There are times when the best of us look towards others for advice to succeed. The advice we are most likely to get is,“Do whatever you do with passion, and you just can’t fail.” Unlike most advice which might, or might not, be applicable to everyone, this little piece of advice is perfect for anyone who wishes to succeed in his, or her, chosen field of work. But, then why aren’t more of us passionate about things? Why aren’t more of us successful?

In the simplest terms passion is  a “boundless enthusiasm” for something. This something is the thing that you are looking to succeed in. So, if we can have boundless enthusiasm for something, we will succeed in it. It is as simple as that. Not really.

The difficulty stems from the fact that most of us end up doing things that we can not be passionate about, and still we want to succeed in that. What stops us from being passionate about what we do?

Firstly, we have a hard time identifying what our thing is. In stead of being guided by our hearts, we are governed by the wishes, desires, and expectations of “others”. These others are none other than our parents, friends and relatives. They have a pre-determined set of things that they want us to succeed at. It does not matter to them what we want, or what we are good at, they just want us to do what they feel is good for us. To be fair to these “others”, however, it is only we who can know what we want, and what we are good at, so it is our job to convince the “others” to let us do what we want to do. It might turn out to be one of those things that is easier said than done, but, easy or hard, it must be done.

Secondly, we may feel we are not passionate about anything. That can happen because we might not have come across the thing that makes us want to do more of it. For this Steve Jobs offers excellent advice in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address – If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle. When you find it, you will love it.

Thirdly, we focus on success to much, and that takes away the joy of doing. Even if we have managed to identify what we are passionate about, and are doing it, thinking about success too much can take away the joy of doing the thing. For example writing this post should be a joy unto itself for me; your comments are the icing on the cake. If I am worried about getting comments and page views more than writing (and that does happen sometimes), I will neither enjoy the process, nor will I be able to write something that makes you want to comment.

Lastly, the path that we have to take to pursue what we are passionate about may seem a bit more difficult that the alternative path which we see everyone around us taking. A safe and a secure monthly income sounds so much better than not knowing where your next cheque might be coming from, or wondering if it is coming at all. The lure of a steady income can often force us to abandon the path that we have to pursue to follow our passion. This temptation has to be guarded against.

We all have something that we can be passionate about, but for one reason or another, we find ourselves doing something else.  How, then, can we expect to be successful in that?

I use the word writer in the title to signify someone who writes, and then gets read by a substantial number of readers. One might look at some of the bigger names in the field, and assume that writing is a short cut to name, fame and money. Many believe in this fallacy, take the plunge, and realise later – often, when it’s too late – that they have made a mistake.

There is, however, good news. If you want to be a writer, things have never been as easy as they are today. When I was a kid, I remember reading a book about writing. It listed out a set of things that were a prerequisite before one could set out on the journey of becoming a writer. Some of these things were:

A Typewriter
Reams of paper
Envelopes
Stamps
Pens, and pencils, etc.

All these things were too expensive to be bought with the pocket money I received, after, of course, I had bought my marbles, chewing gums, and the usual stuff that kids bought back then. So, I decided that writing was not for me, and quietly went about the business of growing up.

The writing nag however isn’t that easy to overcome. So, years later, when I had the money to buy the wherewithal for writing, I started again. The Internet was still not around, and I lovingly started sending pieces to editors of weeklies and dailies – just as the writing books had prescribed.

I didn’t send out many of those either. It was torture to wait for the response of the editors, which would mostly never come, and when it did come, it was usually an apology note. Once again the writer inside me was gagged and bound and thrown into a corner.

Then, the age of the computer and the Internet dawned upon us. I bought my first computer because I needed one in my chosen course of study, and my first Internet connection was a result of my need to email and chat with my friends.

One fine day – and I don’t mean that as a figure of speech – I was sitting on my computer and had a sudden urge to write. I had heard about blogging, and I thought to myself, “Why not?”

Soon, I had written a cute – or what I thought was cute – story about an innocent child and his antics, and posted it on to my blog. Seeing my words online, for anyone to read, was a nice feeling, and the comments were the icing on the cake.

Since then, I have written continuously and have been able to get a few readers to read what I write, and have also managed to get some of them to like what I write.

I can’t help but wish that computers should have been around when I was a kid. I also feel that if you want to be a writer, things have never been as easy as they are now. What think you?

Image: hisks from sxc.hu

Image: ba1969 from sxc.hu

The beginning of a new year is a good opportunity to take stock of what happened in the year gone by, and to plan for the year that is yet to come. Actually, any time of the year is a good time to introspect, learn from the past, and move on. But, we humans – being creatures of habit – need different rituals, goals, ceremonies, targets, etc. to keep us going. As the great Voltaire, once said:

If there were no God, it would have been necessary to invent him.

The New Year’s eve is just such a ritual, where we get a chance to forget our mistakes of the previous year, and also get an opportunity to either do things in a  better way, or at least make a new set of mistakes in the days to come. Resolutions, I feel,  are the best way to do that.

I am sure all of you have made some resolutions for 2010. If you haven’t then I suggest you make one now. There is still time, and you won’t regret making one.

