Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

Reasons to Write at Night and When the Sun Is Rising

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog, Writing | 38 Comments

vibrant_sky


At night everything slows down and the world is quieter, most of the animals are sleeping, some of the flowers even close — that has to mean something.

Doesn’t it?

At night, I think deeper, fuller, broader, as if I might be out there in the indigo with the stars. It’s easy to picture that. It’s hard to think of being in the open, blue daylight sky.

A wise man I know said to me that he thinks kids grow up slower where there is winter, because they need to come home to be inside and need to wear clothes to stay warm.

I think night is like that. I makes us slow down. In the dark, we walk slower. We come inside to find enough light to read by. We hear the quiet of our own thoughts.

Those are reasons I write at night and in the very early morning when the sun is rising. I can even hear the clicking of the keys as type my thoughts on my keyboard, and the sounds seems to match the beating of my heart. That has to mean something.

Doesn’t it?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Image source: sxc.hu
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About Being Shiny, Are You Listening?

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 20 Comments

Ever been shiny, golden, glittery — the top of the social media set? Ever had a day go almost perfectly? Ever felt like the sun was shining just for you? Bet it’s happened at least one time. It’s usually something like this . . .

Every conversation is just the right amounts of smart and witty. Every word communicates and moves to action in a nice way. Everyone seems so appealing. Caffeine and chocolate aren’t necessary, but they’re available. Cooperation is the weather all day.

Ideas appear without reaching, like poetry in motion.

Everything anyone touches turns golden. People behave in the most extraordinarily generous fashion. Even that guy you dislike looks to be doing things right.

It’s a symphony. Hmmm. You check that you’ve not fallen asleep laughing.

Life is a breeze, piece of cake, easy as pie. Wishes are horses and beggars are riding.

Except, of course, for the traffic or the slow Internet connection. But who cares about those? Really.

It seems only right to savor a day like that.
Actually, it seems only right to savor every day. I mean really.

Imagine kicking back with the ones who fit this description . . .

old_bears


. . . our understanding of each other
           had reached that sweet depth
where two people
     communicate more often in silence than in words;
         an affectionate quietness replaces the tensions,
  the unrelaxed chatter and chasing about
  that produce a friendship’s more showy,
       more, in the surface sense,
               dramatic moments.
–Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

. . . the ones who listen to what we’re not saying.

We don’t need to be shiny.
It’s the dull old bears that we hold onto.
Are you listening?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Image: sxc.hu

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How to Make Everyone and Everything Nicer Without Lifting a Finger

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 37 Comments

Find the Answer in You

Reflection_Nebula



Want to do a nice thing for your friends? Here’s how to make everyone and everything nicer without even lifting a finger.

Close your eyes.
Unplug. Untie. Relax.
Turn off the words, sounds, and pictures in your head. Fade to black.

Look for the faint blue light by the hole on the back your eyelids. It takes a while but you’ll see it. Then look through the hole and you’ll see the stars. You can see the universe right there from wherever you are.

It’s the strangest thing, but you can be inside and outside at the same time. It takes patience and practice to find that hole. It’s hard to stay that relaxed. It’s about letting go. It’s finding out that it’s okay not to be in control.

I found it by accident when I was trying to sleep one night. I thought it was a memory of the sky. But it’s not.

Your cells are smarter than your brain. Let them show you.

Just put yourself out there, sit in the space, and trust.
No words, no sounds, no ideas.

People and stars are made of the same stuff.

It’s not hard to know what you know when you give yourself space.

You’ll come back feeling more relaxed, smarter, and happier.
And the people you meet and everything you see will suddenly be a whole lot nicer.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Image source: NASA Image http://www.nix.nasa.gov

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What Do You Do When People Say You’re Inspring?

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 29 Comments

I've been thinking . . .

about what how inspiring you are.

I heard someone say that you’re inspiring. I saw you value the words and the person who said them. You were so taken by the compliment that you didn’t know what to do.

I think you’re inspiring too.

So I’m writing this for you and all of you who inspire me. Would you listen to what I mean by that?

In spire means to breathe.
I don’t know your struggles well, but I know you’ve faced them down, and you’re still breathing. That alone is inspiring. Add that you’re fun and easy and it’s meta-inspirational. You motivate me to think I can blast through my own struggles and come out smiling.

In other words, you make my breathing easier.
Isn’t that what inspiration means?

So please know . . .

When I say, “You’re inspiring,” I’m saying . . .

“You motivate me to keep going, doing the next thing, to keep breathing, to keep knowing that I’ll get there.”

What do you do when people say you’re inspiring?

Smile, breathe it in, and say ‘thank you,” with gusto to reinforce a positive change in the world. Glow more each time someone says you’re inspiring. So that more folks wonder who you are.

Smile. Breathe. Glow. Then . . .

Inspire everyone you can to inspire someone else down the line.

Get the whole world breathing again, right along with you.

What do you do keep inspired? Who inspires you?

Liz's Signature

PS If you’re thinking this is about you, it is.

Do You See Your Wallflower Self Wrong?

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 8 Comments

Ever Seen One?

Yesterday at Brogan’s blog, Mark Hayward wrote a great post about being shy when attending conferences and other social situations. He called it Wallflower Syndrome.

Perhaps you’ve had some experience with that condition?
I have and still have moments when it returns. Truth is if I don’t plan well, a room filled with new people easily can shake my thinking.

I read what Mark wrote with interest and found a lot of what I do in his suggestions, but what surprised me what the photo that he chose to illustrate the feelings of wallflower-edness. He picked a sweet kitten in the grass.

Maybe that’s been part of the problem . . . I’ve been seeing the wallflower me all wrong.

Somehow I had this picture in my head that wallflowers were scraggly. dark green, barely surviving plant-like things. In my fish-eye imagination, a wallflower was a limp spinach mess with small wilted purple petals in a brown granny dress sitting in front of yellowing wallpaper.

How did I get that picture in my head?

Awkward and ugly was what wallflower always meant to me.

From junior high school school dances to certain networking events since,
that image of a spinach thing in a granny dress defined me the first second I felt shy or self-conscious in a group of more than three.

If I made the unfortunate mistake of walking near a wall, the game would soon before I could miss the thought of a wallflower and the image would make me feel even smaller.

Wallflower_from_sxc.hu

Then this morning, I saw this picture of a wallflower.

I’m feeling sort of duped and wondering . . .

I’m thinking that I’ve been seeing my wallflower self all wrong. I wonder whether you’ve been doing that?

What if I had seen myself as Mark’s kitten or known a wallflower could look like this one? Would shyness have been a different experience?

Do you suppose that could make a difference?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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