A few years ago is the last time (until recently) that I opened up the book that I have decided to start writing again. It is interesting, reading through what I wrote those years ago. Thinking back as to what life was like when I last worked on it.
As I read and edit each paragraph there are certain points where I remember exactly what life was like at that point and how much life has changed. It was 4 job positions ago. Only one of my current 4 dogs was my dog back then and he was only a pup. Now he is a full grown adult dog that thinks he owns my couch.
I remember I stopped writing shortly after I had my second back surgery. It had been my goal that while I was off for the surgery that I would spend my time finishing it. Instead I was off for only 2 weeks and was too busy arguing with my boyfriend at the time about whether I should even be “wasting” my time with writing. Part of me at the time just wanted writing to be an escape. I wasn’t expecting it to turn into some big lavish lifestyle, it was more a hobby and something for me to look back on in my life and say you know what I accomplished. I am a published writer. I did this.
It is amazing to me how the different people in our lives either build us up or tear us down. I remember everyone on Facebook telling me that I should write a book and people at work supporting me about it, but some of the people closest to me thought it was a ridiculous idea.
Most of us have this inability to believe in what we hear when it is positive. So many people when they are complimented don’t bat an eye because those people are only seeing what we want them to see. They see us as being good at something or beautiful, or skilled because they don’t see what we look at in our real skin. They don’t see the 1000 times we failed just to show the one good thing that we made.
What we pay attention to is the criticism. We listen to every drop of you should do it better or if you put on more make-up you would cover your ugly, or maybe it’s the comments about how fat we are or how we need to lose weight, or even the comments about how maybe for other people it’s that we need to gain weight because we are too skinny.
We listen to those criticisms because we believe those criticisms about ourselves because we see our struggles. The people that see those same struggles must be seeing the real us and the ones that compliment us are just looking only at the surface, or maybe they are just trying to make us feel better. What we don’t see is that we all share the same struggles.
There is a quote, not sure who said it, or where I heard it but it says something along the lines of “the difference between someone who wants to be a writer and who is a writer is that the writer starts to write”. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you. It doesn’t matter how many times you have to do trial and error. It doesn’t even matter how many times you start and start over. What matters is that you keep going.
Whether it is writing a book or losing weight. The only way you fail is if you stop trying. Maybe you will only sell 1 book, that’s 1 more book than 99% of people. It doesn’t matter if you only lose a pound in a 3 month period, keep going. It doesn’t matter what others say, what matters is that you keep going. There might be some weeks where I don’t do much writing, there might be some weeks where you eat a Big Mac for every lunch and supper you have. Keep Trying.
At the end of the day, at the end of the week, the only person who can stop you is YOU. Believe in yourself. When you can’t do that, believe in those that believe in you. We all have someone that believes in us, even if they don’t tell us all the time. If you don’t know who your person is, then let me be the first to tell you.
I BELIEVE IN YOU. I BELIEVE IN ME. WE CAN DO ANYTHING WE SET OUR MINDS TO!
Now let’s go change the 🌎 or at least our own corner of it!
