I used to have a poster on my wall that had an image of a person running along a long lonely highway, and in front of them was a hill. Clearly the person had been running along for a while to be out on a highway so empty, and yet, in front of them was this ugly ass hill. The quote below it said. “Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it.”
This is something that has stuck in my mind ever since, and we’re talking a decade ago that I had this image. It’s funny to me that when I think about it now, I took that poster down when I was redecorating, because it wasn’t “adult” enough. You know what I mean? I wanted the room to look professional. Well, it does look more professional, but I often find myself struggling with my own motivation, and I wonder if it’s because I no longer have that, or the other posters, up on my walls to remind me to keep going.
It’s so easy to see other people’s success and think negative thoughts like “What did they do that I haven’t?” Or “Why them? I work harder, have been doing this longer, do it better,” or whatever… but that sort of thinking is a trap. All it will do is weigh you down, and slow you down. Stop thinking about how someone else got something, or somewhere, you want, and make it happen for you, by not quitting, and working for it.
For the past several months I’ve noticed that social media, Facebook in particular, has been slowing me down. At first I thought it was a time thing. That I spent too much time on it, and it stole my motivation the same way hanging out on the sofa watching television all day does. You see, in my world forward movement provides forward momentum-which means when I do nothing, I just want to keep doing nothing. Doing nothing is a sandtrap that is all too easy to get stuck in, so thinking that, I drastically cut my time on FB. I still hop onto social media once a day, but that’s all I’m doing. I’m done using it as a procrastination crutch, because man, its just become way too big of a sandpit for me.
I’ll be blogging more often, (at least once a week), and I really hope that those who want to connect with me will come by because this is where I will be.
I’d love to start a Q&A Day, but I need your help with that. If you have a question for me about writing, myself, my books or characters, either post it in the comments, or use the contact form on the site to email me, and I’ll answer it publicly for you. If it’s about writing in general, I might even see if I can find someone else to answer it. I have a lot of friends who are writers. 😉
This is the first step in my Make Things Happen plan for 2015, because I want to connect with people in a real way, and not just because a Status Update caught their eye. Â Plus, it eliminates one of my struggles –less time stuck in the sandtrap, more time writing stories I hope you’ll love.