Fish or cut bait

PHOTO: Just messing with ya. There's not two of me, the world couldn't handle it...

THE LULU CHRONICLES

As many of you know I’m a writer. With two published books under my belt, you’d think it would be easier to get the third one published, right? Not so much. Now, if I were a Grisham, a Lucado or Kingsbury publishers would be lining up for that next book. Alas, I’m not. I’m just me and the truth of the matter is that I haven’t written that ‘breakout’ book yet.

It’s tough being a ‘newbie’ at age 60, but that’s really what I am, at least in the world of publishing. But I heard something today from author Brennan Burchard that has struck a cord with me, and has put me on notice. He says that he’s never met a New York Times Best seller author who just dabbled in their writing; Who just wrote a couple of hours here, and an hour the next week and so on. Nope, the writers he knows, and he knows several NYT Best Seller authors and is one himself, make a commitment to their writing. They do this by “disappearing off the planet” for a while and immersing themselves in their work. They block off huge chunks of time to write to allow the creative flow to happen. Without a true, gritty commitment to what you want in the writing world, you won’t get it.

That’s probably true in any other world a well. If you want to be the best teacher you can be, you have to work at it. If you want to be the best mom, you have to commit to it. If you want to be an individual who when they leave this world want to be known as kind, compassionate and giving, you have to commit to living that kind of life. Just dabbling in what you want, will not make it so.

That goes for commitment to better health and riding a pink bike as well. I’ve got to decide if I’m satisfied to just continue to dabble in my writing, play around with my health, and just ride LuLu when the spirit moves me. All of the above would be okay, if that is what I truly want… to dabble… to play around… to get as much fun out of LuLu sitting in the garage as I do pedaling down the road on her. I’m 60-years-old. It’s time I make up my mind about these things and others.

How about you? Anything you need to fish or cut bait on? As my granny, Ginny Mae, used to say, Pee or get off the pot!

Have a thoughtful weekend, friends,

deb