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This is a short follow up to my last post, Making a Life, in which I stated that it was time to start recognizing my priorities and values and begin taking the necessary actions to protect and achieve them.
Well, as I mentioned, one of my values and top priorities is writing, so you might have thought I’d have written a new post by now. But another, equally important value for me is reading and I am happy to report that I have been spending a decent amount of my free time lost in a pretty good book – The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain. (Over halfway through and really enjoying it!)
Another big value was control of my time. A little over a week ago I made a decision and enacted a plan to gain that control. I won’t get into the details now, but it involves *yet another* job change. I sincerely think it will be for the best insofar as my financial security, time management, and stress/emotional satisfaction are concerned. Of course we never really know how things will ultimately work out, do we? For now, I am very hopeful and excited for this change.
“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.” – William Pollard
In addition to reading and job transitioning, I’m also doing my best to prepare for the upcoming holiday! Christmas is less than a week away and I am much less prepared than I would like to be. I usually put a great deal of effort into finding (what I imagine to be) the best gifts for the people in my life and then taking extra care to wrap them. I’m one of those people who really believes that the wrapping matters. “The presentation is half of the gift!” – I’ve actually said that before. A lot. But not this year. I couldn’t afford the best gifts and I just didn’t have the time to make the magic happen.
But all that circles back around to being in control of my time and feeling financially secure. *heavy sigh*
Next year will be better. Hell, next month should be better, though no one will be expecting much in the way of beautifully wrapped gifts from me then.
All in all, things are happening here. Good things. Progress is being made and ideas, they are a-brewin’. So stay tuned and thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your continued support and encouragement.
“You can do anything as long as you have the passion, the drive, the focus, and the support.”- Sabrina Bryan
Check out the pretty Pin-able quotes below!
Merry Christmas, Malissa! I’m excited to hear more about your job transition when you’re ready to share. Growing up is hard, isn’t it??? Gifts are great and it’s fun to find and give the perfect item — but (and I mean this sincerely even though it may sound trite) YOU are the real gift. Enjoy and make the most of the TIME you get to spend with your friends and loved ones — that’s when the real magic happens!! Love you!!!
Thank you, Sue! 🙂 It’s always good to be reminded that there are more important things than… well things! And yes, growing up IS hard. Hard in ways I didn’t expect. When did you get a handle on it exactly?! lol
Merry Christmas and thank you for reading and reassuring me. 🙂
Yes, life does have a way of intervening between us and our desires or dreams. But the answer is not about will power or mind control. We are creatures of habit. A habit is a repeated behavior that rewarded almost each time it occurs. That may sound a little vague but never the less true. If one comes home after work and sits in front of the television screen for the next four hours then one has formed a habit. Oh the reward may not be much but it is still a reward else we wouldn’t constantly engage in repeating that behavior. Writers, good, bad, or indifferent, form habits. I feel it safe to say that most attend to their writing when they first wake up and put in an hour to several hours before doing anything else.
So we might ask why we should do nothing else, except make a pot of coffee, when we wake up in the morning or whenever one’s morning begins. The answer is surprisingly simple. Writing is a compulsion. Writing is more than an extension of your life, your personality, it is your life. You will never be a good writer with that need, that compulsion to write. In fact you will never be even a mediocre writer without that need to write. You see, writing is thinking, you can’t live without it. And when you are writing no one else exists but you. It is, like the artist, the most lonely of professions. It can’t be done on command in front of an audience. You can’t will the words to flow forth onto the paper. It is unlike anything else you will ever do in your life and as you strive to master writing it will convert you, draw you in to the hidden world that only writers understand. You might find a few of these people in writing groups but such cooperative efforts are for the amateurs, posers, wannabes. You know, Mark Twain had little formal education and was never a member of any university writing group and yet he became the American Shakespeare.
We write because we can dream and when we do we create. But dreams so often depend of experience and any one who wants to write well must have many experiences from which to dream and then create. Writing is also a craft that we teach ourselves. True, a professional writer could take you by the hand and teach you but all they can do is teach you to write like them, someone you are not and could never be. You only find your voice through writing everyday. It does not matter if you are writing fiction or non fiction or poetry. We all have a voice that is uniquely our own. Once you have found it you will never let it go, to borrow a phrase from Some Enchanted Evening. And find your own space. Even if it is nothing more than a folding tray table you can face against the wall and need to wear ear protection to keep the Netflix noise out. No distractions, no pictures on the wall, not cute little trinkets, just you and the paper or laptop and a blank wall. Use a straight back chair, you can add a cushion for your tush if need be. And just like the Nike ad, just do. Good luck to you. As Red Green would say, “We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you. Keep your stick on the ice.”