Monday, January 17, 2011

Commit to and then effectuate that which you set out to do. It's that simple. This was a response I made to a comment made on yesterday’s blog, and a concept in which I firmly believe.

When I set out to resume my career as a writer after having taken an extended twenty-plus-year leave to have and raise my family, even I knew the odds were against me to succeed. But did I let that stop me? No. Did I focus on the overwhelming staggering statistics of how the publishing world was imploding due to the fall of the economy? No. Did I offer myself a safety net on which to fall back should things have not worked out? Absolutely not!

Some may wonder why I would go out on such a limb aware that the odds were so stacked against me. Allow me to answer. Writing isn’t just my passion. It’s an ingrained element of who I am…to my core. As such, I could no more deny it than I could the person that I am. To put into place a safety net in case I didn’t succeed would have undermined my success, for it would have let me know that I could bow out if the going got rough.

So when I tackled resuming my career, I did so the way I’ve always pursued my ambitions—with tenacity and a diehard drive to give it my all not allowing the possibility of failure to provide me an easy out. After all, resuming writing was an ambition I’d clung to for those twenty-plus years, and I wasn’t about to let the economy dictate that I couldn’t realize my dream on my terms and when I was ready.

Has it been easy? No. Have I worked such long hours and made sacrifices as to make myself question if I’ve made the right decision? Oh, yeah! Do I get exhausted? Yes. Discouraged? Yes. Frustrated? Doesn’t everyone at some point or another with his or her careers? Am I plugging along at a snail’s pace intent on carving out a little nitch in the writing world for myself? To be sure. Would it be easier to pursue another career? Probably. But would doing so honor the person I am—really am? Absolutely not! And so I continue on. Typing one word at a time, I make my way closer and closer to actualizing my ambition to its fullest.