Author Brendan Lynch and Senator David Norris have unveiled a plaque at number 4 Duke Street, Dublin to commemorate artist and writer, John Ryan, who died in 1992. He was founder of Envoy literary magazine, and benefactor to Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh and many impoverished writers of the 1950s. He launched the first Bloomsday celebration with Flann O’Brien in June, 1954.

Brendan Lynch remembered: ‘In the late-1950s, I lived in the heart of Dublin’s Bohemia in Upper Mount Street. Bohemia is said to have been bordered on the north by cold, on the west by hunger. It was an accurate description. The climate could not have been more inimical to creativity. Barefoot children shouted ‘Herald a’ Mail’ at street corners, Georgian homes sank into tenement dilapidation. The Censorship Board ensured that John Broderick, Austin Clarke and John McGahern followed Sean O’Casey into exile.

‘Yet a golden age thrived. Flann O’Brien, Ernie Gebler, James Plunkett, Behan and Kavanagh and poets John Montague, Thomas Kinsella, John Liddy and Paul Durcan.  Liam Miller’s Dolmen Press, Alan Simpson’s Pike Theatre, the unforgettable Parsons Bookshop.  Hard-working artists such as John Behan, Nevill Johnson and Pauline Bewick – who lived in a Kilmainham caravan.

‘And at the heart of this flowering was John Ryan, whose largesse and encouragement  nourished so many of them.  And whose Envoy campaigning helped to finally end cennsorship. John was also very helpful to me when I was preparing my books on literary and Bohemian Dublin. We had many a chat, as I wheeled him around Donnybrook’s Royal Hospital before his untimely death at the age of 67.’

Among the large attendance were John Ryan’s widow, Dee and her family. Also, Frances Kiely, widow of novelist, Ben, and the family of the Pike Theatre’s Alan Simpson. And Philip Donleavy, son of Ginger Man author, J P Donleavy, whose first story John Ryan published in Envoy magazine.

Brendan Lynch expects to publish his own next book, Princess of the Orient, in August.

The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, presented the awards to the winners of the prestigious Write Here, Write Now competition, run by Hot Press Magazine in association with Creative Ireland.

The competition, which invites entries from students all over Ireland, is also supported by PayPal and Canon. There are separate strands in the competition for Second and Third Level.

This year’s theme was Social Media: A Writer’s Tale. Forty writers, evenly split between Second and Third Level were shortlisted and regional winners were announced before the four National Winners were unveiled.

“Hot Press has always been about supporting emerging Irish creativity – which is why a competition like Write Here, Write Now is so important to us”, said Hot Press editor Niall Stokes. “With the controversies that have erupted around social media and the use and abuse of data by the big internet and social media players, this year’s theme proved to be very timely. And I’m thrilled to be able to say that the quality of the entries was truly extraordinary.

“It is wonderful to see that so many young writers – some of them still in their mid-teens – are capable of delivering powerful, original material, in their own unique voices. Hopefully today’s prize giving will encourage these remarkable young men and women to reach for the stars, and to make the most of the superb talent that they have shown here.”

Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan T.D. said: “My Department, through the Creative Ireland Programme, is delighted to support this competition which encourages creativity and allows new writers to have their voices heard. It’s really important that we support creativity in all its forms and I wish all of the entrants and the winners here today the very best for the future and urge them to keep writing and creating new work.”

Among the judges for the competition were the Booker Prize winning D.B.C. Pierre, acclaimed poet Rita Ann Higgins, the multi-award winning crime writer Tana French and Mike McCormack, who won the Goldsmith’ Prize in 2016 Prize for his hugely original novel Solar Bones, as well as Hot Press editor Niall Stokes and co-founder of the magazine, Máirín Sheehy.

“What a cool collection,” DBC Pierre said. “Underneath subject, style and language, the best writing doesn’t tell us how to feel, but takes our senses places where they can feel for themselves, touching universal truths, often mysteriously. So it’s been really heartening to read these upcoming writers, and a hell of a job to pick between them. Only one thing for sure: we’ll be reading many of them again in the future.”

Prizes

The four overall winners each win:

• A superb Canon PowerShot SX620 HS professional camera

• An internship with Hot Press, the country’s leading music and lifestyle magazine

• A €250 cash prize.

• They’ll also have their winning entry published in a special issue of Hot Press.

