Non-Fiction Archives - Page 3 of 7

Shiny New Website

By Sean Cameron | August 30, 2014

It might not look it since I used the same theme, but you are looking at a brand new website. I’ve gone from the free wordpress.com to hosting my own site at hostgator using wordpress software. What does that mean? Well, it means I have to do more work and play around with the sites features. But it also means I get to play around with the site features! Using wordpress as software puts me in control, and that means I and use widgets and plug-ins to show off all sorts of stuff.

So what’s actually new? I’m all set up to show off my new book Catchee Monkey but I’ve also done the leg work for adding more books in the future. You’ll notice there is a progress bar on the right detailing the word counts of the various books I’ve got in development. I saw this feature on Hugh Howey’s website and knew that I had to have it immediately – then about 3 months later I got around to doing it. And I put samples of my scripts online as well should anyone want a look (Psst, he means you Mr. Hollywood Producer).

Feel free to take a look around. There are links to older stuff I’ve written in OTHER WRITINGS, the new ABOUT page will also be the text I use in my upcoming book. I’ve launched a newsletter to keep people in the know when a new book is available. And there’s a little hello to anyone that pirated my book, presumptuous of me to assume I’ve made something worth stealing, I know.

Basically, this is a long way of saying, look at the shiny new stuff.

Decision Making: choosing love or Fear

By Sean Cameron | August 24, 2014

In the next 6 weeks I will publish a book to Kindle. I’ve been writing for fifteen years. At 16 I started working on little stories and developing scripts and that’s evolved into writing for a living for a music website or even odd jobs here and there writing TV segments and video game dialogue. I constantly got better, got bigger projects and I felt successful but I’d never written something solely by me and put it out there as a product. The reason was fear.

I’d work on my writing but I’d easily be overcome with the need to have a day job, to take a job that kind of involved writing but not the kind that I wanted to do. Well this year, 2014, I decided to write for me. I’ve developed a comedy-mystery novel series called REX & EDDIE MYSTERIES and the first book is called CATCHEE MONKEY. I wrote it because it’s the sort of thing I wanted to read. I wrote it for the love of it. For the first time ever I set out to make something out of the love of doing it rather than fear.

Don’t get me wrong, the fear makes regular visits to taunt me and ask me what the hell I’m doing. Sometimes I listen and get caught in it. Luckily I now have a video clip of Jim Carrey giving an inspiration talk about the subject. It did the rounds on the internet a few months ago but its worth a re-watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajMpfPYlHi4

A Secret to Success: Not what you might expect

By Sean Cameron | August 1, 2014

The trouble with looking at successful people for inspiration is they are surrounded by an awful lot of mythology. You can pick someone like Raymond Chandler and be wowed by his writing, but what we miss out is that his first novel was published when he was 50-years-old. That’s a lot of practice and hard work, a lot of failing before he succeeded.

I’m editing my novel at the moment and came up with a thought that people on twitter seemed to like:

https://twitter.com/seancameronUK/status/458810890062553088

Now that I think about it, success stories leave out the holes as well. And maybe they shouldn’t. Maybe knowing that our heroes are silly humans that fall from time-to-time would inspire us all a little bit more.

Here’s a video that inspired this blog post:

And here’s part 2

Comparisonitus

By Sean Cameron | June 19, 2014

Description
By Mayo Clinic Staff

Comparisonitus, also called “why’s he got what I haven’t got” syndrome, causes bitterness, resentment, lack of focus, stagnant progress and decreasing goal completion symptoms. Unlike being lazy, comparisonitus, is a lack of movement caused by an allergic response to someone else’s success

Comparisonitus can make you miserable and affect your performance at work or school and interfere with ambition and drive. But you don’t have to put up with annoying symptoms. Learning how to avoid triggers and finding the right treatment can make a big difference.

SYMPTOMS
Comparisonitus signs and symptoms usually start immediately after you are exposed to a specific kind of success you crave and can include:

– Envy

– Low self-esteem

– Depression

– Financial pressure

– Loss of motivation

– Decrease in meeting goals

CAUSES
During a process called sensitization your nervous system mistakenly identifies someone successful or happy as something harmful. Your nervous system starts producing negative associations with this harmless person. The next time you come in contact with the person, these negative associations will cloud your mind and stop you from working on your goals.

Comparisonitus triggers include:

– Wealthier people

– Healthier/Fitter people

– People with advancing careers

– People with completed projects

TREATMENTS
The best way to treat Comparisonitus is to avoid negatively associating other’s achievements and success.

– Don’t base your self-worth on comparing your whole life against someone’s best moments.

– Don’t compare against what you don’t know. Sure you want that guy’s flash car, but do you want his ridiculous car loan?

– Be grateful for what you do have.

– Comparing will drain time and energy which should be spent on gaining your own life pursuits.

– Remember there is nothing to gain from comparisons. If they are better than you, then you become resentful. If you are doing better than them, you feel like an arsehole after.

– Focus on your inspiration. Learn from people you admire instead.

– Only compete against yourself. What will happen when you overtake that person? Give up? Pick another doing better than you?

If you have Comparisonitus the best thing you can do is avoid exposure to triggers by dedicating your time achieving the goals you have set for yourself.