Ring out or Carry on

I need to say this out loud.

There’s never any shortage of naysayers eager to tear into your dream, dissect your mistakes, pick at the flaws. What’s that old saying about critics knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing?

But you knew they were out there before you started, right? I mean, you can’t be Van Helsing, then wonder where the hell all these vampires came from. Just doesn’t suck any less when you’re staring into the fanged-end.

And maybe you did flop. Maybe the dream got a wake up call and needed adjustment. Chances are the flaws are real. But so’s the learning curve. You can’t write your second novel (painting, sculpture, symphony…) until you’ve finished your first. Wait ’til you’re perfect before doing anything, you’ll never leave the house.

Besides, there are things you will only learn by trying, by doing, that can never be articulated – let alone transmitted – in those How To books. Sometimes I think it’s not so much reaching the goal as who I become getting there.

That sounds like a glossy corporate motivational poster, doesn’t it? Sorry. It’s just that I’m weary of the cynics’ chorus. I’ve dealt with a physical disability, condescension and contempt as long as I can remember. I get limitations – really, I do. I regret it took me so long to realize I could stop listening, that it’s not what I can’t do that matters – it’s what I can do.

Writers write. Painters paint. Dancers dance. Sculptors sculpt. (Insert your own HERE.) What ever it is, keep doing it. You might never be rich and famous. In fact, chances are you won’t. But you will get your breakthrough. You will create something worth passing on, that speaks on it’s own.

So keep at it and don’t give up. You can do it.

Losers quite when they’re tired. Winners quite when they’re done.
* SEAL training Hell Week