Pink Think: “Nobody flies by trying to fly. You can’t “try” to jump off that cliff. You either stand there shivering and let your life and your dreams pass you by, or you commit. You jump.” – Holly Lisle, author
photo by Captargh7 on Flickr
(Whew! Yesterday was FUN. Thanks everyone!)
I am on the e-mail list of prolific author and writing-guru Holly Lisle. Yesterday, I received this passionate and amazing essay. I asked Holly for permission to post it on my blog; she graciously agreed. (Thanks Holly!) Her words are targeted to writers, but you can substitute any *dream* for the word *write*.
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Never Try Anything
By Holly Lisle
You might be aghast at the headline, but I’m dead serious.
“Try” is a garbage word. “Try” is a word with the excuse for failure already built in.
“But I triiiiiied!” That means…”I put up a show of getting the writing done, of sending it out, but having assuaged my conscience by doing a little work, so I can quit, knowing that I didn’t throw my heart and soul into it… I didn’t hurt myself. So I didn’t REALLY fail. I just … tried….”
If you want to be a writer, you don’t “try” to be a writer. You just write. You write like your life depended on it. You write with everything you have in you, understanding that only the very best you have in you even has a chance of giving you the life and the dreams you want.
You become your own candle, lighting your own way through the darkness of your effort, burning the fuel that dreams and hunger and passion and desire and will give you in inexhaustible supply if you actually USE THEM. You push yourself, you learn everything you can, you eat, sleep, and breathe writing.
And you fail, because failure—big, loud, embarrassing, messy failure—is the price of admission for eventual success. When you fail, you get up, and you write some more.
You learn from every skinned knee, from every chipped tooth, from every bump on your head and bruise on your butt, just like you did when you were a kid.
You get the crap beat out of you by life, and you keep going.
You get tougher, you get smarter, you get BETTER. Eventually, you get good enough, you earn your success, and you fly.
Nobody flies by trying to fly. You can’t “try” to jump off that cliff. You either stand there shivering and let your life and your dreams pass you by, or you commit. You jump.
It is only in the jumping that you make your little dreams into big truths.
Agh!
I’m not even going to include the e-mail that prompted that outburst….
If you just want to TRY to write, quit now. Either have the guts to do it, or admit to yourself that you don’t want it enough, and spend your passion on something that you DO want enough.
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For more inspiration from Holly Lisle, click on this and this.
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