This is bad, right?

In the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War”, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character recites a story about a Zen Master.

It goes more or less like this:

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The Zen Master, The Boy, & The Horse

In this village, a little boy is given a gift of a horse. The villagers all say, “Isn’t that fabulous? Isn’t that wonderful? What a wonderful gift.”

The Zen master says, “We’ll see.”

A couple years later the boy falls off the horse and breaks his leg. The villagers all say, “Isn’t that terrible? The horse is cursed! That’s horrible!”

The Zen master says, “We’ll see.”

A few years later the country goes to war and the government conscripts all the males into the army, but the boy’s leg is so screwed up, he doesn’t have to go. The villagers all say, “Isn’t that fabulous? Isn’t that wonderful?”

The Zen master says, “We’ll see.”

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Why am I telling you this?

Well, think back to the last time you were tempted to say, “that’s bad” as your first reaction. How did things turn out after that? Has it that “bad” situation turned into something worse? I doubt it. I bet it has turned into something better, or at least it’s no longer relevant.

The “we’ll see” – mindset is an important and powerful one for writers. It puts all the possible bad outcomes at the back of your mind and let you focus on what’s in front of you: your writing.

To practice “we’ll see”: