START

Jon Acuff is a writer and blogger I follow. I've blogged about him before, most recently about breaking your year into 52 day chunks to help you accomplish your goals.

I've become a fan of Jon's book, Quitter. In fact, I've bought copies for two friends and talked my husband into getting a copy as well (I've written in my copy, which makes it hard to lend). In a sentence, it is about pursuing your dream the smart way.

Jon is releasing a new book called Start in April. He has started doing events around the book in various parts of the country. I was fortunate to catch a webcast of the Nashville event recently. I thought it was inspiring - and funny! (My husband said he was glad he didn't want to go to bed early that night because I was laughing so much.) I have pre-ordered the new book (actually, I ordered one for me and another for a friend) and signed up for a newsletter. The newsletter got me a copy of the first chapter of Start. There was a good bit of material from the webcast I watched, but it was just as inspiring (and funny) the second time around. Pre-ordering the book got me two small e-books - Three Stages of an Awesome Idea,  and The Hater Handbook.

Here are a couple of highlights from my notes on these three pieces:

• Retirement is dead - and this is an opportunity. It used to be that life followed a liner path, but now that path works in a circle. You can get a fresh start at the cycle any time.
• Be productive now so you can be awesome later. Take time to generate ideas - brainstorming without critique - so you can cultivate the most awesome ones later.
• Make decisions that will create a story you will be proud of - decisions about your priorities, how you invest your time, etc.
• Love your dreams too much to hate somebody else's. The more time and energy you invest in your dream, the less time you have for jealousy and pettiness about another person's dreams. 

You can go to Jon's site here. Take a look at his blog to get a feel for his writing style and humor. If it clicks for you like it did for me, check out Quitter and Start. Hope you find some inspiration for your dreams!

What Do You Love?

I've been reading the book Quitter by Jon Acuff recently. It's about moving from your day job to your dream job in a well-thought out way - figuring out what that dream job is, taking steps to get there that still allow you to take care of your responsibilities to your family, etc.

One of the questions he asks is, "What do I love enough to do for free?"

I like this question - You can look at it as "what do I love in my current job?" or "what do I love?" in general. For me, it was a good exercise in highlighting all the parts of my job I enjoy. It got me thinking about how I would design my work or my schedule to maximize the parts I love. It also has the potential to help me deal better with the parts I don't like - doing THIS allows me to do THAT.

So, in honor of Valentine's Day today, think about your life - your work, your hobbies, your passions.

What do you love enough to do it for free? Or in my favorite variation - if you won the lottery and didn't HAVE to work, how would you invest your time?

Odd Girl Out - Not

I recently attended a Children's Literature Festival at the local university. This was my second year to attend, but I almost didn't go. The week before, I debated. I was only familiar with one author/illustrator who was going to be there, but it was a passing familiarity. It was an 8 hour event - 8 hours that could have been spent on other home or school projects that are more pressing. It was an 8 hour even that started at 8am on a Saturday morning - the one day I can usually sleep in.

But, as my husband reminded me, I made a commitment to go. Chances were good that I would enjoy myself once I got there. And I did. The one factor I didn't think of in all of my debating is how seldom I get to be with other people who are as passionate about children's literature as I am. The closest I get is an occasional conversation with a parent who is looking for reading material for their kids or a student who really liked the last book they read. I live for those conversations in my week. But I don't have a lot of people in my circle of relationships who care about when the next Percy Jackson book comes out (October 2nd) or who know who Mo Willems is.

But the people at this conference were MY people. I sat by a friend from church, and we had a delightful conversation about her kids' reading habits. I met a children's librarian at lunch who told me about the last three books she loved (Wonder, Crunch, and another title I can't remember). In the afternoon session, I spied another librarian reading a book from my TBR pile (To Be Read). Talking about that book led to a conversation about the second book she packed (in case the conference was lame - she originally had 4 in her hand to bring along, but she settled on just 2 - a woman after my own heart) which reminded me of another book which she put on her reading list.

It was delightful.

For the love of....

I read an article the other day in a magazine about the author, Meg Cabot. It referenced something from her blog here. The question she was asked is why she studied art in college when she liked writing so much. She says, in essence, that someone told her not to because her love of writing would die in a college writing program. (She adds that, instead, her love of art was sucked out of her.)

When I was growing up, I always thought I would be a teacher. By high school I had decided that I wanted to teach music. A couple years into college, I didn't want anything to do with music. I changed my major and moved as far away from music as I could.

What is that about? What is it about college that sucks the love and life out of a passion? Does it only happen in the arts, or does it happen in other areas as well? How does a young person discern what passions should remain hobbies and what ones could be turned into a career?

52 Qualities of Prosperous Writers - #6 is Passion

Christina Katz wrote this week about the role of passion in being a prosperous writer.

Passion is something I think I get. I am passionate about books, about writing, about my family, about kids, about self-discovery, about football, about crafts.... Actually, there are a LOT of things I am passionate about.  Maybe too many at times!

Christina encourages writers to exercise caution when it comes to passion - recognizing the "dark side" of passion when good sense and good manners get lost. Balance is key.

So, if I become obsessed with reading every book I can get my hands on because I just have to keep up with my blog and I just have to know how the story ends or because I know so-and-so will love it if it is as good as it sounds, and my house gets messy and laundry piles up and we live on junk food and my family is neglected, I have taken my passion too far. 

If I try to do everything that I am passionate about all at the same time with no sense of priorities or any kind of reasonable expectation, I will get overloaded and stressed out. I will be doing everything - at least for awhile - but not of it will be done well because I will be trying to do too much.

But if I create a plan, give myself grace when I just can't keep up with the plan, and periodically re-evaluate the plan to see if it is still feasible and doing what I need for it to do, then I can keep my passion in balance with the other things in my life. That balance will help me be successful - "prosperous" - in a variety of areas.