Many people have an ideal of sitting down at a computer and just letting the words flow out perfectly. The heavens open up, birds sing outside, and a ray of light descends from above as they post their work, email it, or send it off to the editor.

That, however, is a fantasy. It’s not how good writing actually gets done.

Writing is like mowing your lawn with a push mower. It’s a lot of manual labor. Sometimes it’s pretty monotonous. You have to go back and get the spots you missed. You get pretty messy in the process.

While you’re mowing the lawn, you get sweaty and dirty and you can’t see the big picture. But when you’re done, you can stand back and look at your perfectly mowed lawn and appreciate all your hard work.

Good writing happens the same way. It is created through hard work, persistence, multiple drafts, editing, and finishing what you started. This is how professionals work, and it’s how you must work, too.

Question: Do you want to write badly enough that you are willing to endure the messy part of writing in order to get to that wonderful final draft?

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This is hard to hear because we are deluded into believing we see things as they are. We assume we can see ourselves and everyone else clearly. We trust that our perceptions about our level of talent, and other people’s talent, are pretty much on target.

But that’s almost never the case. In truth, we tend to underestimate our own potential, while overestimating everyone else’s. In other words, we think everyone else deserves success while we don’t.

Not everyone sees the world this way, but most writers do. When we see other people succeed, we believe they deserved it more or are probably more talented than we are. But the reality is that they probably just worked harder, had better connections, or were more creative with their marketing.

So the question is: Why not you? Why shouldn’t you also get to experience success? Is there any reason you shouldn’t be just as successful as the next person?

They are no more deserving than you are. In fact, none of us really deserves anything in this life. We all start with nothing, and we will exit this life not being able to carry anything with us into the next realm.

Success in your writing doesn’t have anything to do with what anyone deserves or doesn’t deserve. Success comes as a result of actions you take consistently over time.

Yes, some people are more connected, some have more resources, and so forth. But all that is irrelevant because you have the same opportunities.

So don’t ask, “Why them?” Instead, ask “Why not me?” Success doesn’t come to those who deserve it. It comes to those who work for it.

Question: Do you believe you deserve to be just as successful as the next person? If not, what’s keeping you from that belief?

Today’s episode is sponsored by the Book Marketing Mastery course. Use the code “DailyWriter” to get 10% off.

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The idea goes something like this: the main purpose of your life, vocationally speaking, is to find your dream. The dream is what you are meant to do. It’s granted by some otherworldly force or power. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to keep seeking and searching, defeating obstacles and naysayers, until the dream becomes a reality.

There is some truth to that story. Anyone who has achieved anything worthwhile has defeated obstacles and ignored naysayers. But the main fault in this philosophy is that a dream is “out there” somewhere. And if you work hard enough and seek it out, you will eventually find it.

The truth is that dreams are not found. A dream does not exist out there somewhere. The whole idea of finding your dream is based on the idea that you are a passive observer to your own life.

In truth, a dream doesn’t exist anywhere outside of yourself. A dream is created from within.

A lot of writers spend years or decades passively waiting for their dream to come true. Maybe they’ll get discovered by an agent or a publisher. Maybe that book will magically get written. Maybe someone will hand them that opportunity they’ve been waiting for.

That’s not how it works. Yes, people do get discovered sometimes, and their dreams come true. But for the vast majority of writers, their dreams become reality because they worked for them. They did the work. They put in the years of effort and built their platform, their business, and their success one brick at a time.

It’s the cold, hard truth… but it’s also the most liberating thing you can possibly hear. Your dreams are not out there… they’re in here, in your mind and heart. But it’s up to you to do the work and take them from the realm of possibility to the realm of reality.

Question: Do you find this truth frustrating or liberating? Why?

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One of the most fascinating characters of Hollywood’s classic film era is Norma Desmond, the lead character of 1950’s Sunset Boulevard. She is a silent film-era actress who lives in a fantasy world where she makes a triumphant return to her glory days.

In the final scene, she has completely lost touch with reality as the police and reporters with cameras fill her house. She can’t see the reality that they are there to take her away because she has shot and killed someone. In her mind, she is the star of another Hollywood picture.

The movie ends with Norma Desmond making a speech that ends with the chilling line, “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up,” as she moves toward the camera and the picture fades out.

Just like Norma Desmond, we can get lost in our own fantasy, as well. We can get so enamored and obsessed with our stories, goals, plans, and projects that we start to ignore the people in our lives and lose touch with reality.

