Life Inescapable

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What's in Your Body of Work?

WARNING:  This is a no-edit zone...

I love and collect quotes. I came across one a couple days ago that totally speaks to the writer in me:

"In every work of genius, we recognize our own rejected thoughts;
they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty."            
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

I read Mr. Emerson's words and thought, "Perfect. Exactly the right goal and aspiration and tone for a writer who writes first with purpose."

And that made me wonder. How many writers actually identify their goal for their writing? Not what or how much or when they write, but what they hope the work will achieve? What message it will convey to readers? How many writers have defined that message? How many have a clear sense of self and the role it plays in their work?

Is this something that most writers think about? Or do they drift story to story, writing the books they choose for a purpose defined only by that work and not by their entire body of work? I've pondered on this quite a bit lately--sitting with one's eyes closed can assist one in seeing the less-than-obvious quite clearly--and I know writers who do both. Or ones who flip from one position--by the book--to the other--by the body of work. And that got me to thinking about Author Theme.

If we examine an author's body of work, we do see a recurring theme in all of the books. It doesn't matter what genre they're written in, what classification tags have been assigned to them; plot and tone and characters can vary widely, but the underlying author's theme remains intact.

It is the reflection of the author herself. Her perspective, ideas, attitudes and dreams. Readers see and believe and are led to accept what the author wants us to see and believe and accept. We react to the assets the writer employs. That theme might be healing or redemption or cowardice. It might be independence or protection or betrayal. Loyalty, abuse, or dealing with issues such as illness. It might be inspiring, encouraging, offering hope.  Regardless, every author has a theme.

Writers often say, I want to make the bestseller list. I want to be published in hard cover. I want to be sent on tour. I want larger print runs, more money, broader audiences. All of that is fine--and business aspects should be addressed by those writers who write to sell. But can writers write-to-sell and have a defined goal for their body of work? Do they? That's the question of interest to me.

When I first started writing, I set a standard for myself on the books I write. I must love them. That's shorthand, of course, and I know what it takes for me to love a book enough to be willing to invest a share of my life into writing it. For me, that love includes purpose. Every book I write, every story I plot, has a purpose that resonates with me and that I hope will resonate with readers. So that they will see something just a little differently after reading the book than they did before reading it.

Something that turns on a light, broadens a perspective, shows that unknown options exist and anyone can utilize them if they choose to do so and act on the choice.

So writing with purpose isn't a new concept to me. But those goals have defined the purpose for writing a specific book--each specific book. I've never before considered them in relation to the body of work I'm creating.

My body of work has not had a defined purpose. It has not had a single goal that can be attributed to all of the books except in the broadest of terms. I've been remiss!!!

So begins my exploration for that specific body-of-work purpose--and Mr. Emerson's quote, for me, defines it perfectly. I have a starting point.

I am a genius. Not bragging or complaining, just stating a fact with no more or less importance placed on it than on the fact that I am a woman. I had nothing to do with either designation or attribute; the characteristics were divined, like having blonde hair, blue eyes and a crooked nose. But recognition of the human condition? That, I--we all--can choose to do. To notice, acknowledge and either accept or reject. And I can choose the value I place on that recognition. Every human being can. Every writer can.

And that's now the mission. To clearly define my goal for the body of work I'm creating, recognizing the human condition and the value in it.

Mr. Emerson's insight humbles me. How brilliant he was to recognize and verbalize the importance of this. At times, our own rejected thoughts do come back to us both alien and majestic.

And at times, from a mere few words strung together with purpose by someone who has pondered life and humanity and the human heart, we glimpse the mysteries and discover that which we had failed to notice or recognize. We become aware of what we had neglected.

That awareness is a valuable gift. In it is an opportunity to change that circumstance. A chance to redefine our purpose, to hone it so that it becomes clearer to us in our vision of what we want to do with our lives.

