A Cat of Impossible Colour (who reads my blog FYI. Solid.) left me a comment saying that she completely agrees with my Protestant work ethic ethos of ‘The harder I work, the luckier I get’. She says that she gets sick of people saying how ‘lucky’ she is to have published a book. Yep. Luck had everything to with it. Firstly she plied a leprechaun with Lucky Charms so he was all hyped up on sugar and joined her mission to gather unicorn pee, blow up ladders and feed poisoned mice to black cats.
The green eyed monster comes to visit us all once in a while. My current obsession is with Mia Wasikowska who was plucked straight from the Canberra theatre stages and delivered into the loving arms of Tim Burton. I want to bury myself in a big black pit of jealous screaming ‘SHE’S SO LUCK-EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!’… But calm down just a minute there Miss Smaggle. She’s not lucky, she’s ambitious. Aside from sacrificing life, time, sanity, food and her childhood years that should have been spent pashing Stussy-jeans wearing pre-pubescent boys at the bus interchange she obviously did something to get noticed. Tim Burton doesn’t generally wander around going ‘Hmmm… I wonder what the Canberra Philharmonic Society have on at the moment.’ She worked. And it worked.
When was the last time you ran into a friend who was half the size she was then when you last saw her? Did you gush and say she looked great? But secretly wanted to liquify donuts and feed them to her intravenously as she slept? Why? We all know weight loss is hard and there’s no easy way to do it. So why after spending months on the couch drinking wine and eating refined cellulite do we sneer ‘lucky bitch’ at our newly size ten friends who have been counting calories like Oprah counts money and – Shock! Horror! Actually have a banging bod to show for their hard work? Why?
What about that friend from high school that has been interning pro-bono at a fashion magazine while struggling to make ends meet at her part- time job only to be rewarded with an assistant editors position? It was all peachy keen and BFF when she was ‘chasing her foolish dream’ but now that it’s been realised suddenly we put our jealous hats on. Why?
Or that friend who just bought her first house? The one that you stopped inviting out because she could ‘never afford it’? Why are you jealous with your 15o plus pairs of shoes and Chloe handbag?
It’s not that you’re bitter that they’ve achieved amazing things. It’s because you’re annoyed at yourself that you haven’t. Ouch. That hurt a little didn’t it?
No one will know you are writer unless you write something and show them. You will never buy a house unless you stop getting mani-pedis every week. You will never lose weight while you have a Mars Bar in your hand. And you will never be handed a gallery exibition unless you draw something and wave it around in front people.
It’s time to be honest with yourself. What do you want? Write it down. Figure out how to get it. You don’t reach your goals by accident.
In fact… tell me! What do you want? And what are you going to do today to achieve it?
I’ll start… I want to start my jewellery line. And today I’m going to go to the library, sketch, do research and find my design voice. Then I’m going to draw up a business plan.
And you…?
See you back here in three months to report. Let’s make everyone jealous of us!
Love Lady Smaggle
xxx