Writing is a part of your life, but it’s not your TOTAL life. Don’t lose touch with reality. Keep good, healthy boundaries and make sure writing stays in its proper place in your life.

Daily Question: Are you ever tempted to get lost in the fantasy of your own goals, dreams, and projects?

The post Lost in Your Own Fantasy appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

One of the curses of being a writer is that we are too rational.

We pride ourselves on reporting the facts of a situation accurately. We love the idea of having an objective point of view, then giving our commentary or perspective. We don’t like the idea of getting carried away with our emotions. We don’t want to be irrational or have a skewed point of view.

Is being “rational” really the best way to approach life, though?

It’s hard to believe John F. Kennedy was being entirely rational when he challenged the nation to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. It’s hard to believe Michelangelo was being entirely rational when he set out to paint the Sistine Chapel. It’s hard to believe Harriet Tubman was being entirely rational when she risked her own safety to help free slaves in the days of the Underground Railroad.

None of these leaders were operating solely on what others had done before or by what other people thought was possible. They were operating by vision and an intense confidence that they could pull off something extraordinary.

Walt Disney famously said this: “Somehow I can’t believe there are many heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C’s. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy, and the greatest of these is Confidence. When you believe a thing, believe it all over, implicitly and unquestioningly.”

Do you believe you can write? Do you believe your book can change somebody’s life? Do you believe you can create a business with your writing? Do you believe you can achieve it with enough work, time, and connections?

Whatever you’ve set out to do in your writing, you must believe it. And once you can see the vision clearly in your mind, you have now set the stage for making that vision a reality.

Daily Question: What is your vision for your writing? Do you believe you can achieve it?

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Writers are people who create things. We can literally create books, articles, speeches, podcasts, or stories out of thin air. It’s what we do.

Why, then, do so many writers look at the world in “glass half empty” sort of way? A writer can be the most creative person in the world when it comes to words, yet be the biggest pessimist you have ever seen.

If you see the world as a glass half empty, where something is always wrong, something is always missing, or someone is always keeping you from what you want, realize you can always fill the glass.

Expect good things. Know you can change reality. You can always fill the glass. You’re a writer, after all! Change is what you do. Use your words and your creativity to create the world as you want to see.

The post You Can Always Fill the Glass appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

In the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, we meet Dorothy, a teenage girl who dreams of a life “somewhere over the rainbow.” She’s stuck in a drab, sepia-toned farm in Kansas and wants nothing more than to run away and experience a more exciting life.

But when she is swept away to Oz on a grand adventure, Dorothy finds that all she really wanted was to go back home.

As writers, we are constantly dreaming about what’s next. The next book. The next conference. The next interview. The next connection. The next source of income. The next five years.

Dreaming about the future is important. Living in the here and now is also important. Appreciate who you are and where you’ve come from. Say “thank you” to the people who are supporting you. Remember where you came from.

All you have is today, this moment, right here and now. Don’t keep your head so far in the clouds that you forget to keep your feet planted on the ground.

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One of the most pervasive ideas in Western culture is the concept of “finding your dreams.” No one knows for sure where this idea came from. It has probably been around in some form for as long as there have been stories about heroes and their goals.

The idea goes something like this: the main purpose of your life, vocationally speaking, is to find your dream. The dream is what you are meant to do. It’s granted by some otherworldly force or power. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to keep seeking and searching, defeating obstacles and naysayers, until the dream becomes a reality.

There is some truth to that story. Most anyone who has achieved anything worthwhile has defeated obstacles and ignored naysayers. But the main fault in this philosophy is that a dream is “out there” somewhere. And if you work hard enough and seek it out, you will eventually find it.

The truth is that dreams are not found. A dream does not exist out there somewhere. The whole idea of finding your dream is based on the idea that you are a passive observer of your own life. In truth, a dream doesn’t exist anywhere outside of yourself. A dream is created from within.

A lot of writers operate by the idea of passively waiting for their dream to come true. Maybe they’ll get discovered by an agent or a publisher. Maybe that book will magically get written. Maybe someone will hand them that opportunity they’ve been waiting for.

But for the most part, that’s not how it works. Yes, people do get discovered sometimes, and their dreams come true. But for the vast majority of writers, their dreams become reality because they worked for them. They did the work. They put in the years of effort and built their platform, their business, and their success one brick at a time.

It’s the cold, hard truth… but it’s also the most liberating thing you can possibly hear. Your dreams are not out there… they’re in here, in your mind and heart. But it’s up to you to do the work and take them from the realm of possibility to the realm of reality.

The post Dreams Are Made, Not Found appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.