by James L. Rubart, @jameslrubart
I was working on my golf swing the other day when this thought came to me:
If anyone is thinking of giving up on their writing dream because they think they’ve been on this earth for too many years, sorry, that excuse isn’t going to work.
See, working on my golf swing made me think back to last May when something extraordinary happened.
This is a shot of Phil Mickelson, Sunday, May 24th, on the 18th green of the Kiawah Island Golf course in South Carolina.
It’s the moment right after he did the impossible; he won the 2021 PGA Championship.
Why impossible? He’s 51 years old. No one has ever won one of golf’s major championships over the age of 50. Not Nicklaus, not Palmer, not Ben Hogan. No one.
But this past Sunday, Phil did. No one believed he could. Too old. Lost his touch. Dropped to 115th in the world rankings. Can’t focus intensely enough anymore.
Not to mention Phil has psoriatic arthritis.
Maybe this post is irrelevant to you because you haven’t believed the lie. If that’s the case, wonderful. But if you’ve thought about giving up because (you think) too many years have gone by, embrace the truth; your writing dreams can still come true.
As long as you’re breathing, keep the dream alive. Is it hard? Yes. Discouraging? Yes. Feels hopeless at times? Yes.
But those are simply emotions, not reality. The reality is you can do this. You can believe, just like Phil did. You can.
How Do You Stand Up for Yourself When It Means Losing Everything? Allison Moore is making it. Barely. The Seattle architecture firm she started with her best friend is struggling, but at least they’re free from the games played by the corporate world. She’s gotten over her divorce. And while her dad’s recent passing is tough, their relationship had never been easy.
Then the bomb drops. Her dad was living a secret life and left her mom in massive debt.
As Allison scrambles to help her mom find a way out, she’s given a journal, anonymously, during a visit to her favorite coffee shop. The pressure to rescue her mom mounts, and Allison pours her fears and heartache into the journal.
But then the unexplainable happens. The words in the journal, her words, begin to disappear. And new ones fill the empty spaces—words that force her to look at everything she knows about herself in a new light.
Ignoring those words could cost her everything . . . but so could embracing them.
James L. Rubart is 28 years old, but lives trapped inside an older man’s body. He thinks he’s still young enough to water ski like a madman and dirt bike with his two grown sons. He’s the best-selling, Christy BOOK of the YEAR, CAROL, INSPY, and RT Book Reviews award winning author of ten novels and loves to send readers on journeys they’ll remember months after they finish one of his stories. He’s also a branding expert, audiobook narrator, co-host of the Novel Marketing podcast, and co-founder with his son, Taylor, of the Rubart Writing Academy. He lives with his amazing wife on a small lake in Washington state.