Focus, determination, and perseverance are essential to just about every aspect of your life. Each characteristic is unique and together create a synergy.
Focus is one’s ability to concentrate exclusively on a particular thing through effort or attention.
Determination is an unchanging intention to achieve a goal or desired end.
Perseverance takes determination a step beyond by using steady and ongoing actions over a long period of time to ensure its intention is accomplished. It continues on through ups and downs.
These elements combined with positive thinking and projection can be an unstoppable force.
I’m a huge fan of positive thinking and projection. I believe our mind has a great influence over our well being and the direction our life can take. Granted, it’s not always easy to harness that influence, but there is enough content out there, including The Secret, to at least strive to think positive and project.
For example, Jack Canfield and co-creator Mark Victor Hansen, of Chicken Soup for the Soul, were rejected 144 times from publishers. Finally, in 1993, their book was accepted. Since they were in debt and couldn’t afford a publicist, they did their own promotion. In 1995, they won the Abby Award and the Southern California Publicist Award.
In a teleconference I attended with Jack Canfield as the speaker, he said he and his co-author created vision boards of what they wanted. They even took a copy of the New York Times Best Selling Page, whited out the #1 spot, and replaced it with Chicken Soup for the Soul. They put copies of it everywhere, even in the toilet. They had focus, determination, perseverance, and they envisioned and projected success. The rest is history.
On a much smaller scale, my daughter and co-author of Day’s End Lullaby, practices the philosophy of The Secret. For ten years she dreamed of being in the audience of the Oprah show. She actually got tickets twice, but for one reason or another she was unable to attend. It didn’t stop her though; she persevered and kept trying; she knew one day she’d accomplish her goal.
Well, the weekend of May 8th, 2010, Oprah had her Live Your Best Life weekend in New York City. Robyn got a ticket for the weekend event and ended up being photographed. Her photo was up on Oprah’s website. Then, in May of 2011, through amazing circumstances and a friend who works for the Discovery channel, she got to go to the next-to-last Oprah show.
So, what has this to do with you and me as writers . . . plenty . . . the elements for obtaining your goals are the same whether for business, pleasure, or writing. Just about every writer has heard the adage, it’s not necessarily the best writers who succeed; it’s the writers who persevere. Be focused and determined on your writing goals. Project success, and don’t let rejection stop you . . . persevere.
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Karen Cioffi is an author and ghostwriter. Her new MG/YA fantasy book, Walking Through Walls, is based on an ancient Chinese tale:
Longing to be rich and powerful, twelve-year-old Wang studies the legend of the mystical Eternals. Certain they are real, he journeys to their temple and begins an apprenticeship with the Eternal Master. There he enters a world of magic where not everything is as it seems, and where he learns the magic formula to ‘walking through walls.’
Walking Through Walls should now be available through online retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and book stores. If it’s not yet listed, it will be very soon!
You can also order the book today at:
http://4rvpublishingcatalog.yolasite.com/mg-ya-page-2.php
To learn more about Walking Through Walls, its touring schedule and contest, and purchasing information visit: http://walkingthroughwalls-kcioffi.blogspot.com
To learn more about Karen and her books, visit:
http://www.karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com/p/karens-books.html
Please be sure to stop by Magdalena Ball’s site (http://www.magdalenaball.com) on July 25th for the next stop on the Walking Through Walls Tour.
Margaret Fieland Unique Visions 