On the drive home from work on Monday I listened to an RWA session about writing despite adversity. Something the author said struck me, and struck me hard. It’s a quote from Alan Bean, Apollo 12 astronaut. I just found her website, and found the quote there:

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“The most important quality I have noticed in successful people is that they have a dream. They want to be someone or something. They want to have something. They want to go somewhere.

“They think and work towards that dream every day.

“I often ask people who tell me their dream, ‘What did you do today to move closer to your dream?’

“Eighty-five percent didn’t do anything. They’re planning to do something next week; they’re just too busy today. These eighty-five percent will probably never see their dream come true.

“Ask yourself the same question: ‘What have I done today to make my dream come true?’ If the answer is nothing specific, then you probably won’t make it unless you change.”

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There are lots of things I want to do. There are an infinite number of projects I want to work on. SCA (which encompasses so many activities!). House stuff. Some things are marginally related to writing, like research on things I’m interested in, and catching up on all the movies I’ve missed. Family and friends have to be in there as well, of course; there are some things that, no matter what your dream, you can’t cut out of your life. (Still gotta feed the cats, you know? ;-) )

But my dream is to be a published, making-a-living-at-it writer, so every day, I’ve got to have something writing-related on my To Do list.

Every day, I need to have a specific answer to the question, “What have I done today to make my writing dream come true?”

(What's your dream? And what did you do today to make it come true?)