All shortlisted entries can now be read at hotpress.com/writeherewritenow

The full list of winners is as follows:

National Winners Third Level

Male: Jason Reddan from Limerick

A student at Mary Immaculate College, Jason Reddan is from Limerick city. Jason is working on his first feature film this summer and has recently completed a producing program at The New York Film Academy in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Female: Rose Keating from Waterford

Rose is studying English at UCC, on a creative writing scholarship, as part of the Quercus program. A previous 2nd Level winner of Write Here, Write Now, her fiction has been published in the Incubator journal, Not One of Us magazine, the Quarryman journal and the Breakroom Stories podcast.

National Winners Second Level

Female: Alva White from Kildare

A student at Leinster Senior College in Newbridge Co. Kildare. Alva is a sixteen year old fact aficionado. She is a fan of Shakespeare, Steinbeck and contemporary writers like Ali Shaw and Roddy Doyle.

Male: Robert Gibbons from Meath

Robert is a student at Kings Hospital, Co. Dublin currently undertaking his Leaving Certificate. He hopes to study English at third level. His hobbies include playing piano and reading.

The People’s Choice Award, presented by PayPal, went to Josh O’Loughlin from Clare, who is a student in D.I.T.

There was also a special award for Outstanding Achievement for Niamh Browne from Cork, a second-level entrant.

Provincial Winners – Third Level

Munster: Dean Buckley (NUI Galway graduate)

Connaught: Luke McDermott (NUI Galway)

Leinster: Aaron McGinnity (Trinity)

Donegal: Daniel McBrearty (NUI Galway)

Leinster: Aoife O’Ceallachain (Trinity)

Connaught: Mairéad Melia (NUI Galway)

Ulster: Grace O’Donnell (NUI Galway)

Munster: Amy Glover (Trinity)

Provincial Winners – Second Level

Leinster: Matthew Price (Terenure College in Dublin)

Munster: David Landers (Pobalscoil na Tríonóide in Cork)

Connaught: Luke Power (Sancta Maria College, Mayo)

Ulster: Patrick McCarron (St Macartans College in Monaghan)

Special Prize – Óran McCormack-Grant (13 Year-old) – also Ulster / Monaghan (Our Lady’s Secondary School)

Munster: Vicky Burke (3 entries – Nothing To Fear mentioned) (Saint Aidans Community College in Cork)

Connaught: Laura Quinn (Dominican College in Dublin)

Leinster: Eleanor Curran (St Vincent’s School in Dublin)

Highly Commended – Third Level

Mark Gilligan (Trinity)

Sandi Ndebele (UCD)

Josh O’Loughlin (DIT)

Daniel Ryan (DIT)

Jamie Sewell (BIMM Dublin)

Aoife Kearins (Trinity)

Alanna MacNamee (Trinity)

Fiona Monks (DCU)

Emer O’Hara (UCD)

Caitríona O’Malley (UCD graduate)

Anna Stockdale (Queen’s University Belfast)

Highly Commended – Second Level

Conor Ryan (Belvedere College in Dublin)

Dualtagh McDonnell (Ennis Community College in Co. Clare)

Kevin Matthews (Rathmines College in Dublin)

Fields Chung (The High School in Dublin)

Rachel O’Dwyer (Borrisokane Community College in Co. Tipperary)

Rosa Thomas (St Wolstan’s Community College in Celbridge)

Maolíosa Ní Léannacháin (Loreto College, Mullingar)

Niamh Lusson (St Louis Community School in Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo)

Katie Farrell (Maryfield College in Dublin)

The ‘Maeve Binchy and famous Irish Writers Walk’ has returned to Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre for the summer. The walk is perfect for fans of Maeve.

Taking place on Fridays at 13.15 from the 8th June until the end of September, the guided walk starts at the Writers’ Gallery at Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre. The walk is the perfect way to learn about Dalkey’s rich literary history. Visitors can discover how Maeve approached writing her novels and walk along the streets of Dalkey, enjoying snippets of work from Maeve, James Joyce, Flann O’Brien and more, while hearing anecdotes of famous writer encounters from the entertaining and knowledgeable guides at the different locations along the route.

Competition deadline: 13th August 2018

The Institute of Technology,  Tallaght [Dublin, Ireland] in association with the Red Line Book Festival and South Dublin County Council are pleased to announce the opening of the ITT Short Story Competition 2018 for entries.

