Remembering How To Succeed

Do you ever have those moments when you're sure you're going to fail? It's not worth it. Why bother. People have been doing whatever it is you're WANTING to do since they were kids. They had a head start and you'll never catch up. "Well, what about Grandma Moses?" people say. "The painter that started in her 80's?" She's an anomaly, you tell yourself. Meant to be. The rest of us, we're just bozos on a bus.

Lately, I've increased my writing and been researching a wider audience for my work. Like authors, there are plenty of "publish your own novel" sites, or "pay $200 to be an Expert". Those just seem so... crass. I mean, when people are good at something- everyone knows it and they don't have to self-promote themselves. Right?

Maybe you don't have a college degree in the subject, or a Masters or a Doctorate, or a degree at all. Maybe you didn't finish high school. Maybe you weren't a child prodigy- who knew all along who they wanted to be and what they wanted to do with their life. So you settled with what would make a living, dreaming of the day the world would discover your awesomeness. Maybe you still dream of being a star or, loudly ridicule that "you wouldn't know what to do with all that fame and fortune anyways".

During my childhood, Princess Diana entered the world stage. Women and girls everywhere (and quite a few boys) pored over Diana's wedding and dreamed of being a princess. Like Snow White and Cinderella- SUCCESS looked like romance, beautiful clothes and unlimited funds. Every so often, do you compare your life to those fantasies and fall very short of the mark? Like me, do you mentally throw up your hands, turn your back and dive into a good book or chocolate until you once again forget your life looks nothing like your dreams? Or does it?

Within the last few months, I wrote and recorded a series of tools on "Success". The first one, lecture style, reframed the idea of success as the life I've already created for myself- trusting that I already follow my own instincts and wisdom; creating a reality I'm comfortable with. The next was a visualization, exploring personal symbols of success and deciding whether they're still relevant. The last, a meditation of forgiveness, to help process beliefs that hold us back from following our goals.

In the process of writing these, I listened to them, used them and absorbed their message. If you're thinking they sound like, "you're getting very sleepy. you are successful. you are a winner", you might want to change your expectations. They took me through my own journey of reframing success and looking at it with adult eyes, so both my conscious and subconscious minds could work in harmony. After all, I had a lot of fairy princesses and pots of gold to sort through and only repeating the phrase, "I'm a winner" wasn't going to cut it.

I listened to these recordings about 2-3 times a day for a week. Not only analyzing, but testing. "Are these working?" I could feel them working. Beliefs and memories that blocked me now seemed small, limiting, and I could feel old tension drop away while blood started to flow freely in the parts that held those beliefs. Cool!!

Time passed and here we sit today, researching audiences for my writing and feeling like if I've got a magic keyboard, nothing needs to be said. Why promote myself? Why bother? Then again, why bother writing anything at all- no one's found me yet so I guess they won't. Is there any chocolate in the house?

Then out of the blue, I remember. "Oh yeah. I'm already successful. I'm living a pretty cool life. And parts I don't like, have a very good purpose for being. There's nothing to do except enjoy the ride". I guess the "Success" recordings worked after all.