Motivational Week- Quote #3

“Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was”- Richard L. Evans

I am a thorough believer of the only person who is standing in your way, is you; get past yourself and you can do whatever you dream of doing. Granted, I wasn’t always that way. I actually used to be a very big pessimist. I believed that you should always expect things to go bad. I don’t know, I guess I would have rather expected something not to work out so when it didn’t I was already expecting it (which is why it probably took me so long to get to this stage in my life: doing something with it).

If you have this attitude, odds are you aren’t going to give it all you’ve got. You are going to walk around life being so miserable all the time thinking, “Why does everything work out for everyone else?” Truth of the matter is, it worked out for everyone else because they didn’t let life discourage them as they began their journey to the top.

Johnny Depp needed money so bad he was selling ball point pens over the phone before he made his big break and Brad Pitt danced in a chicken suit as a mascot for a restaurant. Everyone starts somewhere, and it’s up to us to fight the good fight and not think, “I’m never going to make it, I may as well just stay where I am.”

The thing you want most in life is always the hardest thing to get. Seriously, if I wanted to be a garbage man, it would probably be the hardest thing for me to get into. A publisher doesn’t walk into the delivery room the moment you’re born and say, “If this baby decides to be a writer, I want to sign a five book deal with them!” It just doesn’t work that way. Usually (and I say usually because there are some lucky buggers out there) everyone has to take some misses before they hit their target.

How boring would life be if we always got what we wanted right away? We wouldn’t become stronger people; we wouldn’t learn anything and we wouldn’t build character. We need to start enjoying and not dreading the journey that leads to our destination, because where we are now leads us to where we can be. Before you get discouraged, just remember that one day you will be saying, “I used to be there, but I made it here.”

I got my first rejection with my new query today, within five minutes, from the agent I really wanted. Trust me, this quote is hard to listen to even for myself right now. All I want to do is say, "Forget it. I'm stupid for thinking I'm any good." But a part of me knows I have to keep going.