The ITT Short Story Competition is run by the Institute of Technology Tallaght, in conjunction with South Dublin County Council, and in association with the Red Line Book Festival, and is free to enter. This year’s judge is Deirdre Sullivan, an award winning writer for young adults. Her most recent book, Tangleweed and Brine is a collection of Fairy-Tale retellings. She tweets and instagrams @propermiss.

Entries should be submitted via this online form only until 12.00 GMT (Irish Time), on 13th August 2018.

Entries must be in short story format (a short work of fiction) between 1,500 and 2,000 words long, and should be completely the entrant’s own work written in English (high standard), original, unpublished. There is no restriction on theme or style, however the planned 2018 anthology will be called Stand Fast! and we are looking for strong stories that (even loosely) reflect this title. Falsification of information and/or identity, plagiarism, racial discrimination and bigotry will see entries disqualified.
The judges’ decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into. No criticism or advice will be provided.

Contest Prizes:

1. First Prize:        €500
2. Second Prize:  €250
3. Third Prize:      €150

It is the intention of the organisers that the winning and short listed entries maybe published in an anthology, or other format. Non-prize winning published entries will receive no remuneration. Previous year’s Anthologies are available on Amazon.

You must read the Rules, and Terms and Conditions and agree to these before you can submit your entry.
Queries before submission should only relate to the contest rules or if there are difficulties in submission. Queries should be sent via e-mail to ritt@ittdublin.ie.

International entries are welcome.

Further information and the submission form will be available online on 2^nd July at: http://bit.ly/ITTShorts18

Competition deadline: 28th August 2018

The John O’Connor Writing School and Literary Arts Festival, sponsored and supported by internationally renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Paul Muldoon, has a two-fold purpose. It aims to to celebrate and commemorate the life and works of John O’Connor as well as offering practical guidance and assistance to aspiring writers through its workshops and master classes in the various literary genres and writing for commercial purposes.

Entries are currently invited from aspiring writers for the third John O’Connor Short Story Competition. It is being held to commemorate the Armagh born writer whose impressive literary legacy includes a collection of short stories which still retain a timeless appeal.

The prize winner will be awarded a full bursary to attend the John O’ Connor Writing School and Literary Arts Festival which will be held in Armagh from 1st to 4th November, 2018, plus a cash prize of £250. The bursary prize allows the recipient to enjoy all events in the John O’Connor Writing School and Literary Festival 2018, and to attend one class in the writing genre of his/her choice. The winner will be notified by 2 October.

The winning entrant will be formally announced at the opening of the Writing school on Friday 2nd November, and will have the opportunity to read at an event on Sunday 4th November 2018. Single room accommodation will be available free of charge to the winning entrant.

Terms and Conditions

1. The competition is open to people of 16 years and older
2.  Only one entry per person is permitted and MUST be submitted via the online form.
3. Entries must be in English
4. Entries must be between 1,800 and 2,000 words in length. Entries outside this word count will not be permitted and will be automatically rejected.
5. Entries must be the original work of the author and must not have been previously published either in writing or electronically. Entries which have received awards in other competitions are also ineligible.
6. Only short stories will be accepted. Prose and poetry entries are inadmissible.
7. An entrance fee of £10 per story must be paid and submitted as indicated on the online form.
8. No indication of the author’s name should be given in the actual story.
9. Entries will not be returned.
10. The decision of the adjudicators is final and they will not enter into any correspondence concerning the competition.
11. Closing date for receipt of entries 12noon on the 28th of August.
12. The winner will be notificed by 2 October 2018

Find full terms and conditions, and online entry form available here.

A word from previous winners:

“I won the inaugural John O’Connor Short Story Competition in 2016, the news delivered to me via a lovely phone call from Cathy McCullough, a personal touch which is one of the things that makes the weekend so special. I had started writing in 2014, and the win gave me a sense of validation that is so nourishing and necessary for a new writer. That year I attended Bernie McGill’s brilliant prose workshops, which generated an idea for a novel, and Stewart Neville’s masterclass. Last year Martina Devlin facilitated the prose workshops, and again I went away full of ideas for new work. The win also gave me opportunities to read my own work in public, a prospect I once found appalling which I now actually enjoy. My stories have won other prizes, but the John O’Connor win is the one that keeps on giving. “

