No Regrets

I saw a quote on Twitter a week or so ago and jotted it down as it was quite profound.

"Don't be on your deathbed someday, full of regret because you pursued little distractions instead of big dreams."  --Derek Sivers

We have such big dreams as children...being a princess, flying to the moon, being an accomplished heart surgeon or pianist or any number of things. It never dawns on us to think we can't at that point. We just simply declare it and that is what we will be, "realistic" or not. So, what makes it unrealistic later in life and moves us down an alternative path?

Clearly, the cost can be a factor for some in terms of schooling. Reality can be a factor...we just can't be a dinosaur or Harry Potter. But why, oh why, do we sometimes allow others to dictate our reality?

If your dream is to be a doctor, you will incur debt with loans and spend a lot of blood, sweat and tears in time and hard effort, but if that is your dream, go do it and be the best darn doctor out there.

If your dream is to be a professional athlete, you work your tail off and bust your butt to be the best you can be and live your dream.

And if you want to be a writer, then you study and learn and work hard to be the best writer YOU can be, whether you publish or not.

We have to listen only to ourselves to determine our dreams and how best to fulfill them. I don't know about you, but I never want to look back and regret what I didn't try to do.  If I try and fail, at least I am doing what I can to pursue my dream.

And that is my wish for all of you, whatever that dream may be.

Live Your Dream

Do you ever feel like you wake each day with the intention of accomplishing a certain task or set of tasks, write a given number of words/pages or read a certain book only to go to bed with all or most yet undone? Lately, it seems my days are cycles of me setting goals and then moving them to the next day yet unfinished. Granted, we are in the throes of summer life and basketball chaos, and I have managed to do what I can when out and about. I'm just not grabbing the bigger blocks of time necessary to really dig into the edits and bigger tasks in my pile which has been frustrating (frustrated mama makes for crabby mama according to my kids!).

Today I came across the above, and it really spoke to me. It's like the old adage...if at first you don't succeed, try and try again. My parents used to say this all the time when I was younger, and it certainly applies to writing as well as anything in life.

So, my new goal is going to be to recognize the frustration when fewer tasks are completed but take a deep breath and use it to try again the next day. Rather than getting caught up in the "not done" things in my day, I'm going to focus on the reasons I didn't accomplish them (all good fun, kid-related and family things) and take from those experiences what I can to generate new stories. That is the one positive...I'm finding a ton of new story ideas in my day-to-day activities, so perhaps that is just my stage right now. And I'm too darn tired to get up any earlier or stay up any later, so my idea notebook will be bulging and I will tackle the rest...another day. Because, after all, there is no expiration date on writing.