You Have A Choice

Barbara Bush wrote something in her autobiography that I’ve never forgotten. The gist of it was that we have a choice when we wake up each morning. We can like what happens that day, or we can choose to let it make us sad or morbid. She chose to like her day every day. I think I’ll sign up for her team.

Writers can become depressed pretty easily. When you work hard on a story, book, or essay and then spend weeks waiting to hear from an editor only to be rejected, it's rough. You can't be Mary Sunshine when all your work, time, and hopes are suddenly dashed with only a few words from a person sitting at a computer perhaps thousands of miles away.

The concept that we can choose to like what happens each day rather than letting it get us down may not be as difficult as you might think at first glance. Should you like the rejection? Of course not. But you can learn from the rejection and that is something you can like. And there are lots of other things in a writer's life to be liked each day, too.

So, today's message is to make an effort to put a positive spin on everything. It's not going to work 100% of the time, but you can be successful a good share of the time.