Fail Lots Now, Succeed Faster...

 

Failure. 

It's a word most people shun, fear, dread.

If you're willing to alter your opinion about this term, this result, you'll succeed as an author greater than your wildest dreams.

My Mindset Altered View on Failure:

I think of failure like a game of pub darts. (Hey, so sue me for being of Northern Irish descent where everything in my life originates back to cocktails, that may or may not include Guinness. At least I'm being honest here...)

You have a board. You have darts. You throw those darts at the board. Some... many... scads 'n' scads... hit at awful board scores. But the more you throw, the better your skill at throwing gets, and your chances grow that you will hit a bullseye... not just once, but regularly, to downright often, as your attempts to throw grow.

Question to You: How many awful dart hits did a champion dart player make before they became a champion? Guesstimate: Thousands, maybe tens of thousands. Right?

Question: How many word choices do YOU have to make before your word choices are consistently stellar???

Time to Success Ratio: The quicker you make scads of awful dart board hits, the sooner your skill improves, the quicker your throwing action becomes consistently high-scoring! Now, trade dart throws for word choices. Seeing a pattern here?

Back to Your Book...(Leave your empty beer glass on the bar. Thanks.)

So, here's the deal I'm making with you... decide to WELCOME ABJECT FAILURE... in every word you choose, every sentence you form, in every paragraph and chapter you finish in that unfinished manuscript of yours. 

Yes! Make a dart game of completing your book!

Plunk down word, after word, after word, ASSUMING, EXPECTING, TRUSTING your choices are the most awful any breathing human being could ever make. AND PURPOSELY WRITE DESPITE!

The quicker you barf out all those icky words, the better your mind will hone its decision-making skill, the quicker the fear of failure ebbs as the better your word choices become.

Told ya book writing isn't difficult. It's fighting to retrain your mind that's the toughie.

Mindset Change Today: WELCOME FAILURE!

HOMEWORK: Today, DECIDE to allow yourself to fail, to royally screw up, to indeed DARE YOURSELF TO FAIL. Wildly plunk down words, as a newbie darts player throws pub darts at the board. EXPECT to read hilariously chosen words and phrases that after you edit the draft and become a seasoned author, you will look back on and howl, and be DAMN PROUD YOU HAD THE COURAGE to FAIL LOTS THEN, so you MASTERED FASTER.

(FYI: I pull out my first year university nude model charcoal sketches at cocktail parties for the most unbridled howling you'll ever hear from inebriated guests. And I believe my first story every written was written by a frontal lobotomized monkey. Monumental fails, much, there, BJ? ;-) )

The Key: The quicker you get over your fear of failure, the quicker you simply won't fail. 

Psychology, peeps, as I continue to harp on this fact, and will until the day I go to the Big Typewriter in the sky. Your book writing difficulties live in your mind, not on the page.

Question: If you're SURE to fail at writing your manuscript, what's stopping you now from writing your manuscript?

Answer: Absolutely nothing.

Go fail!