The high price of success. Hard work!

I realized this week why I've always been a dreamer, why dreaming is so powerful. Dreaming is seductive because actual work, the sweat and toil required to make your dreams come true, is friggin hard! For the first time in my writing "career," I find myself juggling a few writing gigs and a new little part time job, and at one point this week I became so exhausted that I couldn't see straight. Until the last two months or so my success plan has consisted of junk food binges, two hour phone conversations, countless hours of TV and pointless (but enjoyable) shopping sprees. Then i would immerse myself in a few days of furious wild binge writing that would leave me overwhelmed, with tons of pitches unfinished. Disappointed with myself, I would yet again find myself replaying the vicious pointless cycle over and over again. Recently I have made a consistent effort (one that I have never maintained before) to set goals and follow through with them and this plan is actually working (who woulda thought!). Yet right when I think I'm doing enough I realize I haven't yet scratched the surface.

I've been subscribing to two great writing websites for the last couple years www.absolutewrite.com and www.mridukhullar.com. Both sites are incredible and I have often spent late nights pouring over their writing tips. I would then run out, passionate and purposeful, ready to become a professional writer. I spent tons of money buying all the writing paraphernalia, smooth writing pens, thick creamy paper, funky little business cards and matching letterhead, race home and dive into writing. Within a few days I was surrounded by gorgeous writing accessories but the actual writing part never quite got off the ground. For the next few weeks or months I found myself absorbed in my usual Seinfeld reruns, Sex and the City DVDs and working some job I wasn't passionate about.

Today I was reading some of my old writers crossing tips (www.mridukhullar.com) and I was, let's say a little freaked out, when I read one of her tips that suggest a writer send 10 pitches out per week (she said during rough financial times she sends out double that) that amazed me, but the kicker was when she said that a new writer,  like myself, should attempt to sent 5 PITCHES A DAY! Yes, I said 5 PITCHES A DAY! I am ashamed to admit that I have probably sent out 10 pitches in the past two years and those 10 pitches also represent the culmination of pitches I've ever finished.

I've always known that success takes extreme hard work and dedication. Micheal Jordon has discussed that when he initially got rejected for his high school basketball team, he refused to accept the rejection as final, and spent the following summer practicing hundreds upon hundreds of free throws a day, the rest is history (as they say). And that's where I believed it ended, practice obsessively and then achieve great success and sail off into the sunset. I didn't want to admit or more accurately, I didn't understand the hard work that one must do to build a foundation that great success can stand on. It takes discipline, resilience, determination and faith.

So March is here, (my birth month) and I have made the decision to push it a little more. Step it up a notch or two. Make goals outside of my comfort zone. It's exciting and as Mridu explained the more you put out there the more you will get back.