My two-year-old English Cocker Spaniel, Moke, has figured out a life lesson that has eluded many of us. His secret: doing what it takes.
Like his older Aussie mix brother, Misha, Moke loves to a killer game of chase. The problem, of course, is that the only time you get to chase is when you have another dog who wants to race away from you. And most pups, it turns out, either aren’t interested in a game of chase or they also want to be the chasers.
So, in the last month, Moke has decided to pivot. When it becomes clear that no dog in the off-leash areas we frequent is asking to be the rabbit that the greyhounds (and everyone else) will pursue, he offers himself up with a flourish. Darting in and then speeding away proves too much for most dogs to resist. Game on! As a result, he’s getting to play chase ten times more than before.
Sometimes, it’s all about doing what it takes to get what we want, or at least what we need. As a young adult, I swore that I would never become a journalist. As the Latin American, European, and West Coast editor of LOOK magazine, my award-winning journalist father, Leonard Gross, had reached the pinnacle of that career. I did not realize at the time that magazines were on a downhill slide, and the intensive reporting he had been able to do while on assignment for weeks at a time would become a thing of the past. I only knew that I didn’t want to work in his shadow, in all likelihood unable to live up to his achievements.
Still, when my five-year stint in the High Sierra following college came to an end, the only option I could see for making a living as a writer was to get a job on a magazine. So that’s what I did, working as an editor at the Ladies’ Home Journal and then the Los Angeles Times Magazine. Years later, when I had traded a staff job for freelancing, I would have to pivot again and get into the ghostwriting/book collaboration business, the other career I’d sworn never to pursue. Having relocated to San Francisco to help care for my mom, who had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, I needed to make a living and magazine freelancing wasn’t going to cut it.
Life has a way of defining one’s priorities in a hurry. But it can also get in the way. As a writing coach for more than 25 years, I’ve seen plenty of folks who allow everything from their inbox to their commitments get in the way of their writing. Eventually, I have to give them a heads-up that doing what it takes to get your book written sometimes means putting other obligations or pastimes on hold. Truth be told, I have to remind myself of the same thing.
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