Monday, October 8, 2012

No regrets

I was listening to a radio program the other night as I drove into downtown Portland to pick up my son, and the radio host talked about a survey that had been done asking people at the end of their lives about their regrets.

He said most people replied that they wished they'd taken more risks, but not in the sky diving way. They wished they'd done more to see if they could make their dreams come true.

It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes:

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." ~ Les Brown

I know it can be scary putting yourself out there, and doing things where you might fail. On a twitter chat last night, one writer said she was afraid to put her heart and soul into writing a novel only to have it suck.

But see, you can't go into it afraid to fail, you have to go into it knowing you probably will fail, and that's okay. Because it's not like it's a one-shot thing. I told her, so you write another book and another one after that, and with each one you get better. And at least you've tried, so you know you did something about getting closer to that dream. If you don't try, won't you always wonder?

Another author pointed out that an Olympic gold-medalist gymnast didn't simply walk onto the balance beam and win, just like that. There are years and years of practices and competitions, and do you think she won every single one? No. Of course not.

I still write novels that don't get published. Yes, it's disappointing sometimes, but I also feel so blessed to be doing what I love and learning something new every day. You win some, you lose some, and you keep on going because you love the life you're living and the journey you're on.

Anyway, I googled to see if I could find something that talked about the survey more, and I found THIS ARTICLE, titled "The Top Five Regrets of the Dying" published in "The Guardian" back in January. So, click on over if you want to know a little bit more about what people said about regrets. 

Wishing you the courage to live the life you want to live with no regrets!

6 comments:

  1. I always am encouraged when I visit here. Thank you, friend.

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    1. Hi Caroline! Hope you are having a wonderful October. :)

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  2. This is so completely, exactly what I needed right now. It's easy to think, "if I don't try, I can't fail/ they can't reject me"- two of my biggest fears. But if I don't put myself out there and risk those things, I'll never know what could have been.

    Still so nervous that my heart's beating in my throat, but this really helps. Thank you.

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    1. My mom used to always ask me - what's the worst thing that can happen? When you write and submit, the worst thing that can happen is you get rejected. And maybe you get rejected so much, you have to write another book. But if you are a writer, you should enjoy the process of writing, so writing another book isn't *that* bad, is it?

      I know getting rejected hurts, but we have to think of it in different terms, and continue to learn, practice and grow, like musicians do and athletes do.

      Wishing you lots of courage and wonderful things!!

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  3. It was great to meet you today at the Sirens panel! This is a fantastic post and dovetails nicely with some of the things the panelists were saying this afternoon. It's definitely something I need to keep reminding myself. My novel is on submission with editors right now, and it's sometimes hard to keep a clear perspective. But that's when meeting other authors and hearing about their journeys helps so much. Thanks for posting this! Hopefully we'll meet up at another writing event soon!

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    1. Hi MaryElizabeth! It was great to meet you too!! Waiting when your book is on submission is so hard. You have my sympathies. Here's hoping you get good news SOON!!!

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