Writing requires physical work, yes. But it carries equal demands on our emotions--the method through which we connect with readers--and spiritually--our shared perspectives, attitudes, fears and ideas, beliefs and hopes and dreams. We relay our experiences, define the world and people around us. We attribute qualities that appeal and repulse us. Through our stories and the characters in them, we live.

And life, being precious and elusive and ours for only a short time, should be lived with intention. The clearer our vision of what we hope to accomplish through our writing, the more successful we are at defining and fulfilling intent.

I'm reminded of something I once heard about the end of life. I can't quote it directly; it's been a long time since I heard it. But it was about not reaching the end of life neat and tidy. It was about skidding in sideways, exhausted and used up, thinking, "What a ride!"

Used up, as in replete, content and satisfied that you'd explored all that most mattered to you. Without regret that you'd always played by the rules and always ended up on the short end of the stick without much satisfaction to show for a tremendous amount of effort.

All mortal life ends. It's how it's lived that matters. I kind of like that skidding in sideways visual image--so I'm going to keep it, and Mr. Emerson's insight, in mind and further define my body-of-work goals.

Hmm. Two lines of text and it's been on my mind for three days. I've read hundred thousand word books that didn't linger three hours. Haven't you?

Imagine... To have that kind of residual effect, to have someone read your book and then ponder on it as it relates to their own life... Now that's a goal for a body of work, isn't it?

And that's what's on my mind this morning... Well, one of two things. The other is wondering why this emerald ring that popped up unexpectedly in the writing is so determined to be significant.  I have no idea why, or to whom--yet.*

Blessings,

Vicki

©2008, Vicki Hinze 

Tags: Creativity, body of work, purpose, writing, authors, novelists, writers, books, writers, meaning, life, matters, significance

How-To Have a Life and a Career When Time is Tight

©2007, Vicki Hinze



If you want to do something, you’ll find time to do it.

I’ve believed that my entire life. Which is not to say that I lack sympathy for the challenges in actually making it happen, especially when you’re juggling a home/life and a career.

Yet even with challenges, you will find time to do those things you most want to do because your desire to do them will entice you to give them “high priority” on your to-do list.

Desire breeds determination. Want it badly enough and you move heaven and earth to make it happen. I recall seeing in some magazine once a comment about Madonna. The author said long before Madonna became a hit, she’d seen Madonna in a club and “her ambition was shining like a second skin.”

Madonna knew what she wanted and went after it.
The author knew what Madonna wanted and recognized it.

But recognition isn’t enough when you’re looking at your life.
The key to doing more of what you want to do requires understanding--your own.

You must identify what you want and understand why you want it.
Understand what it takes to get from where you are to where you want to be.

Understand a simple truth about time and that is, we’re not going to find time because it isn't lost.

We all have twenty-four hours in each day. No one gets any more or any less. So our first step on this how-to path is to realize that we have a set amount of time in which to do the things we want to do--and that time (and those wants) fall right behind the things we have to do.

Some will tell you that wants hold equal importance to needs. I won’t debate that, but I will say that the majority of women functioning in real-world situations tend to do what they must and then whatever is left over is used on wants.

Want time is scarce and we don’t want to squander a second of it. Others rarely consider it but how we spend that available “want” time is significant--very significant--to us and our state of well being and contentment. (How happy would anyone be doing just the command performance things in life?)

Available want time holds the keys to understanding the dynamics of what we're doing now and how we can reclaim or reallocate to better utilize our available want time.

Some considerations that might be helpful for you in identifying dynamic keys that will afford you the ability to accomplish this follow. This listing isn't inclusive, or a cure-all. And it will take a little commitment from you to actually implement. Namely, an hour or so to prepare the first listing, and a few minutes each day for a month to note the second listing.

THE FIRST LISTING
The first listing is one on where you "think" your time goes.

Each day, just jot down what you do and how much time you spend doing it. Simple enough, but don’t be fooled. The reality in this list will surely surprise you.

THE SECOND LISTING

The second, daily listing compiled over a month, is one where you’ve jotted down where your time actually went.

