Climbing Mt. Everest

What is success? When have you reached your goals?
There comes a point when you've been striving a long time.
Maybe you want to be a writer, maybe you want to be a ballerina, astronaut, whatever.
Are you an astronaut the moment you get your NASA badge, or the day you launch to the moon?
Robert Rodriguez says in his book, Rebel Without a Crew: "You want to be a director? Make yourself a business card. Now you're a director. Next!"

The same is true for writing.

But you spend so much time STRIVING.
Because at what point is a writer a writer?
The day you first pick up a pencil and copy the ABCs?
The day you write your first story?
The day your English teacher recognizes that you have skill?
The day your news article lands above the fold on the front page?
The day you're published in a magazine?
The day you win an award?
The day someone hires you to write for them?

All of those are the point at which one becomes a writer.

Sometimes you can spend so much time striving you forget to look up and realize you're actually there.

You also get used to apologizing for the fact that you aren't in the Amazon Top 100, or the New York Times Best Sellers or that your movie was a short and not a feature or an indie feature and not a Hollywood feature or it was released in theaters but was not a blockbuster, or it was a blockbuster but not an Oscar-winner. Or it was nominated but didn't win. Or it won, but...

Enough!
You are a writer.
The life is: get up, make a cup of coffee, sit down, fill screen. Repeat.
Enjoy!