When you choose yourself, you start attracting everything
that is also choosing you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 . . . Anonymous<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t written someone else\u2019s memoir for years. In the\u00a0past, I did one after the other and many of them made the bestseller lists. But
after years of being somone else on paper, I was hungry to work full time on my\u00a0own projects. My weekly blog. I\u2019m on Blog #429. Yikes. (Who on earth has that\u00a0much to say?) A novel I\u2019d wanted to write for a long time. An account of life during\u00a0the time of Covid.<\/p>\n
I took on some editing jobs. They didn\u2019t take 100% of my\u00a0time and energy and they gave me some spending money. But whole books were\u00a0another story. I remember telling a friend that I\u2019d forgotten how to write for\u00a0someone else and tell their story. I couldn\u2019t remember how I did it. Then I got\u00a0an email from a past client. She wanted to introduce me to a woman who had a\u00a0great story to tell. I was dubious but I agreed to a phone call.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t write for other people any more,\u201d I said. That was\u00a0how I opened the conversation. I meant that but it didn\u2019t stop her. She told me\u00a0her story and it was compelling. So was her desire to know herself better. She\u00a0wanted to demonstrate that you\u2019re never too old to start over. That was a great\u00a0message for everyone, especially baby boomers. I felt her warmth and her\u00a0vulnerability and by the time the call was over, I had signed on. I had\u00a0surprised myself. I thought I would never again tell someone else\u2019s story but\u00a0pretty soon, I saw the wisdom in my choice.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m at my best when I have a great project in front of me.\u00a0It felt like this one had fallen into my lap. My new client was a delight and
there were no agents or publishers involved and no dead line. It was all up to\u00a0me. My muscle memory kicked in. I started doing the interviews on Zoom, transcribing\u00a0them from audio to the written word and writing the story from there. I\u2019m still\u00a0working on it and it feels like I\u2019m choosing to do this project every day.<\/p>\n
When the movie \u201cDead Man Walking\u201d came out, after I saw it\u00a0in the movie theater, I read the book. It was profound and I try to remember\u00a0what Sister Helen Prejean said:<\/p>\n
\u201cForgiveness isn\u2019t a single dramatic act but a daily\u00a0practice, something you have to choose again and again. It\u2019s a daily decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Life is filled with choices. Cereal or eggs? Coffee or tea?\u00a0Right turn or left turn? Does it matter? Each week, when I sit down to write my
blog, I have to pick a topic. Sometimes it comes right away and I\u2019m off and\u00a0writing. Sometimes I change it three or four times before I settle on\u00a0something. All that really matters is that I\u2019m choosing because no choice is a\u00a0choice.<\/p>\n
When I show up for a first meeting with a prospective\u00a0writing client, while they\u2019re auditioning me, they don\u2019t know that I\u2019m secretly
auditioning them. Is she a good choice for me? Does she play well with other\u00a0children? With a few exceptions, I\u2019ve done a pretty good job of picking the\u00a0right project for me but even when I haven\u2019t, I\u2019ve learned something important.<\/p>\n
\u00a0More than a few times, someone has called on me to help them
write a book.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is your book about?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have three of them. I don\u2019t know which one to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPick one,\u201d I say. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter which one. Go with what excites you the most. There are no good or bad choices.\u201d<\/p>\n
When you can\u2019t decide, you\u2019re choosing paralysis over
motion.<\/p>\n
Dr. Seuss said:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes.<\/p>\n
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of my clients, the late producer Lynda Obst said, \u201cStop\u00a0resisting. Ride the horse in the direction it\u2019s going.\u201d To me, that means deciding\u00a0to trust yourself and stand behind your decisions. If you make a mistake, the\u00a0lessons you learn will guide you back to your destination. Whether it\u2019s the\u00a0hard way or the easy way, you get to the same place in the end.<\/p>\n
Pema Chodron says:<\/p>\n
You have the choice to launch into your lousy habitual
patterns,<\/p>\n
or to stay with the rawness and discomfort of the situation
and let it transform you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you choose yourself, you start attracting everythingthat is also choosing you.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 . . . Anonymous I hadn\u2019t written someone else\u2019s memoir for years. In the\u00a0past, I did one after the other and many of them made the bestseller lists. Butafter years of being somone else on paper, I was hungry to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2759,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758\/revisions\/2759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}