Rejection comes. It's part of life, or at least it's part of writing. Failure comes. It's part of life, or at least it's part of writing. But there isn't a stronger community than this one.
I posted some goals in January. I'm not close to meeting most of them. I struggle every day and do what I can. But since I've started blogging again, I'm more optimistic. I feel more connected. My words reach very few. I'm aware of that. But last week, I was reading blogs and commenting. And I came across this blog. The blogger wanted to write for woman's world, but it was new to her. She hadn't heard of it before. She linked to my writing for woman's world series as being especially helpful. And I realized that is what this is all about. She stumbled across my blog one day and found an opportunity she didn't know about. In time, I came across her blog and found that my words had inspired someone. And that is what this is all about, right? So I'll keep chugging away. I will write word after word. It took Leo twenty-five years to get his Oscar, and maybe in that amount of time I'll have my million dollar deal. But until then, I have this community to "lean in" to. We all have this community, and there isn't a stronger one out there. There is no other community in the world where your competitor offers to package your product for free, or you can email a total stranger asking for specific--and maybe time consuming--advice and fully expect and most likely get an answer. A bestseller once called me to discuss marketing strategies for my books. I offered to pay her since she offers coaching services. She told me I didn't need a coach. She said you just need to feel empowered, and I can't give you that. To put this in perspective, it would be like Mark Zuckerberg calling my engineer husband and offering him career advice.
If you're not where you want to be yet, you probably still have things to learn. That's okay. We all do. But you have a community of people who are usually willing to help you with that. Reach out. Lean in. Stay connected. What have you got to lose?
