What a difference a Month makes?

Sometimes looking backwards is a good thing.  A month ago I had only been out of the hospital for a few weeks and wondering, will I ever be able to function on my own again?  Of course, the answer was yes, but being so overwhelmed with trying to deal with the results of my knee replacement surgery, I would have said no.

So now I want to look back and do a little comparing:

·        A month ago, I hobbled along with a walker, transitioning to a cane.  Now I can walk on my own.

·        A month ago, I could hardly bend my leg to get into a car.  Today, I’m driving myself around.

·        A month ago, my range of motion on my knee was barely 80 degrees.  Now it’s 120+.

           I’m sure you don’t want to hear all the woes of my recovery, but I wanted to point them out for a reason.  Writing is a work in process. Writers deal with writers block, rejection letters, and critiques that make them throw up their hands in defeat.

So now I ask you to look back to when you first began. 

·        Do you still have writers block?  Sure you do, but hopefully you’ve learned some techniques on how to get over it, or at least make that stretch of unproductive writing time shorter.

·        Do you still get rejection letters?  I think that’s a given, even for the best writers, but have you learned how to overcome the pain of rejection and move forward?  Have you learned how to learn from your mistakes?

·        Critiques are much the same way.  What did you learn from them?

 

Looking backwards can be good.  Sometimes.

Your turn:  What have you learned from looking backwards?