With all of our goals there is one thing that is constant no matter what. Whether you are aiming to climb a mountain, run a 5K or write a book, at some point along the journey you will fail. This is not just a pessimistic statement, it is a fact. You will not be able to get out and train when there is nothing but ice outside. You will not get the chance to write every single day. We will all be interrupted at some point by life. It is up to us to determine how that failure effects our dreams and how we can recover and carry forward.
As dreamers this is one of the harshest realities we must eventually face, not all dreams will come true. Everything we want is not always within reach. We are human beings and thus suffer from burnout, exhaustion and grow tired and old and sick. I remember well the day I finished the manuscript for my first book. I was so proud and overjoyed. I was also exhausted. I didn’t write another story for almost two months after that, unprepared and unable to handle the burnout. I didn’t try to write another novel until two years later. Things have changed now. I have had to learn from experience how to bounce back.
There will be days when you will just not be able or will not want to work on your dreams. It is common and it is something that we all need to prepare ourselves for. How do we let off of the gas? It is a question like so many others relating to our dreams that only you can answer. For me the saving grace was this blog. I was doing multiple posts a week back then, with movie reviews and general ramblings about pretty much anything. I wasn’t writing a novel or a story, but I was writing and that I think is the important thing. Now I am back in saddle working on novel manuscript number four.
So how can we prepare ourselves for failure? First things first. We have to know it is coming and accept it. A lot of people out there have never had to face failure and are blindsided by it. Others dismiss it flippantly as if it were no big deal. Both of these are not dealing with failure very effectively. Recognize it for what it is and then plan for how you will get back on the horse.
I think the best thing I have done to encourage my own growth is keeping this blog. New readers may not be able to tell but I have been posting once a week to this site for more than 6 years. Six years of forcing myself to write something, anything, at least once a week. It is not as intense as writing a short story or a novel but it still gets the writing juices flowing. It’s not the same as my dream, but it is certainly close enough.
Another aspect that is vital to your recovery is the people around you. I have some of the best friends on the planet and I have no qualms about throwing story ideas out there to them or talking about what is going on in my life. For those friends I have that are also writers we will talk shop for hours and I will walk away encouraged and fired up once again.
All of us at some point will stumble and fall along our journey to achieve our dreams. It is up to you if you get up and carry forward or if you let one day turn into a week, a month, a year. The path to your dreams will not always go as planned, be prepared to dust yourself off and take one more step forward. Knowing you will get knocked down means you can be prepared for it and being prepared mean you might be able to get back up even sooner. Your dreams are worth it.