“Every artist was first an amateur.”

To be an artist one has to find beauty in ordinary things. Find 10 things of great beauty in the landscape that surrounds you. For example, crumple sheets on your bed in the morning, the smell of coffee making its way around a busy office.

(Author: Ana Guardia)

I love the smell of wet earth while cycling in the rain.

I love the way a dog plays with you while you think you're petting them.

I love coming out of the office to rain in the middle of summer

I love the way my legs wobble after a hard run or a hard workout

I love to let my mind wander and find the little nuggets of wisdom I've learned that day

“I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

What message is yearning inside you? What is something you know deep in your soul? Don’t look for someone else to describe it. You do it. Write it down. Write it as a poem, a sentence or even just a string of words. Just make sure you get it to paper.

(Author: Michael McFadden)

Does fuck you count? I've fought really hard to stay positive and I'm not finding my reason to be.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

One definition of legacy is what someone feels, thinks and says when they hear your name. What are you doing today to build the legacy you want?

(Author: Tim Belber)

I would like to think that people will remember me fondly as someone who had impact on their lives. I've always tried to follow Baden Powell's maxim to leave the world better than how you found it yet there are times when that is so hard; there are times when I want to to flip the bird to anything, everything, everyone and just go back to the mancave and not leave it for a few weeks.

That's the challenge, to care enough to want to make a difference but not so much that you'll end up hating yourself when things don't work the way you want them to.

“Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mirror, mirror on the wall… find the nearest mirror. Look. Keep looking for 3 minutes. Write about what you see.

(Author: Esther Poyer)

I'm getting old, man.

Not in the sense of chronological age (I know that 36, soon to be 37, is not old)

I've lost a lot of passion for what I'm doing... my interest span is getting shorter and shorter and I need to figure out not just what I'm doing but also why am I doing it. I'm looking back at all the dreams that I had and how much they've changed and, some, vanished from the mind's eye.

Endurance sports are my way of not accepting that I'm 37.

I keep my hair short because I don't want to see the white sideburns anymore. Just remember that by the time he was 40 your old man was completely white.

I want to be Peter Pan, damn it!

“Self-censorship is not just self-betrayal and self-abandonment (which would be bad enough), but soul-betrayal and betrayal of our Muse, out inner voice, our highest self.”

Too often we censor ourselves, our actions, and our work in hope or fear of what might happen if we otherwise don’t. What words would you write today, and what actions would you take, if you had nothing to fear, nothing to lose?

(Author: Tanner Christensen)

Most likely I would call on people for being bitches. I am thinking about someone at work in particular and how much I'd like to tell her to go do some unprintable things and that I'm glad to be gone from anywhere near her.

In one sentence, who are you?

(Author: Elizabeth Presson)

I still don't know even after 36 years.

The complete answer is on this post: Restless (WIP)

“The world belongs to the energetic.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s easy to blame our failure to meet our goals or to live our dream lives on a lack of energy, and we don’t always stop to think about the quality of energy in our lives. Yet we can choose to create and manage our own energy flow.

Think of an instance when you’ve been so involved in an activity that you’ve lost track of time, and then identity the passions and energies you were feeding. Who was there with you? What were you doing? What will you do to make time for moments like that one more often?

(Author: Julia E)

It's kinda hard to explain... there are days when everything works, no matter how shitty or exhausting the day was all you have to do is get back on your bike, the pool or the road/track for everything else to melt away. It's just you and the event you're working on, nothing else matters, your mind is focused only on the task ahead without anything else being an issue.

I had one of those rides last night (7/5). I don't normally do back to back rides (Monday is usually a swim day) but I know that, for me, IM Arizona is going to be decided on the bike. I'm a good swimmer and an average runner on a good day so I decided to avoid the trip to the pool (which may have been closed for the 4th of July) and bike instead.

It was a good ride and my body felt good about it... it was short and sweet so I decided why not do it again (warning: masochist in action.)

got ready for the Tuesday ride with a lot on my mind. How far do I want to ride today? is it going to rain? Am I pushing too hard? Will people yell at me if I decide to actually work my legs? when and where are my cut-off points?

Once I started riding the questions all went away. I was going to ride 25 miles even if I wasn't in top shape to do it. The weather was warmer than I would have liked (although not as warm as it was on Monday) and I was riding with only my little water bottle for fluids.

The ride itself started as it normally does, with my feet not knowing how to clip on the pedals but after that it was awesome... First time ever riding into a thunderstorm; you should have heard those thunders, they were scary as hell but it doesn't mean we stop, we keep pushing and we keep moving forward no matter what.

Then something funny (and awesome) happened. The farther I rode the better I felt. It was as if I hadn't had surgery 3 weeks ago; I was riding better and faster than I had before the gallbladder flareup. I felt more confident even when I thought I was going to crash... if you are going to crash then crash well.

I still feel happy about the ride and I realize now that giving up is never an option.

If a year from now you weren’t in the profession you’re currently in, what would you be in your wildest dreams?

(Author: Ryan Allis)

About 5 years ago I was wondering that same thing and I occasionally still do... Do I want to say in education? Do I want to invest 7 more years in another degree for something that I may or may not want to do? I'm also thinking about right now as I plan endings and new beginnings. As much as I struggle with the answer and as much as I change where I'd want to be and what I'd want to be doing I'm still not 100% sure I can answer this question.

I think that rather than asking what I would be doing I'd much rather ask where would I be? In the last couple years I've started to ask whether it's possible to be employed yet not have to worry about where you are to accomplish the job and whether any of the tools already on my arsenal will lend themselves to this kind of work.

A very big part of why I want this is that I want to get more serious about triathlons and being able to train and live in places where races happen is priceless. Another area is that I want to go back to Chile to do Ironman Pucón in 2013 and it would be awesome if i can get there in November and train there for a couple months, work, spend time with friends and the rock that course 😀

I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Think of all the things that are not working in your life. That job you don’t like, that relationship that’s not working, those friends that annoy you. Now turn them all on you. Imagine that everything that’s not working in your life, is your fault. How would you approach it? What would you work on to change your life to the state that you want it to be?

(Author: Carlos Miceli)

I've known for a while that I need to change. I've known for a while that I'm too scared to make the change without a safety net. If things are going to change I need the courage to make the change happen.

For too long I've been afraid of what would happen if I take the risk and live life on my terms

That needs to change and it needs to change now.

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mess up your hair. If you are wearing makeup – smudge it. If you have a pair of pants that dont really fit you – put them on. Put on a top that doesn’t go with those pants. Go to your sock drawer. Pull out two socks that don’t match. Different lengths, materials, colors, elasticity.

Now two shoes. You know the drill.

Need to add more? Ties? Hair clips? Stick your gut out? I trust you to go further.

Take a picture.

Get ready to post it online.

Are you feeling dread? Excitement? Is this not the image you have of yourself? Write about the fear or the thrill that this raises in you? Who do you need to look good for and what story does it tell about you? Or why don’t you care?

(Author: Matthew Stillman)

I don't do pictures... period. I've never been comfortable with having pictures taken and that's not likely to change.

Ever since I was little I've had problems with the image of being different. I was the tallest one in my class at least through the 8th grade when Martin came aboard and I've never been popular or willing to share with people... just like today, I'm vegging at home writing, learning more about WordPress and Thesis rather than calling friends and hanging out with them.

As it is usually the case lately what image you want to present is tied with who you want to be. It is also true that you present multiple images depending on who you're with but any and all of those images need to be grounded in the reality of who you are and who you will become.