaching with ENERGY is important. And fun. SALES IS A TRANSFER OF ENTHUSIASM, and teaching is sales, don’t kid yourself.
And we’ll need to have the right technical situation. So we’re renting an office space with hard-wired stable internet. One or two computers? We’ll see.
But you can see the process: WHAT do we want, WHY do we want it, HOW we can do it. Break everything into project blocks so we can see what needs to be done today, tomorrow, before Saturday. Connect everything to our highest values and identity so that we are coming from joy and service rather than fear.
Everything is a state of being, everything is a process. You design it all so that it is challenging enough to focus attention, but not so challenging that it triggers panic. THIS is the “Flow State” and it is essential to reliable production and process. TRUSTING “the boys in the basement” to do the deep work — you just get your butt into the chair and TYPE, DAMMIT.
But…and here is another secret: you only HAVE to write one sentence a day. The rest is play, if you CHOOSE to go on. Major, major secret.
You’re welcome.
Anyway, this is another crack at really understanding this process of understanding what my goals are, my daily tasks are, and who I have to be to create the dream. Do this, and then just use your 5MM breathing breaks to remind yourself who you are, and your Morning Ritual to move your resources from mental concepts to physical habit.
Yeah. This is starting to flow. And it feels as if Jason is starting to FEEL it. Just a tickle now. A trickle. But put a crack in a dam, and the force of the water will eventually bring it down. “Water” in this sense is the life force that we can ALL connect to, at any moment.
Be like water.
Namaste
Steve