I've ventured into Principle Two of TSP (The Success Principles) and the title of that Principle is, BE CLEAR ON WHY YOU'RE HERE. It's pretty much all about defining "your purpose."
Makes sense. If you're stuck in a crappy job but don't know what you really want to do, it's easy to stay put. It's hard enough to go for your dreams when you have a clear idea of what your dreams are.
When kids are asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" They'll joyfully blurt, "fireman, nurse, baseball player, ballerina..." Kids don't say, "hmmm, what comes with a good benefit package?" They don't question whether or not they've got the skills for the position or if it's "realistic." No. Kids go with what they think they would enjoy at the moment. Some kids even want to do a few things, "I wanna be a lawyer, astronaut and hot dog chef," might be a response.
It took me a long time to realize that I'm meant to tell stories and write - ultimately entertain. It's funny, if I look through my life, I've always been a writer. I remember being six years old and "writing" a very short play (a musical no less!) for a few of the neighborhood kids, It was called, "It's A New Year Tom & Jerry." I found a curtain, I gathered props. I cast Tom and Jerry and that's about all I remember in my fuzzy memory of that. Not even sure we ever performed it but there I was writing a play - then when I was eight, I wrote a short story called "The Hungry Cat," which I still have (thank to my slight hoarding habit) and I went on to write several poems through grammar school. In HS & college I excelled in my classes (which I credited to my ability to write a good paper no matter what. I could "BS" my way into an A) I thought. Always writing poems and small ideas.
But never did I think to pursue writing as a profession. I never thought I was good enough to get paid for it. I thought I was just OK. I could never be as good as a "real" writer. I didn't bother to try to write for the school paper and it never dawned on me to give writing any meaningful thought.
I always loved film & television. During college, I decided to study Communications. I wanted to work in TV. I interned, worked hard and got hired on a National Talk Show right out of college. By the time I was 22 I was an associate producer. A fancy title! Cool business cards! Good salary and great benefits! Life is good. but it wasn't. The job was 24/7 - it was stressful, pounding work and it wasn't making me happy. I took a step back in title... It took a few years of wandering through different positions at the same company for me to finally stumble upon my bliss... WRITING... Screenplays.
Hmmm. I loved writing. And film.... Why did it take me until the age of 27 to realize that not only would this make total sense for me, but I'd actually be pretty good at it!?
Amy, already having a screenplay under her belt, Co-wrote my first venture into screenwriting, "Searching For Ben Affleck." A screenplay I'm still proud of to this day. Since then, I've gone on to write more than 12 different shorts, feature length and spec sit-coms scripts.
I also enjoy developing stories through reality television shows, documentary and informative programming.
Jack has an exercise on page 23 of TSP that help you define your purpose - If i was to define my purpose, it's: "to entertain and inspire people through creative mediums."
So, I definitely think I'm on the right track at this point.
On a side note, today and tomorrow are the services for my sister-in-law. I'm sad. Her death is a reminder to me that life does goes quickly and we need to make sure we are living with purpose and following our dreams while we are here.
xo
Jen
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