Do you ever feel like you’re drowning? Like however fast you paddle, you’re not making any progress?
Me too.
I’m going on vacation to London next week and whenever I go there, I offer a seminar to non-US resident writers to help them find out how to get their books published. I have a truly astonishing track record helping authors get publishing contracts after learning from me.
So I prepared a website page to promote the event. It took three days of fussing. I put my heart and soul into it and invested a lot of money in marketing it…but got extremely poor results.
I’m not sure why, but this sent me into a tailspin. I questioned my ability to write a website page that accurately describes how I can be of true service to emerging nonfiction authors. (Remember, that is what I do for a living!) Maybe my technical skills were imaginary. Maybe the Universe “has it in for me.” After weeks of making sure that thousands of people saw that webpage, I shut it down. I tripped into a mini-depression. I was questioning my fundamental belief about my own skills.
I’m still going to London – I’m grateful for that – but I was sad because now I won’t get the chance to help people achieve their dreams.
Have YOU ever felt like everything you do is wrong?
Like something “has it in” for you, too?
Like maybe you thought you were oh-so-smart but now, well, there’s ample evidence to the contrary…
I really do know better than to let myself get so bummed out, but I did it anyway.
I told a good friend my sob story. He said, “I have a feeling something great is going to happen regarding your event in London.”
This morning, the company that provides the software for building the page chose MY web page as their #1 page for the June-July blog! You can see it here: http://blog.leadpages.net/best-landing-pages-june-july/
Suddenly, with just this smidgen of encouragement from a friend and now that company, I feel like I’m back on top of the world. Maybe I shouldn’t hang up my copywriting hat just yet.
This bright spotlight of encouragement is just what I needed to feel confident again.
Here’s what I learned from this: that sometimes, what we think we want most isn’t what we get. Sometimes, good things happen in ways that we couldn’t have planned, visualized, manifested or any of that stuff. Sometimes, when a door closes, a window opens.
I know that something as simple as a web page not working like I’d hoped is not a major life problem. Some of you dear readers have much, much bigger problems than this little blip in my life. It was what the failure meant to me that I’m sharing with you – not the size of it. (Nothing has meaning except that which we attract to it.)
Please, next time you feel like quitting, put your ear to the ground. Listen and look for encouragement. It might come in ways you least expect…and mean more than you could reasonably hope!