Daydream Believer

When I was a kid, I was always told I had my head in the clouds or that I spent too much time daydreaming. Mind you, my mother never said these things to me. It was always a teacher or school counselor even though I was in accelerated classes and never had a grade lower than a B. (Except for Algebra, but that's a story for another day.)

I would ask what was wrong with daydreaming, with wondering what would happen if...  I was told people in life that were considered successful were those that worked hard and didn't spend time spinning tales in their head. What if you did both, I'd ask only to be told it wasn't possible. Either you worked hard in life and became a success or you would end up a drain on society. In less than polite words, you'd be a loser, a good-for-nothing that amounted to nothing and a shame to your family and, if you were lucky to still have any, your friends.

Now that I'm years out of high school, I wished I had the bravery and knowledge to ask what those teachers and counselors thought of writers. Most writers I know, published and unpublished, well known, best-selling, or just starting out with a small following of readers, are among the hardest working people I've ever met. And yes, they spend a lot of time daydreaming.

How else are they able to come up with plots, characters, dialogue, plot twists the reader doesn't see coming and more? If a writer works at a day job for 8 or more hours a day, loses time commuting to said job, then comes home and makes dinner or takes care of the yard, or does any other household chores that need to be done nearly every day, if not every day and takes care of their children, or elderly parents, or both and yet still manages to find time to write on a regular basis, how is he or she not hard working even though they are daydreamers?

So for all those naysayers out there who say you can't be both, I say yes, you can. You just need to believe in your daydreams and in yourself.

This I know for sure...

This post was inspired by a conversation with an old friend whom I call Sally. Sally remarked that one of our mutual friends would never be a success in life because she spent too much time volunteering instead of putting all that effort into doing things that would bring her more money.  Our friend works a full time job making a pretty good wage as well as volunteering a couple of nights a week and on weekends so it surprised me that Sally had written her off as being unsuccessful. It also left me feeling sad that our friend is living a wonderful, fulfilling life and yet others consider her to be less successful than she could be.

It left me wondering how other people define success. I realize everyone has their own definition of what being successful means. And that for some it can mean making millions of dollars, or winning an Oscar or Emmy or Grammy or any other type of industry award that brings a measure of prestige, or hitting the bestseller list, or even having raised a great kid who's become a productive member of society.

So I ask...What does being successful mean to you?

What is success?

"Being a success is up to you."  I read this somewhere a few days ago. I'm probably paraphrasing it badly because I was sure I'd remember the exact quote and who said it so I didn't write it down. Needless to say, my memory isn't quite as good as I think it is. LOL.

While I love a good motivational quote and have quite a few of them written down and tacked up in my workspace, this one spoke to me. Short, succinct, it says a great deal. Now, I suppose one could argue success isn't dependent on just one's self because other aspects come into play. This is true. A lot of getting published by one of the big 6 publishers today depends on getting on the right desk in front of the right agent at the right time.

But in order to have something to send out, first you have to sit down and write the best possible story you can. That's what the above quote means to me. If I don't bother to write or write only when inspiration or the mood strikes, it could take months, perhaps years, to finish my manuscript if it gets completed at all. Years between books will hardly make me a success so essentially my success in the publishing business is really up to me. If I write two books a year, keep honing my craft, keep submitting/querying various agents and/or publishers then my chances of success increase dramatically.

So on those days when you're feeling tired and just don't want to do whatever it is you're trying to be successful in, think of this quote and work on your dream even if you can only squeeze out a few minutes to work on it. You never know what those few minutes added all together might bring you.