Louise Kennedy, 2016 winner

“Thanks to the JOCWS I have made contact with an agent who is willing to read it [her novel] when it is ready… I hope all goes as well this year as last and I will certainly be coming along to the writing workshops again. I found them really useful. “

Roisin Maguire, 2017 winner

Friday 13 July is the Ukrainian writer and filmmaker Oleg Sentsov’s 42^nd birthday. This will be the fourth birthday he spends behind bars, away from his children and family. Instead, he will be on day 61 of his hunger strike, calling for the release of imprisoned Ukrainians in Russia. Oleg’s cousin, Natalia Kaplan, visited him in prison earlier this month. He has reportedly lost 15 kg. Speaking to the press, she said “Yesterday he was very bad, today he’s feeling normal. He’s getting worse in the evenings. He is not going to halt his hunger strike. He said he would go all the way and believes in his victory.”

Sentsov’s birthday also happens to fall on the last week of the World Cup, during which many have joined the #KeepingScore campaign.

There are a number of PEN Centres who have been doing amazing campaigning work on his behalf; English PEN are gathering messages of solidarity and both PEN America and PEN Kenya are hosting screenings about his case.

To mark his birthday, PEN International is asking supporters to tweet messages to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. As we near the end of this unique opportunity to put pressure on the Russian authorities to release Sentsov, and with his health failing, it is crucial that we work together on this final push.

Below are suggested tweets:

• .@PutinRF_Eng, Oleg Sentsov should not be behind bars on his birthday.  He should be with his family. Release him immediately #FreeSentsov #KeepingScore
• Today marks Oleg Sentsov’s 42^nd birthday and day 61 of his hunger strike in a Siberian prison .@PutinRF_Eng release him now! #FreeSentsov #KeepingScore
• .@PutinRF_Eng, the world is watching. Oleg Sentsov grows weaker by the day on hunger strike.  Today is his birthday. He must be freed! #FreeSentsov #KeepingScore @FIFAWorldCup

We want to encourage as many of you as possible to share these on your social media accounts, and please ask as many of your high-profile supporters to do so as well. We know that your participation will hugely amplify the impact of PEN’s campaign for Oleg Sentsov’s freedom. I also attach a graphic created to mark his birthday to this email.

For more information please see:

• Russia: Oleg Sentsov on hunger strike: http://pen-international.org/news/russia-oleg-sentsov-on-hunger-strike
• PEN International publishes short stories by Oleg Sentsov: http://pen-international.org/news/pen-international-publishes-short-stories-by-oleg-sentsov
• Keeping Score at the 2018 World Cup: Reporting on the dark side of Russia: http://pen-international.org/news/keeping-score-at-the-2018-world-cup

Meath County Council invites applications for a Meath County Council for the period September 2018 to December 2018. These Residencies are managed by Meath County Council Library Service.

Closing date for receipt of applications is August 7^th 2018 at 5:00pm

The residency is open to published writers working in any genre of fiction or poetry that has significant experience in delivering high quality writing experiences for children and young people.

The residency will fund a writer to work in primary schools and public libraries for 38 hours; 5 hours development time, 31 hours contact time, and 2 hours evaluation and documentation time.  The total fee, including travel and expenses and VAT, is €2,200 and the residency will span an 11-week period. The payment schedule will be 50% on commencement and 50% on completion of the residency and receipt of a short evaluation report.

It is a requirement of the residency that the writer spend 18 hours working with two selected schools and 13 hours delivering sessions for children based in Meath library branches. This is a part-time residency and will require flexibility around contact hours. It is a requirement of this residency that some of the contact hours are held in libraries during October, which is Children’s Book Festival month.

The residency will focus on the theme of Creativity and will have a particular emphasis on writing for children aged 8+.  The writer’s work may draw inspiration from this theme in a variety of ways.

From the applications received, a shortlist of writers may be invited to attend interview.

A facilitated planning session designed to enhance the project planning process will take place on September 13^th. Further project development sessions can be scheduled between the writer and the teacher at the respective schools if necessary.

Further details available here.

Creative Ardagh will be hosting a unique storytelling and mythology event this August 11th and 12th. Scéalta Beo will have a diverse programme for adults, teens and families including workshops and performances over the two days. Some of our panel of international storytellers and mythology experts have been working on new pieces on Midir and Etain especially for their appearances. The weekend promises to be an extremely memorable occasion.

