Living the Dream (or Fake It Until You Make It)

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Sean Sandulak

Some days you just don’t feel like laughing.

I’ve often heard phrases like “smile when you say that, they can hear it in your voice.” And while that’s true, it doesn’t mean you feel like smiling. Most of the time you don’t feel particularly happy, unless you’re going through some kind of manic phase.

I mean it’s not like you are some irreconcilable misanthrope that you walk around looking for things to complain about. (Unless you are but that’s a different discussion altogether.) There are plenty of bad things that will come and find you every day. What I’m saying is that the true moments of joy are rare, and you have to make them, not find them. Inspiration is something that is cultivated with training and experience. It will not often fall into your lap.

Take the case of the “aspiring writer”. That is actually a contradiction in terms as writers have had all aspirations beaten out of them. There are people who are writers and people who want to be writers. The only difference is the former actually put words together on paper and computer screens and send them out into the world. If you can write a novel, even a bad one, you are automatically in the top ten per cent of writers of all time. Writing is hard and most will never finish what they start. If it’s not hard, you’re not doing it right.

So what is the point of this rant? I’m just trying to pass on a few of the things that I’ve learned. Your greatest enemy in life is your own self-doubt. Don’t listen to it. It lies. You should be honest about your own shortcomings but not to the point where you beat yourself up over them. You should not give up hope just because of a momentary doubt.

Also against you is time. There will never be enough time to do all the things you want to do. So you must pick what is right for you and put all your energy into that. You need to set goals and strive to achieve them. You may fail, but you will still learn valuable things along the way.

Be the person you want to be. Even if it feels like you’re just pretending. Even those days when you don’t feel like it. Eventually you may find that you are that person. It’s just life. Go and live it.

Also, blogging counts towards my daily word quota.