Write your book! Fail often, fail fast, fail forward.
Write your book. Come on, do it. Stop saying, “one day I’ll write a book”. In fact, stop saying, “one day”. Stop being afraid. Are you afraid of failure? What’s the worst that could happen? You fail. You’ve never done that before? What’s the best that can happen? You succeed. Maybe you’ll never make the New York Times bestseller list, but not many do. At least you’ll be able to say you’ve written a book.
Take it to the next level. Publish it! Yes, put it out to the world. Be bold. Be brave. Write your book and claim authorship. Self-publishing tools are so easy and available. If I can do it, and I’m hanging onto the tech world by my fingernails, then you can do it. If you need guidance, check out my self-publishing Pinterest board.
Are you afraid of success? Some are. By succeeding, the world validates you and your talent. Success is a rare thing for those who don’t believe in themselves. It might skew their world. Be bold and change your world.
Take a risk. I’ve taken many over the years. I wasn’t born or raised as a risk-taker. In my time (let’s talk Don Draper) little girls grew up to be wives or mothers . Careers, if you were so bold to seek one, were limited to secretary, teacher, stewardess, and nurse. Oh, and clerical, a career (!) I entered, which morphed into analytical research.
How I changed into a risk taker
My husband, Mr. Hello-how-long-have-you-worked-here, Mr. Extrovert, pulled and prodded my true personality to the forefront. I’m still an introvert, by I’m a highly-functioning one, which means I can walk and talk in public at the same time; I can take command of a room full of authors; I’m proud of my writing and WILL talk about it; and I’ve been known to strike up conversations with strangers. (Gasp!)
One of the first steps I made in the “write your book” journey was to join a writers group. Then split off and start another. Then WRITE THE DAMN BOOK. And—get this—finish it and send it to a publisher.
Non-writing related, we’ve failed often, failed fast, and failed forward many times. We’ve started many businesses. Some have failed (pre-internet gift baskets), some have succeeded (office cleaning, which paid the mortgage every month). Though we don’t consider it a fail, some might because we didn’t “stick it out”—In 2012, we quit well-paying jobs, sold our house and most of our possessions, and moved to Hawai’i. We lived there for three years, six months and twenty-one days. Was it a fail? Yes and no. We never regained our income, but we lived in paradise.
We took a risk. In our minds, it paid off. It might not have. That’s our view of life. Try it. Go on to the next thing if it doesn’t work.
Fail often, fail fast, and most importantly, fail forward. We wouldn’t be where we are if we hadn’t tried.
Now it’s your turn. Write your book. Take a chance. Believe in yourself.
Go!
Blessings!
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