Toeing the Line

There are those who say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Which leads me to wonder, is being a writer insane? Or, rather, is trying to build a sustainable career out of writing insane? I self-published my book Hello Morning in 2014, and it was such an amazing feeling. To get to hold a physical copy of a book I'd worked on for years in my hands. To see other people reading it. To hear their feedback. To go on Amazon and see my book for sale. It was all incredible. 

The book did not sell the way I hoped it would, but I learned a lot from the process. So I took what I learned, wrote another book and decided to submit this one to some agents, and try that route toward publishing. None of the agents I queried felt my project was right for them, but I got some good feedback along the way.  

So, I wrote another book earlier this year called A World Between and after running it through a few rounds of edits, have begun the process of sending out query letters to agents and publishers. Everything I've heard back at this point has been a rejection. They have been the kindest, gentlest rejections, but they are rejections all the same. And so it occurred to me this morning that I might be insane. 

I have been calling myself determined. Committed. Driven. I have been telling myself that in order to succeed on this path I must persevere, but at what point does perseverance become madness? If I take a step back, I can rationalize that I am probably not at that point given how early it is in my writing career, but where is that line in the sand? Is there a line in the sand? Or is a certain degree of insanity required to succeed? 

Give Dreams A Chance

A Couple years ago, I heard this amazing commencement speech that Jim Carrey gave at Maharishi University of Management, and I listen to it every so often when I'm having one of those moments where I'm second guessing my decision to pursue the life of my dreams. In my favorite part of the speech, Carrey talks about his father. He talks about how his dad held down a job that he didn't have a passion for, for most of his life, and then one day he was let go. Carrey said the lesson he took from that was, "you can fail at something you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on something you love."

We come up with so many reasons why we can't even try to go after our dreams. We tell ourselves it's not the right time, we tell ourselves it's too risky. We come up with reasons why we will fail where others have succeeded. We stack all of these things up in front of ourselves as proof that our dreams are not worth the gamble, but they are.

We can not know what we are truly capable of if we don't try. We can not know what could have come of our dreams if we don't live them. We can not have the life we've always wanted doing the same things we've always done.

This is not to say it won't be hard -- because it will. This is not to say it won't take time -- because it may take a while. But when you come out on the other side and your life reflects your dreams and passions -- when you look around at the culmination of all of your hard work and perseverance, won't that be worth it?

You will never know what your life could have been if you don't take that first step and give your dreams a chance.