Saturday

Another thoughtful Saturday full of reflections for your review. Each highlight led to another story from the past or another thought we could add to enhance the theme of each small piece. Start with passion - a push if you need one or another way to look at your own passion. A beautiful church in Iceland took us to another thought of what praise means and where it is within you. A new designer fantasizes about an app feature and a cave drawing from thousands of years ago, depicting what we think is a rock show. 

-

🤘We are here every day, and every minute you spend with us sends ripples of gratitude through our souls! 🤘

Nik Goke summarizes Steven Pressfield’s classic The War Of Art, a book about DOING passion. Pressfield has been in the arena, and his experiences give him the credibility to write a short, in-your-face book like this. The only caveat I have to this book is knowing your passion. If this is known, if your passion is defined and all you have left to do is execute and need a little gut punch to move in that direction, this book will get you there. By defined, I mean you know you want to be a published author or a performing musician; there is a defined path to this type of passion. Still, if you want to write but are still deciding whether to write books, screenplays, blogs, or copy, you'll have to jump on a path to figure it out. Start by doing.

The book has plenty of Pressfield’s life experiences, making the book enjoyable, even if you don't decide to quit your job and look for a band to tour with this year. Similar to the theme, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear; this book is best for someone who needs a push or is looking for one book to lead to another as they work to determine their passion.

Pressfield is a big advocate for the work, and the most consistent line through every person who ever achieved a dream is the work. One of Pressfield’s lessons is not treating your dream like a hobby; he is trying to impress the reader that most successful artists burn all backup plans. The rest of us dabble, but to dabble, you are probably paying the bills and figuring out your defined passion. I do agree with the work, do the work, every day, and that is one of the other points Goke makes in his summary of The War Of Art; he mentions another one of my favorites, Cal Newport, who says to start with the work and let passion follow the work. 

Another lesson for future generations: most of us don't know what we are most passionate about; if you are like most of us, you have to go out and do the work, a lot of work, and figure out what you are the least passionate about first. Your passions will shine through by doing all the work and eliminating what you don't want.

5 minutes of good cheer every day. Become a Fan to get daily posts and updates.

The author C.S. Lewis wrote many books on religion in addition to writing about Narnia. In one of his books, The Joyful Christian, he goes into a section on the Prayer of Praise. In this section, he talks about man's difficulties with all the teachings centered around the need and the requirement of praising God. Without getting too deep, Lewis moves from a deity who needs nothing but requires praise into thinking about how a person feels when they are in the place that brings them the most internal serenity; for many of us, that place is in nature. The mountains, the sea, and any place you can go and take a deep breath require nothing except your natural born senses and accept the awe and wonder of your environment. That deep breath you take when you get to a place like this is a prayer of praise.

The Hallgrímskirkja Church in Iceland is a remarkable church inspired by nature and will take your breath away. Axios Markets, an unlikely referral to this landmark, listed it as the "Building of the week." Weird that it was within the Markets Newsletter, but we are grateful for bringing it to our attention. 

In the old days, we would play a game with the hiring manager to see how far we could stretch our experience and accomplishments until we had to explain them in an interview. I wonder if AI will be able to fake it through an interview? Until then, look at another Soren’s Newsletter – today, he's adding a "Disputed" button to the LinkedIn Endorsement feature. I love the way Soren's mind works.

A group of websites we found after a Weird History clip on YouTube provides a list of rabbit-hole-worthy dives that are perfect for the weekend. The White Shaman Rock was listed in the 17 Unsolved Ancient Mysteries post, and the history of this cave or wall painting in Texas is impressive. However, (we think) it's just a bunch of fans enjoying a Rock Show!! 🤘

Passion is never enough.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

-

-

🤘We are here every day, and every minute you spend with us sends ripples of gratitude through our souls! 🤘

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.

5 minutes of good cheer every day. Become a Fan to get daily posts and updates.

O/X