And no, this is no reference to the Denver Broncos from last night (may their chance rest in peace). I have learned of a writing contest coming up in the next few weeks. The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest begins on the glorious day of February 16th, so what better treat than to submit my little story to see how it plays out in a contest? At first, I thought to myself, “Why bother? I’d have like a 1/50,000 chance of making it.” Then I remembered there was a suitcase full of bees I have been carrying around for quite some time now and I had a finger on the latch. Then I asked the question, “Why not me?” I’ll be entering that contest and whether I make it to the next round, the finals or actually win, why live in constant judgement instead of simply doing it?
As we reach points in our lives, we have to be ready for adversities. Each great thing will have an an equally great obstacle before it. Getting published is tumultuous, I’ve learned. Have I given it %100 attention? No. I have a job, a family and other things that must come first. After that, there are distractions such as TV, birthdays, get-togethers and a general want to just be inactive. In the last month, I have been focusing a lot on my physical health, finances and relaxing when not at my normal job. It’s time to get back into the life I want and schedule time for it like I do anything else.
Ask yourself, how many things do you in order to become better? How many of those things make you truly happy? I’m working on finding the balance for both. We all should. Ask yourself this question, What would make me feel complete with my life? For me, I want to publish and write books. Stories make me happy and sharing them fills me with a sense of joy. I ultimately want to publish between 7 – 10 stories as my first tier goal. After that my second tier goal is to see a story become a television show or movie. The main thing about my goals is that I don’t really care about how much money they pay me. Granted, I would like to see enough to support my whole family, but I want these things mostly because I like doing them.
Stephen King had a quote that says, “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” Nothing could be truer to anyone in any profession.
Jonas Lee 