Today was a day when I felt like quitting. All of it. The coaching, the business building, all of it. I felt like quitting my book.
I’m working with a writing coach who is helping me finish my book. To put it mildly, it hasn’t been easy to write. In fact, it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done because it demands that I commit effort every single day to something without any idea of what it will look like in the end, whether it will be good or what it will even accomplish. We humans like our immediate results and our instant gratification. Writing a book has literally NONE of that. That’s what makes it so hard.
I hadn’t written anything for about a week and was feeling like quitting. Today, I wanted to quit so bad. So I decided I needed a chat with my writing coach. I honestly told him I was frustrated and wanted to bail, but that there was a part of me that had to finish, and I needed help inspiring that part of me to keep going. Here is what he told me:
Of people who are asked what their top 10 life ambitions are, 83% have writing a book on their list.
Only 5% of that 83% who say they want to write a book, ever start writing.
Only 1% of the 83% finish writing their book.
He said that just by starting I’m already in the 5% and by completing my rough draft, I’ll be in the 1%.
He said that no matter how well (or badly) written my book is, the absolute worst thing that can happen to me if I finish is that I will be in the 1% and will accomplish something that 83% of people want to do, and 82% give up on.
I think that’s pretty amazing.
And I think that’s true about life and becoming your best you. All of us want connection, love, to be seen and heard, to belong and to feel worthy. To have those things, we need to do what’s hard and what scares us. We need to be open and vulnerable as we walk into the dark and the scary to own our stories and own who we are. We need to pull back the curtain on our light and bring ourselves out of hiding. All of ourselves. We must admit we are afraid, we must open ourselves to all of life’s experiences and all of our emotions even when they cause us great discomfort.
Even if it scares us to death.
We have to lean in to those uncomfortable and awkward parts. We have to make peace with those parts. Because we can’t have the light without the dark. When we uncover our light, our own unique light of the billions of lights that are on this planet, we give others permission to do the same. It is the hardest thing to do. So many of us keep our light hidden because the possibility of being rejected and hurt while we’re vulnerable is awful and terrible. Yet it’s when we shine our light despite those fears that we find love, belonging and connection.
In uncovering your light and sharing all of yourself openly, you will encourage others to shine. The darkness will vanish. You will be surrounded by the light of others and your own unique light will inspire others. Your life will be made so much brighter, and it starts when you decide to own all of yourself by shining your light.
And the more often you uncover your light and the longer you keep it uncovered the stronger it will get. It will get so strong that the worst thing that happens to you won’t feel like the worst thing anymore.
You will have done what so many others can’t. Just starting puts you in a wonderful place, and as for finishing? There is no end to what the power of your own light can do for others.
