What They Can't Take Away

Like most people in the United States, I’ve been trying to lose weight. How much weight? I don’t know. I haven’t stepped on the scales. But I’ve been having some success. I’ve noticed my clothes fitting better and I was feeling pretty good about it. Well, I was until I pulled one particular pair of jeans out of the closet. The tag says they are the same size as I wear every day, but when I put them on, they didn’t fit. I could fasten them, which is better than the last time I tried them, but they still don’t fit. Funny how a pair of jeans can change you outlook.

Our expectations flavor how we feel about things. I put those jeans on with the expectation that they would fit, since I had accomplished so much. When they didn’t, I felt like I hadn’t accomplished anything. I think the same goes for authors. An author writes a book and feels a great sense of accomplishment. It takes a lot of time and effort to write a book. When you finish one, you feel great. Then the author sends it out to agents and editors. The response isn’t as enthusiastic as the author hopes. Now, the author feels like he hasn’t done anything worthwhile.

The thing is, if you’ve written a book, you’ve written a book. No matter what other people think of that book, they can’t take that fact away from you. So maybe it isn’t that great of a book. Maybe it is a great book, but the people trying to make money can’t see it. Whatever the case, a lot of work went into that book. You can’t stay on cloud nine forever, but you can still feel good about the work you put into it.

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