The comparison of the two might not just surprise it; it might shock you. But it also might enable you to more efficiently distribute your time on things that most matter to you.

Prepare a list, as if you were dealing with one month of your life. Tag it "Think" list. (Because it is a compilation of where you think you spend your time.)

• We all have responsibilities. To family. To our "other" careers. List those responsibilities and the time you feel you spend each day fulfilling them. Be specific. Whether it's paying bills, working on the job, attending the kids' ball games. Commute time to and from work if it's significant.

• We all have commitments. (Volunteer jobs, classes you're taking, teaching. Studying. Critiquing others' work, heading PTA or other organizations..) List those responsibilities and the time spent each day fulfilling them.

• List hobbies, recreational pursuits, time spent exercising, or anything you do on a regular basis which requires your time. (Include time spent reading for pleasure, time spent watching television, etc.)

• List all other obligations that require your time on a steady basis.

Now put this list away for one month. Don't look at it, and don't think about it.

Start a new list. Tag this one "Actual."

• At the end of each day, note what you did and the time you devoted to doing it.

• Do this every day for one month.
Draft a chart to use to track some of the repetitive tasks. Amend it to suit your personal life. Charting makes deciphering the data easier.

All right, now you've got "Think" and "Actual" lists and you can compare notes.

If your results are anything like mine were, you're going to be stunned. I found that I was wasting a lot of time. And I've developed some methods to help me counteract that. I've also developed a mindset that helps me stay focused on what I most want.

Before I go any further, I want to interject here that there is nothing wrong with having free time and there should be free time included in every day. Our mental health requires it, as do our creative and spiritual selves. So what I'm about to impart must be taken with that thought in mind.

Don't schedule yourself so rigidly that you lose spontaneity or overwhelm yourself. Take time to smell not only the roses, but also their leaves and stems.

Others originally said these things but, in my opinion, they hold a lot of wisdom, and deserve consideration:

1. You can't have everything you want.
You can have those things you want most. (Norman Vincent Peale.) What do you want most? Think about it. Decide. Often we drift and do things without ever stopping to really weigh what we want, and then we suffer these god-awful feelings of being dissatisfied. So think about it, and then focus on obtaining what you want.

If you don't know what you want, you're apt to never get it. That leads to regret, and regret can be merciless.

If you don't have a map for getting where you want to go, you won't know which road to take to get there and, worse, when you get to your destination, you won’t know you’ve arrived.

Where do you want to go? If you’re a writer, is it your objective to be a star bestseller? Or do you want to be a steady producer with a low profile? What's the plan for getting there? What decisive steps are you taking toward reaching this destination?

Whatever you are doing, know your objective. Concretely define what you want to achieve and how you plan to achieve it. Develop that plan and then enact it. The best plan in the world is useless if you never take action to implement it. Only one thing is worse: not having a plan.

Without a map (or a long-range plan) you flounder, take wrong turns, get side-tracked at roadside attractions that might be fun (and might should be done for that purpose alone, but should be identified as such so that you don't fool yourself into believing these things hold value to the overall plan).

You must know where you're going to go to get there and be content. You must take concrete, positive steps so that you move in the direction of your goals and dreams. Think of this as plotting your life, because that is what you’re doing. Plotting moves you steadily toward something, ever forward from where you are to where you want to be. In this case, to be content, that goal or where you want to be should be a place or state that you’ve specifically chosen. It should not be just how things turned out, or the way the cookie crumbled. Choice is empowerment, it’s also empowering, particularly when discussing your life.

2. Be wary of advice.
Advice is a wonderful thing. Respect it. Listen to it. But in the end, follow your own path and judgment.

Only you know all the inner-workings of your plan, your dreams, and your vision. Only you, ultimately, know your entire plot, or story--all of everything in your mind and heart.

