Lara Zielin

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: Okay, you know how I love Lolcats, right? Well, my friend Margaret sent me this link showing the creation of the universe in Lolspeak. From the Lolcat Bible! I die!

These days, I’m doing some digging into the topic of happiness for an article I’m writing for work. And it turns out, optimism is a big component of happiness. No huge shockers there, but here’s what I found interesting. The researchers I’m talking to gave undergrads a survey at the start of the semester, and they asked them what they thought their grades would be at the end of the semester. Those who answered saying they thought would have good grades at the end of the semester actually had good grades. And these weren’t just the smart kids. They were just the kids who thought they could have a role in their GPA.

The researchers said that, overwhelmingly, the kids who thought they could get good grades came to class. They figured they needed to learn in order to up their  GPA. Those who didn’t think they could get good grades didn’t show up because they thought it didn’t matter anyway.

I thought about this vis-a-vis writing and I realized optimism goes a long way. If you think you can get published, you can get published. You’ll send out more query letters, you’ll keep revising, you’ll hang in there with your manuscript. If you think, ah, screw it, the game’s rigged, then your publishing career is over before it started.

If you are an unpublished writer, this morning, tape a message to your bathroom mirror that says, “I’m only one ‘yes’ away from a published manuscript.” I know it’s cheesy, but the research says it works!

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