It’s easy for people to settle. I’ve settled, and I’m willing to bet you’ve settled at some point or another.
Maybe you’ve written an article and you were rushed, so you didn’t double check it or didn’t have someone proof read it. So when the messages came back that it could have been better you felt hurt, not because they were wrong, but because you settled…
I wrote on another blog for years, churning out articles day after day, week after week, hoping to get noticed, to attract readers, but although those years were not wasted, I didn’t accomplish what I had hoped. I kept at it, passing up opportunity after opportunity to learn from those who went before me, convinced “it” would happen for me.
I didn’t realize it then, but I had settled.
If you’re a blogger or an aspiring author, or maybe you’ve published and didn’t reach as many readers as you had hoped, please, whatever you do, don’t settle. No. Don’t do that.
Settling is a death knell. It’s worse than just plain giving up. At least, with giving up you know where you stand. With settling you’re hoping for something that will likely never come, but you stay adrift waiting.
Never settle.
It will kill all of your work and efforts.
Learn what you have to learn, go where you need to go, talk with who you need to talk with, see what you need to see, fly to where you need to fly, write what you need to write, go as high as you need to go, and never, never, never settle for less than you, your work, your writing, your art and your life are worth.
Never settle. Ever.
Hope is wonderful, rebellions are based on hope, but you have to do specific somethings to move forward or else you’re just settling. But what? What should you do? That was my dilemma.
After years of fruitless trial and error, I decided to learn from those who had gone before me and were making things happen. What I learned enabled me to take actionable steps to get where I wanted to go with my writing and make a little money from it, too.
Taking action, change, learning, whatever you do doesn’t always have to be something dramatic. Learning a new thing or two can make all the difference.
I went from 300 monthly readers to 200,000 monthly readers, from obscurity to being awarded as one of Writer’s Digest best writing websites in 2016, to writing and publishing a book that didn’t just become a bestseller but is now part of writing conversations everywhere, “Writer’s Doubt.”
This isn’t to boast. No. It’s to show what happens when you stop settling.
If you’re a writer or blogger and feel stuck, or that you’re not advancing like you should, or you just want to increase your reach and publish a book to a wider audience, do yourself a favor and learn from those who have gone before you.
Instinctively, you know what you need. Whatever it is, don’t settle. Don’t stay where you are hoping for it to happen. Learn what you need to learn, do what you need to do, go where you need to go… take the leap, jump!
Whatever it is. Do it!
We’ve already got enough mediocrity in the world.
Never let someone limit you, and most importantly, never limit yourself.
Settling leads to regret. Your words, your spirit, all of your work, and your ever burning creativity deserve so much better. YOU deserve better!
Wouldn’t you agree?
So, what’s your next step? I’d love to know. Go for it!
