“When my book was an answer to a “Jeopardy’ question.”
The response author Rebecca Skloot (whose book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” has been on the bestseller list for 100+ weeks) gave when asked by a reporter, “When did you feel you’d made it as an author?”
What would change if you decided, right here, right now, that you’ve already “made it?”
How would you feel if you started believing today that success is not out there in your future, dependent on achieving some goal you’ve set for yourself – you already are successful?
Too often people achieve something they set out to do … only to discover it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
I remember hanging out with bestselling authors in the penthouse of the Grand Wailea Resort in Hawaii back in the days I emceed the Maui Writers Conference.
Many of these authors were household names. They’d sold millions of books and had millions of fans. They had achieved the “holy grail” that the hundreds of would-be writers attending the conference aspired to.
Yet, what did they talk about? Did they talk about how rewarding it was to do work they loved? Did they talk about how much they appreciated having the freedom to, as Stephen King says, “Get paid to hang out in their imagination all day?”
Well, sometimes they did.
But more often they complained.
They complained that their publisher didn’t get their books in the stores in time for their Oprah appearance. They complained about the hardships of being on the road for 3 weeks straight, on an all-expenses paid, cross-country media tour. They complained about their editor not getting back to them in a timely way.
By many people’s standards, these high-profile authors had achieved “success.”
But once they got there, it was not nearly as satisfying as they thought it would be. It just came with a new set of standards of what it would take to make them happy.
The good news is, it doesn’t have to be that way. There’s a better way.
And it doesn’t cost you a thing. Anyone can do it, anytime they want. You can do it, right here, right now.
Look around you.
Have you ever thought about it this way?
You’ve already “made it.”
You’ve made it to the age you are. Many people didn’t.
You made it by being able to see, walk, speak, hear. Many people can’t.
You’ve made it by having people in your life who love you and who you love. Not everyone can claim that.
Sure, there are things you want to see and achieve. That’s wonderful.
Just don’t think that success will automatically show up when you do.
Unless you change the way you perceive success, you’ll never really feel successful.
Success is not something you receive upon achieving something new; it’s something you feel when you appreciate all you’ve achieved.
Start seeing yourself as successful, right here, right now.
Start understanding and embracing the fact that … in the ways that count … you’ve already made it.
Set SerenDestiny in Motion 