Change happens in a moment.
It happens in that moment when something clicks in your head and your beliefs shift from limitation to possibility: only then can we use the power of consistent action to translate our belief into our everyday life. – Matt Sandrini
One of my dearest friends is a bit of a kook, and somewhat of the anti-me, though exactly like me in a polar-opposite sort of way. I wear blue jeans and white shirts and pay a fortune at the salon to remain a brunette. She wears shorts year-round, sports tattoos from knee to ankle, and honestly, you never know what color her hair is going to be tomorrow – I believe fuchsia is the couleur de jour.
Terri-Lynne is an author, a fiction-writing machine whose latest release is being published in both the US and Europe. But like every overnight sensation, Terri struggled along with her writing for years, collecting little more than encouraging rejection slips. Notes that said things like, “Really love this, it just doesn’t meet our needs right now.” In her never-ending quest for learning, she joined writing groups and attended writing workshops and retreats (which is where we met).
Writers are not so very different from attorneys, in a polar-opposite sort of way. Great writers master the rules of language in the way that attorneys master the law. But of course, mastering the language does not make a great writer any more than mastering the law makes a great attorney.
While Terri was weaving incredible stories, her fellow workshop writers were not always encouraging. Some felt compelled to disparage her brilliance because it did not fit into their tiny literary boxes.
Of course, as it turns out, the joke is on them. Terri’s upcoming release from Harper-Collins, A Thousand Different Ways, will be her seventh published novel and she just inked the contract for the publishing rights in Europe.
If you consider the “odds” of a fiction-writer getting published, the whole endeavor looks pretty dismal. You hear it all the time:
“The publishing industry is a closed shop, a private club. The publishers and the magazines aren’t open to new writers. It’s all a Catch-22 situation: your odds of getting published are miniscule because the only way to get published is to have been published.”
These are the limiting beliefs that many writers cling to, especially when they are racking up the rejection slips. Why?
Why Do We Cling to Our Limiting Beliefs?
We all have a tendency to blame an outside force when we fail. Or worse, if we believe the game is rigged, it’s easy to walk away without even trying … and risking failure.
Success is Not a Lottery
Author and creative writing instructor Stephen Leigh says it so well, “the publishing business is not a lottery and there are no odds.”
Why did Terri succeed when so many – nearly all – fail? Is she really that much more talented than all of the unpublished (or self-published) authors out there? Are her stories that much more captivating, her characters that much more believable?
How did this Jersey-girl, this self-described mother, cat-wrangler and occasional laundress break into the supposedly closed publishing industry?
Never doubt that she is one talented, hard-working, and persistent lady. But the secret to Terri’s success is this: She does not abide limiting beliefs.
Her motto is “Modesty is for Suckers.” On her blog of the same name, she recently wrote:
I’m not going to ever preemptively doubt myself, because I know there is nothing I can’t do when I set my mind to it. Successfully? Maybe not, but doubt is never going to be the reason I fail.
I accept my faults, my failures, my less-than-stellar moments–whether personally or professionally–with an open heart and open eyes. I accept my confidence and all-around brilliance the same way.
Wow. What if?
What if you could accept your own confidence and all-around brilliance? What if you let go of every limiting belief, every doubt you ever had about what you could achieve?
What remarkable things might you do?
Remember, “Change happens in a moment. It happens in that moment when something clicks in your head and your beliefs shift from limitation to possibility.”
This is our hope for you – that whatever you have already accomplished, you’re not done yet. There is another height, there is something more. We hope your time here at Legacy Ranch will be that moment when change happens … when something clicks and your beliefs shift from limitation to possibility.
If you’re ready, if you have the courage to do something remarkable – please join us.
The Summit 2017 | October 18-20 | Colorado Springs
Learn more online. Early registrations save $200 before Sept. 15th