12 Steps To Get On Track: In The Zone

by Anne Naylor, Huffington Post

“Being in the zone” is a term used by professional athletes, sportspeople and dancers when they are demonstrating peak performance; high energy, effortless ease and accomplishment; experiencing well-being and natural joy. What would it be like to be in the zone? Is it possible for ordinary mortals? Would you want to be in the zone, if you could?

I like to think so.

Being in the zone is how you feel inside, being the human spirit that you are, as you go about fulfilling your life. Get right on the inside, and the outside will show up to match it. There has never been a better time for getting in the zone and on track, even and especially during these difficult times.

You may have no control of the circumstances around you. You can potentially choose how you respond to them; how you manage your thoughts and feelings; to enter the zone.

These 12 steps will take you in that direction:

1. Accept what is happening – Engage with your life as it is right now.
The temptation is to be angry and fight against injustices, resentful and blaming of those responsible. Instead, look for what you can do and get active with what is immediately in front of you. This will raise your energy and outlook.

2. Be real, and true to yourself - Keep your feet on the ground.
You are a magnificent being, worthy of all the good that can come to you. Honour yourself, bless yourself and keep taking the next step towards what you now want.

I recommend Dr Judith Rich’s Rx for the Soul Series:

3. Focus on the present moment – Complete existing agreements.
Being in the zone is living now. Do not dwell in the past or daydream about the future. Take a deep breath – you can only take one at a time.

Fulfil agreements you have made; clear up the clutter; finish off projects that have been hanging around. Or simply declare them complete and let them go. When there is nothing holding you back, you can be fully here, now.

4. Mindful action – Turn routine tasks into meditation.
Joy can be found in taking the simplest action. When you give your full attention to an easy task, you can enjoy stillness and presence. Try it when you are sweeping a floor; cleaning the car; pulling up weeds; brushing the dog.

5. Be aware of your feelings – Learn to listen to your intuition.
Are you a human “doing”? Regain the innocence, or inner sense, of a young child by every so often, pausing to be in touch with how you feel.

Listen to yourself for when you need to take a break; to remove yourself from a situation that is not working for you; to talk to a friend you have not seen for ages. Your intuition is a hot line from within you to the world around you. Let it serve you.

“Self-trust is the first secret of success” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. Deal with your fears – Expand your creativity.
Fears distract you from your sense of well-being. Find out what the fear is about. Listen to what it is telling you. Use the energy of your fear to take action to resolve the issue. Develop new skills and talents.

Fear can stimulate your creativity and problem solving abilities. Fear is a friend that can open new doors for you. Mine has.

7. Connect with others – Create new networks.
You are never alone. There are others who would love to be your friend. How will you go and find them? In social networks, maybe, but what about a neighbour in a next door street?

8. Be open to receive – Be aware of new opportunities coming for you.
Opportunities may come to you through friends, a chance conversation overheard, a news item you read, an introduction, an idea that comes from “out of the blue”. Keep an open mind. You never know what good may be awaiting you around the next corner.

“You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.” –Indira Gandhi

9. Employ simple wisdom – You know more than you think you do.
A friend who owns a clothing and jewellery shop told me that her business had increased 45% over the last year. If she goes to work with a bad mood, she can never sell. She chooses to be happy. It helps her business.

10. Pace yourself – Allow time and space for joy, rest and recuperation.
Dr Cara Barker’s words to Susan Boyle are inspiring. You know you are in the zone when you stop a moment to appreciate it.

“In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness”. –Mahatma Gandhi

11. Look for blessings – Cultivate an attitude of gratitude.
This life is truly a blessing. Look for the good, and you will find it. Then more will come and find you.

Give yourself a gratitude break: take stock of 5 things you value now.

12. Give generously – Know yourself as a person who has more than enough
Give of your time, your money – even a little, your joy, talent, humour. Imagine yourself in a giving world – could be close to heaven.

Give – and you will be given more.

source: Anne Naylor, Huffington Post

Multi-pubbed author, Anne Whitfield is visiting Rule of Three today to give us a couple of writing tips.
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Do your characters speak to you?
They should dictate what happens and how it happens. Have you ever written yourself into a corner and couldn’t understand why the story isn’t moving forward?

Often this could be you taking the character where it doesn’t want to go. Read back a few chapters and analyse where the change happened.
If you force a character to behave in a way that is not true to them, the reader will notice it and wonder why. Don’t give the reader pause for thought in a negative way at any time.

Your goal as a writer is to sweep the reader into your character’s world – their world, not yours.

To add to this subject — be true to your period, especially if writing historical fiction.

Historical writers must know their era well. A reader can tell when the author has done her research or when the author has fudged along the lines. You don’t have to bog down your novel with details – you aren’t writing a textbook! Information dumps aren’t interesting. Instead, you need to sprinkle all the little facts you know about those times throughout the story. Sometimes, all it can take is an extra word.

You also have to be true to your genre. Don’t write a romance and query it as a mainstream, or the other way around, etc. Know what genre you write and which publishers release those kinds of books.
It might sound common sense, but you’d be surprised how many people get this wrong.

The large publishers know what is selling and what will sell. They have to fit your book into their marketing production demands. So make it clear what you write, what readership it is aimed for and who will buy it.

Small publishers are a little more flexible, so if your book is cross-genre, you can sometimes have a better chance in being published by small companies who are willing to take a risk.

As I’ve said many times before, write the book of your heart, but then use your head when it comes to selling it.

This song was sung by “My Chemical Romance” from the album “The Black Parade”.

