Motivational Week- Quote #4

"You must do the thing in which you think you cannot do." -Eleanor Roosevelt

Here is a line from an email I sent my husband yesterday after my rejection from the agent I really wanted:
I keep trying to take my own advice I give people, but I shrug it off. I feel defeated, but feel ridiculous for already feeling defeated. I think I am incredibly stupid for thinking I am anything more than what I am now. I can’t do this.

He responded with:
You are not defeated, just selling ballpoint pens over the phone for a while (see yesterday’s blog for reference).

I’m telling you this because all day yesterday I let this one rejection make me feel that I couldn’t do this, and I will not allow myself to ever act like that again. Sure, I will have moments where I feel down, where I wonder if my book is actually good or I’m just crazy, but dang it I’m going to do it! Even if it doesn’t turn into a New York Times Best Seller, at least I did the one thing at one point I thought I couldn’t do.

This was rejection number six out of the thirteen queries I’ve sent. Three were form rejections, one no response, one liked the query and the idea but didn’t connect with the sample pages (I was SO happy for that response! Though she didn’t fall in love with the sample, it made me feel like I was going in the right direction), and this last one fell under the topic I wrote about in a past blog: it just wasn’t his type of story. So there are still seven out there sitting in an inbox waiting to be read by the agent (I won’t lie, with the funk I’ve been in, I originally wrote, “Waiting to be rejected by the agent”). I am doing my best to be hopeful and I have read my last three motivational quotes over and over to remind myself that there will be discouragement, there will be times where I feel I have failed, but if I don’t keep going, I will regret it. Today’s quote is one of my favorites. The moment I said, “I can’t do this,” to my husband, it popped right into my head.

I think “I can’t” is used too much as an excuse. I feel it’s a cop out and it’s something to say when you want to give up. Whenever I find myself saying this, I realize that it’s usually a cover up word for “won’t”. Think about it, usually when you say you can’t do something, it’s because you want to give up trying.

Listen to Ms. Roosevelt, don’t give up. You must do it, and you can, no matter how hard it may be, no matter how long it may take.