The Way of the Imperfect Fool

How to Bust the Addiction to Perfection That's Stifling Your Success...in 12½ Super-Simple Steps!

Mark David Gerson

• Publisher: MDG Media International
• Year: 2019
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780979547577
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Success

Step #1. Break the Rules

Rule #1: There are no rules.

The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write

There is no universal right way to do or be anything. There is no universal wrong way either. How can there be right ways and wrong ways in a life dedicated to passion, purpose and authenticity? You are open to allowing more passion, purpose and authenticity into your life, aren’t you?

There are also no rules. None. How can there be when you are committed to living your life, instead of someone else’s? You are committed to living your life, aren’t you?

And success? Who does not seek success? Yet genuine success has nothing to do with rules that others have written, however worthy those others might be and however relevant those rules might seem to their lives and to their successes.

Your success doesn’t derive from them, from their rules or from their definitions. It cannot. Your success derives from the stirrings of your heart.

What does your heart desire of you? For you?

Follow the rule of your heart — not perfectly, for that is not possible, but as nearly as you are able from one moment to the next.

Follow the rule of your heart and you will always find true success, the success that reflects the unique, if imperfectly expressed imperative of your highest calling.

My Story

I had no idea how to write a film script when a friend suggested I adapt my novel The MoonQuest for the screen. That’s why I dismissed the idea the first time she suggested it…and the second. The third and fourth too. But one day it stuck.

Of course, I still didn’t know how to write a screenplay, so I headed for the nearest bookstore. Traditional screenwriting methods, I knew, were highly structured; not my style at all. Could I find a handbook that was more intuitive? On top of that, could I find one that would help me adapt an existing work for the movies?

I couldn’t. Everything on the shelf felt suffocatingly rule-bound. Even a string of online searches produced nothing helpful.

“You know all you need to know,” an inner voice insisted when I considered abandoning the project.

I was doubtful. Screenplays were technical, demanding creatures. Worse, everything I was reading insisted that there was only one path to screenwriting success: the orthodox one. Detailed outlines (the more detailed the better) were mandatory. Index cards (to keep track of scenes) were compulsory. And an unwavering reverence for beats, plot points and three-act structure was obligatory.

None of that was going to work for me. I have never outlined any of my writing. Even in high school, when English teachers required outlines to be submitted with essays, I wrote the essay first and crafted the outline afterward.

When it came to screenplays, however, I was clueless. Where would I start? How would I start? Then I recalled the opening pages of The MoonQuest and laughed. In that scene, Toshar knows he must tell his story but also doesn’t know where or how to begin. Then I remembered something else: Not knowing how to write a novel hadn’t stopped me from starting The MoonQuest a decade earlier. It wouldn’t stop me from turning it into a screenplay now.

I would do with The MoonQuest screenplay what I had done with the novel: I would break with convention and let the story guide me in its telling.

It did. The process wasn’t effortless, and I was often plagued by judgment and self-doubt. But the screenplay got written…my way.

Then, because I had never found an intuitive guide to screenwriting, I wrote my own. The result? Organic Screenwriting: Writing for Film, Naturally. My first rule for screenwriting? There are no rules!

The Way of the Fool

Just beyond the frame of the tarot image on the cover of this book, there is a sign that reads “Danger: Keep Off the Cliff Edge.” The Fool has seen the sign, considered whether to yield to it and decided not to.

The Fool has not chosen to ignore this sensible warning for any logical reason. After all, there is a precipice and it could easily be hazardous. Rather, the Fool follows his intuition, trusts his instincts and knows that the way forward, the Way of the Fool, is always the way of the heart. Had his heart guided him otherwise, he would not now be standing at the edge of a cliff preparing to take a leap of faith.

The Fool has little interest in others’ rules, ways of doing or ways of being, preferring to find her own way. This is not an act of stubborn willfulness. It’s an act of surrender — to her highest imperative and to the deepest, truest voice of her heart.

It is in how nearly he is able to hear and heed that voice that the Fool measures his success. For to the Fool, success is not calibrated in incomes and outcomes. Nor is it related to how his achievements measure up to others’. Success, to the Fool, is solely a function of how closely his words, deeds and actions hew to the call of his heart and to the heart of his calling. That is the Way of the Fool.

Your Story

Your Way of the Fool Journal

Have you started your Way of the Fool journal yet? If not, do it now, before you read on. Remember, there are no rules here, which means that there is no “right” way to answer this book’s questions, complete its exercises or keep track of your thoughts and experiences as you explore the 12½ steps on the Way of the Imperfect Fool.

Whether you keep your Way of the Fool journal in writing, as a series of audio or video recordings or in a way that’s unique to you, I promise that you will derive great benefit from the experience.

For more journaling tips and suggestions, revisit “How to Use This Book.”

Quick Meditation

This is an all-purpose meditation that you can use at any time — when working with The Way of the Imperfect Fool and any of its steps, before starting your day’s work with The Way of the Imperfect Fool, or at any other time when a brief heart-centering exercise could help get you back on track.

Whether you are sitting, standing or lying down, wherever you happen to be, close your eyes and take deep breath for ...

Table of contents

• What People Are Saying
• Title
• Copyright
• Epigraph & Dedication
• Introduction
• Getting Started
• The Steps
• Step #1. Break the Rules
• Step #2. Fire Up Your Intuition
• Step #3. Say Yes to Your Gut
• Step #4. Trust the Journey
• Step #5. Take a Chance
• Step #6. Do It Now!
• Step #7. Get It Right By Getting It Wrong
• Step #8. Dive into the Unexpected, Dance into the Chaos
• Step #9. Do Your Best
• Step #10. Hang in There!
• Step #11. Celebrate Every Success
• Step #12. Lighten Up
• Step #12½. See the Perfection in All Things
• Beyond the 12½th Step
• The Way of the Imperfect Fool and You
• Afterword - The Way of the Imperfect Fool and I
• Gratitude
• About the Author
• Work with Mark David
• More of Mark David's Folly