Impossible Things

Photo Credit: Amanda Patterson http://amandaonwriting.tumblr.co

Last year, at the end of every month, whether they wanted it or not, I sent a list of my accomplishments for the month to my tribe.  This practice wasn’t for them. They usually read the emails, but that wasn’t the point.  The point was to take note of the things I was doing to forward my work as a writer.  To treat myself with the same seriousness in the career I chose as I did in my other work where I regularly had to write weekly or monthly status reports or training reports. 

It’s always nice to have an audience, so I think I might have worked a little harder some months knowing that my friends would be reading the work I’d done for the month.  I called these my “Six Impossible Things.”  And six things was what I was aiming for though I frequently produced more. 

Halfway through the year, I realized that the list of things was much more important to me than it was to my friends.  Go figure.  There was power in keeping track.  There was power in noticing the ways that I had turned this self chosen career that I hadn’t been paid much for (I made $100 on my writing last year) was something worth being attentive to, was something worth noticing.

So I paid attention.  I noticed the work.  Something amazing happened.

I began to think of the work I do as work not just a hobby.  I began to defend it and the time I spent doing it.  I began to take myself seriously as a writer. 

So, how can you take note of the work you do for you--whether you’re a fiber artist, a writer, a poet, or a dancer?  How can you keep track of your work in ways that show that the work holds meaning for you?  How can you do the work so that it’s easy to show its meaning to others? It’s only April.  Most of the year is before you.  How can you honor your passion?  Do it.