A Lesson To Be Learned

This poster can be applied to many phases of our lives but we talk mostly about writing and books on this blog. Let's zero in on this quote as it relates to our writing life.

When we have several successes in a short time, we sometimes forget to to appreciate all that it means and what it brings to us. It means we've achieved a goal or two. It means we have a bit more money in  our pocket. It means that we have a certain amount of satisfaction. And it means that our self-confidence has taken a good leap. It also means we have achieved some good writing.

When rejection after rejection comes our way, it's difficult to be grateful and find the lesson. You know it and I know it. It's a great deal easier to hold a Pity Party which becomes a party for one person only. Our self-confidence takes a big hit. We feel guilty that our goals are not being met. We have less money to spend and there is little or no satisfaction. So who needs to learn a lesson on top of all that?

After we get all those crummy feelings out of the way, maybe we can learn something. Maybe then we can step back and look with more objective eyes. We must ask ourselves why we have had so many rejections. What's the answer? It might be right under our noses but we don't want to admit that we need to hone our skills a bit more. Perhaps we need to learn more about marketing our work. Maybe we need to take a crash course in a better way to edit and revise our work before we submit it.

Whatever the problem, we need to face it and create a plan to correct it. Once we stop feeling sorry for ourselves, we can do that. It may not get better in hours or even days. It took longer than that to get into the rejection mode, didn't it? We can correct these problems one step at a time. And that's exactly how to begin--with one step. Then another and another. Be grateful that there really is a lesson to be learned.