Today is a Great Day to…

“You can do anything you set your mind to.”

— Benjamin Franklin

Good old Ben “Jammin” Franklin.

Hmmm… What did he know?

Well, he knew how to read French, Spanish, Latin, and Italian — all self-taught, by the way. He invented a bunch of stuff like bifocals, a stove, and the first flexible urinary catheter. Then there was that whole electricity thing. He even had to invent a bunch of words like battery and conductor to describe what he was doing with that. Heck, I’m thinking that if he had lived just a few more years and set his mind to it, the man would have come up with Twitter as well.

But setting your mind to something isn't just for old dead guys who lived back in the dinosaur days. Plenty of people today set their minds to things and find a way to do them.

In the children’s writing world, R.L. Stine, the author of the Goosebumps series is one of those mind-setting dudes. 

Stine started writing stories and jokes when he was only 9 years old. And being a typical 9-year-old of his day, he could not type for beans!

Did that stop him?

NO!

Because R.L. had set his mind to becoming a published author.

However, he never really set his mind to that typing bit.

And that is why R.L. Stine has the gnarliest, BAD-A index finger on the planet.

Yes, the man has written 300 books…

WITH ONE FINGER!

PROMPT: You only need one mind — set it! And one finger — use it!

Look out stars, here we come!

By the way, if you wish to see the famous finger (it is worth it, trust me), check out Library of the Early Mind — a fantastic documentary about children’s literature that’s chock-full of interviews with many famous children’s authors.