Find Your Inner Awesome

A friend sent me this blog entry today. It's insightful, well-written, and it struck a chord with me, way deep down. The premise is basically that we, as children, were at one time NOT so deeply and so painfully self-aware. That we went about our days with joy, with confidence and excitement. And that, somewhere along the way (through someone's harsh words or the realization that we didn't "match up" to society's expectations), we lost much of that confidence. And that it takes effort and diligence to get it back.

Of course, I think this could be related to the writer's journey easily (especially a writer who's trying to get published). In the beginning, we're full of hope. We write our rough drafts of our very first novels and pat ourselves on the back for the ENORMOUS accomplishment of finishing it. Then, we polish it and....send it out. And get rejected. And rejected. We revise, polish again, send it out again.....and get rejected. Again. And soon, as the rejections pile up, we lose our confidence. We let the nagging doubts come: Is this good enough? Am I good enough? Those thoughts are, sadly, completely normal. But -- the danger is in letting them cripple us. Stop us from trying altogether.

So, today, I urge you to regain it -- that initial confidence. To find that hope, that excitement and giddiness that comes to a writer, pre-rejection. Because we should be proud of ourselves. We should feel enormous pride from just putting ourselves out there, for finishing that novel, for TRYING.

That's enough, by itself, to feel awesome!