How many times have you taken up something new, gotten all
excited and then realised how much competition is out there? Do you continue
because you have something to prove or do you quit because you’re scared?
No matter what you do, there is always going to be someone
out there who does it better. Someone who’s more devoted. Who has more contacts
and more resources than you do and who believes in themselves more than you do.
So what? Are you going to quit? Throw in the towel and admit
defeat?
I don’t think so!
You trod on. You squash those negative thoughts and you give
it all you’ve got. If you enjoy what you’re doing and you believe you’re good
at whatever it is, or if you’ve been told you’re talented on more than one
occasion, then the right thing to do is keep going. You owe it to yourself.
Do
you want to look back in twenty years time and think, “I wish I‘d kept going. I wish I hadn’t quit.”
I don’t! That’s not me! It used to be, but not anymore.
It’s taken quite a while for me to refer to myself as an ‘author’
or a ‘novelist’ but that’s what I am. Even though I’ve been writing for years,
it wasn’t until April 2012 that my first novel was published. Sure I’d had the
occasional article in newspapers published and a poem of mine is included in an
anthology somewhere (I really should find
where I put that book.) but the thought of referring myself to others as an
author, made me uncomfortable, to say the least. It still does, even now that
my second novel is in the process of being seen in print.
Why?
Because Facebook has opened up my eyes. The number of literary
geniuses who are out there, is astounding. Every author who I’ve made contact
with, is in one way or another amazing. Whether it’s the way their imaginations
run wild, the words they use or the way they string those words together,
they’re all wonderful and unique in their own ways. I find myself reading their
work and thinking, I could never write
like that! Who am I to even think that I can compete with these remarkable men and
women?
I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not competing with any
of them. I’m only competing with myself. Learning more as I write and bettering
myself as I do. Sure I’m a late starter, so to speak, and I may not be a huge
success in the end, but I enjoy what I do and that’s a good enough reason for
me to keep going.
So next time you feel like quitting, ask yourself...Are you
doing whatever it is you’re doing, for the benefit of others? Or are you doing
it for yourself?
If the answer is, ‘I’m doing it for myself’ then that’s the
right answer, and you should never quit!
Keep smiling!
