Dear World…I Quit! (Not Quietly)
It’s time to hang up my dancing shoes
No, this is not suicide note, although I suspect people might ACTUALLY read that, rather this is a letter of resignation, my notice to the world of my retiring from the game of writing. Given my meager impact historically this letter can be like the proverbial tree that falls in the forest and doesn’t make a sound, so here goes — quite literally NOTHING.
To whom it may concern,
I give up, I hang my head in defeat, bow and surrender my pen. The writing game has not been the lucrative endeavor I once thought it would be, I have neither fame, nor fortune, and not even once has my writing gotten me laid, although, to be fair, it has earned me a couple of hugs, which in hindsight may have been out of pity.
Please forward this letter to Steven Pressfield and inform him that I have lost “The War of Art,” the muse has forsaken me, and I have succumbed to the resistance inherent in the craft.
In my best possible Eric Cartman voice, “screw you guys, I’m goin home,” and I am taking my pen, my pad, and all my balls, whatever if any may be left.
The saddest part was that the coup de grace came in the form of friendly fire, if you can call my monkey mind a friend? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer they say, could it be the thing we hold closest to us, our mind also happens to be our greatest enemy.
Reminds me of the proverb —
“the mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.”
Why am I giving up?
‘Someone smarter and more talented has probably already done it.” — Imposter syndrome.
“I just don’t have enough time or money.” — Scarcity conversation
“Who am I to become a well read and successful writer and author?” — Worthiness conversation.
“What if people laugh at me or judge me?” — External locust of control
Question — 1, are any of the above statements True?
Question — 2, is that story currently serving you?
Let’s forget question 1 because clearly those statements aren’t true in the capital-T sense, almost nothing is, but we’re not getting into a conversation on buddhism or the mystical, nor is this a game of wordplay. The statements above are not facts, they are an interpretation, or a story that we make up about a fact or a circumstance, but they are not FACTS; and that my friend for lack of a better word is a fact!
Now, on to the more important question, are they currently serving you?
Fuck no they’re not, they can’t, and they haven’t served me. Those exact thoughts or some version thereof have run through my mind whenever I have tried to do anything of substance in my life.
Those stories actually point out that we’re not delusional, that we have our sights set in reality and we are thoughtful about our actions. However, they are mostly representations of unconscious scripts that run our lives, some of them passed down by family, some by teachers or friends, while others are just part of the collective consciousness and shared belief systems from around the world.
These so-called ‘norms’ are just meant to put us star shaped pegs into round normalized holes, eventually you may get the peg into the hole but it will forever be surrounded by emptiness.
Don’t get me wrong, it is important to question your beliefs, to be discerning, and to not get too high on your own bullshit, but to be critical and tear yourself down without cause is sadistic, and not in the fun kind of way.
There’s plenty of strangers out there looking to tear you down, dont go doing their job for them, do yours, whatever that is and leave the naysayers where they lie, lurking in the shadows, tearing down others because they themselves are scared to do something substantial.
If you’d like, have compassion for them when they tell you that you can’t do something, or tell them to fuck off, personally the latter comes easier to me so I am working on developing the former. Recognize that the people trying to hold you small are just running on faulty code just like a computer infected with a virus, and if they knew better they would do better.
Use this simple lesson outlined of “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz
So what now?
WHAT NOW?………..What are you still doing here?
Go and DO THE THING…
Why aren’t you doing the thing yet?
Whatever that thing is for you, go out there and do it, do it for 90 days and see what happens, do it every day, if even for just a little.
If at the end of 90 days you don’t feel like your life has taken a radical shift for the better, then you can come back and tell me how shitty my advice is, and we can both quit.
In Conclusion
I have let those incessant stories run my life more often than I’d like to admit. I’ve succumbed to those same fears I am advising you to ignore, so more than anything I am writing this letter to myself and making a public proclamation that I am Doing the Thing, and I invite you to join me.
For me the Thing is writing, and I am committing to writing everyday, maybe not publishing daily, but I am committed to the act and the craft.
Og Mandino said it best in his book the “Greatest Salesman in the World”
“Henceforth, I will consider each day’s effort as but one blow of my blade against a mighty oak. The first blow may cause not a tremor in the wood, nor the second, nor the third. Each blow, of itself, may be trifling, and seem of no consequence. Yet from childish swipes the oak will eventually tumble. So it will be with my efforts of today. I will be liken to the rain drop which washes away the mountain; the ant who devours a tiger; the star which brightens the earth; the slave who builds a pyramid. I will build my castle one brick at a time for I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.”
Who of you is going to join me in Doing the Thing? Lets unite and work together regardless wherever you are or whatever it is you are working on. We have strength in numbers and can support one another along our quest.
Comment on the article or on my social media with #DoingTheThing and let me know what thing it is you are doing, and how if in any way I can support you.
When we commit publicly to others we stake our reputation, frankly I finally finished this article because I promised someone I would, I even once wrote an article on exactly this topic of commitment devices, have a read here: