Soul Saturdays: Letting Yourself Get Overly Excited

So some people take everything good that happens with a grain of salt, imagine the worst case scenario, and tip the scales towards pessimism rather than optimism. I say, sometimes let your imagination run wild when something good (or even just almost good) happens or may happen in the near future.
Imagine that you will land a big writing gig and be able to take that dream vacation (Ireland for us).
Go ahead and pick out that new car you would buy when you sell that book.
Envision that new wardrobe when someone runs your article.
Should you sit around and daydream like this all the time? Of course not. Is is self-indulgent? Sure. Superficial? Absolutely. But letting yourself get carried away every once in while is perfectly okay, even necessary, especially when you are cutting corners, downsizing, maybe even quitting your safe job in order to pursue your dreams.
Attaching little fantasies to good news makes the news even better. I recently pitched several different article ideas to several mid-level and national magazines, and I got my first positive response today. It wasn't even a 100% yes, we want you to write the article for us.
It was just a maybe.
But, that little maybe means I am on the right path. Someone thinks I have a good idea, and that alone is good enough reason to daydream about my first book signing in the hopefully not-so-distant future.
We owe it to ourselves to embrace these small victories, do a little dance, and then get back to work. Take those maybes and daydream. Take those yeses and celebrate by making one of those daydreams come to fruition. Maybe it's not the right time to fly off to Spain, but it can definitely be the right time to buy a new pair of earrings.