Why take risks?
The more risks you take, the more confident you become.
The more confident you become, the more equipped you are to deal with rejection.
The more rejections you accrue, the more likely you are to embrace feedback.
The more feedback you apply, the more you grow.
The more you grow, the closer you get to reaching those important goals you've set for yourself.
Take risks.
The more darts you throw, the more targets you'll hit.
Be Brilliant!
~Katie~
Friday, May 26, 2017
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
GAILs: Limiting Beliefs
What are GAILs?
GAILs stands for Gremlins, Assumptions, Interpretations, and Limiting Beliefs--the key energy blocks that reflect how we think about our challenges. This four-part series is designed to help us face our GAILs head-on.
In this final post we tackle:
A Limiting Belief is something we believe that limits us--or holds us back--in some way. They can be about others or the world around us, but they're usually related to our self or our identity.
Somewhere along the way, we witnessed or heard or read something that became part of our core belief system. It's this idea hanging over our heads that we can't do *this* because of *that,* so why even bother?
I don't. I can't. I mustn't. I'm not. . . .
These are words/phrases to watch out for, because they're likely to precede a Limiting Belief, which look something like this:
Because I'm a "math person," I could never write a book.
First novels don't sell well, anyway, so there's no need to promote myself too hard.
As a guy, I can't write a good romance novel.
As a girl, I can't write a story narrated by a guy.
I don't read horror, so I could never write a scary book.
Because I was raised this way, I could never write about that.
The problem?
Yeah. It's pretty obvious that if we act with a Limiting Belief in mind, we're going to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. We don't think we can write a book, so we don't try. We don't think a first book will sell well, so we don't promote. We don't read horror, so we never try to write a horror story. When, in actuality, if we put aside our beliefs for a moment, sit down and read the books and learn more about the subject and put our pens to the page, we could probably do the thing.
The key? Know that a Limiting Belief is a false conclusion and recognize when we may be acting on one. Determine what the belief is, its origin, and replace it with a more empowering belief.
To do this, we should ask ourselves:
What is it that I believe that's keeping me from being my true self?
Where did this belief come from?
What does this belief do for me?
What is it costing me?
How true is this belief really?
What would my life look like if I got rid of this belief?
What step could I take today that challenges the Limiting Belief and moves me closer toward my dreams/goals?
And always: Be Brilliant!
~Katie~
Other posts in this series:
Gremlins
Assumptions
Interpretations
GAILs stands for Gremlins, Assumptions, Interpretations, and Limiting Beliefs--the key energy blocks that reflect how we think about our challenges. This four-part series is designed to help us face our GAILs head-on.
In this final post we tackle:
A Limiting Belief is something we believe that limits us--or holds us back--in some way. They can be about others or the world around us, but they're usually related to our self or our identity.
Somewhere along the way, we witnessed or heard or read something that became part of our core belief system. It's this idea hanging over our heads that we can't do *this* because of *that,* so why even bother?
I don't. I can't. I mustn't. I'm not. . . .
These are words/phrases to watch out for, because they're likely to precede a Limiting Belief, which look something like this:
Because I'm a "math person," I could never write a book.
First novels don't sell well, anyway, so there's no need to promote myself too hard.
As a guy, I can't write a good romance novel.
As a girl, I can't write a story narrated by a guy.
I don't read horror, so I could never write a scary book.
Because I was raised this way, I could never write about that.
The problem?
Yeah. It's pretty obvious that if we act with a Limiting Belief in mind, we're going to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. We don't think we can write a book, so we don't try. We don't think a first book will sell well, so we don't promote. We don't read horror, so we never try to write a horror story. When, in actuality, if we put aside our beliefs for a moment, sit down and read the books and learn more about the subject and put our pens to the page, we could probably do the thing.
The key? Know that a Limiting Belief is a false conclusion and recognize when we may be acting on one. Determine what the belief is, its origin, and replace it with a more empowering belief.
To do this, we should ask ourselves:
What is it that I believe that's keeping me from being my true self?
Where did this belief come from?
What does this belief do for me?
What is it costing me?
How true is this belief really?
What would my life look like if I got rid of this belief?
What step could I take today that challenges the Limiting Belief and moves me closer toward my dreams/goals?
And always: Be Brilliant!
~Katie~
Other posts in this series:
Gremlins
Assumptions
Interpretations
Friday, May 5, 2017
GAILs: Interpretations
What are GAILs?
GAILs stands for Gremlins, Assumptions, Interpretations, and Limiting Beliefs--the key energy blocks that reflect how we think about our challenges. This four-part series is designed to help us face our GAILs head-on.
