I am consistently thinking of how I can make this year different from the previous ones. A part of making changes within yourself and within your life is to evaluate the things that you need to change on a regular basis. I’ve spent a lot of time placing limits on what it is that I can do in terms of my writing career. I’ve spent a lot more time setting up boundaries that were supposed to protect me from my own big elaborate dreams and box me in to reality.
A lot of that came from listening to those negative people that were in my life, whose opinions once meant so much to me, telling me that I was only kidding myself and that having a successful career as a writer just wasn’t possible. Although I discarded those negative people (well all except my mother—kind of hard to cut that tie) and banished their subliminal messages that continually seeped into my subconscious, it is harder to remove my own self-doubts and the limitations that I placed on myself.
It is easy to think of all of the things that you can’t do, for one reason or another, but the challenge is in removing all of those limitations and allowing yourself to envision the possibilities of what you can do. I heard something when I was watching an Oprah interview that she did with L.L. Cool J and he mentioned some advice that Michael Jackson once gave him. He told him to “never limit yourself”.
Some of us have such a hard time removing all of those years worth of limits that were self imposed, but just hearing those three words, it sounds so very simple. Why am I placing all of these perimeters around me to protect me from failing when I don’t know that that’s what would happen. And if it did, would that really be so bad.
There are some that say failing is actually what made them a better writer, or a better business person, and even more willing to take risks. I am interested in seeing how removing those limits that I have always clung to and taking more risks is going to change things this year. I think that it is giving me more confidence in my capabilities as a writer and as a business person. I think that it is allowing me to be more open to change and in seeing what’s behind some of those doors that I feel are hard to open. When you limit your own ideas of what it is that you can do, you also are limiting the possibilities of what it is that you can do for others.
I have the Write 2 Be Limitless with My Dreams…What is Your Write 2 Be?
Jimmetta Carpenter
Writer/Editor
The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)
Writing as “Jaycee Durant”
http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/
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Great post…very inspirational.
Oh Jimmetta,
You are so gifted and bold and you should absolutely keep moving. My mantra has ALWAYS been “it’s not how many time you fall down, but how many times you get back up”! Keep up the great work.