Do your best and forget the rest

I cannot take credit for this saying. It actually comes from Tony Horton, P90X guru. But I love it.

My son is taking the AP US History exam tomorrow. And all week he has been stressing about it. He's been studying a ton and still he says, "It's crazy, Mom. It's almost impossible to pass. I don't see how I'm going to pass."

The statistics for this exam are not good. Only 40% of those who take it pass. Some say it's the hardest of all the AP tests. I don't know if that's true or not, but I know there is a heck of a lot of history these kids have to know, so they can answer 90 multiple choice questions and 3 essays. If they go outside the time period an essay question is framed in, it's an automatic zero.

So I keep telling him, "Do your best and forget the rest."

I could take a little of my own advice. As the release day draws nearer for THE DAY BEFORE, I find myself thinking - It's crazy how many YA novels there are these days. In June alone, there are an incredible number of amazing books coming out. Why would anyone spend money on mine? They can only buy so many books, after all. It's impossible. Having good sales for my book is pretty much impossible.

Yeah. Like mother, like son, obviously.

I worked really hard on this book. I did my best. Now it's time to forget the rest. Whatever happens, happens, and it will be okay.

My strategy for dealing with the stress is to work on other things. I have a secret project I'm writing that no one knows about. It's for me and me only at this point, which makes it fun.

Do you have any sayings you tell yourself to combat the worry? Any strategies to help keep your mind off the thing you're worried about? I'd love to hear them!

And for those of you who would like to read a nice review of THE DAY BEFORE and enter to win your very own copy, hop over to Shannon Messenger's blog!