I was listening to a
podcast as I do when I'm fishing for wisdom on an unproductive day. The kind of
useless day when everything seems so impossible and frustrating, and everyone
so annoying and demanding. The sort of day you want to throw yourself on the
floor and thrash your arms and legs about like a furious toddler suffering some
terrible injustice. Like not being allowed to shoplift Peppa Pig or shovel
M&Ms up your nose.
The subject was the Successful Author Mindset and I was half listening, half observing the familiar knot of anxiety
in my stomach caused by the feeling this day was not going to be salvaged. A few
words on the podcast caught my attention and I rewound the cheerful voice of
Joanna Penn. She was talking about a book called “The Success Principles” by Jack Canfield.
The first thing it says is take 100%
responsibility for your life.
100%?
I considered my unhappy predicament, my restlessness and angst. 100% seemed rather a lot of responsibility.
Was
it true? Should I?
I suppose I hadn't got much done today because
I was tired. I was tired because we'd had a friend to visit and we'd treated Monday
like a Saturday night. We'd drunk quite a bit and it takes me at least two days
to recover from a hangover. So that did explain why I wasn't feeling very focused.
I could have drunk less so I guess I had to take responsibility for that.
What
else was wrong?
Okay,
I'd been feeling a bit sorry for myself which was contributing to my weariness.
I was feeling sorry for myself because I'm not yet a rich, bestselling author with
books translated in every language from Chinese to Chamicuro*.
(*Chamicuro is a language from Peru and
apparently has only 8 native speakers. It's probably only oral so it's a silly
example, for which I apologise half heartedly.)
But
wasn't the reason I wasn't a rich best selling blablabla my responsibility too?
I could have become a plastic surgeon if I'd wanted to make some money a bit
quicker. And if I wanted to be a best seller then it was up to me to write more
than three books, wasn't it?
Oh, I
thought. And I realised I had no one to blame for my terrible day and no reason to feel any more terrible than necessary.
It
cheered me up knowing I could take so much responsibility for my life. Now to decide
what to do with it...
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