The next day I was reading through my email and came across a recent one sent out by David Farland in his Daily Kick for writers (which you can sign up for here). He talks about how in order to compete in the rapidly-changing publishing market, writers are going to have to become “crazy good” at what they do. Here’s a tiny snippet: “…They said that no one would make it in film once people got to watch television for free. I believe that people will still make it {in publishing}, and some authors will even become bigger superstars than ever before, but we may have to up our game in order to do so.In order to build a name for ourselves, each one of us as authors will have to become Crazy Good.

So that’s the goal for today. Write beautifully from the depths of your soul. Go to extremes. Do something that no one else would consider doing.”

The world is changing, the way we interact with it is different, the options available to us are expanding exponentially, and we have to be willing to change the way we work, the way we do business–regardless of who we are, what we do, and what our goals are.

Here’s the thing: no matter what we want to do, there’s no point in striving for mediocrity, for settling for less than what we can be. That doesn’t mean we all have to be superstars or New York Times Bestsellers–there’s nothing wrong with being the best piano teacher, the best seamstress, the best mom or gardener you can be without striving to compete against the best in the world–and no one can be the best at everything, so just pick whatever is most important to you. But in whatever venue you want to succeed, give it your all, be your best. All of us, regardless of our dreams, should dream big, and strive to be ‘crazy good.’