What’s the newest thing you have set out to learn?
Do you find learning new things challenging or insurmountable? Do you look forward to it or do you dread it? I guess that all depends what you are learning and how much what you are learning is vital to your life.
For instance, learning how to do your own taxes has the potential of saving some money, but in my head, I would rather pay a professional, have it done right and save myself the frustration. Lazy? Maybe. I know if I set out to do it myself, I will be so unmotivated I will look for ways to procrastinate.
So lesson one in learning things: pay attention to how quickly you hit the procrastinate button.
Noted.
Have you ever been excited to jump in and learn something only to become deeply disappointed, disillusioned, and despondent? Like you’re Hansel and Gretal, cheerfully following the candy when BAM! Some nasty old witch has you in her cook pot? Yeah. That nauseating feeling of being trapped without a back door to escape through. You learn a lot, like ‘Never, Ever jump in without a back out plan.’ That speaks to accidental or unintentional learning. A whole other topic, I think.
Sometimes you need to learn a skill or body of knowledge to further your career. This is where I find myself. That’s the part where I decided I would retire from my day job and pursue my dream as a writer.
Writer. That’s simple, isn’t it? Aside from understanding the mechanics of a well-written sentence, there’s not much to being a writer. HA! To be honest, I wasn’t completely unaware. My skill as a writer was decent, but I knew I needed to amp up that skill. The mechanism is the same as a basketball player standing at the free throw line after everyone else has finished practice and working on their technique. I knew that. I even knew I wanted to focus on writing novels. I knew I needed a daily work routine. I knew I needed to be organized. And that is the limit of what I knew.
Dare I even start with what I did not know? No. No one has that kind of time. Everything I learned in the last nineteen months has been valuable. Some of that learning continues. Particularly with web design. While web design is not writing, it provides a platform. You are reading my blog are you not? I still have a lot to learn. If you peruse my website, you can tell it’s amateur. I have a plan for the stick house. Remember, I mentioned writing novels? I intend to self-publish. I am a long way from this goal. I have much to learn before I get there.
I also must discover what I don’t know, I don’t know. Yeah, it’s as clear as that.
What is clear to me? I am on the right path. I feel like I am making headway in the work I love. I knew from a very young age I wanted to be a writer. Lots of detours, discouragements, and derailments later. I am here. There’s a book, “Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood” by Marsha Sinetar. I have the book. Did I read it? No. It’s still on my to read list, but the title! It was inspirational enough. Perhaps I will read the book one day. If not, just the title helped!
I am grateful for the opportunity to indulge my creative pursuit. Indulge. Have you ever indulged in something, only to realize there must be forward motion? You cannot remain in a place of indulgence. Reveling in an act is simply the result of achieving a dream. Time to move on to the next dream, or build atop the foundation this dream built. That is where I am today. My next steps are to build the business to sell my work. My books. My art. New dreams to indulge. New skills to learn. I’m still energized. I know I am on the right path. Now, looking over my shoulder, I don’t see any money following. I have to think the book title is a little backward. I think I’m following the trail the money left.
Chapter one is done. Chapter two, here I come!
