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Impressing People

By angel | Published: Monday, April 6, 2009

How to Plan the Perfect Dinner Party by kevindooley.Photo by kevindooley

I’ve encountered this on more than one occasion.  Someone will tell me that they would like to either pursue a Ph.D, write a book, or start an interesting business.  There is nothing wrong with that, however, what confuses me is the followup to stating these desires:

  •  It would be impressive to someone at a dinner party.
  • I would be the only person in my family who…
  • It sounds cool
  • It’s prestigious
  • It would be nice to introduce myself as…

 

It’s natural to visualize and skip ahead beyond the hard work, stress, financial and emotional investmants involved in accomplishing certain things. 

You’ve talked about what you would do if you won the lottery, right?

Well, we can’t control the outcome of lucky numbers, but acquiring a higher degree, plunging head-long into writing a book, or starting a small business are within the grasp of many of us.  Just make sure you have a better set of reasons for embarking on your goals.  It will save you a lot of trouble, especially if your heart isn’t in it.  Intrinsic beats extrinsic.

After all, what are you left with after a dinner-party where someone just nodded politely, then moved on?

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  • C.harris
    for those who are thinking about writing a book for other reasons than impressing people, here's a link to a great book to help you out (psychologically, anyway).

    it's called The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend fear.

    http://www.amazon.com/Courage-Write-Writers-Tra...

    writing a book is no cake walk; it usually incites tremendous anxiety in the author to the point that many give up before they ever finish a manuscript. Others finish the manuscript, but never get the courage to drop it into the mailbox to make its way to a publisher. Writing for public consumption is described by many famous authors as feeling like you're dancing naked for strangers. I think it was E.B. White (Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little author) who said that anyone who writes for the public begins by voluntarily dropping his pants.

    If you're thinking of writing a book and are serious, give this book a read. You may find that you really do have the ability and just need that nudge--or you might find that working months, and maybe years, under the inescapable anxiety that writers face is just not for you.

    or, you could avoid the link altogether and still entertain the dream that you'll get to it "one day."
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