Dear Friend,
How you see yourself is the precursor to your success. It’s also the precursor to your limitations and hardships. In other words, the level of your achievement, wealth, and joy is limited only by the view you have of yourself. Is your self-view empowering? Do you see yourself as someone good things happen to? Or someone meant to struggle?
Really think about this… The answer determines your results.
This is especially true for writers. Do you believe you are the type of person whose story and thoughts people want to read? Or do you often think or say, “I’m not a good writer, I’m not smart enough. No one is interested in what I have to say.” The way you see yourself comes through in your writing—if your self-view even lets you get far enough to put words to paper.
You have to learn to see yourself as a successful author or no one else will.
This is because your self-view determines your behaviors. We only try for what we think we deserve. If you believe that you are a nobody with a fuzzy message that will bore your readers, your manuscript will come out fuzzy and boring. You will never out-succeed your self-view.
This truth played out in my life through my childhood nickname. While most nicknames are given as a term of endearment, some can make us feel small and insignificant. Mine sure did. When I was around three years old, my parents started calling me Duchess. They meant it to be empowering. My older sister’s nickname was Princess (the plot thickens!), so they gave me another royal nickname. They saw the name as simply an alternative to princess, because there can’t be two princesses, right? Well, to my little three-year-old mind, a Duchess was surely second place to a Princess. This had a profound impact on my behaviors.
In my youth, I was quite involved with 4H and participated in several state fair competitions. In all of these contests, I always got the red ribbon. As you probably know, the red ribbon means second place.
In my teen years, I picked up gymnastics and entered several county competitions. In every competition, I was most awarded the silver medal. As you know, the silver medal is second place.
Then, in my latter teens and early twenties, I joined the pageant world. During the intermission of the Miss California Teen USA pageant, the reigning queen came to me and said, “You’ve got this, Lisa! You just have to give a great speech and you’re going to win!” The speech portion of the competition was my strength. I nailed it. But even so, as I breathlessly awaited the results, I heard, “First runner up… Lisa Kelly!” Again… second place.
My subconscious mind was set at “second place.” Of course I kept getting second—that’s what I truly believed I deserved. Even though my words claimed that I was practicing hard and trying to win at my competitive hobbies, my subconscious mind was training toward that silver medal.
Second place was my comfort zone and fit my self-view.
My mind even taught itself secondary lessons to rationalize why second place was better than first. I found myself thinking, “Be good, but not too good! Someone who wins a competition must have no life outside that hobby. You don’t want to be a one-trick pony.” As I got older, that belief morphed into, “Be successful, but not too successful. You don’t want to seem cocky. No one likes an arrogant woman.” It wasn’t until I became aware of my second-place mindset that I could begin shifting those beliefs and achieving my potential.
What about you?
What nickname were you given that may be the culprit of a limiting self-view? Most people subconsciously repel good things happening to them because they have a limiting self-view. And they think good things happen to other people, not to them. And so it may be with you. Your self-view is set at a certain level…until you change that level.
Here’s the secret that will bust that limiting self-view wide open:
Your self-view is an illusion. You made you up. You decided what that nickname meant about you and your life. But the beauty in this truth is that if you made up your self-view once, you can do it again.You get to re-create your self-image.
Imagine if I hadn’t discovered my second-place mindset by the time I started my writing career. I’d never have finished a single manuscript! “Be successful, but not too successful” would have kept me second-guessing my worth with every word. Any text I could have gotten out on paper would have dripped with inferiority and uncertainty that I deserved a space in the conversation.
Instead, I got to write a new story. I got to sit down at my laptop every day and be a first-place, best-selling author with a message that could change the world. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t written a book before. It didn’t even matter that I have dyslexia and ADHD. I chose to be a brilliant, capable, inspiring writer. Misspellings were my editor’s problem. My writing was exactly what it needed to be. It became who I am.
A decade later, I have published four bestselling books (and more to come!), changed countless lives with my message, inspired dozens of others to write their own stories, and founded a publishing company that helps them do just that. I am a successful author—because I decided to be.
When you know who you really are, no nickname, label, or other person’s opinion can affect or alter your behaviors.
You are smart, you are capable, you are worthy. You have unique experiences that have taught you lessons only you can share. Your message matters. You matter. You deserve to take up space in the global conversation.
This is the mindset we teach our clients how to create. And the results are life-changing. When you learn how to create the mindset of a best-selling author, your global impact is inevitable. It’s that simple.
If your self-view is that you are a successful author writing your first book, then you are a successful author, even if you haven’t published yet. That backbone will come through in your writing, and your book will be better for it. You will self-fulfill the prophecy of your own self-view.
Now, go write like the author you know yourself to be!
And if you need help to write your book and create the mindset of a best-selling author, check out the HPH Author’s Program. Click here to book your call today:
I look forward to hearing all about your book idea and finding out if the Author’s Coaching Program is for you!
Cheers to You,
~ Lisa J.
P.S. Learn how to create the mindset you need to write your bestseller and have the global impact you really want! Are you ready? Book your Discovery Call today. Go to: https://calendly.com/mindsetreset/free-discovery-call