I want to know if what I am starting in high hopes today will turn into greatness 10 years down the road. The Long Path explores history’s long time losers who have eventually reached the end of their misery and were able to see what all the suffering, and poverty, and hunger, and self-doubt was worth. We “can’t wait” today. I “can’t wait to see you.” I “can’t wait for the weekend.” I “can’t wait for the summer.” I can’t wait to become an influential author who throws her readers into mad tears, violent jerks of laughter and profound understandings of what is going on. I haven’t even started, and already, I can’t wait.
My pleasantly wired brain accepts these photo essays and their truths and I am immediately overwhelmed with motivation. But the motivation quickly perverts itself into the desire to clean the house. I can’t take the responsibility of starting on my 10-year journey of trying and failing and trying just yet. It feels like it can be put off with a few more hours and the necessity for clean dishes and empty ashtrays seems far more pressing. Again I am postponing the greatness that may or may not lie encoded in my genes. It’s laziness and fear and the fact that I can’t escape the years of being programmed for quick success. If I have spent years thinking very hard about being a great writer, without really doing anything about it, does it count?
I have devised an elaborate schedule of the things I need to accomplish before I am finally free to sit down and write: I need to get money through prostituting my writing talents to companies renting out temporary power generators and to companies luring home buyers to obscure school districts around the US, I need to do so much laundry, until there are clean clothes for weeks on end, I need to finally grade my students’ ever-growing piles of papers as I have run out of excuses for why I’m not done yet. I also need to lose weight, cut my hair, learn to bake, call my grandma, walk around the neighbourhood, keep in touch with neglected friends, organize my shit, and finally find and rent a nostalgic-looking cottage in a mountain village. So far, I have run one load of laundry.
So we make all these lists, filled with hope that they will remind us of all the important things to do and buy and mail, all the important calls we need to make, all the ideas we have for short stories and articles. And yet, by the time you get around to everything on any one list, you are already behind on another. ~ Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
If I start now, I will achieve great success by the time I am 39. If I had started 10 years ago, I would have been a great success now. It is so tiring and self-indulgent to think about it. I wonder if the people who study success and make photo essays about it have worked at it for years. Knowing the truth doesn’t make you start living it immediately.
Does your dog possess
all the necessary qualities to become an impressive athlete? Have you
considered what benefits both you and your dog can reap from an intensive
agility training that would not only improve his physical shape, intelligence,
mental alertness and vitality, but also strengthen your mutual bond, nurture
communication and enhance obedience? Surely you want what’s best for your
little friend and taking up a well-structured, extensive agility training routine
might be just what you both need to deepen your relationship and enjoy some
rewarding health benefits.
There are several
factors you should keep in mind before settling on the right agility training regimen,
including your dog’s ancestry, his food tolerance and habits, his current level
of activity, as well as his age and overall lifestyle. Certain breeds (especially
medium build or working breeds) are a lot more prone to training, both mentally
and physically, but that doesn’t mean that with some purposeful agility
training you won’t be able to increase the stamina of any dog. For example,
some breeds, usually giant ones, such as Mastiffs, are not very resilient as
their breathing tends to get heavy and laboured quire easily, so a long
training session might be out of the question. Another group of breeds, such as
those with short legs, also find it difficult to keep up with all the jumps
involved in agility training. This should in no way discourage you from
enrolling your dog in a training program, because ultimately it is up to each
individual dog’s personality and vigour.
Ideally, your dog
should be at least 9 or 10 months old at the time of starting a dedicated
agility program. On the other hand, don’t push your dog too much physically or
mentally over the age of 8 years, as their instincts naturally slow down and you
might only cause your dog unnecessary stress.
So, what will your
dog’s agility training routine involve? In most cases a special set of
successive obstacles is designed for dogs to complete in a predefined order
under a specific time constraint. These obstacles may include various types of
jumps, passing through tunnels, etc. To get to that stage, however, your dog
needs at least 6 months of daily practice to ensure he knows his way around the
equipment (tunnels, bars, hoops, etc.) and that he is well versed in obedience
commands (such as directions: left, right, back, forward, etc.). Remember to
reward your little friend with treats after successfully learning a new
command. The key for success is introducing each new command or piece of
equipment gradually and only after the dog has mastered the previously
introduced item. Before embarking on this particularly rewarding journey, you
must be confident that you will be able to devote time to agility training on a
daily basis, otherwise there is no point in starting at all.
Another crucial factor
in your dog’s successful training is his weight. Make sure you are well aware
of what healthy and balanced diet is appropriate for your dog’s breed in order
to stimulate muscle growth, reduce fat and give him plenty of energy to tackle
the challenges of agility training. Above all, you should try to have fun and
enjoy spending some quality time with your canine friend.
Why is it that rejection seems to hurt, no matter where it's coming from?
I woke up to an email starting with the notorious "I am sorry.... we are notoriously hard to get into... not the right match... we do hope..." It's not that I haven't been turned down before. I did get rejected from the Paris Review a lifetime back, but at least I didn't get to hold the miserable piece of letter, which was fortunately addressed to my Advanced Fiction Professor. I didn't get to read it wither and got a distilled, and I'm sure much nicer version of what was in it (I'm pretty sure they didn's say I should never give up and just work on that same story a few more times, especially the dialogue, it seems flat, but I have a future as a writer, no doubt about that. Yeah, I'm pretty sure my Professor added all that). The thing is, I haven't written much since then. It was the Paris Review. Serious business.
It seems it took me years to get over it, or that's my excuse for being lazy and working on every other aspect of my life in the past few years, except for writing.
