I Had Plenty of Reasons Not To Do It

Posted by Sarah on Feb 12, 2015 in Featured, Moms with mojo | 0 comments

Let me introduce myself. My name is Ally and I’m an immigrant. I moved to the US about 8 years ago and my mother tongue is not English, (guess what it is… the answer is at the end of this post). Even though my language of birth is different, I decided to write books and become a published author, and my choice was to do all that in English.

The decision to do so wasn’t easy for me, and nor was it rational. I had any number of excuses at the ready giving me reasons not to write. In fact, let me be more specific at this point; I actually heard voices (not those kind of voices, don’t worry!) running through my mind. All giving me these kinds of messages: “It’s not your first language, there’s no way you will succeed”; “who do you think you are?”; “why bother trying?” etc.

I’m sure that you too, have probably heard those ‘voices’ at least once in your life. Think of them as though someone else has implanted them into your brain (the ‘voice’ could be that of a parent or teacher,) and they are now ‘burned’ onto your hard-disk. These long-held beliefs may be hard to erase, but they’re not impossible.

Okay, long story short time: When I eventually managed to listen to my true inner voice, (instead of the other voices which were telling me it was impossible,) it vehemently told me to write a book and publish it on Amazon. And when that happened, I didn’t question it. And my inspiration was sitting right there in front of me – my children.

I won’t get into the technical details of what I went through in producing the book, finding an illustrator and editor etc. But I will tell you one thing: It scared the hell out of me. I was doing something that was 100 miles away from my comfort zone, which necessitated me to put my thinking out there, and make myself available for others to judge. Can you imagine anything scarier?

What I did is to take a few small steps each and every day. It was easier for me to deal with the fear when it was in small doses. I made a list of things I needed to do: write two pages a day, read the story to my children and ask for their feedback, post an ad and look for an editor, interview illustrators, sign a contract, etc. The rule was at least one step a day. That way I made sure to move forward one step at a time and it prevented me from feeling overwhelmed. I still use “the list” method, otherwise I get overwhelmed and get stuck.

However, as things turned out, my book was an over-night success. It sold over 30,000 copies in less than five months and was Amazon’s #1 best-seller for children for an amazing 16 weeks.

“Coming out of your comfort zone is tough in the beginning, chaotic in the middle, and awesome in the end…because in the end, it shows you a whole new world!! Make an attempt…” ― Manoj Arora, “From the Rat Race to Financial Freedom.”

The bottom line is that the only way to move forward and potentially achieve greatness is to step out of your comfort zone, ignore the paralyzing internal messages and to look fear in the eye before you step over it.