So be grateful to those who advise you. Appreciate their time, their consideration and concern and interest. But weigh the advice given into your plans and use only those parts of it that you feel are beneficial to you. And, for pity's sake, never alter your plans because so-and-so is where you want to be and s/he says your way won't work. These maps and travels are life journeys, and they are as individual and unique as life itself.

That said, don't feel you must reinvent the wheel. If so-and-so has traveled this path successfully, and you feel you can travel this same path to success, then don't feel you must alter that path just for the sake of altering or being different. Coloring outside the lines is fine, if you feel you need it do it. But coloring outside the lines for the sake of coloring outside the lines is counter-productive. Bottom line, use what works for you and ditch whatever doesn’t.

3. If your ship hasn't yet come in, then swim out to the sucker.
If you have a particular weakness, focus on it. Plan study time so that you overcome the challenge. If you want something specific, then you can't wait for it to come to you. If you aren't qualified for something you want, then get qualified for it. If you want a particular job, ask for it, apply yourself to getting it by making it a priority to learn as much as you can about the job and the likes and dislikes of performing it. Take decisive steps to acquire what you want.

4.Learn to say "No."
This was a particularly hard challenge for me. I love doing volunteer work. I love being involved. I love giving because it makes me feel good. But I learned the hard way that one person can only give so much before that person depletes themselves and can't give at all. This, too, is a loss—for oneself and for those one wishes to help.

Remember that you are one person. You can't help everyone, nor can you do everything. I know because I tried. The results? Slivered focus. Nothing much accomplished. Mental and physical exhaustion that required months of medical treatment.

Have you ever had a doctor tell you "Slow down or die?" That is what you're courting when you take on too much. The lesson I learned is to do what you can comfortably do. We all have an obligation to help others and we should help others. Do this, no less, but no more. Think TNSTAAFL. (There's no such thing as a free lunch.) You accept too much, you lose everything. Then everyone loses, most of all you.

5. If you reach for Mars, you'll never reach Pluto.
Don't be afraid to dream, to set your goals high. This is subjective, unique to each individual, but don't be timid of wanting too much, of going too far. Often we let our insecurities keep us from really stretching ourselves. I mean creatively, imaginatively, here, not over-extending, as in over-committing.

If you reach for Mars, the next planet in our solar system, then how do you know you couldn't have gone farther? But if you reach for Pluto and you get it, great. Say you only get to Uranus, well, you've gone two planets farther than you would have had you set your sights on Mars.

The important thing here is that you acknowledge your right to fall short of your ultimate goals. That you don't browbeat yourself for traveling to Uranus and not to Pluto. There's a fine balance here, and you have to look at each success and enjoy each success along the way. You must not fail to enjoy the successes because you're so intently focused on the goal, in this case, Pluto. Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn hold value and the joys found in them deserve savoring, too.

Now, enough philosophy and onto implementing practicality.

Prioritize. After you've studied your Actual list and seen where you've really been spending your time, consider how you can restructure your time to use it more efficiently. I do this with what's commonly referred to as The $10,000.00 Plan.

This plan is no more than a simple Things-to-Do list. A daily list wherein the tasks that must be done are put in order of importance. Then you start at the top of the list and work your way down it. Those things most important are accomplished first. This is a flexible thing, because something always comes up. But if you work by priority, the most important things do get accomplished.
Incorporate. Into your daily plan incorporate the decisive steps that will get you where you want to go. In other words, add your long-range plans to these daily plans. This requires you set goals. I have them for the day, week, month, year, as well as a five year plan and a Master Plan.

My Master Plan is where I want to get long-term. It contains career aspects, but also emotional and spiritual aspects. Why? Because I have non-career aspirations as well as career ones and the master plan deals with the entire me, not just one part of me. I incorporate these emotional and spiritual aspirations on my daily lists as well. That helps me focus on everything without losing focus on any one thing.

Schedule. I know that many people are opposed to schedules. I'm not. They work for me. The key to this is to have a schedule only so rigid as to be productive and not stifling to you. Find your level, and use it for the good it can do for you. You might not benefit from set hours to accomplish set tasks. You might. Only you know this.

