Why It’s All Your Fault

January 23, 2017

Everything is your fault.

Let me explain. I absolutely hate the book Dune because everyone said it would be epic, and it made me want to pull my eyebrows out one hair at a time because that poor excuse for a book was so lengthy and boring.

But. That million-word disaster houses one fantastic quote that made it worth all the trouble: “The mind commands the body, and it obeys. The mind orders itself and meets resistance.”

A practical illustration of this is as follows: I have OCD, which gives me obnoxious compulsions to do random tasks over and over, especially checking the outlets again and again to make sure I didn’t leave anything plugged in.

From time to time, I’ll say I “have” to go back and check again, but I don’t. I can physically choose to turn around and leave the house, but my mind ties itself into a mess of knots, and I feel like I’m going nuts.

I can’t stop my brain from doing gymnastics, but I can turn and walk out of the house. It’s a fact.

People like to let two things ruin their lives: other people’s opinions of them and their opinions of themselves.

Let me explain.

Until yesterday, I hadn’t sent out a book query in more than a year, and it’s because I don’t want to fail. I’ve been telling people for years that I’m going to be a novelist. What if it doesn’t happen?

How many times have you decided to put a dream to rest because you don’t want to spend your whole life pursuing it and never get it? Aren’t people going to think you’re a loser?

Well, yeah, maybe.

You don’t think you can do it, whatever *it* is. You’re not trying because your parents weren’t supportive, or someone abandoned you, or people were mean to you as a kid, or somebody told you that you’d never amount to anything.

The problem is, most people wait until they feel good about something before they try to do it. They wait until they feel sure they can achieve something before they put in the effort. Or, worst of all, they only set medium-sized goals because they don’t want to even imagine anything that they may not be able to achieve.

The thing is, you often can’t change how you feel. You might feel like you’re not enough. You might be scared to death. You might have no idea what you’re doing. You might think you’re a disappointment. But you know what?

It. Doesn’t. Matter.

When I have one of my OCD attacks, I can’t tell my mind to stop imagining the apartment burning down because I might have left the hair straightener plugged in even though the sane part of my mind is aware I already checked it nine times.

But I can make myself walk out the door without checking again and just let my mind scream away.

Yeah, not everybody is smart enough to be an astronaut, and not everyone can compete in the Olympics. But everyone can have a dream and actually do something about it. If not, they why do you bother getting out of bed in the morning?

Apply for the job. Write the book. Ask the girl out. Go bungee jumping. Take the shot. Start the business. Stand up for yourself. Apply for the program. Move across the country.

No feeling, whether yours or someone else’s, has to dictate whether you fail or succeed. Only action can do that.

Whatever *it* is, go do it.