feeling listless

Blog! It's time for me to let you into a secret. Before I took my full time job I used to write television scripts. I had one great idea for a series which I was working on right up until some paid me for losing twelve hours of my life per day. I even sent my scripts to some people in the industry whose work I admire and generally got quite positive replies -- but there was one from someone who shall remain nameless which slayed me. Far from pointing out where I could improve my work, she simply told me how I would never make it in the business.

Which is why I can empathise with Karen from Starry Eyes, a musician who recently got some feedback from someone in the business: "(He wasn't negative) about me, but about the industry, and how limited my chances really are of making it and that you have to be 18 with a 22 inch waist for them to even care what you look like, etc., etc. I can get downtrodden very easily. I can also pick myself back up rather well, but this really hit me. Then I started wondering if I was ever going to really get anywhere with any of the stuff that I'm doing: music, the book, poetry, jewelry. I start wondering why I can't be the kind of person who is happy enough as an accountant or a designer or a salesperson. Why do I always choose the goals with the biggest odds?"

Because I suspect some of us like a challenge. But also it gives us something to work towards. And the greater the goal, the better the success feels when we get there. Accept the helpful opinions, ignore the rest. As Karen says, "Screw everybody else's opinion." Yep. Pretty much.