I schedule time to study, to critique, to work on my own novels, to work on articles, booklets, and other material. I have set days to pay bills, to look at and deal with personal business, correspondence, and errands. I schedule a great deal because I feel more in control and I'm focused. I gain a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction with each check mark signifying a task has been completed. I also schedule "free" time because I'm a workaholic, recognize that weakness, and know I'm prone to not taking free time. I schedule days off and vacations for the same reason. If I didn't, I wouldn't take them. I wouldn't be balanced and that isn't good for my mental, physical, or spiritual health. Robbing Peter to pay Paul leaves everyone busted and unfulfilled. So find the level of schedule (whether rigid or lax or somewhere in between) that is of greatest benefit to you, then utilize it.

Self-discipline. As the name implies, self must take matters in hand, analyze them, adapt them to make them work, then accomplish them. For example, writing is a creative pursuit, but if you wait for the muse to strike to work, you're not going to make a career of writing commercial fiction. No one is going to stand over your shoulder, crack a whip, and yell, "Ass to leather, Writer!" You have to monitor and accept responsibility for what you do yourself. You have to put your backside in that chair and write.

Some time-saving points:

These are little things, but over the course of a week, a month, they add up to hours. Hours you can better spend on writing.

1. Look at mail once. Deal with it, and be done with it. Don't stack it and be forced to review it again later.

2. Don't procrastinate. If you know something is coming up in two weeks, give it priority on your list and get it finished and out of the way. Otherwise, you think about needing to do it, wasting time and energy, and worry about it when none of those things actually DO anything.

3. If you're working full-time, utilize your lunch hours a couple days a week to accomplish a priority item on your list. Be that studying, answering correspondence, or writing--whatever you can feasibly do. When I worked full-time, I incorporated free time with lunchtime so that I could just relax and not feel guilty about all the things I should have been doing. I scheduled lunches with my husband several days a week. This was terrific all around.

4. Never cut corners if it cuts quality. In other words, don't resolve to get up an hour earlier if in doing so you're comatose. Comatose, you're not accomplishing a thing. You have to have reasonable expectations on what your capabilities are and reasonable acceptance of your limitations. If you have 30 minutes a day to write, then it could be helpful to say, I write this particular thirty minutes each day. It could gear you up so that when that time arrives, you know you're supposed to produce and so you do it. But if having a set time to write inhibits you or makes you anxious, then it isn't beneficial, it's destructive to have that set time. You must try methods and use that which works for you.
In closing, the phrase, Physician heal thyself comes to mind.

While we aren't ill in the traditional sense, if we aren't satisfied with our progress, our production—our lives—then we can in a sense be physicians who heal ourselves.

There are some things we cannot control. But there are many things that we can and should control. The first step is to recognize the difference. To understand those things we can change and then to change them in ways that are constructive to our entire selves.

In doing the lists, then analyzing them, I came to better understand myself, what I want and I reevaluated what's important to me. I hope that in doing so you will find the same benefits I found. It is work, yes. It does take a little time, yes. But if you do it, you'll have a firmer grasp on a higher quality life and career you want--even when time is tight.*

Blessings,

Viciki

Amazing Grace...On the Record

During the course of a given day, I’m asked an average of thirty questions. Most come from other writers, but others regularly come from agents, editors, reviewers, booksellers and others in the industry. Then there are friends and family and those from strangers who might or might not be writers. People who’ve read my blog and just want to talk over something important to them.

I welcome all these exchanges. I stay invested and interested and I am and always have been fascinated by people. I really like them. So it’s from that perspective that I say the things I’m about to say.

Questions come in clusters. Maybe it’s collective focus. The cycle of the moon and/or planets. The state of the economy or any of a million other factors. I’m not sure, but in the past decade, it’s very common to get a group of questions on the same topic at the same time. Yet in that same decade, this is the first time I recall being asked so often why I do the things I do. This has been a BIG cluster. :)

For the most part, these questions have been on two things:
1. Why do I write so many articles, do so much teaching, and not charge money for it?
2. Why do I invest so much time in trying to help other writers instead of focusing solely on my own career?

