The Inspiration Around You

Thou shall not covet your neighbor's success. That should be one of the Ten Commandments. Seriously. I'm on Week #3 of my water drinking, mindful writing, exercise often adventure. So far so good. I'm making tiny little successes each day. The scale isn't moving too much but my skin is clearing up and I swear my pants are getting baggier. I'm still absolutely in love with my part-time job as a writer and writing coach. My clients are incredible people and I feel honored to be helping them on their book writing journeys. I'm staying as focused as I can.

In the corner of my eye I see what others are doing. This past weekend was a majorly successful weekend for people from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. One person married the love of his life in a celebration people will be talking about from years to come. Another person won a major award for her children's book on women in black history. She was on the Tonight Show last night with Trevor Noah. Both of these two had dreams in high school and both of them are fulfilling those dreams.

I'm proud to know them. I'm incredibly happy for them. I'm also painfully aware of my own mediocrity. I have big plans and big dreams too, but I'm not as close as I'd like to be in terms of fulfilling them. My book? Still working on it. I have until August to submit it to the agents who expressed interest. I'm working on building my platform on social and boosting the listeners of my podcast. However, those two have shown me that I can grab life by the balls and get what I want: a fulfilling career telling stories and making people laugh AND true love. 

So I'm not jealous but I am aware that these things I hope for are possible. It is just going to take a lot of sacrifice and a lot of work. I'm heading in the right direction, just taking a very slow and cautious train to get there. 

In other news, I'm trying to compete in another First Person Arts Story Slam tonight. I almost backed out because I didn't think my story was that good, but in the last minute...decided to sharpen it and bought tickets for me and my best friend. Today is also the 8th anniversary of my Mom Mom's death. Maybe she'll be with me tonight as I share my story. I'm glad I decided to stick with it. I made a resolution to compete in as many story slams as I can. I'm using them as the baby steps to work my way up to open mic stand up. 

I've got big dreams and I'm gonna chase them. I've seen people beat me there. I applaud them and use their success as my inspiration. I'll get there too. In my own time.

Until next time...