The 2017 Project

Let’s get caught up… sadly no number 2 this year on my 24/7 goals, NANOWRIMO just cant fit into the schedule.

Still doing my three positive aspects a day. Still apologizing for myself, a lot!

So the 24-7 goals update? I finished knitting the blankets so that is number 12 done!

Now the current in progress goals are well,  8, 10, 14, 17, 22 as well as the ones that take time and progress to achieve for the moment and a little bit of a wait. I think I might have to do the project every year it feels more focused and fun all at once. I like that I don’t feel too much pressure of a New Years resolution and I am still doing it and kept it up so I love it! Who else has kept up their New Years Resolutions?

The 24-7 goals:

1- Write The Diary of Elliot Parker Part 2

2- Do NANOWRIMO

3- Write The Diary of Elliot Parker Part 3?

4- Write the first book of the big project

5- Finish spine tattoo

6- Finish magpie tattoo

7- Finish musical rib tattoo

8- Look for an agent/publisher for the “big” project

9- Learn to drive

10- Learn guitar

11- Finish knitting the cable knit jumper

12- Finish knitting the blankets

13- Improve views on here

14- See a west end show

15- Try and succeed at least three times on the 21 day habit swap

16- Win the lotto jackpot

17- Look for the positives more often

18- Meditate regularly

19- Keep making emotional progress

20- Keep hope and loose more doubt

21- Make posts for here in advanced, consider adding pictures, try to avoid leaving it to the last minute

22- Try to grow my hair long- aim for below the shoulder this year.

23- Become even more open-minded

24- Discover my own special brand of writers magic,

Habit swapping:

Break- Stop apologizing for myself so often. I do it a lot, it is something that really bothers me, mainly because I apologise for things that are completely not my fault and nothing to do with me. I am sick of apologizing for my own existence.

Make- Eat at least one piece of fruit a day. It is supposed to be healthy right?

Make- Write/plot at least an hour each day even on rest days. I have to start getting stricter on myself.

Make- Create and stick to a writing schedule. I have to start being more organised.

Break- Stop being hard on myself, speak kinder words to myself instead. That pretty much explains itself.

Make- A daily list of 3 positive things that I like about my day. Because sometimes it is easy to forget that there were brief sunshine moments.

Make- A daily list of 3 things that I like about myself, physical, non-physical. Because, it can be hard to show yourself some love.

Make- A little notebook of positive aspects, a once a day entry of 10 things that are positive. Literally a list of positive aspects about people, places, things; maybe one day I will post it on here.

That’s all  for now, it might change or grow but other than that, it’s all feeling good!

The Diary of Elliot Parker

.: Entry Eighty-Eight :.

My name is Elliot Parker and I had a rather interesting conversation really. You know when you sort of get all philosophical and “what am I doing with my life” kind of feelings and you wind up having a deep and meaningful conversation.

I mean it started when I starting thinking about how Clover is sort of boy focused 100% that is all that seems to occupy her day mainly, or that is how she makes it seem. It was like one of those thoughts, we all have our obsessions, dreams of what we want in our future. A lot of that has to do with passions, and I suppose I have a passion, a few talents and gifts but my obsession is surely the passion but even then it doesn’t occupy my whole life in its entirety, at least not consciously. I suppose my reading material or what I watch is more in tune with my passion/obsession and there is something I look for in my down time. But even then, it doesn’t feel all-consuming all the time. Like it is ok to think of other stuff, and I suppose I see the struggle Clover has with thinking of other stuff and consistently implementing the changes that she is always saying she wants to make in her life. But my friend made a very valid observation “the heart wants what it wants”. That phrase has been hard to ignore and not think about aside from our conversation.

“The heart wants what it wants” sure that is great and all but what if you don’t know what your heart wants. What if every breath you take you feel different, what if you are in your passions or talents or things you are good at and you just feel different each time because you feel like you are constantly changing and evolving, for the better but still evolving and what you want evolves and changes as you grow. I suppose that is what they mean when they say about being on the leading edge of existence? Maybe I finally reached there and just live happy in a moment regardless of what is manifesting knowing that any remotely negative feeling won’t and can’t last, not really when the wellbeing and joy we have access to is so abundant?

