Make It Write

I’ve wanted to write children’s books for as long as I can remember. When my sisters and I were little, one of our favorite babysitters, Allison, was going through Education classes to become a teacher. I was in first grade and as an assignment, Allison needed a student around my age to write a story in a certain amount of time. She picked me, and I’ll never forget the story I wrote about a bear, a rabbit, and another creature (okay I forgot a little). I wrote and illustrated it on manila paper with a thick-point pencil, and I titled it “The Greatest Gift.” I won’t go into detail here in case I recreate the story in my future writing endeavors, but I will tell you it was a good one.

Driving to work this morning, I got re-excited about getting back to writing children’s books. I should mention that I’ve started quite a few and for no reason at all, haven’t finished one. For the past two years my only New Year’s resolutions have been to write my first book, and again, no finished product so far. So why am I sharing news of me not writing?

During my commute today I was thinking about how grateful I am; I’m in a good place right now with my job, home life is good, friendships are good, etc. During these thoughts of gratitude a little voice inside me said, “Yes, but this is not all. Don’t waste your passion or your talent. Can you imagine the level of regret you’ll feel if you never write a book? What are you waiting for!?”

Now I’ve mastered ignoring the voices in my head most of the time (hence why no one has committed me yet), but this one I have to respond to. The thought of looking back at my life having not spent it writing makes my stomach hurt. And really, what am I waiting for? Thinking about writing makes me more motivated and excited than nearly everything else I do on a daily basis. So that’s that.

Going forward I will actually be applying this quote from Stephen R. Covey I’ve loved ever since I read it in the pocket-version of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People I skimmed last summer on vacation; it reads:

"You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage---pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically---to say 'no' to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger 'yes' burning inside. The enemy of the 'best' is often the 'good.'"