“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
Abraham Lincoln
Whether or not you are one to make resolutions for the new year, it’s a great time to begin creating your future. That sounds like a gargantuan task—and it is. I’ve done a little world-building as a writer. The advantage here is that you just write it, and it is so.
Unfortunately, it is harder to do in the flesh. Difficult doesn’t mean impossible. There are three things to resolve in your own heart and mind to do what seems impossible. The first thing is that the process will be long. Overnight success takes a long, long fermentation time.
The second thing to resolve is that the way will be hard. Most things worth having are hard to come by—that’s what makes diamonds and gold so valuable. Let’s face it, if writing that bestseller was easy, everyone would be doing it. I dare say, you would have done it by now. Besides writing it is only a part of the story, you also must sell it. That task is much harder than writing the thing.
Finally, along the long hard road, you must not quit writing and you must not quit dreaming. Everyone you know will tell you to give it up. Heck, you will tell yourself to quit. Don’t listen to any of them, especially not yourself.
Take a deep breath, take a walk, take a day off, but never, ever quit. You are building your dream. Remind yourself that the worst is behind you. If you could stop writing and still be happy, you would have done it already.
If you’re going to be miserable anyway, be miserable writing. One day someone will read that book and tell you how much they liked it. When that happens, you probably won’t even remember that day you thought about quitting. So, don’t quit!
I’m already addicted to writing. For me, the greatest personal challenge of the new year will be taking care of business. While I am self-employed, there will be no doing nothing all day. I’m the first to admit that I am no businessman. The future requires I make myself into one—in a hurry. It’s going to be painful.
Assets and liabilities, deposits and expenditures, ledgers and financial spreadsheets, taxes and bank accounts, I feel like I’m drowning in a sea of ignorance. It’s a sink or swim time, so I’m dog-paddling like crazy before I go under.
Confidence in my ability is zero—that’s one number I can crunch. I am counting on one of my nursing instructor’s opinion of me (and our shared generation for that matter). I worked full time while going to school, it was against the advice of the people who ran the program, but I did it anyway. One day a fellow student remarked that they didn’t know how I did it. The instructor standing nearby answered for me, she said:
“It’s amazing what you can do when you have to.”
That was right on. There was no choice. I had to do it if I was going to support my family. Somehow, creating that future happened. It was long and hard. I’m glad I didn’t quit the first day like I wanted to.
Be resolved to succeed and create the future you are dreaming about.
Maranatha
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