The next 31 days.

31 days of writing sounds daunting which is funny considering I have always wanted to be a writer.  Writing was simple when I was younger.  In school we are forced to write all of the time, forced to be creative and insightful.  Writing is something that always came very naturally to me, and it is perhaps the only thing that has ever come naturally for me.  I've never really had to work very hard at it.  In school I was always praised for my short stories, essays and research papers.  In college I was able to BS my way through many a blue book exam and write term papers in one draft the night before they were due.  However, something happened when I finished my "academic" life.  I simply quit writing.  I don't really know how it happened but it did.  After college I got married right away and started wandering around in the world looking for a career and a passion to pursue.  I worked 9 to 5 because it was a steady paycheck.  I never knew that my passion was right in front of me all the time.  I knew I wanted to write something but no one seemed to be hiring me to be a writer.  The problem that I see so clearly now is that no one needed to hire me to be a writer.  I am a writer if I say I’m a writer and I just need to write something.  I have always had tremendous amounts of fear around saying “I’m a writer” or sharing my work with friends and family, let alone the public but I want to be a writer.  It’s a paradox really.  My own anxiety is what is holding me back, not the fact that the world hasn’t elected me a writer.  I was speaking to friend in my daughter’s playgroup this morning who is a psychologist and does leadership training.  She explained to me that what holds all individuals back from being successful is their fear and anxiety around being uncomfortable.  As human beings we always tend to choose the safest route.  That is what makes risk takers such extraordinary people; the fact that they are willing to be uncomfortable.  For example, take immigrants.  Immigrants are often entrepreneurs.  To be an immigrant involves a large amount of risk, and being an entrepreneur does as well.  So my goal for the next 31 days is to be a risk taker and to be uncomfortable and to like it!  It might be difficult to sit down and write 500 words every day but I am at turning point in my life where I need to follow my passion or be content with being comfortable and essentially doing nothing.  If I want to do this writing thing I’m gonna have to actually work at it.  After 33 years of living I have finally realized that nothing is going to fall into my lap.  So away we go cranking out 500 words a day for 31 days!