Happy Tuesday, everybody. Tuesday…I’ve never really liked Tuesday. It’s just there. It’s not the middle or the end of the week and doesn’t have the distinction of being the first day of the week, it’s just…there.

Anyway, forgive the rant. I had the pleasure of seeing “Lemonade” last week. I mentioned this movie in a previous post. In my opinion, it was very well done. It’s inspiring to hear all the different stories and see people who go out there and do something they’ve always wanted to do after losing their job.

The good news is…you can watch the movie too. It’s on Hulu now. It’s only 35 minutes long, so if you have a spare half-hour or so, I recommend you check it out.

Click here to see the movie in its entirety.

Is there a piece of art, or music or writing that you wish you had done or been a part of?

I thought about this recently while talking with a friend who said they wish they could have been involved in the Star Wars movies. That got me thinking, well, me too. Who wouldn’t  want to say they had a part in one of the cinematic phenomenons of our time? And then I started thinking about other movies that would have been fun to be a part of, or books I’d written, songs I’d sung, etc., because it IS an amazing feeling to be a part of something truly great and something you are proud of.

Of COURSE our projects are ones that we are happy to be a part of, and it one day, it will be OUR projects that people wish they were a part of, but for now, what is that guitar riff that you wish you had played, or that line you wish you’d written?And no fair saying “Harry Potter” or something that just made a lot of money. You have to pick something that you are passionate about even if not a single dollar was made.

There are a few on my list, but I’ll keep it brief. For music, I’ve got to say I wish I could have done something with Queen, or with David Bowie. I’m not a songwriter or a musician, so I have no clue how I would be involved in a project with them, but they are artists I would have liked to work with. I have worked with an incredibly talented musician, Martin Page, but not in a musical way, more in a marketing kind of way, so who knows. Maybe David Bowie will call. If you’re not familiar with Martin’s work, I strongly encourage you to check him out. Working with Martin has been very rewarding, so I can check that off my list.

For fiction writing though it’s a tough one because it’s such a solitary pursuit. I would have liked to have met Ernest Hemingway, although I don’t think I could have stuck to his eating red onions and drinking red wine for breakfast regiment. When I do that, my writing is nowhere near as good as his.

I could go on and on, but what are some of your ‘dream’ projects or people?

As the famous Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Too true.

Every year around this time, people start thinking about goals for the next year. I’m no different. I also usually set new goals every month, hell, every day sometimes. After all, every day is a new day, right? (Ah…coffee fueled optimism!)

The thing about goals is trying to follow them. I set some writing goals for this year and want to know how many I achieved?

One.

Yes, just one. However, I’m not going to beat myself up about it, because I ended up doing many more writing related things that I didn’t consciously set out to do. I do wish I had achieved more of the goals I had ACTUALLY set, but it was just one of those years. This year, I will set more goals and I will try to follow them. If other unanticipated things (good things, please!) happen along the way, that’ll be ok too.

One thing to keep in mind about goals is to make them attainable. There’s no point in setting goals that you’re not going to reach. So in the beginning, it’s best to keep them simple. Example, “I will write at least one page a day.” Seems simple, but as I learned this year, even the most simple goals can be easily thwarted. With that, another thing I’ve learned is to allow the flexibility of re-assessing your goals at any time. If it’s looking like you’re just not going to make it, re-adjust. No, it’s not cheating. If you don’t make all of your goals, that’s fine, but I think it’s important to make SOME of them. Achieving even just one of our goals, can give us that boost we need to keep going. And hey, we ALL need that boost from time to time.

I’m still compiling my list of short term and long term goals, but what about you? Do you usually come up with a list? If you did this year, how’d you do? Or do you think setting goals is a waste of time?

A few months back, I saw a link for an independent film called “Lemonade.”

Here’s the synopsis: More than 130,000 advertising professionals have lost their jobs in this “Great Recession.” Lemonade is about what happens when people who were once paid to be creative in advertising are forced to be creative with their own lives.

I was really inspired by the trailer for this movie (below) because here are these people that had one of those ‘big time bummers’ happen to them. They lost their job. For most people, that’s a pretty crushing defeat, and for these people it was too, but it’s what they chose to do with it that’s inspiring.

I know several who have lost their jobs recently and have seen varying degrees of coping skills. That’s to be expected, everybody is different. But another thing that I though about when I saw the trailer was, #1 I hope I don’t lose my job and #2, I hope it wouldn’t take me losing my job to try and get creative with my life. Obviously, I’d love to make my living at writing, but I’m not there yet. Who knows what will happen. I have a job, a family, etc. It’s all part of the journey. Even if I never make a living with my writing, it helps me on the journey and makes it a richer more exciting ride. I’d wager that most artistic types would agree.

Anyway, I wanted to call attention to this movie, which had its premier this past week, because of the inspiring stories contained within. Whether we’ve lost our jobs or not, I think it’s important that we all try to make the best out of everyday.

Lemonade Movie Trailer