CAN-DO WILL-DO SPIRIT By: Alice Orr
CAN-DO WILL-DO SPIRIT By: Alice Orr
Can-Do Will-Do Spirit is the source of everything we accomplish in life, close second to loving one another and ourselves and whatever faith we follow. Choosing the Can-Do Will-Do Spirit must be our New Year’ s resolution, and our evaluation of the year passed. Ask yourself,“ How did I and did I not employ my Can-Do Will- Do Spirit in 2017? Your answer will be a blueprint for what you must do in 2018, to build your personal version of success.
An author-friend poses this question.“ Is it impossible to be successful AND happy?” and inspires me to think about success itself, especially how we measure it in our lives. I search the motivational talks I’ ve given, listening for words I need to speak again. I hear,“ The strongest strategy for success is to nurture your Can-Do Will-Do Spirit, first, by fighting back fear.”
Many of those motivational talks were to romance writers like myself, who tell stories of women behaving heroically,
not because they’ re unafraid, but because they do what must be done, despite fear. We must do the same in our real-life stories. We cannot escape the scary things in life. They’ ll always be with us, like they must be in our stories. Who wants to read about characters whose lives run smooth as glass? Readers want to see the glass shatter and hear it crash to the ground.
Sharp shards at every turn make a page-turner read, but we don’ t want them in our real lives. We want the edges we encounter to be dull, so we can pass them unscathed. But, this isn’ t how life goes, and you must struggle against fear of the sharp, shattering places, like your heroines struggle in your stories. Fight back that fear by rethinking the goals you set for yourself, by no longer seeing your goals as far away, or your progress toward them as painfully slow.
Thinking of success as far away and painfully slow is discouraging. It drains us, and we lose our power of enthusiasm. Never relinquish your powerful enthusiasm. It’ s the energy that fuels you, through testing times, to maintain your
Can-Do Will-Do Spirit. One day at a time.
See your goal as right here, right now. Know what you want to accomplish today. Be realistic. Don’ t defeat yourself by piling your plate impossibly high. See yourself as progressing toward your goal today. At day’ s end, if you don’ t think you’ ve succeeded, look again. First, how are you not at the same place as yesterday? Second, have you done what you undertook today as well as you could, factoring in the obstacles you encountered? If you’ ve taken a single wellexecuted step forward, despite obstacles, this was a successful day.
Think of each day as a jewel on the thread of your life, and the thread of your career. Never underestimate its worth, or forget to admire its beauty. Which smells like sweet success to me, and feels like happiness. So, I say to my author-friend,“ It’ s definitely possible to be successful AND happy.” Now, I need to remember those words myself, because I have trouble doing that sometimes too. Oh, rats. We must be human.
Biography:
Alice Orr is the author of sixteen novels, three novellas, a memoir and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. A former book editor and literary agent, Alice now lives her dream as a full-time writer. She has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and resides with her husband Jonathan in New York City.
Alice’ s latest book, A Time of Fear & Loving— Riverton Romantic Suspense Book Five is available HERE. Website & Blog Facebook Twitter Amazon Author Page
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