I’ll be damned, it’s been a good year…

action, hope, success, self-help, philosophy, Ray Bradbury, quote, quotation

“I don’t believe in optimism. I believe in optimal behavior. That’s a different thing. If you behave every day of your life to the top of your genetics, what can you do? Test it. Find out. You don’t know—you haven’t done it yet. You must live life at the top of your voice! At the top of your lungs shout and listen to the echoes. I learned a lesson years ago…Action is hope. At the end of each day, when you’ve done your work, you lie there and think, Well, I’ll be damned, I did this today. It doesn’t matter how good it is, or how bad—you did it. At the end of the week you’ll have a certain amount of accumulation. At the end of a year, you look back and say, I’ll be damned, it’s been a good year.”

~Ray Bradbury (answering an interviewer’s question on how important optimism has been in his career)


Let’s Go!


Source: swissmiss via Raul

Related Post: I’ve never worked a day in my life… (Ray Bradbury)

I’ve never worked a day in my life…

ray bradburyRay Bradbury, 91, died on Tuesday.  Bradbury, a celebrated fiction writer, is best known for Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles & The Illustrated Man.  Brain Pickings had a terrific post on a speech he gave at a writer’s symposium.  While his speech was directed to writers, there is an important message here for all of us.  A few choice excerpts:

…Writing is not a serious business. It’s a joy and a celebration. You should be having fun with it…It’s not work. If it’s work, stop and do something else…

…People are always saying “Well, what do we do about a sudden blockage in your writing?…You’re being warned…Your subconscious is saying “I don’t like you anymore. You’re writing about things I don’t give a damn for”.

…I’ve never worked a day in my life…The joy of writing has propelled me from day to day and year to year. I want you to envy me, my joy. Get out of here tonight and say: “Am I being joyful?” And if you’ve got a writer’s block, you can cure it this evening by stopping whatever you’re writing and doing something else. You picked the wrong subject.

Ray Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012)

If you are interested in a personal perspective on Bradbury, check out Christian Fahey’s post at The Upside: Ray Bradbury: An Appreciation


Sources: Quote explore-blog; Artwork by Lou Romano via louromano.blogspot.com via Mme Scherzo

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