Anyway somehow the conversation became a discussion over fantasy and what happens when you live in a moment. I started to think, like in a story or show or whatever sometimes you just see or read a kiss that seems entirely perfect and sure you want to try it but actually doing it is different because recreating fantasy doesn’t always translate well to reality because you start to over think. They said “life isn’t perfect it is about making and enjoying the most of the imperfections” that really resonated with me. So I asked what their idea of a perfect kiss, and I don’t know what I expected the answer to be but it surprised me. At first there was the reaction of “I don’t know” until it was given a moment of thought and the result was so eloquent. “A passionate one I guess, that comes from her when she is just in love and lust with me and I can feel her feelings through her soft lips, but glue like strength that just comes from her like she never wants that moment to end wherever we are in the world.” I just thought, wow, I had never expected that to be an answer I suppose I expected a scene or scenario or something like that but no, this was an emotionally based response that just catches you in the feels and makes you think, “wow that’s kinda right,” the most perfect comes from knowing how you can just feel that person needs and wants you in their life and for them this moment is just as perfect.

I couldn’t help but remember Adrian and I’s first kiss, it was one of those sort of perfect ones. Where you just needed that kiss and that proximity, and I know I will get that kiss again, that feeling that it is the most perfect thing right in that moment. I guess it’s weird, but I think after hearing the answer I was giving it made that first kiss pale slightly, not because it wasn’t perfect at the time, but that I think now I am a different person and I wondered if I would find the kiss to be just what I needed right now. I get how time changes you, but I know I would probably just be as playful as I am. I know I might possibly be a little bit of an advocate of the kisses that surprise you mid-sentence when you are caught completely off guard, whether or not you initiated it and you forget what you were saying or thinking and the world just dissolves and you might even forget about breathing.

I think a first kiss puts you in a bit of a bubble, but I wonder how many first kisses we forget… like sure we remember the feeling of, but picturing it can be harder. A soft little peck or a full blown kiss, what is it we are more likely to forget. I mean it can be easy to forget some things, but how someone can make you feel is different. You either feel safe with someone or you don’t.

I suppose I am just ready to settle down a bit, even though I am still following dreams like they are the only thing I breath. I still kind of want to settle down a bit, build a few roots while I am pursuing the future.

Looks like learning to love myself is going well huh? I am slowly deciding what it is I want in my life again, for what feels like the millionth time, I am just trying to feel more consistently like an energy match to my desires. Wherever that leads.

The Diary of Elliot Parker Part Three is now available for pre-order on amazon! Out on the 11th November… here is the UK link https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B075VSBT3Q

Here is the US link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075VSBT3Q

The Diary of Elliot Parker

.: Entry Eighty-Seven :.

My name is Elliot Parker; I am ready to start loving myself. I am ready to be ok with being this awesome version of myself. If I am honest, I am wanting to rampage a little, to just bask in the feeling of becoming a happier, brighter, stronger person. I am ready to just enjoy me. A little self-love isn’t a bad thing. A little self-care isn’t a bad thing. Some girls go get their nails and hair done. Some find a way to accept themselves as they are. There are so many ways to love yourself from what you eat to what you wear.

Sometimes, for me it just takes a song to start the process, to start that feeling where your body just feels alive. Where you can just feel yourself raising your energy, just being consumed with something that speaks to your soul. When there is so much that you want to be. When there is this image in your head of who you want to be.

So who do I secretly want to be? The girl that gets what she wants. Unlimited. I want to be unlimited entirely. I want to be that girl who breaks the chains that bind her to where she is and just soar. I want to defy the gravity around me. I want to join the birds and be able to just ride the winds. Like that feeling sat in a park, when the sun is starting to set and the birds are flying through the air and you just have to sit and watch them. Just look upon the freedom they have and loose jealousy and let it turn into this complete admiration. Let that admiration turn to freedom. I want the freedom, I have the freedom, I can choose it at every chance and instead I am realise I had been choosing the chains.

I am free, I am so close to soaring, I can almost taste it. I can taste the chill of the air. I can feel the flooding in my lungs of the air I breath being that bit brighter and cooler and lighter and just pulling me up to be this other part of myself. I release my resistance to enjoying the truth of my new games that I am loving myself when I give myself the praise I crave. I need no longer rely on others opinions of me I am whole as I am.

