As I start this year long project to write a book every month, my biggest fear is that I am going to lose my motivation. I love being creative and coming up with ideas, but my ADHD brain also loves to jump from project to project. That has made focusing on one book at a time really difficult.

As I write this, I have about 70 pages completed for my first book in the series: Co-Teaching with Robots: Being Human in the AI Assisted Classroom. I am pretty happy with what I’ve written. The more I write, the more confidence I gain that I am going to finish this book and be able to keep this project going.

This week I only wrote a few thousand words, but I was able to launch the pre-order for the book on Amazon. I was nervous to launch it because I don’t know if anyone is going to buy it. 

Even though I just launched this project with its new newsletter, YouTube channel, and podcast, I was hoping I would have more followers and subscribers by now. I’m trying to be realistic, but it has really challenged my motivation.

Because I have been worrying about being able to focus and trying to keep going with a small following, I have been thinking a lot about my motivation. That’s when I realized I need to believe in what I write.

I know that I need to improve in my marketing. I have tried, but I haven’t been successful—yet. Still, I need to believe in what I write.

We can’t know if we’re going to be successful or not. That’s not a reason to stop or to give up. We need to believe in what we write.

As I started to think about this, I was reminded of how athletes approach competition. As a fan, I know that sometimes my team is going to get destroyed by their competition, but that doesn’t stop them. They may even go into the game believing they can succeed. Sometimes they do—against all odds.

How? How can they ignore when they are outmatched and still believe that they can win? I’m sure a sports psychologist could explain this better, but in short, because they have to believe. They simply can’t do their job if they don’t believe they can win. It’s a job requirement. As writers, we need to adopt a similar mindset. We need to believe against all odds that we can succeed—because we can.

At my doctoral graduation, the guest speaker was WNBA legend Lisa Leslie. During her speech, she told the story of growing up in Compton, California. Against all odds, she believed that she could succeed. Why? Because, she said, “Why not me?” Someone had to succeed, why not her?

And so I ask the same question: why not me? Why not you? Why not us?

It may not happen now. It may not happen soon. But, why not?

As long as I keep trying, even if I fail along the way, the only sure indicator of failure, is giving up.

I have struggled to be motivated, but I’m not ready to give up. It’s too soon. Too much is possible.

As I share what I’ve written so far, I have had a good response—in person. That encourages me. Seeing myself complete more pages encourages me. Knowing that I’m getting closer to my goal encourages me.

Why not met?

Why not you?

Why not us?

Let’s keep going. We can choose the measure for our own success. Right now, continuing means success for me. Let’s keep going.

I’ll talk to you next week.

—Jacob