I want to say a heart-felt thank you to those who reached out to help after my last post. I've read all that you have said and I am back at my desk trying to start something. I've picked one thing and am going to try to get focused on it today. It's SO HARD. I tried to get some inspiration from my books this morning. Usually it doesn't work and I have to try something else, but today I cheated and opened a book which has inspiration on every single page! I opened it up and found this passage. I hope you like it:
Believe
Believe in the power of believing. Say I believe
and believe it. Believe in fairy tales for what they
can teach you about real life. Believe in happy
endings, and believe that they don't always hap-
pen. Believe in something, anything, that gives
you the courage and strength to continue on
when it would be so easy to give up. Believe it
when a friend says you're beautiful. Believe it
when you hear the words You deserve to be
happy. When someone tells you something,
believe the parts that feel right, that resonate in
your belly, and discard the rest. Believe that you
have choices and that you can choose wisely.
Believe your own instincts above anyone else's.
Believe that you can do more with your life than
you're doing, and then do it. Above all, believe
in yourself. When something seems truly unbe-
lievable, it may be worth believing.
Can you believe that?
-Rachel Snyder, 365 Words of Well Being for Women
The more I read through that, the more I blog and read other people's blogs and the more I think about it the more I really do think that the only thing standing in our way is our own belief system. I know that the only thing holding me back is a lack of self-confidence. There have been times when I was so afraid to do something because I thought I couldn't. I have held back for fear of looking foolish or not being accepted. But the things I most regret in my life are the things I didn't do or try. I have an amazing book in my head but I am not starting it because I believe in my own head that I am not good enough to write and illustrate it. I believe that I need to practice more. Rubbish. Today I am going to take the book's advice. I am going to try to believe I can do this. Maybe if I pretend I believe it I will fool myself into it!
P.S. To fellow Bloggers: I found the most amazing link! You can get a tshirt made out of your blog!! (Or as a present for someone whose blog you love.)
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3 comments:
Hi Megg. Just wanted to stop by after you left the nice message on my blog and am very happy to see that you're new to blogging so I can read all your archives when I have a moment! I'm struck by some of our similarities. England is my 'other' home (though the Englishman I fell in love with (though he was the writer and I was the artist in this case -- and we both became teachers!) while living there dumped me :) and I've always wanted to go back and live there again. Mark does lovely work and your writing is totally engaging, so I'll have to re-live my alternate life via your blog! The West Country, Devon and Cornwall ~ magic to me.
Hi, Megg! Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving me a message. Best of luck on your writing endeavors. I was at the monthly meeting of Georgia Romance Writers on Saturday. Anna DeStephano was speaking. She always gives a good presentation, but this particular talk was about "the muddy middle." One of her most important pieces of advice is just to write it. If it's not perfect, put a post-it flag on the page and come back to it later. Don't worry about it right now. I think that this would be good advice for you to take in your present circumstances. Start that book that you don't think that you are good enough to write. And how do you conquer your anxiety to do that? Write 2 pages. Sit down, turn on the computer and write 2 pages. That's all you have to do today. And then maybe you'll be able to write 2 more tomorrow. And will they be crap? Maybe. But getting the words down on paper is most important right now. Don't worry if they are publishable right now. When was the last time you published something without going back and re-writing parts of it. Never, right? So just slap something down. Remember me saying in my blog that writing was more important than acting, to me? Well, you are giving this particular project that is stopping you way too much importance. It's not. Just another piece in a life-time of work. It's common, everyday writing. Believe that. And that's one trick on getting by that big demon called anxiety.
Good luck.
I BELIEVE IN YOU! If your book is even half as wise and beautiful as the things you write here, it will be twice as wonderful as anything I have ever read, and I mean that. Thanks so much for this quote on believing. It spoke to me in so many ways, and I think you're so right that most of the things we feel incapable of accomplishing only go undone because we lack faith in ourselves. I struggle with this a lot, but today you gave me some glimmers of faith and I'm SO grateful to you for it. Thanks Meg! You're fantastic!
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