A guest post by Sarah Peterson
Have you ever had a dream, desire, or idea that you wrote off because you didn’t believe that you could accomplish it?
我有。
This was my mantra of early 2014:
“Nobody knows who I am. I don’t have an Ivy League education. I’ve never done anything exceptional. Who would care what I have to say?”
I had been blogging and building businesses online for three years, and I had just noticed a trend in the types of questions I was being asked.
I sat in my office crying my eyes out.
I’d just received a letter from the assistant to the editor of a local Atlanta publication I’d pitched for a story about one of my clients. It wasn’t really a letter. It was a copy of my pitch with comments and edits written all over it. He’d basically slashed and dashed my pitch and told me it wasn’t worth passing on to the editor.
At that point, I’d been a publicist for ten years, having lived in New York to work for a major retailer and a public relations firm. I was living back in Atlanta and had my own PR consultancy, managing several big clients. I wasn’t a complete novice, but this letter completely undid me.
“Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live. Maybe one of these days you can let the light in. Show me how big your brave is.” ~Sarah Bareilles
A guest post by Jennifer Niles
My theme song lately isBraveby Sara Bareilles. You canwatch a video of it here. I personally can’t help but want to get up and dance along much like my five year old, who anytime she hears a good beat is inclined to start moving and grooving.
Unlike most five year olds, however, I choose to only get up and dance in private or when I am at a wedding reception and there are more than ten people on the dance floor. Why is that? And why is this song so catching?
Over the last four years, I have overcome a number oflimiting beliefsabout myself.
I didn’t believe I had what it takes to go back to school to get my coaching certification. But I did it and became a coach.
I didn’t think people would take me seriously as a coach and I’d never get any clients. But my coaching work is the centerpiece of a thriving business.
I didn’t think I could ever learn the computer skills necessary to build a blog. But I did and now have two highly successful sites.
I didn’t believe my writing was good enough to merit much attention. But I have thousands of lovely followers who express gratitude for what I write and share with them every day.
Like most people, I had dozens of limiting beliefs about myself and my abilities that had held me back from my potential for years. So what changed for me? What allowed me to push past my limiting beliefs and accomplish what I’ve accomplished in the last four years?
There’s something I used to hate that I nowfeel passionate about.
I thought I would never even tolerate this something, much less feel passionate about it. Although I knew it would be good for me, and even though I tried to like it more times than I can count, I simply hated it.
I hated it because it hurt. It was hard. It was boring. I could never seem to do it as well as other people. And I never reached that state of joy that most people whofind their passionwith this something proclaim to reach.