It's an interesting thought and worked wonders for the post's author, Monica Bhide.
To achieve a goal that you set for yourself, you must believe that you can do it. If you don’t believe in yourself, not only will you not achieve the goal, no one else will believe in you either. Wasn’t it Ford who said something to the effect of - “If you think you can or you think you cant, you are right.”Being a writer is hard. Being a freelance writer is harder. You have to know how to sell yourself and your ideas -- which is hard for people to do when they have no clue how.
Which got me thinking -- how do you teach someone to believe in themselves? Is it something that can even be taught? I teach my students how to write a query letter but I'm not sure that's enough. Suggestions?
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6 comments:
Mimi -THanks for posting this. Believing in yourself is hard - I think it is harder than doing any writing! I have tried to do it by affirmations, meditation and writing a journal. I try to leave my fears at the door when I write and when I set goals. The fear does not go away but I can keep it at bay enough to allow me to write. I think, though, positive affirmations have helped me the most and also surrounding myself with people who are positive and full of life really helps. It rubs off!
Hope this helps at least a touch
I think believing in yourself can be taught, but in a different manner. It's more just trying to do something you and others don't think can be done. Once you do it, you have more of a belief in yourself.
I've heard about the vision board thing, but even though I'm a visual person it just doesn't seem like something that can work for me. I have started doing this letter writing thing. Where I write about something I want to achieve but I write it in "past form" like I've already achieved it.
It is REALLY tough isn't it? Tough competition, tough to get published, tough to make a living at it.
One thing I've found to build self confidence is it helps to surround yourself with positive people, whether it's a support group of fellow writers or calling your positive family members more often then your negaive ones. Oh and mentors help. I credit positive people and mentors with my self confidence!
So what about setting students up with mentors or giving them a list of "support" groups for writers online (and in person)? That would be cool, actually, if you do that I'd love to read it on this blog!
There's a little book by Shakti Gawain called "Creative Visualization" and it really supports this idea. I've used it quite a bit in life. The idea is to figure out what you REALLY want (harder to do then one might think), be very specific, write it out..over and over. Think about it first thing in the morning before you get up. Think about it last thing before you go to bed, and anytime else. The idea is that with enough intention on the goal you can create it yourself. I swear it's worked for me. Anyway her book is a quick read...I'd recommend it!
Thank you all for your ideas! I'm going to check "Creative Visualization" out...I'll let you know how it goes.
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