The Big One

As a person with several books planned, one often has to think about the big one. The magnum opus. The baby. If you are an artist putting a collection of thoughts to paper, do you have that one that stands out the most? Do you have a supreme vision for your future?

Having a vision can be simple. It comes to you and takes firm hold of your mind. Besieges your every activity until you've finally relented and spent the time fleshing it out. It excites you to the point where you can't sleep. I absolutely love those nights when I can't even sleep because my latest thought for the big one is running rampant in my skull (I don't much enjoy this on nights before work). When you write words related to your vision, sketch images born into the vision, play a tune that just sounds perfect for the big one, these become some of your favorite personal items.

It's almost like a relationship. It's something you have now committed your thoughts to. It has become a part of your life. The next step is actually committing to it. Bringing it forth and putting it in business. At this point, having a vision becomes arduous. Now there are a thousand things that can go wrong. Now there are aspects of your vision you may have to alter in order to appeal to your market. Speaking of which, you also need to join a market or make one of your own if you have any hope of solidifying your vision.

Like a boomerang, that all important question comes back again and again. It hits you at lunch on Monday, in the shower on Thursday, during your Saturday afternoon bike ride. And on your worst days, it becomes one of the many negative notions pounding your heart. The question is, is this really worth it?

Dark notions flood my mind on a regular basis, such as what if none of this ever works? What if I never publish? What if I never get to see my dreams come alive? Really, life is just one long series of what ifs. You make an "if" tangible by pursuing it by any means necessary, by taking a situation into your own hands, to convert a hypothetical into a plausible outcome.

And if publishing never works, there is one thing that I always remind myself of. That each and every moment I spent developing this story not only meant the world to me, but helped me grow as a human being. So even if the rest of the world never gets to see it, there was never a single wasted moment.

My answer is that pursuing what you love is always worthwhile. After all, we are all here for a limited time. Why not pursue what brings a smile to our faces? Therefore, it is my firm belief that if you have a vision to spend your time on, make it the big one.