One of my new year’s resolutions is to write more frequently. But, it’s not new year’s, you say? Not for most of you. But it is for me.
For me, my birthday always serves as a bit of a new year. Which is actually quite handy because it falls roughly in the middle of the year. So it’s a good gut-check part way through the calendar year.
Today I’m thinking a lot about the power of yes. Last week I read Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes (creator of Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder, etc). It blew my mind. I’m a bit behind on this bandwagon but this book caught my eye at the airport and wow, just wow.
The book focuses on her commitment to say yes to everything scary for an entire year.
“Yes to everything that takes me out of my comfort zone. Yes to everything that feels like it might be crazy. Yes to everything that feels out of character. Yes to everything that feels goofy. Yes to everything. Everything. Say yes. Yes.”
She was inspired after her sister said offhandedly, “You never say yes to anything.” And she realized, her sister was right. It hit her over the head when she realized she would have said no to a special dinner at the White House with the Obamas because of her shyness. So she plotted out her year of yes and changed her life.
She shares parallels through-out the book about how the character Christina Yang (which she created) in Grey’s Anatomy is her hero and how, “She has learned to not let go of the pieces of herself that she needs in order to be what someone else wants. She’s learned not to compromise. She’s learned not to settle. She’s learned, as difficult as it is, how to be her own sun.”
Powerful. Shouldn’t we all take the steps we need to take to be our own sun?
One of my favorite parts of the book is her first major speech in her year of yes, a commencement address for her alma mater, Dartmouth College. It is called “Dreams are for Losers.” Just a glimpse of how she lands powerful messages through-out wrapped in humor.
Shonda says, “I think a lot of people dream. And while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the successful people, the really interesting, powerful, engaged people? Are busy doing. The dreamers. They stare at the sky and they make plans and they hope and they think and they talk about it endlessly.”
She guards against “blue-skying your life” and suggests you “ditch the dream. Be a doer, not a dreamer…..you just have to keep moving forward. You just have to keep doing something, seizing the next opportunity, staying open to trying something new. It doesn’t have to fit your vision of the perfect job or the perfect life. Perfect is boring and dreams are not real. Just….DO.”
So if last year was a year of discovery for me, this year is a year of doing. In the same book she also advises that if you want to be a writer, quit talking about it…and write. Every day. Even if it is bad. Or you think you have nothing to say. Commit to your craft and do.
So welcome to day one of my daily blogs of year #44. I can promise you many won’t be very good. Some may be hopelessly boring. But I’m going to do. Set the dreaming aside and get some s#$t done.
44 is a good year for that.
The Redefining 