Are You a Believer?
Although I’ve been a writer all my life, I didn’t seriously consider it as a career until almost two years ago.
I jumped right in, thinking it would be easy and people would come running, needing to hire a writer, just as soon as I announced that’s what I was. That hasn’t exactly been the case.
While I’ve definitely had writing jobs every single week (thank you Sheridan County Journal Star), there have been lots of ‘lean’ times.
How Much Do You Want It?
That’s the thing about having a goal that you just KNOW you’re meant to achieve. There are sacrifices. While your friends are taking vacations, going out to eat, and enjoying shopping trips, you stay home and eat three-day-old leftovers because you know it’s saving you money. Except for chicken - I’m not real sure you’re supposed to still be eating chicken three days after cooking it.
It reminds me a lot of the game of golf. As a golfer, I like to compartmentalize each hole by itself. If I start out on hole #1 with a crappy shot, shank the second one, and I’m still not even on the green by my third swing, I have to chalk it up to just that hole. I can’t carry my bad juju with me to hole #2, or you can bet I’m going to do the exact same thing all over again.
Steve Jobs once said in a college graduation speech that “looking back, it’s easy to connect the dots.” He was talking about how he didn’t earn a college degree himself but randomly chose classes he was interested in. He particularly enjoyed a typography class and later would choose unique, interesting fonts for an Apple IIe computer, rather than just a typewriter font, because of it.
I can look back and see that I needed to become adept at building relationships and speaking in front of groups of people to feel comfortable proposing my ideas to others.
I’ve been hired to write grants, assigned articles, pitched stories, and even written an obituary. With every single keystroke, I’m still learning.
Keep Coming Back to This
When I interviewed my friend Denie Jacobson for an article about her booming flower business, The Kindling Company Flower Truck in Omaha, she said something that I’ve thought about often. She told me that she’s always approached life with a “blind confidence,” a knowing that everything will work out.
Sadly, we are not the same. But I’ve often thought of her and her faith, her commitment to the positive. When I stop worrying, opportunities start coming in. Changing my thoughts from those of Negative Nelly always results in something good. It’s as if the universe, or God, rewards me for believing.
As a golfer, it also makes me think of Rory McIlroy. The Irish golfer is fun to watch play on TV. He tried 11 times to complete his Grand Slam - winning all four of the major tournaments. The moment he won the Masters Tournament this month, finally completing his Grand Slam, he tossed his putter in the air and fell sobbing to the green.
In an interview afterward, he said to reporters that he told his four-year-old daughter to take note. “Never give up on your dreams. Never, ever give up.” I hope she was listening.
I agree wholeheartedly and hope that you, too, are chasing after the one thing your heart wants more than anything else. But you’ve got to believe!