Month: May 2016

Personal Legends and the Writer’s Journey

I recently (finally) got around to reading Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. And let me tell you. Wow. I really truly believe that this is the book to read for anyone with a dream. And don’t worry, this post will be spoiler-free!

Coelho spends  a lot of time in this story discussing the idea of the Personal Legend. This is a person’s one true purpose in life, that one task or livelihood or ultimate goal that drives a person. In the story, the universe will work together to help a person achieve their personal legend… but only if they are actively working toward it and don’t push it off until you miss your opportunity. We also meet and hear about various people who had a Personal Legend and put it off until they simply fell into a pattern of complacency, forgetting their one true dream.

How true is this for us? When we are young, we dream big and imagine meeting our goals and dreams, never questioning that we will reach them. As we get older, reality hits us, and we often let our dreams falter under the pressure of demands like work, family, school, and everything else that can so easily take up all our time, energy, and money. We become those complacent people who give up or forget what our dreams are, what our true purpose is. We so often let ourselves be defeated by life.

I think anyone who had a childhood dream (which is everyone) should take a few hours and read this book. It’s short, but its ideas are eternal. Take a few minutes and remember what your dreams are. Rediscover your Personal Legend. Figure out how you can make real strides toward it, whether it’s taking a class, dedicating ten minutes a day to pursuing it, doing some internet searches, or making some big changes in your life.

Keep yourself moving forward, whether you are succeeding or failing (because really, those terms just describe how you look at it… even failures can be successes and steps in the right direction. Watch Disney’s Meet the Robinsons for some good inspiration there). Just keep taking steps in that direction. The speed doesn’t matter as long as you are moving.

Whatever you do, fight complacency. Fight the drudgery of reality. Follow your Personal Legend.

So, it’s your turn. What are your Personal Legends? What has kept you from pursuing them? How can you change that? Tell me in the comments below!

The People Who Build You Up

Guys, it is already May. Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and because of that I wanted to take this time to talk about the people who support us in what we do, whether they are friends or family or something else entirely. I’ve certainly been blessed with plenty of people who do just that for me.

Many people view writing as a solitary endeavor, but that is certainly not the case. While the act of writing our first draft is largely solitary, after this it is absolutely critical to involve other people in the process. In order to produce a good piece of work, we need to rely on beta readers, editors, copyeditors, and, in some cases, publishers, artists, and technical specialists.

Beyond the technical process of writing, we still need people. We can’t do this alone. Writing is hard and discouraging and not always as rewarding as we would like. For some of us, we rely on family or friends to support us in our endeavors, whether they are writers or not. For those of us with unsupportive family or friends, we may need to look outside our bubbles and enter into internet circles or local writing groups to find people who support us.

Whatever your situation, I hope you take the opportunity this week to thank the people who have helped you along the way. They truly are our muses, our solid foundations, our inspiration, and our warm fuzzy feelings.

To get things started, I’ll list the people who have been here for me.

For writing, my sister, Becca, has been one of my biggest supporters. She was always the first one to be excited about what I was working on, the first to be impressed with my new ideas or first drafts, the one who always told me to go for it no matter what anyone else said. She was confident that I could do what I wanted to do with my writing, and that’s meant the world. I’ve also been blessed with some really great friends who believe in me and my stories, and that’s kept me going when it’s been hard. They have been my beta readers, my sounding boards, and, most importantly, my best friends and unrelated family.

For life, school, and work, my parents have been my rocks. They keep me grounded and remind me that life will be okay. They keep me amused and safe and still provide for me in various ways emotionally and physically. I couldn’t ask for better.

And then there’s my brother, Josh, who always offers to bash some heads in when people are jerks. Gotta love it.

So there you have it. The people who keep me going.

What about you? Who can you thank this week for what you’ve been able to do? Share in the comments!