The Pursuit of the Silver Platter

The Pursuit of the Silver Platter

By Annabelle Trokey

How do we become successful in life? We thrive. We fight. And most of all we dream. Success is the glistening image of security on a silver platter. But, it is not as easily ordered. In fact, most dreams are challenged by life's satirical punch and it is at this moment that the strong are divided from the weak. Consider the 25% (http://www.pamf.org/teen/health/nutrition/fastfood.html) of Americans who eat fast food daily. These individuals have traded in their "silver platter" for a plastic one. And what are they doing about it? Well, as reported by the Gallup Health Polls; “A solid majority of Americans report being heavier than their ideal weight or say they would like to lose weight, but less than half that number (27%) are seriously trying to lose weight at this time" (http://www.gallup.com/poll/124448/in-u.s.-more-lose-weight-than-trying-to.aspx). The epidemic of doing nothing despite knowledge of the path to success is relevant in this plastic vs. silver platter case. The dream has become a distant want because the habit outdrives the drive for success. 

The moment, after the punch, the moment in which the dream seams unattainable is also the moment to determine which platter you will choose. In the words of Aristotle "Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Despite the odds, this choice requires action: The action to ignore your dreams, or the action to pursue them full throttle. It is in this action that habits are formed for success. 

Consider the story of Janet Ann Collins: 

Becoming a Writer

By Janet Ann Collins

  Recently someone asked me to explain how I became a writer, so here’s the story.

  From early childhood I wanted to be an author and majored in English in college. I carefully wrote every assignment in my first English class according to the Thesis Sentence Outline that had been drilled into us in high school.

   One day the professor asked what I wanted to do after graduation. When I told him my goal to be a writer he replied, “You’ll never make it. You have no creativity.”

   Foolishly I believed him and gave up the dream of getting published, although I never stopped writing. But no other career seemed right so I still told people I wanted to be a writer.

  My roommate said, “Show me your rejection slips. You’re not a writer unless you have rejection slips.” To stop her nagging, I sent something to a publication where I knew it couldn’t possibly be accepted, showed her the rejection slip, and she left me alone.

  One day about 25 years later I remembered the professor’s words and realized following that outline had made my writing uncreative. I wrote a children’s story I had often told my kids, submitted it to two possible publishers, and it was accepted by one of them.

  “That was easy,” I thought.

  I typed out something else, sent it off, and got the first of many rejections. That showed I was really a writer!

  Realizing I needed to learn the craft, I read books, subscribed to magazines, attended conferences and joined a critique group. As with any other profession, there was a lot to learn.

  Since then I’ve lost count of how many things I’ve had published in periodicals, and I’m now the author of three books for kids. A fourth one, Slime and All, will be published this month.

Read the original blog post and follow Janet at http://onwordsblog.blogspot.com/

Janet first never stopped pursuing her dream; she never fully gave up on the silver platter of success. So, when life gives us the uppercut what will we choose? Will passion outpace doubt? Janet continued to write. That is the habit that came first. But her tenacity teaches us that it takes not only passion but also the habit of pursuing the silver platter. For success, she learned to be driven by rejection. This rejection helped her to form her equation of success, which she paired with action becoming a successful master of her craft. What habits will you form each moment? What will be your equation for success? And whom will you invite for dinner once you've earned your silver platter?