Choose Wonder Over Worry by Amber Rae

Author:Amber Rae
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

“THEY REJECTED ME … AGAIN.” MEET DEFEAT.

“Another rejection,” an artist texted me. “I’m feeling defeated.”

“I totally get that feeling,” I replied. “And, the trials and tribulations create a better story.”

Think about it: if you were to read the biography of someone’s life, and they experienced a perfect childhood with perfect parents, had perfect looks and were loved by all, and then their work went on to become an overnight success, would their story be very interesting?

I think not.

Interesting is Paulo Coelho being rejected over two hundred times before he went on to publish The Alchemist. It sold 65 million copies, was translated into eighty languages, and set the Guinness World Record for the most translated book by any living author. Imagine if he had given up at rejection 1 or 5 or 10 or 99 or 150 or 199? Sixty-five million people wouldn’t have been touched by his work.

Interesting is a fourteen-year-old activist named Malala who overcame an attempted assassination by the Taliban when she was advocating every girl’s right to an education. Rather than slow her down, it only sped up her vision of creating a world where every girl can complete twelve years of free, safe, and quality education—a mission that won her the Nobel Peace Prize.

The process of getting this book in your hands was interesting, too. After ten years of self-discovery and daily blogging, six years of message testing and refinement, thousands of clients and interviews, and multiple book proposals, I poured my heart into creating an eighteen-page document that represented the essence of the idea. From there, I reached out to a number of literary agents, one of whom said I was nowhere near ready to be a published author and I ought to go on an “egoless journey” before ever thinking about the book again.

Ouch.

As I took in his words, my hands began to tremble as a tidal wave of doubt rushed through me. The Worry voices in my head were having a hay day.

“He’s right. You’re not ready.”

“You’re not good enough to be an author, anyway.”

“I told you not to put yourself out there.”

As the worry storm tornadoed in my mind, I considered replying immediately in all capital letters: “WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, YOU ASSHOLE.” The bottle of red wine in the kitchen looked real tempting, and I considered drinking the entire thing myself. Hiding under my covers was feeling like a viable option, too. As the critics continued to whisper, “You suck, you suck, you suck,” it felt as if a crew of monsters had come into my living room, thrown me up against a wall, and put their hand on my throat in a choke hold. I could feel my throat closing and my vision blurring.

Just as I was about to succumb to the trappings of toxic worry, I paused and followed my breath. Inhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale for four seconds—just as I had learned in my mindfulness and breathing classes. When I did this, I was able to calm down, and observe my discomfort at a distance.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.