Another year gone. But well used.

It’s almost time for the New Year and I thought that we should look over everything that I did in 2011. I’m doing this partly because I’m shocked and partly I want to point out. You can have a full time job and you can put a book out there for the world to read.

We all have the dream of becoming an author but we also have bills, rent, and the pesky need to eat food. So in comes the job that puts food on the table and the roof over your head. But we have our dreams, still and you shouldn’t let your dreams become that "someday" thing. I promise you, you’ll never see those gold metal winners stand before their interviewer and say. “Well I knew if I sat back and waited it would just come to me one day!”
No I’ve never seen that interview, but if someone has, please post me a YouTube link, I love a good laugh.

Over this last year I worked 70+ hours a week, got a promotion. Played three different sports, got a championship in two. Wrote a manuscript for a squeal to the first book that I rewrote and (with the help of people that know grammar) self-published on amazon. I also had time to publish a patent for some software that I wrote.

I’m not saying that I’ll be able to repeat this performance again next dyear, but I did want to show you that I had a very full year and with a little patients from my wife and family I was able to do it all.

What I’m getting at and it’s not really a secret, it’s called drive and commitment.
When it’s 2AM and the bed is calling your name, you say, “3AM isn’t all that much different!” (Well maybe you don’t yell it, everyone’s asleep) and you get some done. Every word, ever letter you write is another small step in the desert of completion. If you just put one foot in front of the other again and again you can get to the other side and find water.

The best way I can put it is you need to be stubborn; you need to make sure you put in the little bit of time every week, if not every day. Don’t say things like, “I have to work tomorrow” or “I can’t do that because I’ve got to bake these cookies.”

Excuses are the difference between professional athletes and recreational players.

The more that you do it, the more writing is a part of your life and isn’t that what you wanted?

Rob