Speeding to the Next Red Light

Ambition. Goals. Milestones.

We enter this world already preparing for the finish line. It's like the gazelle on the Serengeti plain, hitting the ground running to avoid being some big cat's meal.

I've noticed many writers, who tend to be very goal oriented, begin to rush to the next achievement. Another book, a best seller, the most well written, highest reviews...all of the above.

Are we ever satisfied? In work or in life?
We keep running like a sprinter to the next finish line. I know I always have. 'What's next?' That's what I think. Where can I go next?
Challenging oneself is a good idea for the most part. It keeps us working, moving forward, and advancing, (hopefully) in our careers and personal lives. It's literally like a race to the finish. What can we accomplish in the tiny span we are on this planet called our lifetime?

Writers, artist, actors, and creative people in general, all have a certain type of personality that craves that next 'thing'. The new storyline, masterpiece, and big starring role. Perhaps its in the blood. There are heights out there that we want to experience before we're gone.

But it's like sitting in traffic and drag racing the cars around you, only to stop for the next red traffic signal. Basically it's going quickly to the next roadblock.

Not just in work and writing, but in life as well. We get through high school to graduate and then hit the job market, we hit the job market and want a raise, or a promotion. We go back for more education...
Or we get married, want kids, (or not) want a new car, a new house, more toys, gadgets...

We hit another roadblock...get ill, get fired, get into financial trouble, only to race out again to the next big obstacle.

By then we begin looking in our rear view mirror at where we've been and HOLY CRAP! where did the year go? Wasn't I just seventeen???

Goals. Even the country has them. Perhaps the world as well. Peace? Clean environment? End poverty? We as a human race (pun intended) keep running to the next achievement. Presumably trying to better ourselves in the process.

But as an author I certainly have high expectations of myself. To continue to do my best in my work, regardless of the critics, to expand my craft to plays, films, and every medium I can conquer in the time I have left, and of course, to make my mark somehow on someone to show 'Love is never wrong- no matter the form.'

Speeding to the next red light. We all seem to be doing it. Can we slow down? I have no idea. But as long as there is another carrot out there on a stick to grab, I have a feeling every author, artist, and ambitious individual will continue to put the peddle to the metal.

Just make sure you pull over to the side of the road once in a while to look out at the view, because time is a funny thing. You may race your life away and never stop to actually see the accomplishments you have already made. I hope in some small way I have given people enjoyment and a good laugh, perhaps a hard-on? But I too need to realize life is painfully short, and maybe we can stop speeding.

There's nothing worse than a speeding ticket.

Be safe out there.