Don't Trade Your Passion for Glory

There's a line in the song "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor where it says:

You trade your passion for glory

This song speaks volumes of truth about perseverance, which is the only way to get better. But for this post, I'm going to focus on this line. We must be careful not to trade our passion for glory. If you seek to glorify yourself, you will lose the reason why you got there in the first place. It's far better to keep your passion alive and labor away in "obscurity" than to get accolades from others and in the process your passion dies. And when passion dies, you lose the core of your craft.

Glory is a Siren. Though she calls in a seductive voice and she is beautiful, don't go and embrace her or you will "die." It's too easy for us technical writers or writers of all stripes or anyone else for that matter to get drawn in by her songs. Resist her! She is fleeting. People are fickle. One moment, people love you. The next, they revile you.

There's nothing wrong with success. If you worked hard and got there honestly, then God bless you for it! Don't beat yourself when you're successful. But be on guard! Make sure you don't let the glory get to your head, you become arrogant and dismiss those who helped you along the way.

Passion may not at first look as beautiful as Glory. But if we look again, Passion's beauty is deep within and shines through. 

Glory only has the surface beauty but her heart is hollow. Passion is full of simple and pure innocence. Passion will be there and she inspires you to persevere and to be creative. Glory will fade away and move to another when the winds of trends blow her toward another direction. So hold onto Passion. Let Glory go!

For Passion is a faithful soulmate. Glory is a perpetual adulteress.

Passion survives. Glory dies.

Being the Best, No Thanks

I'm not interested in being the best writer there is. I'm okay with others with being far better than me. It's a pipe dream to try to be the best there is. 

Why do I say this? Before I became a technical writer, I remember an acquaintance, he was an old cat who happened to be a jazz bassist, once told me something insightful. He said "no matter what you do, there will be always be someone better than you."

Constant one-upmanship is futile. Supposed you get to the top, it's only matter of time before you get knock out of there. What's the point? Life is too short to pursue this vapid phantom. How much damage can you do to yourself and others when you focus on being the number 1 writer? There's so much more peace when you let this go and just focus on writing.

I'm just interested in doing the best I can as a writer. My focus is on the craft and to continue to grow as a technical writer. I'm not interested in competition. I'm not interested comparing myself to others. Those writers, especially well-known ones, are who they are. I'm just me. God has blessed me with a technical writing career. He has given me a freedom in obscurity, yet given me and my family a well-compensated space to do what I love. I'm just interested in doing the best I can and let the rest follow.

Writing should be about quality, not quantity or prestige. It should be about the craft and creative process that goes with it. I still get a joy in designing documentation, even if it's not "the best".

For however long I can keep writing professionally, I resolved to do this:

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; -- Colossians 3:23 KJV

Perpetual Problem with Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

When we look at back at something, let's be honest we all do this, and say I coulda have done this, or I woulda done this instead, or I shoulda done that, there's a problem if we let these thoughts go unchecked. The problem is we'll be stuck in a perpetual loop of regret.

Let's suppose we could go back in time and do X instead of Y. If we did X, then we'll say the same thing that I shoulda, coulda, or woulda done Z instead. Let's say you do Z, then we'll say same about A and B and so on.  But it's not just an neverending chain of things of we could have done. What about the neverending chain of events that would have been affected from the things we didn't do because we choose the alternative path?

Let's say we were able to do Y instead of X. How would it affect the world surrounding X if we didn't do X or maybe it would have affect W? 

It's maddening to think about it. So it's maddening to be stuck in a perpetual loop of woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Don't get me wrong. Reflecting on the past is good because it can help us learn from our past mistakes, grow from it, and help us move forward successfully. But if we're not careful, we end up dwelling on the past and fall into trap of endless rumination and perseveration. 

This is true with life, careers, and even documentation.

When we create documentation, though there should be fundamental questions to ask before you start, there are different ways to approach it. Different circumstances require different approaches. In those moments, sometimes, we just don't come at it the best way. I know I haven't many times throughout my career as a technical writer. There are times where I overlook something or didn't document the features as clear as I should have, especially when my knowledge was limited on a subject, or I didn't ask the SME the right questions, or both.

But rather than beating myself up in a loop of woulda, coulda, shoulda, I try to reflect on it and move on. Yes, it's hard to not go back and think I could have done something better. But if I did, it wouldn't be the documentation that it is. And if I could go back, I would probably make the content worse in some ways because of whatever unforseen factors. 

The fundamental flaw with wishing to time travel is we assume we're going to make it better. How do know if we will improve the past? What if we make it worse if we didn't let history play out as it did? What lessons would we fail to learn?

I'm not much of a fan of time travelling stuff or even some alternate history because of this flawed thinking. But I do enjoy the JRPG "Chrono Trigger" and liked PKD's novel "The Man in the High Castle" and still have a couple of Harry Turtledove's novels to read. Beyond that, I have no interest. 

Of course, I'm assuming the worst but it's the flip side of assuming the best. In either case, they're unproven assumptions, so it's fruitless to dwell on woulda, coulda, or shoulda.  The movie "It's a Wonderful Life" shows the downside of this kind of thinking when taken to its extreme. Though it's become cliché, the message is still powerful there. Besides, clichés wouldn't exist if they weren't effective with our psyche. 

The past is there to learn from, even with documentation, so we can move forward into the future. To yearn that we wish we could somehow change the past is a waste of one of the most precious gifts that God has given us: life and time. It will eat away at your soul if you do, where you can't see what's in front of you.

Unlike real life, the beauty of documentation is it can be changed. We can improve it by learning from our past mistakes and continue to improve it in the future.

So rather than pining away about the past or fretting about a future we can't control, let's focus on living in the present. Let's take each day and document at a time. I'm not saying this from a high holy horse. I'm telling myself this as well. I struggle with living in the present but I want to. Let's heed what Jesus said about this. For if we do, we'll have peace and know how to move forward, regardless of our circumstances, even if they're crappy right now.

Matthew 6:25-34 KJV

[25] Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? [26] Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? [27] Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? [28] And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: [29] and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. [30] Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? [31] Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? [32] (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. [33] But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. [34] Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.