Bela Lampert

Optioned Screenwriter / Yoga Instructor

What Do You Want Now

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What Do You Want Now

A couple of years ago I started learning Spanish.

Just to see if I would like it and keep at it.

I didn’t have time for anything back then, so I carved out 10 min somewhere in my day (before I went to work or on my way to work) to do a little everyday.

I’d had this fantasy of speaking Spanish fluently for a very long time so one day I got going.

First, I just wanted to see if I really did like it as much as I thought I would.

Soon, those 10 minutes a day became 20.

A little later, those 20 minutes became 30.

And I stayed with these 30 minutes a day for quite some time.

After a while, I realized I was way past my goal of wanting to find out if I like it. That’s why I dedicated more time to it than originally planned.

And a new goal had formed in my mind.

Now I had this fantasy of being able to have a conversation with a native speaker in Spanish, not perfect, with pauses and asking for words, but I wanted to be able to speak about everyday topics in a way that wouldn’t be unpleasant for the both of us.

Cut to the present.

As the time of this writing I’m preparing for my C1 exam, which is the second highest level in the European framework for measuring for how well you speak a language.

So, again, I’m way past the point of being able to have a fluent conversation, now my goal is to have a better usage of words, using advanced phrases and expressing more clearly and precisely what I want to say.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, it proves if you stay with something that you like and just make little progresses every day you will get ahead.

But that’s not even what I wanted to talk to you about today.

But rather, we keep changing our goals along the way with our writing all the time.

When we start out we just want to get our first story done.

After that we want to get better at X.

Then get better at Y.

Then get an agent.

Or be produced.

Or whatever.

The point is, like with learning a language, when you feel bad because the only thing you see is the goal ahead that you haven’t reached yet, then you’ll feel bad all the time.

Because there will always be new goals that you set for yourself that you haven’t reached yet.

And guess what, feeling bad is not a good strategy to awaken your inspiration. In fact, it’s among the things that can block it.

So, time to take a quick look back and see what you’ve achieved.

And when you’re just starting out, no worries, be happy to be on the way and just be okay with where you’re at.

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