Staring out of the window…

They say life is what you make of it and when all is said and done, most is said and very little done!

But without getting all melodramatic on this, every year I look back at the last 12 months and what I have achieved, what I have accomplished and what fun I had along the way. But I’m going to make an exception this year. So much happened in the last 365 days (actually less as there are still 10 days left of 2013) that it would take 300 pages to write it all down. So instead I want to share a lesson I learn this year; don’t leave for tomorrow what you should have done today. Bear with me and you will see what I mean.

If you were a regular follower of my blog (or if you have bothered to read at least one of them) you would know that I enjoy writing. And I often write based on my observations and what I encounter in my life. I like to share wisdom and ideas with those who follow my writing and some times offer valuable advice based on my experience. I also express some of these experiences and observations in my script writing. But I have not captured everything I’ve seen this year, and that is where my fault lays. So I’ve decided to start writing my blog on a weekly as of 2014.

I get to see so much in my travels and interact with so many people that often by the time I get down to write I have forgotten most of what I’ve experienced. This year I managed to take 123 flights where I encountered endless tales of the “unexpected” human behaviour. And I regrettably have not recorded all incidents I have come across over thousands of miles travelled. So as part of my lesson learned, from 2014 I will write weekly, shorter blogs that will allow me to share with you more entertaining observations of a traveller. These may also serve as memoirs for the future in case one day I get down to writing a book about my life!

And this idea of capturing everything I see came from a quote I saw in Facebook today from a page I follow called “Freedom With Writing”. They publish quotes to inspire writers to sit down and write and today they place a quote by Burton Rascoe that says “A writer is working when he is staring out of the window” and I thought, “yes it is true but many writers, like myself, have a much bigger privileged window called travel”.

I have often said I am blessed that my job allows me to travel every week. This may sound like a nightmare for those who hate the thought of being away from home, but in my case it is a great opportunity to “stare” out of the window, the window of the world! And please don’t get me wrong, I do miss my family and not being at home, but thankfully I have a very understanding wife and kids who support me in my job. However as I have to travel as part of my work, I might as well make the most of it.

So I sit and stare, stare at the world in front of me. I often get my inspiration through the observation of what I see as I travel, people I meet or situations I find my self in. Artist will often tell you that the best way to get inspired is to observe. Actors learn more about how to play a characters in a bar or a bus than the script they’ve been given. Landmarks or models have inspired all great paintings. The best songs ever written have probably been composed in a park. The most powerful way to get inspired is by taking that time to observe, to look, to stare out of the window, that’s where the hard work is.

But I believe we all have that opportunity to sit and stare out of the window. We all have to get somewhere every day. Whether it is to the shops to buy milk, to work by bus or car, or just simply go out and walk the dog, we all have that chance to take time and watch the world go by. My advice? Take a small notebook with you, your phone, or anything you can quickly make a note of what you have seen. Once you see it, it inspires you and you need to write it down. Then when you get home or to work look at it again and start to develop your idea. And I am not talking just about writing, acting or painting; this idea serves all aspects of life. If you run your own business and want to continue to innovate your product or establishment, if you are working on a project for work or college and need to get that extra edge to it to make it stand up or just simply looking for inspiration to write a card for someone special in your life, everything around you can give you that inspiration you need to make it more special, more inspiring.

This is why I am making this my focus for 2014; I want to write more often to capture even more of what I see. I will also continue to capture some of those inspiring moments in my script writing to bring to life those characters out there waiting to be born.

I also want to take the time here to thank you all for supporting me in my passion and taking the time to read what I write, I promise to continue to provide you all with what I see out there in the world!

Someone once asked me why I liked to write so much and I replied; “I write because someone out there reads”. Have a great 2014 and keep on “staring out of the window”