By Tammy Brocker In the self improvement world, there is a lot of talk about "living your dreams, reaching for the stars, setting your goals high," but I'm thinking, what if, as writers, we set our goals low and see how that goes first? Not very inspiring, I know. Can you imagine Oprah shouting YES!!! Be mediocre!!!! Do it… kind of! You can…sometimes!?? But here's my idea- "Living Your Dream" is way too much pressure. What happens when you decide you won't rest until you are famous? Well, you might be so paralyzed by the enormity of that task that you won't even get started. You'll imagine what it's going to be like when you are famous, and that's as far as you'll get.
When I was a kid, a few of my teachers told me I had a "natural gift for writing." Boy, I carried that around with me for years – those well intentioned teachers wrecked me. Other people get rejected and struggle, struggle, struggle to get published, but that won't be me, because I have a NATURAL GIFT. When I write something, angels will appear and weep at the beauty, Oprah will come and beg me to be featured on her book club, and I will say, "let me think it over O, I'll get back to you, I've got the Today show and Letterman to juggle." As soon as I get started I'll be living the writer's life: book tours, fame, more money than I know what to do with, and the adoration of my many fans. Maybe, I thought, I shouldn't even use my real name, so that I could still go to the grocery store without being mobbed by crazy fans.
A funny thing happens when you put things off: you get older and you run out of time. Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write, says you should imagine an 80-year old version of yourself, giving the younger you advice about life. So I tried it, and the old me said, just write something for God's sake! You know, now that I think about it, she could have been nicer, she was kind of a blunt, pushy old lady. She also told me to quit worrying about my upper butt fat, but that's a whole other issue.
So I started with a blog, even though I was a big blog snob; after all, it's not a book, it's just a blog (need I remind you that I have a NATURAL GIFT?). I posted once a week though, because I didn't want to let my 12 readers down. Then, my friend asked me to contribute articles to her website. These two little things, a blog and a website, have become huge victories for my aspiring inner writer. I see my name on that website, or someone posts a comment on my blog, and I feel completely victorious. I'm not famous, but every day I get up at 4:30 to get my writing done, and the way I see it, that makes me a writer. Published or not, famous or not, this is what I do. I work my day job, I am girlfriend and Mommy, and I write.
What happened while I was quietly pursuing these tiny goals is I realized that I am living my dream and doing what I love in my own way. I am baby stepping it to my writing goals, and in the process I realized that it's not about the fame and fortune, it's about the journey and all the little victories along the way. Okay, well, ya, I'd still like to be on Oprah, but I don't need that to validate that I am a writer.
Tammy Brocker writes for dahliabreeze.com and her own blog, twomommyblog .