On a recent episode of Hell’s Kitchen, Gordon Ramsey, as he usually does at some point in every episode, chewed out a contestant for one reason or another. Though it’s familiar territory for all of the chefs, this seems to hit this one pretty hard, so after the dinner service is over, he goes up to one of Ramsey’s sous chefs and asks her how she does it — how she can work with Gordon day in and day out, especially after making a mistake or two during a service. She tells him that he can’t take it personally, and that whenever she has a day where nothing goes right, she simply wakes up the next morning and says, “today’s a new day.”
Yesterday wasn’t a particularly good day for me. I had absolutely no motivation to do anything, even though there is so much I want to do. Creatively, I was stifled, and stressing out about how to find new ways to build my business and find (and acquire) new clients wasn’t helping. I felt at one point that I should just stop trying, give in to the weight of it all and just return to the workforce like a good little drone. Then I came across this blog post and it was exactly what I needed to remind myself that I can’t let the little things keep me from pushing forward and pushing through. I was starting to lose my focus and God sent me the answer I needed. (Just after publishing this post, I found this article, which put into perspective what I was articulating below.)
I need to stop worrying about how many people follow me on Facebook, or how many people respond to my blog posts. I need to stop caring about how many people review my books (or buy them, for that matter). By making those things as important as I have, I’ve been giving them far too much power, allowing them to rob me of the reasons for why I do what I do. Simply put, I love what I do. Whether anyone will ever see my work, or even feel that my work means anything other than just another logo, book or movie among millions upon millions of others, is beside the point. None of this should be about what others think. As long as I care about it, as long as I believe in the product — the novel, the business, etc. — then whatever may come will come. I need to put more energy into producing honest work that reveals my passion than in how many people will actually see it.
As they say, it only takes one — one person to see something and like it; one person to catch a glimpse and feel something for it, to connect with it and have a clear emotional response to it — to make a difference. Whether I ever find that one, I don’t know, but I can’t worry so much about finding it. It will find me when the time is right; so long as I stay true to who I am and don’t let the world tell me any different, I’ll be just fine.
Today’s a brand new day, as tomorrow will be. Each day brings with it a new adventure, as well as both highs and lows. So long as I concentrate on the highs and keep doing what I’m doing, the rest will take care of itself all on its own. My journey is what I make of it, and I choose to make it a great one.
With that said, I’d like to make a request to everyone who reads this post: please take a moment and pray for my uncle, whose health, it seems, has been deteriorating over the past several weeks. Even if you don’t know who he is, a quick prayer for a swift recovery is worth a thousand responses.
God bless.
Chaos breeds Chaos 