2023 A to Z Challenge Blog Opportunity and Perception

I knew it would happen eventually. I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday. Would you believe I got my days of the week mixed up? I have a calendar of activities on my desk, but for some reason, my brain was stuck on Monday when it was actually Tuesday. One of the biggest hurdles I face as a full-time author these days is the opportunity to write what I want to write when I want to write it.

Yesterday’s letter was O and for me, O stands for all of the opportunities that I’ve had as a writer, those that have worked for me and those I’ve lost.

It seems to me that these days, time goes by so much faster than it used to, and I accomplish much less each day than I want to. I’m not a young woman and my body isn’t as strong and flexible as it should be. The only one to blame for that, is me since I didn’t take the best care of myself when I should have. I lost opportunities to stay strong and healthy.

Opportunity knocks for everyone, but if you don’t answer in time, you lose the chance to do whatever was best for you. Sometimes, you make a mistake and choose the answer the wrong door, wasting time on something that will never turn out the way you hoped it would. We’ve all had jobs that weren’t what we expected, taken trips that were disappointing, met people who failed to live up to their reputations, and in my case, invested time and effort into books that failed to reach their potential and my expectations. In racing language, I backed the wrong horse.

And that brings me to today’s letter P. Did you know that in life, perception is everything? Perception is the ability to give meaning to something though your senses and your mind, specifically cognition, understanding, recognition, and appreciation of something based on moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities. Synonyms include insight, intuition, and discernment.

As an author, perception is also the ability to select ideas and create plots that have meaning and value, that will entertain and satisfy the needs and wants of the reading audience. And therein lies my problem. My perception of things is based on my life experiences, my moral beliefs and upbringing, my social conventions and responsibilities, and these days, those seem far away from what society perceives, wants, and expects. When I started writing, I was instructed to write what I knew. Had I done that, the book would’ve been short and boring. Instead, I chose to use my imagination, do some research and then, use the memories I had of the places I’d been to create my works, but I still have my high hurdles and limitations.

The downside of perception is that we often see what we want to see and not what is really there in front of us. We see ourselves differently from the way we are. We fail to see the goodness in us and focus on our shortcomings. This year, my goal is to try to be less judgmental of myself. To value what I’ve done and what I hope to do, but mostly to see myself as a winner, not an also-ran.

That’s it for me today. Find other bloggers and their posts here. https://tinyurl.com/3we8aa84

Come back tomorrow when I’ll give you a Did You Know? for the letter Q. Enjoy your day.