Imagine living a life you love, where creativity of stories, words, and splashes of adventure reign. What about a plethora of those quiet moments reading in front of a crackling fire or a steaming cup of tea on a rainy afternoon?
If you could live any life, what life would you want to live? It tantalizes our brain just to think of that life. But I want to challenge you today to accept that wild vision as a reality within your reach. For a moment, believe it is possible. How does that make you feel?
It’s a daunting challenge, creating a life where you do what you love. You’re right in thinking it takes an abundance of work, intention, and courage to bring to life. Everything worth doing does, and I believe every person—every writer—should give living a life defined by what they have passion for a shot.
A Building in the Big City
When I was six years old I had an image of myself as an adult wearing business clothes and walking into a skyscraper in the big city—I was a strong businesswoman tackling the business world.
About the same age, I began writing short stories which I tried selling to my family. Without realizing, at age six I had a better idea of what I wanted to do with my life than I would in the coming ten years: Working hard to make a business with the creativity of writing.
In those coming years I forgot the inspiration of that vision. I was daunted by the improbability it presented, and went looking for other occupations which were approved by those around me.
It was an ambitious idea to build a strong career for myself, and I didn’t want others to tell me how crazy it was. Instead, I stifled what I loved doing to comply with what other people said or implied was good for me.
But it wasn’t good to put what I had great passion for in the backseat. It sucked the energy from me. I lost feeling what I loved, and trying to please others always failed. I remember a time when I felt I had lost a sense of who I was.
It’s a Revival
It took ten years to get me back on track, and fourteen years to realize becoming obsessed with writing, business, and helping others wasn’t bad. Since then, I’ve given myself the permission to go all in on my passion—on building a life I actually want to live.
I might have come to this realization on my own eventually, but instead I had help. First from a therapist who challenged me to find what I wanted to do with my life, and then by the motivating Grant Cardone who showed me through his resources the possibilities of life and how to take massive action.
Through all I experienced, giving myself permission to fully embrace what I can do and the writing which makes me feel alive, I feel like myself. You know what I’m talking about—the feeling when you’re writing a story and it just feels right to do it.
The right feeling is what I’m striving to feel in all I do, and it’s what I want everyone to feel.
Give Yourself Permission
So, what is the wild dream you imagine for your life? What is keeping you back from going all in on pursuing it?
Dive deep into these questions. Journal about them in the morning or at night. It can be a scary topic to immerse yourself in, but it is an extremely important one. If you do want to build your life around writing, you need to embrace that.
Doing this is not just to build something impressive, but it is for your health. Your emotional, mental, and physical health is dependent on what priorities you set in your life. Working on something you enjoy and building up those around you is healthy for you and for your family and friends.
It’s scary, but it’s the exhilarating fear you experience on a roller coaster. Once on the other side, you feel like you can conquer the world.
What’s Your Decision?
Are you going to continue trudging through life, or are you ready to immerse yourself in creativity, pursuit, and a splash of exhilarating fear? If it’s time to take your writing from back stage to front stage, here are some starting tips:
1) Ponder and journal on what things you want to do in your life. Think big and even unreachable.
2) Give yourself permission to do what you love so much it looks strange to those around you, and then do it.
3) Find support through community. Enter something in the comments below, send me an email telling me about your decision, or share wherever your writing community calls home.
Make your decision, and start to embrace living a life you’ve only dreamed about in the past.
Featured photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
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S.J. Siedenburg is a thriller & fantasy novelist, an editor, and a bibliophile with a passion for stories and helping writers finish their novels. She’s the author of the guidebooks Character Presentation, Before the First Draft, and the How to Write a Novel online course. Six of her short stories have been published through writing contests. Sarah lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” —John 1:5