nigel marsh

Ridley: I love inspirational quotes, especially from people whose work I admire or who I really look up to for what they’ve achieved through hard work and determination. I always feel really motivated after I’ve read them. So I said I’d share some of the really good ones with you!

This quote often has me nodding rapidly in agreement…

‘We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.’ Jesse Owens

Latimer found this one from Kevin Smith. Never were there truer words.

Technically not a quote, but it inspires me, so I’m adding it it! This is my favourite poem, do other people have favourite poems? I have this painted on my bedroom wall, depending on the type of day I’ve had, it can mean different things to me.

The prolific Stephen King, who is definitely the King of hard work! (see what I did there? :D)

This is taken from the move, ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’, one of the best films I’ve ever seen and one that always has me sniffing at the end. What a fantastic story.

Grant Morrison, Glaswegian comic-book author extraordinaire.. an amazing personality, who has this great quote that makes me feel like ‘yes! yes, let’s do that!’
Walt Disney, if ever there was a man who inspired dreams in generations of young children, it was him. He never let failure stand in his way, no matter how many knockbacks he received.

Neil Gaiman, a rock star author, I just love his quotes!!

This picture happens to be the background image on my phone! This is what I look at every day, it reminds me to always keep going forward, to strive for what I want to be.

So true Kevin Smith!! If ever you worry that someone’s better than you (there’s always someone better than you), if someone is more successful (without a doubt there is) or if you aren’t good enough (if that’s what you believe, then it will be true), read this quote, duck your head down and work harder. Keep focused.

‘The main goal in life careerwise should always be try to get paid to simply be yourself.’ Kevin Smith

Darn tootin’!

Make Good Art. More Neil Gaiman. I’ll just repeat his lines like a parrot, as I’ve nothing that could add to this quote. This is a snippet taken from his commencement speech at the University of Arts in Philadelphia, it’s absolutely epic!

You can watch it here:

Other quotes from him:

‘The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.’ Neil Gaiman

‘As far as I’m concerned, the entire reason for becoming a writer is not having to get up in the morning.’ Neil Gaiman

‘It’s not a bad thing for a writer not to feel at home. Writers – we’re much more comfortable at parties standing in the corner watching everybody else having a good time than we are mingling.’ Neil Gaiman

Insert the word books for movies and you got that right Walt!! 😀

Thankfully, Latimer and I both love to read and write. To be sucked into another world without leaving your armchair is the most magical experience there is! Is it still called work when you enjoy yourself? 😀

Will Smith, the master of thought provoking quotes, I could have a whole post dedicated to him you know, or even a website! He’s a fan of inspirational quotes himself, Paulo Coelho’s ‘The Alchemist’ is one of his favourite books. I quite enjoyed it too, makes you think.

‘Being realistic is the most common path to mediocrity.’ Will Smith

Sometimes we all have to do this!

This is one of my absolute favourite quotes, it just sums up the lives of so many people!

And always remember, the most important piece of advice, from the funniest man ever:

PS. I own none of the above pictures (* _*)

Ridley: I recently watched a TED talk by Nigel Marsh, author of ‘Fat, Fired and Forty’.

(Some of the TED videos are really fascinating, inspiring and just plan funny. If you ever have a few spare minutes, pop on over to TED and broaden your mind a little!)

This particular one by Nigel though, had the best quote I’ve come across in a while.

“There are thousands and thousands of people out there living lives of quiet, screaming desperation who work long, hard hours, at jobs they hate, to enable them to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.”

It just made me wonder, how many of these thousands of people would admit that this applies to them and if it did, have they done anything about it? I’m betting most haven’t but why not? I think I personally know of just one person who really likes what they’re doing. Are there other people out there who also give long quiet sighs, tune out their demanding bosses and gaze into the distance, imagining themselves doing something else? People seem to have just settled for what they’ve fallen into, done what was expected of them or simply don’t know what they’d actually be happy with. Even those who are in prestigious jobs like medicine, envied by people who dream of becoming doctors, hate it and would rather be doing something else.

It’s mind boggling really to think that the following scenario could be playing out somewhere in the world at this very minute but pick any two random jobs- there could be a doctor somewhere gazing over at a dancer wishing that he had chosen that route and a dancer looking right back wanting the medics life.

Always remember, you’re currently living someone else’s dream.

As to a work life balance, who has really been able to achieve this properly? For me, last year I definitely would have said I was working all the time with very little ‘life’ entering into the equation-weekends, late nights, early mornings I was in work and I didn’t love it enough to be there all the time. More importantly, I wasn’t moving in the direction I wanted. This year, I’ll be doing things differently. Already I’ve put steps in place to ensure this wouldn’t happen again. At the start of the year, I changed jobs, decreased my hours and ensured the ones I do are more sociable. This has enabled me to focus more on what I actually want to achieve in life, which is write books, of course! Though my other love is art and animation, so I try to fit in a good bit of that into my spare time too!

I’m still working on the balance aspect and ultimately I’d love to keep my own hours, escape the 9-6 rat race, the long commute, to become my own boss and use my hard work to earn money for my family and not for a business belonging to someone else. With so many people unemployed, I know it’s probably a selfish desire, but then again it’s human nature to always want more…

I think everyone would like this though, to do what they love and be their own boss, am I wrong? Who out there wakes up on a Monday morning happy to go to work? And has anyone achieved an excellent work life balance? How? I’d love to hear!

Carwicky

Two eccentric girls with one big dream

Make Good Art

Are you balanced?