December 2018
I hope you had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Festivus, and spent time with family and friends. I’ve enjoyed having a few days off to throw the football with my oldest, wrestle with my youngest, and just relax for a change before life gets busy again.
Besides Christmas, New Year’s Eve is my second favorite day of the year. Not only because it’s my wife Missy’s birthday, but also because of the hope that a new year brings to us. The possibilities seem endless…
Tomorrow, I’m going to start working on the next Blake Jordan novel. I hope to write two in 2019, plus a short story. Seems like a lot, right?
I’m hoping I can get it all done. But as they say, hope is not a strategy…
So while writing even one novel seems impossible, I have to keep reminding myself that I’ve already written five. I’ve been thinking a lot about that and how success works. And this quote keeps coming to mind: “Eighty percent of success is just showing up.”
If that’s true… then what makes up the other twenty percent? Ever wonder about that?
I’ve been thinking long and hard about this the last few days and I think I figured it out… if eighty percent of success is showing up, I think the twenty percent is following up.
The truth is, I’m good at showing up. I’ve started a lot of things in my life. I’ve started about 30 jobs. I started classes for countless majors in college (I had so many credits when I graduated instead of a double major they awarded me a double bachelor lol). I’ve started a lot of businesses, too. But I’m starting to realize that what matters isn’t just showing up. It really is following up. It’s having laser-like focus on one task, be it a writing project or an exercise goal or anything else… and hitting it hard until it’s DONE.
People won’t remember what you started. But they will remember what you finished.
I have to remember that…
So while I’ll be ringing in the New Year tonight and making crazy goals for 2019, there’s just one resolution I’m going to make and will try my very best to stick to all year long…
…to finish what I start.