I recently watched a Ted Talk called Why you will fail to have a great career.  It’s about 15 minutes long, but no visuals so you could listen and do whatever else (yup, I’m all about multi-tasking).

Here’s the basic idea – a life full of interests is going to result in a life not lived.  A life full of excuses is going to probably end up being good, but not great.  And we are better, can be more, should be more.

I’m showing it to all my high school juniors, students who, in five quarters, will be graduating high school and entering the pseudo-real world, full of decisions about their future.

But I thought about my own life each time I’ve watched it.  For a long time, I dismissed the idea of writing because I had my kids to take care of, my husband to spend time with, etc, whine, excuse…you get the idea.  And I had some decent animosity to these people for making me miss out on my dreams, but I didn’t really tell them what they were in the first place, certain they would scoff and point fingers or something.

But my family is the most supportive thing out there because they can see that mom is chasing a dream, has a goal, is full of ambition and not the reincarnation of the wicked witch of the west anymore.

Is it a juggling act?  Like no other I’ve ever had before.  Each of us who post on this blog work, have children, service projects/endeavors, etc.  But twice a month, we get together, with the pages that we managed to do, because we have the deadline, external motivation, what have you, and our writing is progressing.

But even better than that, for me, is that my kids see that, with some group work and lots of dedication, I can still chase dreams.  And if I can, so can they.

What are you doing to make sure you don’t fail to be great?  How do you overcome the inevitable complications that could make you end up good?  What or who has motivated you to be better?