You are what you say so
I know this guy. He wants to be a writer. Yea he’s good at it. He recently got accepted to Columbia grad school because he’s so good at it. Who knows he may be the next Jack Kerouac.
Check out his blog and comment too. (He’s unsure of his talent, nurture him with comments.)
Yet he, like many, looks into the future for validation. It’s like the blogger who has thirty visitors, wanting a hundred. Then when getting one hundred, wanting five hundred. And so on.
We must believe we are exactly what we want before we can become what is we wish to be.
We must be a writer before we become one, a mother before we giving birth or an athlete before the first stadium pitch. We must be everything it is we believe makes up a wonderful writer, mother or pitcher before it can become reality. What decides when we become what it is makes up what we want to be? Our own stipulations.
This doesn’t mean that you’re guaranteed to reach A-Rod proportions, but success is measured by our own perceptions of it. And happiness is gained with peace and gratitude for and in the present. Being what you want is not defined by external measurements of success, it is by our own.
You are what you say you are. You become a writer the day you say you so. If you say you are a loser who pitches to no one, then you are just that. But much like Micheal Jackson and T.I., when you go around saying you are (the king of) something then it might get the rest of the world to believe it too.
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Wow! This is a GREAT quote: “We must believe we are exactly what we want before we can become what is we wish to be.” So incredibly true. Headin’ over to the writer’s blog…
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:23 amThanks PP!
Feel free to post-it on your bathroom mirror…
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:20 pmYou’ve been reading my Informed Citizens, so I thought I better get around to checkin’out your blog. (I would have been here sooner, but I still have trouble finding my way around the internet. A generation thing.)
When you wrote about looking “into the future for validation”, sadly you couldn’t be more right. We all do it. We have something to say, or we wouldn’t be writing. And it would be nice if someone heard us. The sad part is, like you said, we’re never satisfied.
But I think we make a mistake when we see ourselves only through others’ eyes. If you want to be a writer …. write. If you’re doing it just so you can say “I’m a writer”, what’s the point? Just write. Say what’s on your mind. And if you make a connection or a difference in one person’s life, that should be validation enough.
By the way, I really like your writing. I’ll subscribe. And though you don’t need me to tell you, you’re a good writer. (But I get the feeling you’ve got more to say than you’re letting get out.) If you get a chance to check out my other site dragginthelake.blogspot.com, I think you’ll like it. It’s a little more personal for me.
Thanks. You keep writing and I’ll keep reading.
June 9th, 2009 at 12:10 amThanks for the compliment. Mind taking it a little further and spreading the word?
hehe.
June 9th, 2009 at 4:09 pmInteresting diction you chose: “we must BELIEVE we are exactly what we want…”
I think it just stuck out at me because mind games are half the battle — there will be constant doubt, challenges, and rivalry between anyone striving to be the best in whatever they want to be (i.e. T.I.’s beefs with many other rappers aspiring to be “king”).
I believe that this “belief” and “confidence” is what keeps people going, and I know it’s definitely what keeps me going. However, there is also the problem of inexperience and undeserved recognition — should I be recognized as a full-fledged writer when I’m still aspiring to become one? Am I one the minute I’ve decided to become one?
These questions are killing me, haha.
July 7th, 2009 at 11:24 pmHerbert´s last blog ..Preventative Action: When Carelessness is Fatal
Herbert -
Thanks for the thoughts.
If you choose to recognize yourself as a writer, then no matter the terms, that is what you are. Deciding you are a writer based on external terms set is limiting. One does not need to be Pollock to be an artist. All one needs, is to paint.
That being said, a paid writer is an entirely different title indeed.
July 8th, 2009 at 7:53 pm