What are you afraid of? Just do it.

My tag line for my blog states, “I’m on this writing exploration journey.” Every time I post one of my blogs I add a hashtag that says #humblebeginnings. The reason I ask my followers to follow me on this writing expedition and the cause of the hashtag is that I am like this newborn baby in a world of writing.  I’d like everyone to see where this kid goes. And of course, I want to see where my passion leads me.

Also, it’s difficult for me to say, “I’m a writer.”  But I have accepted it. And you know what they say: repeat it until you believe it until you become it. The fact that I care so much about my work makes me a writer as well. I am still working on various projects. It’s just a bit complicated because I am in an M.A English program, and my focused has been on graduating. Plus, I have other goals that pertain to my career as a teacher. However, writing is certainly here to stay in my life—whether I have readers or not. I want to write. Allow me to give you a piece of advice based on my life and experience thus far.

1. Never ever give up on your dreams.
2. Work hard. The doors will open.
3. You will hear 999 no’s, but the 1000th may be a yes.
4. Don’t be afraid of failure.
5. Have a backup plan.
6. Be thankful for the doors that open and close.
7. Stay humble.
8. Help others.
9. There will be more negative than positive criticism.
10. Don’t try to prove anyone anything. If they have a biased against you or they dislike you for whatever reason, you’re not going to change their mind.
11. Retain what’s positive and reject what is negative—even roses have thorns.
12. Meditate/Pray–try to focus the spiritual self.

With that said, I want to look back on journey one day to remind me of my struggles—who was there and who wasn’t—all the stress and troubled times, financial crisis, insecurities and all my self-doubts, and the tears.

It slips our mind that troubles or failures are part of success. I read somewhere that if you have not failed at something, then your goals are not big enough. If your dreams/goals don’t scare you, then they are not big enough. I feel this is true. Most of us like to live safely because who wants the stress of rejection and failure, the disappointment? I certainly don’t.

But one day I realized, what do I have to lose? Nothing. I want to be a writer. If I don’t take a chance, that’s a zero chance made because I was too afraid. Everything in life is a risk and a learning experience. Almost anything that you care about takes you on a painful and joyful journey. So be ready for both. The beginning stages pretty much of anything in life, take a significant amount of time to build. So start building in it–slowly but surely.

What are you afraid of? Just do it.

©Ana P. Rose & Anaprose 2017.