Help her gather all my things
and bury me in all my favorite color
My sisters and my brothers still
I will not kiss you…

’cause the hardest part of this
is leavin’ you…

Now turn away, ’cause I’m awful just to see
’cause all my hairs abandoned all my body
oh my agony..
Know that I will never marry
Baby I’m just soggy from the chemo
but counting down the days to go
It’s just ain’t living and I just hope you know

That if you’ll say, goodbye today..
I’d ask you to be true

’cause the hardest part of this
is leaving you…

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This week I bumped into Sifon DG, a graphic design and animation studio from Buenos Aires, who have made some nice work for Nike. If you check out their work you can see they have a very distinct aquarel style. Also be sure to check out their other work here. Very nice!

The animations Sifon DG has made for Nike are part of an initiative Nike started in collaboration with artists from around the world. The artists where asked to customize a Munny which we know from Kidrobot. The inspiration had to come from Nike’s catchphrase “Be True” and was linked to the Nike Dunk.

Check out the videos here!

Thanks (again!): Flylyf

PS: More news on the Nike/ Munny project will follow soon!

nina simone wisdom

“for myself” by nina simone.

Fly me to the moon

Let me play among the stars

Let me see what spring is like on

Jupiter and Mars

In other words, hold my hand

In other words, baby, kiss me

Fill my heart with song

And let me sing forever more

You are all I long for

All I worship and adore

In other words, please be true

In other words, I love you

Sr. Sinatra

This past Sunday, Nike hosted an exclusive event to celebrate the inimitable Dunks.  Festivities included the hip hop orchestra conducted by Double G, The Cool Kids and No Age.  Along with the music there was a Celtic dunk tank, free BBQ, a slip and slide and, oh yeah, free Dunks for lucky party goers (like yours truly).  All in all, it was a perfect Sunday in L.A.  Thank you, Nike!

More pictures after the jump!

É, a semana foi fervida! A festa da Nokia e Nike que rolou na quarta-feira, na Barra Funda em São Paulo colocou todo mundo pra dançar. Fashionistas, sneakers addicteds, skatistas, músicos, Dj’s, posers, todo mundo se reuiniu num espaço incrível que as duas marcas montaram. O grande convidado da noite fora o Dj Busy P., que nada mais nada menos é o criativo do selo Edbanger. Sabe o Justice, que já falamos por aqui? Então benhê, só bafo!

Laura e Gabi, fervendo na festa da Nike

Além dele o Dj. Zegon e a dupla MixHell (Igor Cavalera e Layma Lewton) também arrasaram nas pickups. Foi bem legal ver como a cultura sneakers no Brasil pegou fôlego. Você pode saber mais sobre os djs aqui: Mixhell, Dj Zegon.

Mixhell e Dj Zegon

E á que estamos falando de fashionistas e de música, dêem uma olhada também no site da banda da minha amada, e eterna estagiária fofa Giulia. O Bebida Violenta já esta por ai no fervo, fazendo todo mundo se jogar. Vai lá no site deles e arrasa!

Bebida Violenta!

Today me and my friend went to have a look. It was very vibrant; bold writing, life-sized rubix cubes,  vivid graphics, it felt like we were in a Justice Music video!

The Illustrations were just something else, Kate Moross is really good at what she does.

”Nike have created an extensive art exhibition, focusing on various members of London’s creative community – people who have unique, personal relationship with the Dunk and who have gone some way to giving London its current cultural edge and personality”

appearances from, JME, Kesh & Zezi, Unkle’s own, James Lavelle, Reggie Yates, Afrikan Boy, Trapstar and Floss Daily..

The Exhibition runs until the 27th April at the Loading Bay Gallery, Brick Lane. Its opposite Rough Trade Records and next to Gloria’s

More Pictures after the jump.

Para comemorar os 23 anos do mais charmoso de seus modelos – o Nike Dunk – a Nike decidiu homenagear algumas grandes cidades do mundo criando a coleção Be True City Pack, com 7 versões com inspiração em São Paulo, Tóquio, Hong Kong, Paris, Londres, Nova York e Los Angeles. Os Dunks são todos blacks com a cor da costura e do cadarço diferentes de acordo com cada cidade.

No dia 29 será lançado por aqui a versão paulista, ou o Nike Be True SP. Para o lançamento, a Nike realizará uma espécie de gincana na qual os concorrentes, em duplas, terão que descobrir, por meio de pistas recebidas, cinco locais “que fazem de São Paulo um lugar único”, como explica o regulamento em www.64530sp.com.br.

Se você não animou em correr pela cidade atrás do seu par é bom correr pelo menos até a Doc Dog ou a Maze pra comprar o seu, serão só 86 pares a venda.

Para comemorar os 23 anos do mais charmoso de seus modelos – o Nike Dunk – a Nike decidiu homenagear algumas grandes cidades do mundo criando a coleção Be True City Pack, com 7 versões com inspiração em São Paulo, Tóquio, Hong Kong, Paris, Londres, Nova York e Los Angeles. Os Dunks são todos blacks com a cor da costura e do cadarço diferentes de acordo com cada cidade.

No dia 29 será lançado por aqui a versão paulista, ou o Nike Be True SP. Para o lançamento, a Nike realizará uma espécie de gincana na qual os concorrentes, em duplas, terão que descobrir, por meio de pistas recebidas, cinco locais “que fazem de São Paulo um lugar único”, como explica o regulamento em www.64530sp.com.br.

Se você não animou em correr pela cidade atrás do seu par é bom correr pelo menos até a Doc Dog ou a Maze pra comprar o seu, serão só 86 pares a venda.