By Jennifer Blanchard
Last night I attended my monthly writer’s guild meeting. Our guild president just had his first novel published in November 2009 and he’s been trying to get us all to purchase a copy of it.
What I found odd about his little spiel last night, thou, is that he literally spent almost 30 minutes standing in front of the group explaining to us why his book won’t make it.
His unconfident speech really got me thinking. And it made me wonder: Are YOU talking yourself out of your writing dreams?
If you’ve had a writing dream for awhile now (to write a novel, to publish a novel, to submit your short story to a writing contest, to just sit down and write something), but you’ve found that it’s not coming to fruition as quickly as you hoped (or maybe it’s not coming to fruition at all), it’s time for a self-check.
And I’m not talking about a monthly breast exam. I’m talking about checking how you speak, how you think and what you focus on.
Speak, Think, Focus
Whether you realize it or not, the way you speak, think and focus has a huge impact on the results you achieve in your life.
Look at it this way, when you tell yourself you can do something, you can do it. And when you tell yourself you can’t do something, you can’t do it. (As the great Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, either way you’re right.”)
That’s how it works.
You’re the creator of your reality. You’re the one who determines what you are capable of. You are the one who chooses which dreams you believe you can achieve and which ones you believe are pipe dreams.
But when you think, speak and focus on reaching your writing dream, you will reach it. That’s also how it works.
Here’s a more detailed break-down:
- Speak—When you say something, you declare it. And a declaration then becomes an intention. Even if you don’t mean for it to.
So, for example, when you say, “I hate Mondays. Mondays are always the worst day of the week,” you’re literally making Mondays the worst day of your week. Because when you say that Monday will be a bad day, you will then go into the day looking for reasons why Mondays suck. (Even if you’re doing is subconsciously.) You’ll take little things that happen—things that you’d ordinarily ignore or make light of—and make them into huge reasons why Mondays suck. (“I can’t believe that fly somehow managed to squeeze its way into my car! I can’t believe my internet is so slow today! Mondays are the worst day of the week!”)
Instead, try to only say things that are positive and that will move you in the direction you want for your writing, such as “Mondays are a great day to get writing done.”
When you declare something, it becomes your reality, your belief. It becomes the lens you view life from. So make sure you declare your dreams.
- Think—When you are constantly thinking negatively or constantly thinking things are going to go wrong or won’t happen the way you want them to, etc., you are forming your life to take shape in a negative way where things go wrong and don’t happen the way you want them to.
For example, how many times have you thought about something you didn’t want to happen—such as hitting every red light on the way to work or getting a rejection letter from an agent—and then had it happen to you? It happened because you thought it into reality.
Your thoughts create what shows up in your life. You create your reality. Once you understand and accept this, your life will be transformed. And your dreams will be a mere thought away.
- Focus—Wherever you place your focus, that’s where your life goes.
For example, if you are always focusing on “not enough”—as in “I’m not good enough to write this novel” or “No one will ever publish my novel because it’s not good enough”—then that’s the realty you will always live in. You won’t be good enough to write a novel and no one will publish that novel even if you do write it because it’s not any good.
This is the same thing as the way you think. If you are continually focusing on the bad, the bad will always show up for you.
The way you speak, think and focus creates your world. It creates the events that happen to you and the people you meet and the circumstances you live your life in.
That’s the law of attraction at work. And it’s always at work, whether you believe it is or not.
So change the way you speak, think and focus. When you speak, speak positively and speak to the outcome you want for your dreams. When you think, think about how amazing your life will be when you’ve reached your writing dreams. When you focus, focus on all the good that’s around you. Focus on the end result of your dreams.
This will get you to where you want to be with your writing.
Do you speak, think and focus yourself out of your dreams?
About the Author: Jennifer Blanchard is founder of Procrastinating Writers. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.
