People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.

Who IS Zig Ziglar?

Let me find out, to save you the trouble.

He's an American author, salesman, and motivational speaker. His real first name is Hilary so calling himself Zig was a smart move. He wrote 'Success For Dummies.' I must take it to my next seminar...(not)

The last couple of days, I've been successful. Have I earned millions of pounds? Won the Nobel Prize for Writing Travel Brochures? Climbed up Mount Everest backwards? Discovered a cure for terminal hiccups?

None of these.

I've been working like a demon. A new area of copy-writing for me.Very tight deadlines. It could have been stressful. It could have made me fraught. It could have made me unhappy.

It didn't. I've been having too much fun.

When working and having fun are the same thing, I consider that to be an OUTSTANDING...

It's a great feeling to wake up excited about the working day ahead. Don't I just make you SICK?

Sorry...

I don't suppose it'll last.

Throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks

This is what I do - at least, when I'm feeling feisty.

 
I throw mud at walls...in a metaphorical sense, not a literal sense, though ACTUALLY throwing mud at walls would be more fun, I suspect. I could try it with horse manure in the mornings, if I felt so inclined.

This is not entirely unrelated to my ponderings about success or rather, reappraising what success means to me, of yesterday. I'd love to relate to you chapter and verse the contents of the seminar I attended, but:

1. It would be very tedious
2. I undertook not to as the material is deemed copyright

So...metaphorical mud. I try for EVERYTHING I can - 'Director looking for script'...'Screenplay contest'...'Collaborator wanted'...'Apply for funding here'...'Film company will commission short films'...

Sometimes, it's the very last thing I feel like doing.

No way, never!

image by Jordebot

...but I do it. And I put up, often, with  not even receiving the courtesy of a response. Or, slightly better, a 'thanks, but no thanks.' But SOMETIMES...

...I hook up with great people who like my work and make my screenplays into films.

The success rate? I don't know...probably one positive for every fifty negatives. It can be soul-destroying but when something great happens, I know it's all worth it. The more I do it, the easier it becomes because I've thrown so much mud that my hopes aren't ever pinned to one project. Sometimes, I even forget I've gone for some particular thing and get a surprise, months later, when the person gets back to me.

So that's a part of success...to keep on throwing mud at walls to see what sticks.

Something always does in the end.

Success doesn't come to you, you go to it.

This was said by Marva Collins - and she is an inspiration. Really.

"Marva Collins - the teacher who successfully challenged the system and opened her own school for African-American children in Chicago.They were called learning disabled. They were considered bad kids who just didn't want to learn. But Marva Collins refused to believe it. She saw potential in all of them."

I was a special needs teacher for thirteen years and seeing potential where others might see none was my life-blood, without in any way meaning to sound worthy and nauseatingly mawkish. It was such rewarding, exhilarating  (frustrating, exhausting, draining...) work...I loved it and it wore me out. Eventually.

Excuse me while I have a little laugh to myself about this poster below!

 Spot the deliberate mistake...ref. yesterday's uncharacteristic rant about spelling...Sigh...

No, don't you all worry. Quirkyworks is NOT going to turn into an inspirational, motivational, navel-gazing, nausea-inducing, energy-sapping, sigh-making, toe-curling...Coca Cola advert...I mean, blog.

It's just that I AM attending a seminar, over ten sessions, examining The Nature of Success - as I mentioned yesterday. I'm interested in reappraising my opinions about what it is that constitutes success for me.

At the moment, I think that  I'm going through life, lucky though I am in every way, with a vague undercurrent (and sometimes a raging torrent) of dissatisfaction because I don't consider myself to be A Success.

Perhaps I should grant myself the same understanding and encouragement I gave to my pupils for all those  years?