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Best Of: Choose Yourself · The Daily Writer

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer Podcast, where we share a lesson each day to help you cultivate the habits for creative success.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: This one is for all the kids who were always picked last in middle school gym class.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: You remember what it was like.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: You'd stand there awkwardly with the group, each kid getting their name called by one of the team captains.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: One by one, they disappeared from the ranks and stood in line with the chosen ones.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Then it would get down to the last few kids.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Each time you hoped you wouldn't be the last one.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe this time somebody would pick you.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: But once again, it got down to four, then three, then two, and then you were the only one left.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: So you fell in line behind the other kids while the captain rolled their eyes because they just had to choose you.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't so much that you were chosen, you'd landed on their team by default.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, many writers spend their whole lives waiting to be chosen by somebody.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're waiting for some publisher, some agent, some blogger, some Amazon reviewer, some random person on social media to finally sit up and take notice.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is that you must choose yourself.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need anybody to validate you as a writer.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can self-validate.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you're doing the work of a writer, which means simply that you're writing, then you can call yourself a writer, plain and simple.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: The jazz artist Thelonius Monk once said, Whatever you think can't be done, somebody will come along and do it.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So why stand still and let other people pass you by?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is your time.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is your moment.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: You must choose yourself.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the ironic thing is when you start choosing yourself, other people will start choosing you also.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.