Writing has been that one thing that calls me every day, leaving a voicemail in my mind, reminding me that I haven't paid attention to it, haven't picked up the pen and put it to paper, and telling me how much it needs me. It is a daily fight that I have with my excuses that tell me all the reasons why I can't do it - I'm too tired. I already love what I'm doing. I don't need to write, no one is going to read my work so why bother. I don't have time to write… and the conversation has been going on like this, every day, for over a decade. And while I have written many things (I have binders and notebooks FULL of poetry, novels, and essays), I've continued to not make a big deal about my writing. Maybe it's because I didn't give it as much value as my career in salon management, or maybe it was all of my insecurities, or maybe both. Nevertheless, while I have always considered myself a writer, I hadn't considered the importance of being an author or being a writer who writes with the purpose of publishing. At least, not until the beginning of the new year 2020.
I was completely drained from the hectic holiday season in the salon and was becoming impatient and pessimistic about the world, which is very opposite of my 'normal' character. And after having a heated discussion with my wife about my unusual behavior, she pointed out that I spent the majority of my time helping to fill up other people's cups, and she felt that I needed to find ways to fill up my cup. While at first, I wanted to disagree and argue that my behaviors were about all the things that were going wrong, she was right. So, I started to listen to motivational speakers like Tony Robbins, Les Brown, and Maya Angelou. I began listening to their words, every morning and even listened to the same videos over and over again. Their words filled up my cup, and as a matter of fact, their words had my cup overflowing with energy and motivation that made me commit to serving what I knew in my heart was my purpose of helping others through my writing, and very quickly I went from having all the excuses to getting my book off the ground.
What happened with me seeking out my own 'life coaches' is that I was able to push away the brain fog and see the big picture, and be in alignment with my passion and purpose. Since the new year, I've created the business platform for Leaderly Life, completed the editing and book design, and now I'm marketing the launch of my first book! Sometimes I can be hard on myself and not give myself credit for the work that I do. I tend to bulldoze through to-do lists and not sit back to look at my accomplishments. This makes me a huge hypocrite because I always tell my team to make sure they celebrate their little accomplishments. But, sometimes it's easier to give advice than take it, right?
Needless to say, I'm very happy with where I am at right now and feel very accomplished with what I've done. And now that I'm already in the book launch faze, I'm looking into what I will write next. Because now, I'm a writer who publishes. A writer that wants the world to read my work. And I hope that you, the reader, will enjoy it as much as I enjoy crafting it all. Because all of my work comes from my lived experience of this crazy thing called life.
Let me know what questions you have and if there's anything, in particular, you'd like to know about.