Saturday will be an adult-focused day, as the explorations of some of the themes of the legend are not suitable for younger ears. John Wilmott of Bards in the Woods (Co. Sligo) will set the scene for the festival at 12pm on Saturday with a prequel of the folklore, landscape and mystery that fed into the Etain and Midir story. This will be followed by the story of the Three Etains by Gerry Donlon of Bards Aloud (Ipswich) and Kate Corkery (London). A fascinating examination of morals, impulse control and consequences, performed by celebrated storytellers, it promises to enchant and entertain.

Kate Corkery is a professional storyteller with a background in language teaching and theatre. Storyteller in Residence at the Irish Cultural Centre, she has toured internationally telling stories in China, Russia and South America as well as appearing in many European festivals. She won a Fringe First Award for “her outstanding work in regenerating the art of storytelling in today‘s society”. We are honoured to have her attend the inaugural Scéalta Beo festival. Scéalta Beo means living stories and we are looking forward to Kate’s workshop, Bringing Stories to Life, which will examine storytelling techniques and allow participants to use their own voice and tell their own tale.

The day programme for Saturday will conclude with a presentation on the tasks of Midir by Story Archaeology duo Chris Thompson and Isolde Carmody (Co Leitrim). We are incredibly happy to be able to welcome them both to Ardagh as they offer a unparalleled insight into the depth of the original text and its local connections With their usual mix of performance and banter, based on close analysis of the text they will focus on the wide variety of feats and challenges undertaken in the long and complicated Wooing of Etain and explore the mystery of the causeway over Móin Lámraige built in secret by Midir and its counterpart, the remains of the Iron Age causeway uncovered at Corlea Bog near Kenagh, Co. Longford.

A special adult only concert will be held on Saturday 11th, at 7.30pm, featuring all of our guests. This promises to be the highlight of the festival with a mix of story, song, poem, magic and mystery. Gerry Donlon and Kate Corkery have been planning a joint performance, Chris Thompson will present an engaging, detective style look at the Mystery of Midir, while Bards in the Woods team, John Wilmott  and Claire Roche, will dazzle with their unique blend of harp music, storytelling, poetry and more. There are limited tickets available for this online at http://scealtabeo.blogspot.ie.

Our special family day on Sunday will have something for all ages. Sign up for our Open Mic session at 12pm Sunday on the website and perform your own story, song or poem to the audience (children and adults welcome). Chris Thompson will enthral with her Warriors and Wizards Family Show at 2pm. There will also be family storytelling sessions featuring Kate Corkery and Bards Aloud throughout the day while John Wilmott will teach the craft or storytelling at adult and children’s Find Your Story workshops all building to a special finale. Come along with all the family for a spectacular day of magic, myth, dressing up, drama and more. The weekend promises to be an extremely memorable occasion.

Applications are invited from emerging writers who are resident in County Westmeath. This opportunity is open to writers of poetry and/or adult fiction. The selected mentee will work with the John Broderick Writer in Residence Annemarie Ni Churreain at Athlone Library.
Mentoring consists of 10 sessions of 60 minutes.
Applicants are asked to submit the following:
A cover letter with an introduction to your proposed writing project/ ideas
3-6 pages of creative writing
A CV (please include any details of publications, workshops attended etc
and send details to writer@westmeathcoco.ie

This post is crossposted from my personal blog

Aims and intentions – direction but not dictatorship.

There are many blogposts across the internet about setting goals this January but the emphasis I want to put on this post is yes, on achieving goals but not beating yourself up in the process! Speaking from experience I know how we can scupper ourselves by getting frantic, confused and guilty so this is what I’ve done that helps me.

1: Write a desire manifesto
Write what you want to do/achieve most of all. Under that write your lesser aims. You will know what’s most important to you and what you need to put ahead of everything else.

2: Be optimistic

There is tremendous energy in intention itself. I talk about intention in this post and how Orna Ross says that aims are not about ‘should’ but come from a more positive position. So set out what you would love to achieve in the coming months. We want to give ourselves parameters within which we can organise our life, we’re not talking sticks and sadness. We want to get away from a vague sense of dissatisfaction and see what kinds of activities and achievements will give us energy and makes us happier. At this stage jot down your wildest dreams.

