What if you can do it?

What if you CAN do it?

Do you see how that changes everything?

“One of the great discoveries a man makes, one of the great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.”

I wish I’d said that, but Henry Ford beat me to it, a long time ago, so long ago I hadn’t been born yet, and you know how long THAT is.

Ford is also the guy who said, “Whether you think you can do it, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Mind set is everything.

OK, it’s a big part of everything. You can believe you can do something and still not do it, out of fear or neglect or whatever. I hate to admit how many times I did that, or rather didn’t.

I have a Vince Lombardi quote at eye level at my computer: “When you have a God-given talent, you must use it all the time.”

It’s sort of an obligation (hence “must”). Even back in Biblical times they would say, “To whom much is given, much will be required.”

Set your mind. Believe you can do it. Go and do it. It’s a simple formula. Might take a minute or it might take years, but you can do it.

Why are you still waiting? Go.

Maybe shift the focus

Maybe we’re asking the wrong question.

Maybe instead of asking what we want to write today, we should ask what our readers want to read.

Maybe even that is the wrong question. Maybe we should be asking what we want to read, and then write that.

Someone is nodding and saying to themselves, “Now he’s talking.”

Are they the right Someone? Are there enough of these Someones to make a difference?

Now you’re talking.

The assassination of Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher in 1986. Photo © Laurence Agron – Dreamstime.com

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains general discussion of the fourth season of the television series The Crown, which debuted last week. If you like to watch a program without knowing what happens, come back at a later date after viewing the show.

This Brittanica article describes Margaret Thatcher as “The only British prime minister to win three consecutive terms and, at the time of her resignation, Britain’s longest continuously serving prime minister since 1827,” and the author — a Thatcher biographer —says she became “the most renowned British political leader since Winston Churchill.”

As someone who went through his early to mid adulthood during the 1980s, that’s how I remember Margaret Thatcher — a reformer and strong leader, similar to Ronald Reagan on this side of the Atlantic, and the two leaders became good friends. Much like Reagan, she pushed through a number of reforms over the objections of Chicken Little opponents who no doubt were shocked that the world did not end when they were implemented.

We have enjoyed the Netflix TV series The Crown and understand that all dramas “based on a true story” take liberty with the truth in the name of telling a story as forthrightly and economically as possible, but the version of Thatcher onscreen in the series’ fourth season crosses the line from well-intentioned representation to ill-intentioned fantasy.

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