Another of my little self-love training games, is as I am walking about my day, as I am doing something I begin to think and play a game. Top to toe I list every part of my body and praise its traits, like for example, my hair is awesome, I love how strong and supple it is, I love how it curls on its own, I love how easy it is to look after, I love how sexy and playful it is… that game goes on, and if I am interrupted I pick up where I left off. I am really enjoying this new game. It’s a great, fun game. I am going to add a new game very soon; all the things I love about myself in the non-physical orientation. A little self-love is going a long, long way. I feel like I am doing better at loving myself than I have ever before. I am applying my lessons and games; I am applying my knowledge bit by bit. Sound silly I know, sounds simple, like child’s play, but I think we forget a lot as we become adults. I think as adults we can sometimes forget that being happy is important.

Being an adult is just one of those things that we wished time away for and now we know what being an adult is like we want to go back, I suppose it’s how we forget its ok to have fun and happiness in the now. Like being able to have fun and be silly and be happy is wrong because as an adult all these expectations are placed on our shoulders and we don’t know how to balance fun with this professional life we are meant to have. The lives that we are told that we want. The existences we are told we should be striving for; power we should be striving to gain.

I call bullshit. The only thing we need to do is be able to still allow happiness in our lives in small insignificant moments without this voice in our heads demanding complete professionalism. Professionalism, the bane of adult existence, it is not a thing we are born knowing, it is something that we are taught to be, appropriate. Our behaviour is measured to be appropriate from a small age, so that we can conform and walk a well-trodden path. That is something strange, those that carve themselves a new path are called trail blazers for a reason. Made special or unattainable, made right or wrong by consensus. But those making the consensus don’t always want to acknowledge they could be pursuing their truth without looking back, without being afraid of the consequences of being different. It astounds me sometimes how many people choose misery. When choosing bliss and happiness is just as simple. It is just changing one thought for a better feeling thought and chasing the path of what feels good.

I’m not saying go on a killing spree because it feels good. I am saying choosing a good feeling thought that makes you feel better and going on from there just keep choosing that good feeling.

It sounds so simple? Because it is. It takes some practice, but practicing is fun. Practicing needn’t be work.

I suppose with my new games; I am hoping this self-love relationship with myself is going to work out right. I will be free from self-sabotage because I won’t doubt that I am worthy or good enough. I am good enough. I can do anything because…

My name is Elliot Parker and I am a deliberate creator and I am always getting better!

The Diary of Elliot Parker Part Three is now available for pre-order on amazon! Out on the 11th November… here is the UK link https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B075VSBT3Q

Here is the US link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075VSBT3Q

Author Update (October 2017)

Hiya Everyone!!!

October! SPOOPY!!!

Ok so seriously… What’s happened? Well… I have been to the Harry Potter Studio Tour (I will do a post for you in November to tell you alllllllllll about it)… What else? Well… I will post about that soon to happen thing in November too, because its technically an October event but, not done it yet… so review to come…

What else? Well… I am still wayyyyyy behind on my writing schedule but good news is that there is another project on the horizon for here! So keep your eyes peeled for more new posts. Yup I was wrong, I have a new big project starting soon!!!

Sadly, I won’t be able to do NANOWRIMO this year, but that just means I can put it on the schedule for next years new resolutions I will be making.

This month on Netflix… I watched the Defenders and some of the Big Bang Theory other than that, tv has been lazy half baked viewing.

Guitar has been SO VERY slow, I have been learning Two Worlds Collide by Demi Lovato. I like the song, it’s a challenge to try a new time signature and to try something from like 2008 maybe? I know, old!!!

My sumbissions of The Big Project to agents and publishers has been slow and painful. My time is stretched way too thin at the moment. I hope to change that

My writing/life balance still is far from being well… balanced in any sense of the word!

Of course I still gotta throw a little plug in for The Diary of Elliot Parker 🙂 I likes writing it so of course I will keep reminding you…

The Diary of Elliot Parker Part Three is now available for pre-order on amazon! Out on the 11th November… here is the UK link https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B075VSBT3Q

Here is the US link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075VSBT3Q

 

And as always… I just want to remind you that there are books that are open, and available to you. So here is the link to my amazon author page, why not see if something takes your fancy? There is plenty up there to get you caught up from the first edition to the current of The Diary of Elliot Parker. Perhaps I might even stick something new on there soon so watch this space!!!