3: Be realistic and specific

We’ve all heard about making aims SMART, specific, measurable, achieveable, realistic and timebound. Again, we need to set the parameters. It would be marvellous if we could write 3 novels in a month but it probably won’t happen. Subject your wildest dreams and aims to a reality test. Could you finish your novel draft by next month? Do you hope to start your next project by March. Do you need to fit in smaller projects along the way? Can you assign specific time slots to these?

Note: This is not set in stone! Your projects will take longer or less time than you think, family issues will occur. You DO NOT NEED TO FEEL YOU HAVE FAILED OR SHOULD BE GUILTY. So what if you’re 20 years too late to be considered for the 30 under 30 prize, is that really what you wanted anyway? And what would you be happy with instead?

4: Keep a ‘to do’ journal and track progress and achievement (this is magic!)

Get an A4 book into which you write your monthly, weekly and daily aims. Each day or week tick off what you’ve done (a big enthusiastic tick). If something is left undone add it in to the following week. Periodically (monthly, quarterly) write a list of achievements such as submissions made or pieces accepted, words written, ideas gathered. (There’s more on this below!)

What I find so good about this practice is that it gets everything out of my head, my to do list is not circulating in my mind and causing anxiety, I can clearly see what I want to do, what I have done and what I need to do to finish what I set out to do.

3: Regig your schedule regularly.

Based on the information you discover see where you need to add effort, prioritize or take away goals altogether. Again this is a rational and clever thing to do. There is no shame in not achieving everything. (Even superheroes have to send their costumes to the dry cleaners every so often!)

4: Set both tiny goals and marvellous ones

If you set tiny goals you can build on them. If you aim to write 500 words a day you will energise yourself by your success rather than disheartening yourself by your aim to do 2000. The energy of your achievement and it’s confidence will make it more likely that you can achieve 2000 words. Didn’t you know you had wings and could fly?

But equally big goals like the 50,000 word writing challenge Nanowrimo can work. If you see yourself by steady progression scaling the heights of such a challenge (through effort and camaraderie) you will forever know what you are capable of and that is a certainty that cannot be taken away from you.

5: Write an achievement manifesto

When I arrive at the pages where I write my quarterly summary of successes I am always surprised. It’s so easy to forget what you have achieved, even if it’s something quite significant. We often have a tendency to underplay success and focus on what we haven’t done yet. So writing down what we have achieved from solving family squabbles to winning the local poetry competition to writing your first flash fiction to winning the Booker prize is very important. We can take some time to see how these achievements reflect what we set out to do or whether some of the things we did took us in new directions that turned out to be rather wonderful. You can even go a bit crazy and write compliments to yourself on this page. I’ll be talking about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques to help stop negative thoughts more fully in a future post and the positive feedback we can give ourselves in this achievement manifesto is an important part of that. This is our feelgood CV, imagine listing your achievements for a job, you can make yourself sound very impressive!

And what if you don’t succeed?

Psychology and Weiner’s attribution theory tells us that we attribute our own success to our efforts and other people’s success to luck. Failure works round the other way. I’m not so sure that those of us who feel responsible for everything, don’t attribute our success to chance and our failure to ourselves. There are those of us who set such high standards that we are bound to fail.

In the modern day though we have this impression that everyone can succeed if they just try. There is truth to the idea that if we start off more optimistic we’ll be more alert to opportunities and we’ll try things, whether it’s enter competitions or self-publish, become entrepreneurs or apply for a job that’s a little too far out of our reach (or is it?) It’s also true however that even if we’ve written a brilliant book for example or have been writing solidly for 20 years, there is a chance we’ll be unlucky and just won’t make it or perhaps we’re not as good as we hoped.

BE CLEVER!

If we are not getting where we want to we might need to get some constructive criticism. We might have to decide whether the love of writing is enough beyond financial success. We might take joy from other aspects of our lives that can make a rich cloth in its entirety. We can hope for posthumous fame. We need to figure out what aspects of life make it just good enough, what small pleasures add up into a satisfying whole. There has to be balance between making our goals and dreams strong enough and big enough to make us work hard & commit to our own success and also realising that to make one ambition the be all and end all is to set ourselves up for misery.

YOU HAVE NOT FAILED!

We need to become good not beating ourselves up about not meeting targets. We need to be clever and reassess, not take it as failure.

What do you think, is there a way to maintain our optimism and intention while not beating ourselves up for the things we don’t manage to do?