You Can Do Hard Things

I want you to take a moment and think about the title of this post. Now, look at the information below:

Characteristics of Hard Things:

• Hard things are difficult 
• Hard things are overwhelming
• Hard things make you feel scared and inadequate

Now read the following sentence:

 You can do hard things.

Doesn't that just lift the weight off of your shoulders? Suddenly whatever it was that was belittling you with it's scary difficult-ness seems just a little bit less difficult, right? Those five little words just made you feel better about yourself. Language is a powerful thing.

I have to admit, mantras don't usually work for me. Maybe they do when someone else is drilling them into my head, but not when I'm on the brink of some scary something and I'm trying to tell myself it will be okay. "You don't know that!", my brain says, "You're just saying that in an attempt to calm yourself down. And you better try something else because it's not working!" Despite my fickle brain,  "You can do hard things" is one of the phrases I've found that actually works. Whenever the going gets tough, wether it has to do with writing, or school, or (more recently) my driver's test, I say that phrase to myself. Why? Because  instead of filling my head with promises of everything magically working out, or making myself feel worse by pretending that what I'm trying to do is easy, those five little words actually make me believe that I can do it. Why again? Because I can! I think that every one of us is capable of doing hard things. We just have to put our minds to it. And that is what makes this phrase so powerful. It's the truth.

Armed with this new knowledge, you are ready. The time has come. Go out and write that novel, or ace that test, or climb that mountain. Yes, it will be difficult. But something tells me you can do it.

Update

Okay. So I know I'm not supposed to apologize on my blog, or make excuses about why I haven't been posting recently, but I have a couple of legitimate reasons for my absence that I'd like to have go on record:

1. The end of May was insane, with finals and the end of my Junior year of high school. I am officially a senior now!
2. I just got back from a seven day cruise in the bahamas. My computer stayed at home. 
3. I am going to break the first rule now and apologize for being missing in action. I do plan to continue writing in this blog and I hope you will continue reading! (Next time I'll try to warn you about any absences!)

Well, now that that's out of the way, I thought I'd give you a little update on the things going on my life right now: 

• I got accepted to the Iowa Young Writer's Studio! I will be there for two weeks in July, not including a detour my parents and I are taking in order to explore colleges in that area when the workshop is over. I WILL be bringing my computer, so I will try to keep you updated on all the goings on.
• Two pieces of my writing were accepted for publication in the Ivy Quill, Ivy Tech Community College's (in Indiana) literary magazine. So happy!
• As part of our assignment for the fiction class that I will be taking in Iowa, we have to write in a notebook every day. I've been trying to do that, with...moderate success.
• I just started writing on a new project that I'm dubbing "Laura's Super Secret Project."More on that later.
• Also, I love this video. This is what I hope writing a novel is like, even if it does make me seem crazy. (Via: Kaleb Nation)
• I'm sick. Meaning I have a cold. And it sucks.

Well, that's about all for now. I just want to say how good it feels to be blogging again! In a few days I will try to post another "From a Writer's Notebook" post. I feel kind of bad that I haven't done more with that series.

Also: I'm currently reading "A Good American" by Alex George. It is wonderful so far. Stay tuned for a review!

Finally, thank you everyone who has read and commented on this blog. It means so much to me!