I want to complain because I wasn’t able to upgrade my seat for my fifteen-hour flight, which means I’ll be in a normal economy seat for the entire time.  Which will suck and will be exhausting.  But, I’m getting to fly halfway around the world, which many, many people in this world can’t do.

First world problems.  I swear.

Sometimes I just need a wake-up call.  And a healthy appreciation for my health and my family and my work (even if it is insanely busy right now) and all the amazing things I’ve done and should be able to do going forward.

As you might guess, I will be absent for a bit due to that whole traveling while crammed into a small, small space next to someone I did not need to know that well, thank you very much.

But I had this article bookmarked from a long time ago and I think it might make a good one to share:

The Rat Race by Justin Kan.  A few quotes:

“With over six billion human beings on the planet, there’s always someone better than you at everything you’ll ever do. Someone who will achieve more, younger. Someone who has made more money, earned more accolades. Better at music, luckier in love.”

“To accept that no matter what happened, I’d never feel any better than I do now, well, that was earth shattering, even though I’d experienced the same brief, fleeting high and return to earth every time.”

“The journey is its own reward; if it isn’t, you’re on the wrong path.”

Despite the quotes I chose, it is not meant to be a depressing article.  And, even though he’s talking about tech start-ups, the lesson is the same.  And that’s that you should savor the now instead of constantly seeking something bigger and better.  If you don’t enjoy the journey it takes to get you to that bigger, better place it really isn’t worth all that much when you do get there.

And, since we’re off the writing theme for the day (although this is about writing, just not only about writing), let’s throw another non-writing link into the mix:

Dealing with the Turkeys in Your Life by Peter Guber.  A few quotes:

“It would be great if we were all masters of our universes and could press a repeat button for success time and time again.  But, we’re not.”

“I learned I wasn’t in charge of success.  I was in charge of the process that hopefully would yield more success than failure.”

None of us can control all the random factors in our lives.  You can write your novel and perfect your query and send it off and then…it depends on the time of day when the agent reads it and how their day is going and what conversations they’ve just had and the meeting they’re about to go into and…anything.  But if you keep going, keep improving, and keep trying, you’re increasing your odds of a positive outcome.

I have a friend who is constantly saying FML about everything that happens in their life.  And I sometimes wonder how different their outcomes might be if they just shrugged and kept pushing for a positive outcome instead of stopping and dwelling on the fact that life wasn’t perfect today.  Because, well, it never is.  If you want to find a negative, there will always be one.  But if you want to find a positive, there will be one of those, too.

Anyway.  I am now babbling.  And I need to finish packing so I can wake up and work my ass off, then get on a plane, not sleep enough, drive somewhere, and work my ass off some more while pretending that I don’t see the gorgeous lake that is just mere blocks away and calling my name.

Being a “can do” type is not always fun.  But it does produce positive results.  Eventually.

(Oh, and it seems I can’t keep my there/they’re/their and your/you’re straight today, so I apologize for any of those that I missed in my proofreading…)