This naughty little phrase sneaks its way into my head on many, many occasions and I've made it a goal to kick its booty to the curb whenever it makes an appearance.
It appears most when there is some daunting or seemingly insurmountable or pointless task ahead of me. Like doing dishes or laundry or getting my kids to clean their rooms. Why bother? I'm just going to turn around in 15 minutes and find another mess, another pile of dirty clothes, another sink full of dishes.
But if I didn't do it, I'd have twice the work to do later on.
The same rotten phrase sometimes attacks my writing goals. Starting a new project is daunting. It's a LOT of work and there's no guarantee that the book will be published at the end of all that work. Same with revisions - why bother? There will just be another round as soon as I finish this one. Querying? The ultimate Why Bother. All that's waiting for me there is a big pile of rejections.
It's a good thing I'm stubborn or the Why Bothers might derail me. :D
Yes, my house is going to get trashed again. But if I don't pick it up occasionally it'll be a much bigger job later on. Yes, that new project is going to be a lot of work and yes, it might never see the light of day. But I'll never know if I don't try. And yes, querying is going to get me a ton of rejections. But it might get me an offer or two as well.
The only thing that is certain is that if I let the Why Bothers win, I'm guaranteed to fail. And that just isn't okay with me :)
So - no matter what it takes, I'm determined to kick the Why Bothers to the curb. No matter the endeavor, no matter how daunting/scary/just-plain-no-fun the task, I'll never reach my goals if I don't work at them.
So work at them I will. :) Who's with me? Do the Why Bothers ever plague you? How do you get rid of them?
4 comments:
I am currently wrestling with the 'Why Bothers'. They're being especially nasty this time around, but I know I can't reach my goals if I don't keep plugging away.
The Why-Bothers are insidious. "Oh why bother when no one else cares anyway?" is the worst. If I let that one get me, I'd never bother wearing anything but sweats (okay, so it does get me from time to time, but I conquer it and move on). I don't know if they can ever really be gotten rid of. You just have to work around them when you can and succumb when you have no other choice.
Why Bother is currently plaguing me. I've reworked my first page so much I've sapped the life out of it. I'm having trouble parsing through conflicting feedback; one person says they like x, another says try y, can't do both. Back to the drawing/writing board!
Michelle, it's like you've been to my house and seen my laundry piles! ;) Thanks for this. I was just trying to get rid of my "Why Bother" to buckle down and get revising an old project I am determined to publish. I like that you say being stubborn gets you through these moments. If I think of it that way, I can be stubborn and productive, too!
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