A familiar story: The Chinese word for “crisis” is made up of two picture characters — the first one means “danger” and the second means “opportunity.” Consider how these two words came into play in the writing of The Scarlet Letter, an American classic. It’s a story worth hearing again and again!
When Nathaniel Hawthorne lost his job in the custom house where he labored long hours, he returned home in despair. His wife listened to all his worries, then set a pen and paper on the table in front of him, lit a cozy fire in the fireplace, put her arms around him to comfort and encourage him, and said, “Now you will be able to write your novel.” Hawthorne seized the moment and wrote The Scarlet Letter.
So often, when we hit a obstacle as Nathaniel did, we look for the worst that can happen instead of extracting the best from it. We see the cloud and forget about the silver lining.
We hit a snag in a story and instead of letting it stoke us to come up with a solution, we let it stump us. A character we’ve created seems two dimensional; instead of pumping life into it, we feel deflated our work comes to a halt. We receive another rejection from an agent or editor and instead of getting energized by the opportunity to push our work to the next level — to make it so irresistibly exciting and readable that no one will be able to pass on it again — we let the turn down dispirit us.
How do we shift from danger doomsayers to opportunity discoverers? How do we push through the cloud and find that silver lining? Mostly it’s an issue of attitude: As my great friend and mentor Dr. Rob Gilbert says on his wonderful Success Hotline (973.743.4690), when we run into a roadblock, we have two choices: We can get frustrated or fascinated.
If we get frustrated, it’s game over — we get into a negative spiral and a “woe is me” pity party. If we get fascinated — if we get energized by a problem instead of deflated, anything and everything is possible. Our upbeat attitude helps us generate fresh ideas and see new solutions.
Some time soon, we’re all likely to hit a roadblock. And when we do, we’ll face a simple choice: getting frustrated or fascinated. Let’s get fascinated and write on!
