Writers--Believe in Yourself

Our poster quote today gives us some encouragement. The quote, by Theodore Roosevelt, says "Believe you can and you're halfway there.' 

As writers, we should heed those words. We need to believe we can write well enough to get published. If we don't believe in ourselves, how can we expect our readers to believe in us?

That old adage, 'Put your best foot forward' calls for us to believe we can do it. Otherwise, we'd stand at the starting line and never move. 

Instead of tearing yourself down, try to build yourself up. Trite as it may seem, we writers need to be like the Little Engine That Could. He repeated over and over "I think I can, I think I can, ..." and he was able to pull that train that was bigger than he was. 

Roosevelt told us that believing in ourselves would get us halfway there. When we're halfway, the second half shouldn't be quite as hard. That first half might be the most difficult. 

If we are going to believe in ourselves as writers, one important thing to do is get rid of the negatives. Concentrate on the positives in your writing life. If you make a list of the positives, it will probably be longer than you imagined. There are so many positives that should help you believe in yourself, if you only look for them.

When multiple rejections come rolling in, it's not easy to hone in on the positives. We're more likely to highlight all the negatives and wonder why the heck we're pursuing this writing life. That's when you need to look at the list of pluses, maybe read it numerous times until you start believing in yourself again. 

Believe in yourself and others will believe in you, too.