Once upon a time there was a girl who loved writing but didn’t believe she could write. Someday, she thought, I’ll write a book. Someday when she has more life perspective, more experience writing, more time. Someday… Until ONE DAY, she found herself jumping around to music much too loud and cool with thousands of other women loudly proclaiming their biggest dreams. It was in that moment, she caught herself saying, “I’m going to write a book before year-end.”
Six weeks later, she’d find herself immersed in a global pandemic while navigating work, motherhood, a sick father, and securing toilet paper. The timing was terrible but a woman of her word, she kept her promise and somehow finished that book. The book would arrive on her doorstep just days before her dad died and it became one of the last things he told her he was proud of before he passed.
In Hollywood, this is the part where you’d go on to find the writer would go on to become a New York Times best-selling author and contribute one of the greatest pieces of literature to the world. If only. The reality is, that book is currently ranked 1,983,166 on Amazon. Nearly 2-million books are better. It didn’t disrupt the industry, change the world, or any quantifiable success for this author. This author, obviously being me. So why even bother?
Here’s the thing. I wouldn’t change a single thing. Sure, what writer doesn’t dream of seeing their name on the NYT best-selling list? That said, I’d much rather be the writer with a story in the world then one without one because I can’t be the best on day one.
Two weeks ago, book number 2 came out. Book 3 will follow. And, the Universe willing, book 4 and book 5 and book 6. If I’ve learned nothing else in life after writing a book about loss, life’s too darn short to not write the book.
I don’t know who needs to hear this today. Perhaps this is a bit too Pollyanna cliché for a Friday morning, but nothing in life but this moment is guaranteed. Don’t waste it waiting for another moment. Instead, just do the thing. Whatever that is. Run the marathon. Write the book. Plant the sunflower. Buy the fire baton. Do the cartwheel and when you fail, do it again.
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