One Chance

How about this for a reason to do something new?

To see if you can.

I recently read an article about the  novelist John Verdon who said that the advantage he had when he wrote his first book was he’d never written a book before and he wanted to see if he could do it.

That was his most compelling reason. 

To see if he could do it.

Was he afraid?

Yup.

Did he do it anyway?

Yes again. 

What he didn’t do was spend a ton of time thinking about finding an agent or worrying about how many followers he had on his Instagram page or trying to figure out who his audience was and what they might want to read.

Instead, he wrote for himself first and focused on telling an awesome story.

Today he’s got several books to his name including two international best sellers. He’s no longer an advertising executive living a high pressure and stressful life in New York City. Today, he’s living his dream in the mountains of upstate New York.

Not too bad for someone who had no idea where taking his one chance to write a first book would take him.

In his song “Lose Yourself” the artist Marshall B Mathers -- aka Eminem -- wrote:

Look
If you had
One shot
Or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted
In one moment
Would you capture it
Or just let it slip?

I can't help but think about how many "one shots" we don't go after because we talk ourselves out of it. We tell ourselves we can always do it later. We don't believe it's possible so why even try.

Knowing that you only get one chance to do something for the first time...

What could you challenge yourself to do next?

And how could writing help you achieve it?

Something to think about today.