I spent the entire day two hours from home, sweating in an aquatic center so my boys could compete in their first swim meet in almost two years. New city, new team, different events, and two nervous tummies.

At these times, when I'm trying to ease my children's fears, I'm prone to preaching. I can't help it. It's okay, though, they ignore most of it anyway. 😉

But today, I actually liked what I said. Did they? Who knows. Anyway, here's what it was: “If you never risk failure, you'll never have a chance to do anything amazing.” (Or something like that…)

It's not an original idea, but it is an important one. To me, spending years of my life slaving away over manuscripts that might never see a bookshelf, investing countless hours and dollars to improve my craft, and opening myself up to constant criticism and rejection seems pretty risky.

On the other hand, the results could be amazing. It's a chance I'm willing and compelled to take.

The PRO loop seems to have been flooded this month with writers who've recently moved up to the ranks of published authors. One lady had been writing for 25–yes, TWENTY-FIVE–years!!

Talk about risk.

But I'll bet these days that same woman is feeling pretty amazing.