I read a site called Letters of Note that posts common letters from famous and uncommon people, and this week they posted one from Norman Lear who recently died at 101. He wrote and produced fantastic material way ahead of his time, dealing with the social mores of society and making it comical with a serious message. All in the Family was one. Maude, The Jeffersons, Mary Hartman, then the movies like Fried Green Tomatoes. In the letter this website posted from him to a fan’s daughter, we see just how well he views the human condition. https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/only-lisa-can-make-lisa-happy

Bottom line, be happy doing the thing you love. Only you can do you. And only you can know what it is you can do in order to make yourself happy.

Not what others wish you would do. Not what you think will make others happy. Only the thing that you adore doing that makes you more in love with yourself.

This does not, however, mean becoming the best. It means doing your best. It means going through life enjoying the journey of doing what makes you a better you to yourself and everyone else. It means measuring your successes not against others but against yourself. Have you done better. When you don’t, learn from it. Enjoy your life making success and making happiness for yourself.

As he says, “Success is a question of how you collect your minutes.”

As writers it isn’t about the number of copies sold. It’s about the small collection of successes getting to publication, or maybe no more than the number of successes in writing your dream story. Again, it’s about being true to yourself and what makes you happy.

But the biggest suggestion in this being true to yourself is this: Go through life trusting and not wary.

At least in trusting more, even if you get stung, you got involved and participated. In being wary, you easily miss out on so much.

Write for you first. Publish for you first. Don’t measure your success against or through the eyes of others. Only you can make yourself happy.