Fill Your Own Cup

I’ve recently started a new YouTube channel called A Gamer’s Guide to Life. If you’re interested in roleplaying games, I encourage you to check it out. The reason I wanted to make videos about games like Dungeons & Dragons is that unlike chess or Monopoly or football, there are no winners or losers. The literal point of the game is to have fun, which, in my experience, is the best reason to do anything.

It’s also why I find it so hard to watch shows like The Voice, where artists are pitted in competition against one another. I understand that it’s a great opportunity, and that they receive coaching and exposure they wouldn’t otherwise; and I also know that many writers who, say, take first place in PNWA’s yearly writing contest often parlay that victory into publishing success. I was even the judge for the most recent Writer’s Digest Essay Writing contest, and was delighted when I saw the winner’s entry in last month’s issue.

And yet I still get squeamish at the idea of competition in the arts, of there being a single prize that only one person can claim. I grew up playing games and running track. I yearned to win and be a winner. It seemed like a simple formula for happiness. With that trophy would come attention and approval and validation. I might think I’m good, I’m worthy, but this award here, this medal, well, it proves it, doesn’t it?

It most certainly doesn’t. You could win a Pulitzer Prize and a year later – when no new ideas are coming to you, when all you can do is think about writing something as good as your last book – you might feel like a has-been, someone who had only one good story to tell. You won’t feel your worth as a person and an artist until you give yourself that trophy – which you can do every day you feel like you did your best. And if you didn’t do your best, if you were distracted, worried, bored – don’t worry. Do your best tomorrow if you can, and you will feel again the cup you filled yourself with your own desire, curiosity, and imagination.

Check out Fearless Writing with Bill Kenower on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com