Not the most original title, I admit, but it sums up what I’m thinking pretty well. I reread the titles from my other posts to avoid duplicating something done previously, and in doing so, I also read some snippets from previous posts. Some made me chuckle; a few made me grimace. What I noticed, however, is that in spite of feeling so often like I’m failing to establish the much recommended “niche,” in some ways it appears I’ve done so anyway.
Whether I realized it or not, most of my posts go back to the theme of figuring out your heart’s desire and then going for it. I have a hard time believing that this “niche” or “theme,” or whatever it’s called is going to be the big answer to all my blogging questions regarding online success, but as I often do in life, I see a see a pattern emerging.
Don’t Bother with the “How.”
I realize this seems counterintuitive to some of the best advice out there. It is even in complete contradiction to some of what I’ve previously written. In fact, in one post I quoted Benjamin Franklin’s words, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” and immediately followed that up with the Ray Bradbury poem, “Doing is Being.” After shaking off the momentary whiplash I experienced in rereading all of this, I decided to pause and dig deeper.
I’ve not made it a huge secret that I’m not a big “planner.” I inevitably choose the “Pantser” designation at the start of each November’s National Novel Writing Month rather than the more stable (and, to me, boring sounding ) “Planner .” I’m big on ideas and dreams. My follow-through leaves something to be desired. However, I have noticed that when I commit to the “doing” part of my dreams and aspirations, the “how” part sorts itself out in the process.
For example…
I don’t know “How” a bulb planted in the fall survives our brutally cold winters. I don’t know “How” the bulb knows when spring is coming , or when it’s time to start sending tender green shoots upward. I don’t know “How” the yellow flower emerges and the daffodil appears – often when there is still snow on the ground in some places.
What I do know is that if I commit to the “Doing” and dig a hole in the fall, place a bulb inside, and cover it up with soil, there’s a good chance that in the spring I’ll look outside to see that something magical has happened.
So What’s your Point?
So often we fail to DO because we don’t know HOW. Somewhere along the line we’ve allowed ourselves to forget the value of just DOING something BEFORE we know HOW.
Thank Heavens when we’re very little humans we haven’t yet locked ourselves into this arbitrary set of constraints. If we did, no one would walk on two legs!
The “How” works itself out everyday. It’s DOING (whatever it may be) that defines BEING. So it goes with any endeavor on which you set your heart. For me, it’s this whole writer thing. I don’t know “How” to be a successful novelist. I do know that in DOING the things that writers do (i.e. WRITING, reading, revising, submitting), I am defining who and how I want to be.
The best advice of late
Comes from a song I frequently hear on the The Current or WELY by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit called, “Be Afraid.” I’ve adopted this as my personal anthem as I navigate the remainder of my 40s during one of the most uncertain times in recent history.
It is embracing the DOING part of this existence that determines the BEING regardless of HOW. The chorus proclaims, “Be afraid, be very afraid. Do it anyway, do it anyway.”