Living Up to My Passion
I turned down a job yesterday. It would have been a good job, and I’d have enjoyed it, but I’d also have obsessed about it. It would have been a distraction, and my history shows that when I get obsessed about a job, the writing goes by the wayside. As I made a decision a year ago to keep the writing at the front of my life, not shelved somewhere, I said “thanks, but no thanks.”
I read recently: “Every time you are faced with a decision, choose in favor of your passions.” (If you’re interested, it was in a book called “The Passion Test” by Janet Bray Attwood and Chris Attwood.) The book was some of the reading I’ve been doing lately designed to help keep me on task and help me keep the faith.
I’m doing several things to push this along:
1) Reading about writing, as I’ve described elsewhere.
2) Reading stuff designed to get me out of my own way, if only by showing me where I’m blocking myself.
3) Writing every day.
4) Simplifying elsewhere — getting rid of STUFF, because it not only occupies one’s house, it occupies one’s attention.
5) Not buying any more books until I’ve read 105 of the ones I have. It was 100, but I slipped up at a used bookstore in New Orleans last weekend so I added the number I bought (well, it really was a good deal) to my task. Book-buying becomes an obsession and you think you’re doing something literary but you’re really just shopping.
6) Not buying ANYTHING I don’t need (see #4). (We’re also on an environmental, carbon-footprint -reducing plan here, and this feeds both plans.)
7) Not taking on any new hobbies or projects that don’t directly contribute to the writing.
8 ) Breaking other bad habits that waste time — computer solitaire!
And so on. I’ve also taped a list of questions to my computer monitor: What have I done today to further my writing career? What have I done today to lose weight and improve my health? What have I done today to improve my financial situation? What have I done today to declutter my life and improve my home? What have I done today to further or finish other projects and have fun? This is at the bottom of the monitor. At the top, in huge letters: DISCIPLINE!
Oh yes…obsession creating jobs, or activities, tempt us so often. In those cases, knowing your priorities really is the key, and choosing your passion over other things can be tough sometimes, particularly if the opportunities are good, but in the end it’s worthwhile. Giving up to gain is, after all, a part of life.
On that point on reading books you already have- I also recommend you reread them after some time. We humans are such forgetful beings! And each time, you’ll discover and rediscover something.
I love the idea of taping questions to your computer screen to stay disciplined and conscious of what you should be doing. I migh do that myself :]
Fabulous idea. I’d love to hear more about the carbon footprint-reduction. I’m interested in this as well, I guess first thing I need to do is quit flying across the Atlantic 40-50 times a year.