The Measure of Success

I have a great deal of admiration for those who, despite commitments of family, work, community activities, and numerous other obligations, can manage to write on a daily basis. Try as I may, I can’t do it.

These past three months have been tough. My mother-in-law passed away in August, just a month short of her 90th birthday. We had to euthanize our beloved German Shepherd/Chow mix of 15 years in October. My brother-in-law passed away in November. A dear friend has been dealing with serious health problems since July. Add to that the fact that I managed to contract walking pneumonia, had an allergic reaction to the medications, and had inflammation in the rib area for days from coughing so much. Seems on the days when I felt like writing, I was too busy with other things, and on the days when I had time, I felt lousy.

Yet, I look at others who have so much more on their plate than I do, small children at home, a full time job, stressful family situations, and they manage to stay faithful to a writing schedule.

My thought for November is a quote from John Foster Dulles, who served as Secretary of State during President Dwight D.Eisenhower’s administration. “The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.”

My tough problem has carried over through many years, so I guess the measure of my success at this point is pretty poor in the writing world, anyway.. And it is more than one.

Disorganization.

Procrastination.

Fear of failure.

So, my goal for the rest of this year is to eliminate at least one of those tough problems. Despite the everyday obstacles that always manage to creep into the middle of the road, I plan to barrel around them and forge ahead.

There was a discussion on the ACFW loop a while ago about giving up writing. Can’t do that. Don’t think the Lord wants me to. So, if writing success is one of the goals I am meant to accomplish in this lifetime, I better set my mind to getting busy and doing just that.

Thanks for reading my blog!