Today, we tackle:
An Interpretation is an opinion or judgment we create about a person, event, situation, or experience that we believe to be true.
An Interpretation looks like this:
My agent hasn't called. She must have hated my new book.
My editor hasn't followed up since I sent in my revisions. They must not be what he expected.
My critique partner won't return my emails. He must not want to be friends anymore.
*BIG NAME AUTHOR* just unfollowed me. I must have offended her.
Random guy on Row F hasn't clapped once. He must hate what I'm saying.
The problem? Interpretations automatically make us think the worst of ourselves (and others).
My agent sucks because she hasn't called. I suck because my book sucks.
My editor sucks because he won't follow up. I suck because I suck at revisions.
My critique partner sucks because he's MIA. I suck because I need a critique partner.
*BIG NAME AUTHOR* has a BIG-@SS head. I suck because she hates me.
Random Guy sucks because suck sucks and I can't do anything right.
Do you see what's happening here? Our Interpretation of events is distorting our viewpoint, causing us to think something is wrong with them or us, when agent/editor/critique partner could really just be busy, or out of town, or dealing with a family emergency; and BIG NAME AUTHOR was hacked and had to open a brand-new account and re-follow people from scratch; and Random Guy has tingling in his right hand due to carpal tunnel which makes it hurt to clap.
The truth doesn't usually show up in our Interpretations, so these can't be trusted. If we want the truth, we have to seek it out: follow up with the editor, agent, or critique partner. It's not always as bad as our imagination makes it out to be, and if we act on our insecurities we're likely to make some pretty ill-informed decisions.
Because there's this thing called The Law of Attraction: what we imagine, we create. BIG NAME AUTHOR unfollows us, Interpretation gets in the way, we announce she has a Big-@ss head, she re-follows, sees the post, and BOOM.
We just created what we feared.
The key? Recognize when an Interpretation may be distorting our world-view.
To do this, we should ask ourselves:
What is my Interpretation of what's happening?
What's another way to look at this?
What might someone else (with a completely different viewpoint) say about this?
Is this me or my Interpretation talking?
How do I know this to be 100% true?
What concrete evidence do I have to back this Interpretation?
What price am I paying for believing this?
Be Brilliant!
~Katie~
Other posts in this series:
Gremlins
Assumptions
Limiting Beliefs
GAILs stands for Gremlins, Assumptions, Interpretations, and Limiting Beliefs--the key energy blocks that reflect how we think about our challenges. This four-part series is designed to help us face our GAILs head-on.
Today, we tackle:
An Interpretation is an opinion or judgment we create about a person, event, situation, or experience that we believe to be true.
An Interpretation looks like this:
My agent hasn't called. She must have hated my new book.
My editor hasn't followed up since I sent in my revisions. They must not be what he expected.
My critique partner won't return my emails. He must not want to be friends anymore.
*BIG NAME AUTHOR* just unfollowed me. I must have offended her.
Random guy on Row F hasn't clapped once. He must hate what I'm saying.
The problem? Interpretations automatically make us think the worst of ourselves (and others).
My agent sucks because she hasn't called. I suck because my book sucks.
My editor sucks because he won't follow up. I suck because I suck at revisions.
My critique partner sucks because he's MIA. I suck because I need a critique partner.
*BIG NAME AUTHOR* has a BIG-@SS head. I suck because she hates me.
Random Guy sucks because suck sucks and I can't do anything right.
Do you see what's happening here? Our Interpretation of events is distorting our viewpoint, causing us to think something is wrong with them or us, when agent/editor/critique partner could really just be busy, or out of town, or dealing with a family emergency; and BIG NAME AUTHOR was hacked and had to open a brand-new account and re-follow people from scratch; and Random Guy has tingling in his right hand due to carpal tunnel which makes it hurt to clap.
The truth doesn't usually show up in our Interpretations, so these can't be trusted. If we want the truth, we have to seek it out: follow up with the editor, agent, or critique partner. It's not always as bad as our imagination makes it out to be, and if we act on our insecurities we're likely to make some pretty ill-informed decisions.
Because there's this thing called The Law of Attraction: what we imagine, we create. BIG NAME AUTHOR unfollows us, Interpretation gets in the way, we announce she has a Big-@ss head, she re-follows, sees the post, and BOOM.
We just created what we feared.
The key? Recognize when an Interpretation may be distorting our world-view.
To do this, we should ask ourselves:
What is my Interpretation of what's happening?
What's another way to look at this?
