Tis the Season...

To be way behind on everything. Including posting today. Whoops. Sorry about that!

I found this quote today, and it seemed an appropriate one for me. Maybe you will find it inspiring as well.

"There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will." - Epictetus

I have said it before, I tend to be a worrier. I used to worry that I worried too much. The older I am, and the more things I "get" to worry about (two children, mortgages, bills, health, etc., etc.), I've slowly begun to learn not to worry so much. It was either that, or go insane. I can't control everything. In fact, there are very few things I can actually control at all. That are "within the power of my will." I have to focus on doing my best with the things I can control and have trust and faith that everything else will work out the way it is supposed to.

Even in writing, we have a lot we can control, but there is so much that we can't. Elana Johnson did a fabulous post about "luck" in the process of getting published and it really hit home for me, and probably a lot of you. We all have to keep working hard, honing our craft (no matter what stage we're at--querying agents, on submission with editors, or published author working on subsequent books), and moving forward. But there are always things we can't control that could cause us worry. Will this agent/editor love my writing enough to offer to represent me/buy it? Will my book sell well? Will I get another deal? Will I be able to write another book as good as my first one? There are always worries. But I'm trying to learn to let them go.

I've yet to read a study telling us how good worrying is for our mental or physical health. So I am consciously trying to worry less--to do what I can do, and let go of the rest. How about you? What are you worried about? And can you do anything about it or not?

Do you worry?

I am a bonifide worry-wort. That's what my mom calls me anyway. I worry. A lot. About big things, and about silly things. I worry about the fact that I worry too much. It's an illness. I know.

Today, I am trying not to worry too much: I'm trying not to worry about the results to all these tests on my heart. I'm trying not to worry about if I'm doing a good enough job as a mom. Or a wife. Or a housekeeper (ha ha, I know I'm failing at that one most days!). I'm trying not to worry about money, or muscle definition, or how long it takes me to run (or if I can even make it the distance I need to), or hearing back on some potentially big news. There are SO many things to worry about. Sometimes, I feel so overwhelmed by it all, that I almost start to feel crushed by it. So this quote really made me take a step back:

"Don't waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today, I am going to focus on what I'm doing RIGHT NOW and do it to the best of my ability. If, at the end of the day, I know I was fully invested in everything I did, in the moment I was doing it (instead of worrying about what I wasn't doing), I think I will go to bed happy. What do you think? How do you deal with your worries, whether in pursuing publication or in life?