Wfmad and wishes.

One of my favorite YA authors does a writing challenge every year she calls Writing Fifteen Minutes a Day.  It lasts for a month, and she gives prompts on her blog every day, which you can choose to use or not.  Here's the link if you're interested: http://madwomanintheforest.com/wfmad-day-2-your-abundance-of-time/.  I'm going to try it.  I always love any excuse to write.  I might (read will) fail here and there--I'm already a day behind--but that's okay.  We'll see what happens.  Here goes!

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan."  Yet we spend our time wishing and then lamenting the perceived death of those wishes.  Why not plan their existence instead of planning their funerals?  What kind of place would the world be if people spent their time planning instead of wishing?  What kind of life would I have if I did the same? 

Why do we prefer wishing over planning?  I think it's because wishes can't disappoint.  You'll never fail at wishing, but you can--and likely will--fail at executing those wishes.  We value our pride over progress.  We crave the safe and familiar, because we know it keeps us secure and keeps our pride intact.  If we try something new, we're making ourselves vulnerable to failure and rejection.  Nobody likes that.  But without failure, we would never know success.  How often is success achieved the first time trying something?  Hardly ever.  If we stayed in our little bubble without ever trying anything, sure, we wouldn't fail, but we wouldn't have a chance to succeed either.  If we gave up after that first failure, we wouldn't ever make it.

Think of some of the greats of history:  Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King, Jr.  What would have happened if Martin Luther King, Jr., had said, "I have a dream," but didn't act on that dream?  If he had just wished for a different world and not planned for change?  Where would we be?  Or what if Franklin doodled bifocals and lightning rods in his journal but never planned to create them?  The world is nowhere without wishers who plan and act.

My mom says her mother used to tell her, "Wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which fills up faster."  While a little crude, the saying has some truth.  Wishing gets you nowhere.  Wishes aren't tangible.  Wishes don't change anything.  We can't wish for change and just hope somebody else acts on a similar wish.  We must act.  We must plan.

What are your wishes?  Maybe they're wishes for a new career or even a new hobby.  Maybe they're wishes for rebuilding relationships or being a better role model.  Wish all you want.  The more wishes, the better!  But give those wishes legs to walk, hands to reach out.  Make something of them.  A wish alone is worth nothing, but a wish paired with action is worth everything.