The core reason I teach and do the articles and the podcasts and lectures and seminars and workshops goes back to when I started writing. There was no Internet. There were two main writers’ magazines and little else. There were no writers’ groups in my area, and in fact, I didn’t know another writer.

Many hours of many days were spent in frustration, trying to learn craft and the business. I had no one to ask questions and no one to go to when I was lost and grappling and confused. More often than not, I learned the right way by doing something the wrong way. That’s why when asked about eduction, I seldom cite the MFA in Creative Writing or the Ph.D. in Theocentric Business and Ethics. I generally cite The School of Hard Knocks. It is most accurate (I had four or five books published before getting my MFA).

It was, simply put, difficult. Frustrating. Irritating. Disheartening. Annoying. A royal pain in the ass. And I have not forgotten. I promised myself then that if I ever learned anything I would share it. It’s a promise I’ve tried to keep and will continue to try to keep so long as I draw breath.

In the last two weeks, as well as the general why do you do this, I’ve received warm and generous remarks about the worth and value of what I do. I’ve also received one note that declared my motives couldn’t be good because “nobody does something for nothing.”

I took exception to that comment, and then discovered the author of it was right. We don’t do something for nothing. We do what we do for purpose. Said author was totally off-base in the purpose cited, but the truth is, there is a purpose. There are purposes, I should say.

My Aids4Writers program got started as the result of my annual self-improvement program. I wanted to do something “good for goodness’ sake.” I couldn’t ask or expect anything in return. I posted writing-related insights every day for a year. Toward the end of the year, I mentioned that it’d be time to work on a new improvement and the members of the group asked me to continue. I did. For several years, I posted at least 3 or 4 times a week. Now, a decade later, I answer questions, post lecture notes, articles and that type thing. Most of the responses are private (rather than to the group) because they are so person-specific). Any can ask, and while I freely admit I by no means know it all, I share what I can.

So my purpose was to do good for goodness’ sake. It still is. And on the general teaching and sharing front, too, there is purpose: to know I’ve done what I could to keep other writers from being frustrated, annoyed, irritated, disheartened and suffering royal pains in their asses because they don’t know and have no idea where to go to find out. They have someone to go to who gets the challenge.

That might not sound like a lot, or worthy of purpose to some, but to me it’s more than enough. And to one in the challenge it’s something. That person isn’t alone, isn’t the only person to have faced this challenge and someone’s walked the path before them and is willing to walk it again with them. Often there is solace in that and just knowing it gives a person the push to keep seeking. What’s the value of a push? Depends on how stuck you are in the muck or mired down you are, I’d say.

I don’t charge money for teaching because that is at odds with my purposes for doing it. It’s that simple. I’ve trudged through a lot of mud puddles. If I can help someone else avoid them, I will. And I trust that my financial needs will be met in other ways, namely, through my books. So far it’s worked out.

As to the 2nd question....

I don’t focus solely on my career because that’s not how I choose to live. I’m building a career, yes. But I’m also building a life. Some authors do have that beam focus and it works well for them. I do what works for me. People matter to me.

Readers aren’t just people who buy my books. Booksellers aren’t just people who sell my books. Editors don’t just buy and publish. Reviewers don’t just review. People are not just what they do for me. They have lives and dreams and interests and fears. They worry, they struggle, they deal with problems and they love. People matter.

Yes, I want my books to do well. I want them to do very well. But I don’t want to sacrifice caring about the people involved to attain that--yet it doesn’t have to be an either/or choice. And that is the point of this post.

You decide on your purpose. Often this is more recognition than decision. Regardless, you identify it. And then you work toward it. Balance is a beautiful thing, and in my experience, when one lacks it, s/he forfeits inner peace and fulfillment. When one finds the right balance for him/her, then there’s peace.