What might someone else (with a completely different viewpoint) say about this?
Is this me or my Interpretation talking?
How do I know this to be 100% true?
What concrete evidence do I have to back this Interpretation?
What price am I paying for believing this?
What step could I take today that challenges the Interpretation and moves me closer toward my dreams/goals?
Be Brilliant!
~Katie~
Other posts in this series:
Gremlins
Assumptions
Limiting Beliefs
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
GAILs: Assumptions
What are GAILs?
GAILs stands for Gremlins, Assumptions, Interpretations, and Limiting Beliefs--the key energy blocks that reflect how we think about our challenges. This four-part series is designed to help us face our GAILs head-on.
Today, we tackle:
An Assumption is an expectation that because something happened in the past, it's destined to happen again.
An Assumption keeps us from moving forward because we assume that because we had a previous experience that ended a certain way, we're likely to have that same experience in the future.
The key word here is assume.
This is what an Assumption sounds like:
This agent rejected me before, so there's no need to re-query him about a new project.
That editor wasn't interested in my last book, so there's no way she'll want this one.
I tried writing that kind of article before and no one wanted it, so there's no reason to try again.
Five other editors hated my book, so the sixth will, too.
That reviewer one-starred my last book, so I'm sure she'll hate this one.
We put ourselves out there, we didn't end up with the result we expected or desired, so we created an assumption--rooted in fear--to keep us from moving forward. Because it happened once, it's bound to happen again. I can save myself by not trying at all.
The problem? There's no logical way (that I know of, at least) to predict what will happen in the future. So what if 99 magazines rejected my story? It could be exactly what the 100th is looking for. Editor X might not have wanted my last book, but that doesn't mean Editor Y won't be crazy for it.
What is an Assumption's purpose? To keep our feelings from being hurt when we're rejected the second, third, and thirtieth time we contact someone or attempt something.
The key? Recognize the Assumption exists, then put it to bed.
Because when we avoid situations out of fear of what we think might happen, it becomes our status quo. And let's be real: eventually we're going to run out of magazines, agents, and editors to query.
Instead, we should ask ourselves:
What is the assumption? (Write it down. Make it real.)
How is this assumption standing in my way?
What is it keeping me from accomplishing?
What concrete evidence is there to back this assumption?
Because this happened in the past, why must it happen again?
What would life look like if I let this assumption go?
What step could I take that challenges the assumption and moves me closer to my dreams/goals?
Be Brilliant!
~Katie~
Other posts in this series:
Gremlins
Interpretations
Limiting Beliefs
GAILs stands for Gremlins, Assumptions, Interpretations, and Limiting Beliefs--the key energy blocks that reflect how we think about our challenges. This four-part series is designed to help us face our GAILs head-on.
Today, we tackle:
An Assumption keeps us from moving forward because we assume that because we had a previous experience that ended a certain way, we're likely to have that same experience in the future.
The key word here is assume.
This is what an Assumption sounds like:
This agent rejected me before, so there's no need to re-query him about a new project.
That editor wasn't interested in my last book, so there's no way she'll want this one.
I tried writing that kind of article before and no one wanted it, so there's no reason to try again.
Five other editors hated my book, so the sixth will, too.
That reviewer one-starred my last book, so I'm sure she'll hate this one.
We put ourselves out there, we didn't end up with the result we expected or desired, so we created an assumption--rooted in fear--to keep us from moving forward. Because it happened once, it's bound to happen again. I can save myself by not trying at all.
The problem? There's no logical way (that I know of, at least) to predict what will happen in the future. So what if 99 magazines rejected my story? It could be exactly what the 100th is looking for. Editor X might not have wanted my last book, but that doesn't mean Editor Y won't be crazy for it.
What is an Assumption's purpose? To keep our feelings from being hurt when we're rejected the second, third, and thirtieth time we contact someone or attempt something.
The key? Recognize the Assumption exists, then put it to bed.
Because when we avoid situations out of fear of what we think might happen, it becomes our status quo. And let's be real: eventually we're going to run out of magazines, agents, and editors to query.
Instead, we should ask ourselves:
What is the assumption? (Write it down. Make it real.)
How is this assumption standing in my way?
What is it keeping me from accomplishing?
What concrete evidence is there to back this assumption?
Because this happened in the past, why must it happen again?
What would life look like if I let this assumption go?
What step could I take that challenges the assumption and moves me closer to my dreams/goals?
Be Brilliant!
~Katie~
Other posts in this series:
Gremlins
Interpretations
Limiting Beliefs
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)