When Times are Tough, Be a Creator…
This week I want to pay tribute to radio legend Paul Harvey… and lessons learned along the way about “creating.” Paul Harvey passed away this week at the age of 90. I cannot recall a time when I did not know the voice of Paul Harvey. See, that’s because I’m a “youngster;" a mere 55 years old. He was already broadcasting in an unploughed commercial radio medium for years before the doctor spanked me and told my Mom, “You have a son.”
His 10 plus minutes of news, humor, and inspirational American vignettes were carried daily by over 1000 radio stations for nearly six decades. It would be a really rare American who had never heard his soothing, sometimes folksy, but entirely self-trained and “All American” baritone monologue delivery of the “News with Paul Harvey” and “The Rest of the Story.”
What I find compelling is Paul Harvey had an "idea" and did not wait to be “found” or until conditions in the market place were “ideal.” He did not go to school and present credentials to interviewing employers; nor did he look for “approval” of others. He found a way to “create” what his mind envisioned and a service he could give. This is probably the best tribute I can make to a man I did not personally know, and one I am happy to offer:
He inspired me, because Paul Harvey was a CREATOR.
I am a creative writer. I have been writing all my life it seems, first in private journals, and just random thoughts. My first novel was published after suffering a near death experience and in recovery. But of the 10 books published over 11 years, just five of those years have been real “paying” years. In other words, I have stuck to “creating” anyway, even though at times feeling a bit delusional and very strapped financially. Why?
Creating is a way "out" for tough times, and the only option for beginning life fresh everyday.
Over the past six years I haven’t had the luxury to “wait” until “things turned around.” I just had to believe if I just put forth the effort, and gave my best, that what has happened for so many others – people like Paul Harvey, and fellow creators – would also inevitably happen for me.
Searching YOU TUBE for a perfect video message to fit this theme I found an inspiring 2 minute message worth watching:
What I am trying to say is that though “times are tough,” and are not “ideal for a new beginning” or start, and though it is quite natural to feel fear and anxiety...
THERE IS A REMEDY: It is found in a uniquely human and universal gift available to everyone called, “CREATING.” See, not being “ready” or polished, or capable, or top of the class in your gift or talent is no excuse. You simply need to have an interest.
It can be in writing, music, or any of the arts. It can be inventing, making home-made products, business, working with the mind, the voice, or the hands. Age is not a requirement, but being “alive” is.
When you are down, everything is “up.” Why not be a CREATOR? What’s the worse that can happen? Creating soothes the spirit, calms the soul, and draws others to you. It opens doors you may have never seen coming, and ones which never could have opened for you until you “created.”
It comes down to “value.” I have not been working for money for many years. I have been working for value, and for something else; a dream to touch you and others unknown to me. Money will come again and that is because “CREATING” produces “value.”
Never underestimate the unique quality in you, nor the one of highest importance and immeasurable by any means but by God; for you are His child.
For more on the life of Paul Harvey visit www.paulharvey.com
"Good day!"
James Pratt
www.jmpratt.com
www.powerthink.com
Sunday, March 8, 2009
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1 comment:
I was priviledged to hear Paul speak several times at various business events. He was truly an American icon and someone who left the world better than he found it.
Some of us don't know what our gifts and talents are and we're frustrated living day to day doing the same old things over and over. It's like our lives are passing us by and we don't know how to seize hold and wring something worthwhile out of it.
Perhaps we're wasting our energies on things that don't matter: television, gossip magazines, a few beers after work, a job that owns us rather than the other way around...
There's lots of things that need our creativity, not least of which is our nation. We perceive the problems facing America today as too great and too complex for any one person to solve - so we do nothing more than demand someone else do something. We vote, but do not throw our names into the arena; we complain to others, but we don't write our elected officials; we support the party or candidate that promises to make our lives easy instead of supporting the candidate that shares our values and morals.
We can create a letter, a cause, a compact, a team, a party, a ministry, a charity, an army - if we will pull ourselves out of the miasma of despair and determine what one thing we can do well - and do it well.
Our purpose is to accomplish what God created us to accomplish. When we're doing what we were created for, then we'll know peace, hope, excitement, and contentment.
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