How to Get What You Want Out of Life

For those of you who visit the blog (versus reading the post in a reader or via email), you might have noticed my header says "Sharpen Your Pencils."

That's a little tip of my hat to a long-held belief that incrementally improving whatever it is you do ... writing, fundraising, creating, selling, teaching, mommying ... on a daily basis is one of the easiest ways to stay ahead of the pack. Better yet, it's a great reminder of why you love what you do...and if we're all put here to do something, might as well do it really, really well, right?

Today, I read this in the book A Writer's Coach by Jack Hart:

"A certain skill with the written word is essential to almost anybody's success in the modern world: the cop filing a report, the foundation director pitching a grant, the moonstruck kid emailing flirtatious notes to that smokin' sophomore in third-period algebra. Whether we get what we want out of life depends, more or less, on how well we use writing to accomplish it." 

Hart goes on to say many of us don't write as well as we might because we believe some nonsensical notion that "good writing is magic."

My goal is to dispel that myth. Because whether you loathe writing or love it, there's no sense in losing business, a grant, or that smokin' sophomore all because you aren't confident in your writing chops. Good writing isn't magic. It's adhering to a few relatively easy principles and using them to your advantage.

So sharpen your pencils ... it's time to write.