There will always be those who question your motives and who opt for cynical views on why others do the things they do. We can’t change others. We can offer them a glimpse inside us as an opportunity--that they might see a different way or thought or idea or perspective. But they must choose their purpose and path. They must find their balance and their fulfillment and determine the value of these things to them.

And that is as it should be. We all have our pets and our pet peeves. We all have our own issues. And how we deal with them is our personal choice.

I choose my purposes and my teaching and doing what I can in ways I can. While that might not work well for others, it works well for me. As for financial needs, they’ll be met. I believe it. As for my books doing well, they’ll be fine. I believe that, too. As for why I’m certain, well, that’s where grace comes in.

Amazing Grace.

Blessings,

Vicki

YES! SUCCESS!: Part 1: WHAT DO WE WANT?

Today I’m starting a new series, Yes! Success! And I hope that whether or not you’re a writer, you’ll gain something of benefit from the posts. The ideology and methods are universal to whatever career you’ve chosen or whatever path you’ve decided to embrace and walk.

Yes! Success!: PART 1: WHAT DO WE WANT?

We all want something. It might be fame, fortune, validation of worth or to be assured that we’re not just taking up space but living. And at some point, we all realize that our entire lives last but a blink, that our great-grandchildren won’t know much about us or be aware of our struggles and accomplishments--in a few generations, we’ll be forgotten, and that inspires us with the desire to leave an immortal mark.

Many writers console themselves with the fact that they’ll leave behind their books. They will speak for us. They will let those who come after us know who we were, what mattered to us, how we thought and what we thought about. But while we are in our books, we are not our books, and so a time comes when we realize that this might or might not be the immortal mark we sought.

And that leads us to ask a defining question: What is success?

For some writers, it’s making the New York Times list. Earning a lot of money, having a lot of adoring fans, long lines in front of you at book-signings. It’s being treated with deference and respect by your publisher, your editor, your agent, your publicist, your writing peers, your fans, your family, strangers on the street.

For other writers, it’s selling your books consistently so that you have a stable income and can help out with the family financial responsibilities. Fame and fortune and adoration aren’t your cup of tea. Paying your bills is because it enables you to be at home, caring for your family.

For still other writers, success is hearing from one reader that something they wrote impacted that reader. Helped them through a hard time. Opened a window or door in the reader’s mind so that s/he saw something a little differently, understood something that before then s/he hadn’t understood.

For other writers, success is experienced not through the books written, or the sales, or the adoration of others, or even the recognition that the writer wrote. Success is in knowing that the writer made a difference in one other writer’s life.

And for still other writers, success has nothing to do bestseller lists, or publishing, or fans or other people. Success has everything to do with writing a book. With gathering ideas and thoughts and having the wherewithal and the discipline to sit down and to keep sitting down and sticking with it, start to finish, until s/he can write “The End.”

Many of us buy into other’s visions of success without ever exploring our own. We don’t stop, drop the images of others’ definitions and think and assess and determine for ourselves our own definitions.

And that makes achieving success impossible. We will never be content nor satisfied nor fulfilled living someone else’s vision. We need--and deserve--our own.

There is no right or wrong definition, only different ones. Each is valid. Each is worthy. Each is significant.

The human being in us is often too concerned with what others think. How they’ll react. How they will treat us. What they will say--in front of us and behind our backs. But when we focus on these things, we’re assigning our personal power, our innermost selves to someone else. To someone who can and will do nothing to carve our immortal mark; they’re busy creating their own.

So while others might judge and find us lacking. Might advise us based on their definitions and not ours. We must not relinquish that personal power. They have their own. This power is ours. In it we discover and determine what we want. And holding fast to it, we ask, How do I define success?

And then, if we’re wise, we listen...

Blessings,

Vicki

©2007, Vicki Hinze


Yes! Success! PART 1:
WHAT DO WE WANT?
Friday, July 20, 2007