"Abandon"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Norman Vincent Peale has gotten a bum rap for "The Power Of Positive Thinking." The people, including many modern "self-help gurus," who assert that "positive thinking" isn't enough clearly read the book JACKET, not the BOOK.

Peale was a strong advocate for positive thinking backed up by positive ACTION. He was the first to admit that if you don't have BOTH, you have NOTHING.

So I was talking with my attorney the other day...my best friend, a fellow Italian, a fellow Christian.

And he told me "Mike, you have to be out there looking for the JOY."

He went on to say...rightly so...that my joy comes from receiving money from clients I HELP, that I am of service to, that I make more successful.

In Norman Vincent Peale's book "You Can If You Think You Can," he references legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, who once told his players:

"This is a game of abandon. You run with complete abandon. You care nothing for anybody or anything, and when you are close to the goal line your abandon is intensified. Nothing, not a tank, nor a wall, no eleven shall stop you from getting across that goal line."

I've come to the realization that success in my busines is built on the quest for joy, WITH ABANDON.

So my question is this.

Do you have a goal line?

Are you committed to cross it?

:toast:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear Amerigo Vespucci!

Yes, I do have a goal line...

That pesky MFA. I intend to do everything I can to get it.

I've already made one decision, one that cost me personally. You see, I wanted to go east this fall to see some friends and also see the fall colors.

I can't do it. Why? I'll be in school, taking English 1A. It's a prerequisite for some classes I need in order to get into the MFA program.

I did have this class before, but it's been decades.

So, I'm going back to do it again, and by God, I will do it. No matter the personal cost.

The fall colors will return, and God willing, my friends will still be there, and glad to see me...

I want that degree.


I have a good friend whose motto is "Live in the moment." He is right, and I do this too.

With abandon!

:toast:

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. The colors will be ready when you are, CP...

...I grew up in Massachusetts. The month of October is amazing. If all twelve months of the year in Massachusetts could be October, I'd probably have moved back there (they're not...I didn't).

:-)

Another quote I will share with you, and this is my personal gift to you as you cross that finish line and get that degree, which I am confident you will do. It is a famous one, from Dorothea Brande, author of "Wake Up And Live."

"Act as if it is impossible to fail."

Sounds like you are already centered in that, and I look forward to your "I got my MFA" post.

:toast:

[nolabear]

3. Yes, to get my novel published.

It's a pretty good book and I was MUCH better at writing it than I am at promoting it. So crossing that goal line is proving to be hard, evn though I have pretty good reason to believe it'll see print.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. That can be a tough nut to crack

I've read quite a bit of advice from literary agents, and a distressingly high number of them suggest that the best way to get them to represent you is to be introduced to them by one of their existing clients.

But it's like anything else in life...there is a ratio of "what you know" and "who you know" that determines your ultimate degree of success.

Some people are so intensively "networked" that their actual skills or talents are almost secondary.

Then there are others who have such a highly specialized, unique form of skill or knowledge that people seek them...they don't need to network.

Then there's you, and I, and the other 95% of the population that doesn't fit into those two groups.

One of my current projects is a Website I am developing for a local church. I had several initial meetings with them, which included my proposal for what I thought would be an ideal site for them. At the end of the third meeting they tasked one of the members of their church council with looking at my portfolio and contacting two references I had provided (my contact persons at each of the other two church sites I've built).

Turns out this woman was the wife of one of my other clients. She had my brochure and pointed to his organization under my list of clients and said "This guy built your site" and he said "Yep" and I was in...they didn't bother calling the refernces. Who knew? I sure didn't and had quite a laugh when I found out.

I don't know how you feel about the company of fellow writers and networking in general, but the more people you know, especially if you create a favorable impression, the greater the odds that one of these people might have the ability to go to bat for you, to pick up the phone or send an email or broker an introdction to someone who has the power to get you into print.

And networking is best done in the manner of that joke about "how do you eat an elephant" (one bite at a time)...unless you are just really driven to get out there and start connecting with people on a large scale.

So you had the drive to write the book...congratulations on that. There are many, many people who start a book and never finish it, or come up with endless "woulda, coulda, shoulda" excuses about the book they'd "like to write someday." You didn't do that...you wrote the book.

When your drive to get it into print matches the drive that you had in writing it, it will get printed.

:patriot:

[nolabear]

5. You're right about drive. And I'm better connected than some.

But I'm well connected in a small pond and if I want to go the traditional route I need to get pushier than is easy for me to be. I've published quite a bit in smaller media. I've had a few rejections on the ms, one read-through, and though rejected it was with "this has a lot of merit so keep sending it around", which is good. As a therapist I'm pretty sure it's pure neurosis on my part but that's just stating the obvious.

I'll get there.

Thanks for the encouraging words.