Target Practice
I assume everyone has a calling. Some have more than one. It doesn’t have to be something we’re good at. And it doesn’t have to be flashy.
When your dream is your own, it’s worth going after. No one else is going to see it the way that you do and they’re not going to do it for you. If you’re lucky enough to know what you want in life, then you owe it to yourself (and to the rest of us) to make it happen with all that you’ve got. This life is your shot.
Writing, itself, like anything else, is a lot of practicing. First drafts, second drafts, (fifteenth drafts), tweaking sentences, adding in a paragraph here or there, taking the paragraph back out again… And while it’s a lot of practicing, you’re always looking for that moment of magic.
The more you practice, the sooner you’re able to get yourself into the sweet spot, the real art, of what you do. And while it can seem like we’re just taking small steps, the increments add up.
Let’s think about the tree that falls in the forest. Whether anybody was around to hear it or not, it’s down. The proof is there. It’s easy to think if you’re not getting an immediate response or a certain number of likes or followers to all of your practicing that maybe you’re not doing the right thing. But the fact remains that the tree is down. You’re doing the work, the sometimes unglamorous work, and you can look behind you and see the trail of completed projects. So keep going.
When I worked in Washington, D.C., networking was big and the first thing people would ask when they met you was, “What do you do?” Not your name, where you work, or where you come from but what do you do. I’d tell them I worked for lobbyists, and they’d want to talk politics with me. I didn’t want to talk politics, so I started saying, “I’m a writer. Right now I work for lobbyists.” That got the conversation a little closer to home. How is anybody to know what you want to talk about if you keep it to yourself? (That’s not mine; that advice came from a friend of mine and I took it to heart.)
Likewise, you tend to get good at the things you practice. Let’s say you work at a pen company answering phones all day, but what you really want to do is make paper airplanes. Don’t get stuck thinking you can’t chase your dream because you’re so good and so needed on the phones at the pen company. You’re good and needed because you practiced it. So practice the airplane thing and see how really great and needed you can be.
We’re counting on you.
