Day 3 - Your Turn Challenge - The How

Day 3: Tell us about something that you think should be improved.

The first two days of the Your Turn Challenge were simple for me. I was excited and motivated to write, to share my thoughts again, to be part of a conversation.

Day three is somewhat more of a challenge. I think what can be improved ... is my own willingness to take risks, to fail grandly and greatly by doing. And so this post is for me first. If it speaks to you, as well, then I am glad.

In the Your Turn Challenge, you can fail by NOT doing. If you don't post, you fail. But something about that seems so sad and counter-productive. Not posting, not acting, not speaking, these things are easy and safe. But in order to succeed, we must actively fail, we must choose a path and be wrong sometimes.

This is true for any writer who wants to share her thoughts with the world. You fail most when you fail to act. Someone will always be around to tell you that you "did it wrong," or that your idea is flawed, or that you used "your" incorrectly. Even worse, people will outright disagree with you and may even prove you made a mistake.

To be a writer means to take that risk, to put yourself out into the world, to choose to have a voice, even if you may have to admit you're wrong later, or put out a revised version of your manuscript that cleans up spelling errors and takes into account new information you hadn't considered before you published.

Will you fail or will you succeed? You won't know until you try.