Just Keep Swimming
Finding Nemo (Disney / Pixar) I have seen it so many times and it still makes me laugh. Delightful for children and adults alike, containing environmental message and overt concepts about letting go of fear, it delivers all in a humourous and uniquely Australian way.
One of my favourite messages is the 'just keep swimming' concept. I use it all the time. Especially when I don't feel like swimming, it reminds me to keep trying and focussing on the end game, the goal, the end of the day!
I wrote a chapter titled the same thing for a book (pictured). It contains some metaphors for swimming in life when it is the last thing you want to do. Combined with the other stories, it is a wonderful book for motivating you in the down times. I had so much to give the chapter that I have expanded it as a book. I have written about half and then got stuck. Kind of like being stung by a jellyfish or 3, a bit dazed and overwhelmed. Because I don't know how to categorise the book. Is it 'self-help' or motivational? Is it non-fiction or more of a memoir? Because it has all those elements and a few others as well.
It is a book on resilience and motivation and inspirational and contains practical how-to knowledge. What would you call that? I am trying to call my books self-support as I don't want to preach the 'right' way or judge anything about you in my book and I don't believe that you need to read it because there is something wrong with you. Although if you are seeking something to support you, I want this to be that book for you and I want it to be of assistance. Self-assist? Sounds like a car club.
So do I just pick a genre? Do I just publish and let my reviewers (which I hope to have one day) pick the genre? Do I created a new genre name - which I kind of cringe at as somewhat pretentious. But if not me to create a new label, then who? And I think that is my issue. I don't like labels. I resist labels as a box that we want things to fit into. And no one ever fits into the box they are labeled with, at least no one I have ever met. We use labels for convenience and they come in handy, but they never really fit the human experience in totality.
In the meantime I am working up to getting back to the book to finish it. I believe in the words of bek that it contains and the concepts I want to share from my experience - how I got through my life - how I could just keep swimming no matter what. Because a lot of people throw around clichés. They recite mantras of inspiration every day. And while that can be helpful, it doesn't, in the long run, fix anything. What 'fixes' things is action and change, movement and motion, propulsion and motivation. Inspirational quotes will only get so far, only you can take the action required to alter the circumstances you no longer wish to be in. Sometimes you just don't know what to do to move beyond, to just keep swimming. Floating sounds appealing and sometimes you can feel that if you stop you might drown. Just Keep Swimming.
I have an edited version of my chapter on this website due to appear shortly and you can buy the book if you think you might get some assistance. Or you can offer me some encouragement to just keep swimming to the end of the writing process by sharing your love of Finding Nemo and giving me your favourite quote on my FB page - The Words of Bek!
Or buying a book!