May luck and adventure be on your side!

ARA xxx

The Diary of Elliot Parker

.: Entry Eighty-Six :.

My name is Elliot Parker, and I feel like I am shedding myself again. I want to be someone else for a while, I want to escape into the whole of me. I want to enjoy the reality of who I am. I want to be ok with feeling the good and bad of myself. I want the bad to feel like nothing. I want the bad in me to be good, I want the good to be great, I want to lose all the resistance, all the things I used to think hold me back. Because at the end of the day I feel like I am out growing myself again.

I just feel like it’s time to embrace myself again, find a way to love myself again. Its wrong wording to say I am tired of waiting but I am sure there is a better phrase. Probably the best wording would be I am ready for my complete allowing, I am ready to enjoy my life. It’s been a while since I wrote here, it been a long old while and so much has changed and so little all at once.  I suppose it is safe to say, I am ready. I am ready for all the most wanted desires to flow easily and freely into my existence right now. I am ready to manifest a million dreams come true. I am ready to feel abundant. I am ready to feel love; I am ready to feel every wonderful thing I have been avoiding feeling for a while. I am ready to just exalt my spirit for a while, let it be present in the ecstasy it was born from. I am ready to just feel the connection with my higher self, the stronger self.

Adrian and I, we are just as distant and complicated and close to what I want. He might be able to get a job closer to me, by a few miles to say the least. But that’s the thing isn’t it, about love. It isn’t destroyed by distance, probably more so from neglect. But even with our on and off radio silence, its ok, I am still living life.

I’ve been thinking recently. Playing a game with myself “who do I love?” It’s not so much a trick as fixing some old habits. See for the last few years my answers would start with Adrian and eventually end in myself. That is what I have been changing I ask myself the question “who do I love?” That is when I say my answer, but my first answers must be conscious, so I am changing it slowly so the answer begins with myself and then I can list the names, it’s taking time. I suppose it can be hard to learn to love yourself after you neglect the only relationship that is with you between birth and death- the relationship with yourself. Well I am fixing that, I am trying to show myself a little love at every chance. I want to live a happy life.

My name is Elliot Parker and I think it’s funny that it has to be a conscious choice to push for and pursue a happy life. Some people do it naturally, some learn it, others never even know that it is an option to just exist in moments where you just feel like something beyond yourself.

Have you ever just had a knowing like typing with your eyes closed because you know where all your keys are. Have you ever just had a knowing that you can tell a misspelling with your eyes closed, it’s a s strange feeling to be able to do something so naturally and as easy as breathing, something you can do without thinking about it, without each movement being a conscious decision. That is exactly what happiness should be. Something that you don’t have to think about, something that you don’t have to make a conscious decision to be. That idea just feels beautiful. Learning to love yourself can be harder, at least at times it feels like it.

There’s that saying, if I remember rightly it sort of goes along the lines of you have to love yourself before you can love someone else truly. But I think it does disservice because you can love others and hate yourself, it just ends with self-sabotage. But that is not all I am thinking. I am getting to that thought on the tip of my tongue, I can love myself and be ok with putting how I feel first, then I can love others. It is a disservice to learn to love yourself so you can learn to love others how they want. I think that learning to love yourself puts you in a position where their love has less of a hold over you. Like, it isn’t meaning less, but it is less prominent, less the be all and end all. It is a truer freedom to be able to survive without others to love and focus on.

That’s a sort of truth I hadn’t considered. It is easier to love someone else than to love yourself. That is how and why we get caught up in loves outside of ourselves. But I am coming to the conclusion that the internalising of love is for the best, for me at least. I think learning to love the good and bad of me will give me the freedom I am yearning for. I always find myself yearning from freedom. Wanting to shed my life, shed some old version of myself, shed some out dated version of who I thought I was, who others assume me to be.

Part of me thinks, that if I love myself it means that I will be shedding the chains that are twisting around me, if I love myself the importance of others love or fascination with me will be meaningless, I will feel endlessly better than holding myself worth in another’s perception of me. I am good enough. I am worthy.

The Diary of Elliot Parker Part Three is now available for pre-order on amazon! Out on the 11th November… here is the UK link https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B075VSBT3Q

Here is the US link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075VSBT3Q