“I’ve always wanted to…”

Have those words ever come out of your mouth? Maybe in a job interview or just in conversations with friends or co-workers. Well, for a good number of years, that is the exact phrase that came out of my mouth on several occasions. In interviews, with friends… I found myself saying

“I’ve always wanted to write a children’s book.”

During college I worked at a bookstore, so I was knowledgeable of the types of children’s books already on the market. Since I aspired to write something different and creative, I thought about my own childhood experiences for ideas and inspiration. Then an idea came to me to write about a little girl who wanted to play football. The message behind the story would be that girls can play sports too. As I thought more and more about this storyline, I realized that more young girls would be able to relate if I broadened the content. Reflecting on my own childhood gave me an epiphany- I would write about my own personal accounts. I felt there was no better way to send out the message that being a tomboy is perfectly alright. Reflections of a Tomboy Turned Princess stemmed from my initial idea to write a children’s book and has blossomed into my greatest accomplishment to date.

In addition to yet another opportunity to publisize my humorous easy-read for all ages, I chose this topic as my first post to encourage all YBPs to identify what it is that you have always wanted to do, and then do it. There may be a lot of things that I have yet to discover about life, but my evolution has allowed me to see clearly that you can’t get what you want out of life if you don’t first identify what it is. And after you have identified your goal(s), you must commit to that goal and go for it! I think one of the major motivating factors to my actually deciding to sit down and publish my book was the fact that I hadn’t actually committed to the idea. I had told several people on different occasions that “I’m going to write a book one day.” Then one day I said to myself, “are you really? Or are you just talking a good game.”

“There are two types of people: those that talk the talk and those that walk the walk. People who walk the walk sometimes talk the talk but most times they don’t talk at all, ’cause they walkin’.”
- Key from Hustle & Flow

I didn’t want to be the type of person who wasn’t committed to the words that came out of my mouth. So I decided to stop talking and start walking. I set a goal, a timeline, and a gameplan in order to successfully execute my project. I just did it.

Whatever it is that you want to do, take it step by step and day by day. Remember to first identify what you want to do. That may sound simple, but you’d be surprised (or maybe you wouldn’t) at how many people complain that they can’t get what they want out of life, when the root of the problem is that they haven’t even figured out what it is that they want.

I hope this motivated you to get off your butt and just do it. If you’re interested in how I made my book happen, stay tuned to the guide…