This is what I have been telling myself all morning. You see this is my first blog post but I have been thinking about doing a blog for over two years now. So what stopped me? Well yesterday I thought it would be great to drive to Newcastle and sit in a café by the beach and write, and this morning so far the beds have been changed, a wash has been put in and I even managed an episode of The Big Bang Theory. So you see the past two years have been filled with many other countless times just like this.
But now here I am finally doing it. I just opened the laptop and started to write.
Les Brown once said: “You don’t have to be great to get started, but you do have to start to be great”.
So after years of wanting to write (I’m am talking years as my first idea to write a book was in 1996 – and no that one has never been written) I have finally started. You see my biggest hurdle was that growing up I came from a family that excelled in mathematics and science based courses, and we all sucked at English. In fact, I was the only one in my family of six to pass English Language O’Level or GCSE on the first attempt, and even then it was pretty much agreed that it was a fluke.
That coupled with a belief instilled in me from primary school that I couldn’t read very well has meant I have had to push through these limiting beliefs and just do it. By the way, I could always read very well, but because I didn’t like to read out loud I was sent to the ‘special’ teacher – I can even remember him!
So this is me on my journey to being a great writer – Oh I hope it is not as long as the journey I took to find a husband, cause that one just seems to be a long and winding road!
But seriously what was I afraid of? Why did I have to almost strap myself to the chair to get me to write? The funny thing is I actually know the answer to this. You see for the past twelve years or so I have been on a journey of fixing myself, or personal growth if you want the correct terminology. It’s not that there are things wrong with me (although I’m sure there are plenty out there who would argue with that) but there are things I want to do, to achieve, to experience.
Life for me for the first thirty-five years or so was pretty routine – going to school, then university, then getting a job and settling down. I had a great time up until the settling down bit, that’s when I joined the rat race and ended up literally nearly killing myself.
I worked the long hours, studied for my Masters and then my Chartered Accountancy exams, while raising my son on my own. I had it all, the mortgage, the social life the façade of being happy. But I wasn’t, not really. And it took two years of bullying in the workplace to really put me so low that the only place to go was up.
So for the last 12 years of my life (yes I am coming 47 this year) I have been working at being happy. And for the most part that’s what I have been.
Life will always hit you a slap now and again and it is realising that that is ok, because that is the only way to grow and the only way to find happiness. Most people tend to miss this point and avoid pain like the plague.
So in my blog posts I will share with you what I did then, and continue to do to keep balance in my life. Also, in the last five years I have worked with loads of people teaching them these basic tools and I will share their stories too.
So back to just getting over yourself and doing it. We stop ourselves out of fear. Fear of failing, fear of looking stupid, fear of not being good enough and what ever fear you can come up with yourself. In my case it was the fear of not knowing enough - ‘I’ll just wait til I have done a course on that’ was usually my way out. ‘I’ll spend a fortune letting someone else tell me how to do it and then I’ll think about it.’ Oh the money I have spent and the qualifications I have, but that’s a different story.
Sod that! Maybe its age or maybe I have just found my kahunas but I have decided to push through all the fear and give it a go. What is the worst that can happen? I get negative comments or even worse no one reads it at all!! Could I handle that? Of course I could – I have been though some crap in my life so that would be nothing. So WHAT AM I AFRAID OF?
Now what is the best that could happen? I could actually be good at this. I will love doing it and even the people reading it will get something from my experiences to help them find balance in their lives.
After all, isn’t that why we are all here, to live our lives to the full and to help others along the way?
So if there is anything you want to do but keep putting it off, ask yourself these three questions:
What is the worst that could happen?
Could I handle it?
What is the best that could happen?
Now focus on the last answer and let that be the power you need to push you off the cliff into the unknown where you could live your dream.
