Thoughtful About . . . Competitive Spirits and Discouragement

Yesterday I had the honor of being a guest-poster on the Steve Laube Agency blog, at the invitation of my agent. A few of us did a series together on different discouragements writers face–others tackled a lot of the “big” things like chronic pain and this fickle industry.

I talked about the discouragement that comes from within ourselves when we are too focused on how we rank next to others. I’ve always had a competitive spirit, and sometimes it leads me straight to a not-so-nice place.

If you haven’t dropped by the Laube blog already, here’s a snippet and the link:

As a kid, I was used to being the best. Best grades, finished my
homework before leaving school, understood everything without needing
the teacher to explain it more than once. (Well, fractions gave me grief
for a week or two, but let’s just call that a blip on the screen.)
Every year, my mom would issue the same warning: “Roseanna, next year
the work will be harder. You might have more homework. It might not come
so easily.” I took that as a challenge. And all through school, I proved my wise mama wrong.

Then I hit the real world.

Read the whole article

Oddly, I wasn’t sure when this was scheduled to post and didn’t know it had until I got an email from someone who had read it. And was not exactly encouraged by it, as she’s dealing with some big things right now. Allow me to say that this is focused on one specific thing, not all the discouragement we face in life. Competitiveness certainly isn’t the worst trial we go through–but if it’s part of your nature as it is mine, it’s one of the most constant, and can sneak up on us when we least expect it.

And I would just like to also say…two more days of school until Christmas break for us! 😉 We’ve got a good start on our holiday fun with lollipop sugar cookies and gingerbread men…er, and girls. And, er, trees…and moons…and teddy bears…

Of course, the little ones have also been distracted by the newest addition to our family, Noah–who is currently spending most of his time up the driveway at my mother-in-law’s (who does NOT have new carpet), but who will be spending a lot of time down here once he’s housebroken too. =)