I, as most of my friends would already know, have made a long list of resolutions for 2010. I am sure you have a big smile on your face right about now, wondering how long will it be before I break them. I will not fool myself by believing that I will be able to stick to each and every one of my resolution. Yet, if, by the end of the year, I am able to stick to even a few of them, I will have achieved something.

I also believe that sharing your resolutions with others helps you stick to them for a longer time. This is because once you have shared your resolutions with someone, you have both an intrinsic and an extrinsic reason to stick to them. The intrinsic reason is the one that motivated you to frame that resolution in the first place. The extrinsic reason is your desire to look good, as you wouldn’t want people to think that you can’t stick to your resolution even for a few days. Additionally your good friends might help you in sticking to your resolution by constantly reminding you about them.

So, here I am sharing two of my resolutions with you:

• In 2009 I was not able to write much. So, in 2010 I am going to write for an average of one hour every day. It can be more than that, but never less.
• I have always believed in the benefits of reading. In line with that belief, I am going to read at least 200 books in 2010. So, if you have any good suggestions about a book that I should read, feel free to drop a line. If I come across any exceptionally good book, I will surely share it with you on the blog.

With that I will sign off for now. Happy 2010! May all your dreams come true this year.

What are your Writing Resolutions for 2010?

Most of us believe in the Writing Block, just as we believe in the Santa Claus, or the Tooth Fairy. I have always believed that writing block is nothing but the writer getting lazy. It can’t, however, be denied that most of us, at one point of time or another, go through phases where writing anything becomes difficult – almost impossible.

There are many ways to set yourself free if you get stuck with the Writer’s block, and in the age of the World Wide Web most of these solutions are just a mouse-click away. Many of these solutions are individual specific, and might work for some while being completely ineffective for others.

There is, however, one solution that I feel can work for almost everyone.

The solution is using writing prompts. The world prompt literally means,  “to move or induce to action” and a writing prompt can be defined as, “a statement or group of statements about a specific topic, constructed to motivate thoughts and elicit good writing.”

Using a prompt is like turning the ignition in a car. Your mind refuses to come up with a thought of its own, so you provided it with an external thought to work with. The simplest prompt can be anything lying on your table. Let’s say it is a pen. You can start writing about the first time you used a pen, your favourite pen, any funny incident you were involved in that also included a pen, and the possibilities are endless.

I have usually found prompts to be quite helpful. I use the idea for one of my blogs, and that provides me with a constant stream of ideas to write about on that blog.

If, for some reason, you find it difficult to come up with writing prompts for yourself, there are a few sites that can help you with that too. Here are a few that you might find useful:

1. Creative Writing Prompt
2. Writer’s Digest
3. Writing Fix
4. Language is a Virus

Do you use writing prompts to help you write regularly?

It is often said that writing is a combination of talent and hard work. Some say it is talent that is more important, while others say it is the hard work that pays. Without going into this unending debate, I will let you answer this question for yourself, “What do you think is more important : talent, or hard work?”

Being talented in very simple terms means that you were born to write. You have the gift of the muse, and whatever you might do for a living, you simply have to write something every now and then. To some extent, all of us have that gift, or at least most of us. This is the most probable reason why blogging has become so popular today.

If you, however, hope to write regularly – for your blog or professionally – I sincerely doubt that just being talented will serve you.And, If you still believe that you are a born writer, you need not read any further.

If mere talent is not enough to become a blogger or a writer, what else do you need?

There are a lot of things that you need. No two people are alike, and therefore there are no universal rules that can be applicable to all. Contrary to what many books out there claim – and some have become bestsellers -  there are no short-cuts to becoming a bestselling writer. There are, however, general principles that will hold you in good stead if you decide to take up the pen.

• Discipline – Discipline, someone once said, is what makes the world go round. Even if we look around us we see that there is a time for everything – a time for sun to rise, and a time for it to set. Writing can be no exception. You can’t sit around waiting for inspiration to strike before you write your first word. You have to write the first word, and then some more, and hope that while you are doing that, inspiration hits you like a bolt from the skies. As it often happens, inspiration comes to us at the very unlikeliest of times and goes away simple because we are not prepared for it. Don’t let that happen – be disciplined, and I am sure you will be ready for inspiration when it decided to hit you, and you will be able to write much better and more regularly.
• Reading Habit – As I have often said before on this blog, starting to write does not mean that you stop reading. In fact, after you start to write, the reading should increase manifold. There are many ways in which developing a good reading habit can help your writing. I won’t go into details here, because that would make up an entire post unto itself.
• Write every day – This is the most often quoted, and the most neglected aspect of writing. Just think about anything you are good at, and then think about the time you devote to that activity. I am sure that you try and do that thing everyday. This is true for writing too – If you want to get better at it, do it every day, and more than once every day if you can.
• Join a writing group – Writing can sometimes be boring. I have at times felt the uselessness of it all. If you are not writing for any specific purpose you just might not want to write. After all what is the use of writing anything, if no one is going to read it. A writing group can come in handy at such times. Though it is important to ensure that the writing group you join comprises of serious writers, or you might end up wasting a lot of your time and that is the last  thing you want to do.

These four principles of writing are not the end, but merely the beginning. Once you have managed to master these, then you can move on to customise them further to suit your own needs.

Do you have any rules, principles, or habits, that have helped you in writing regularly?