Your Story is Waiting to be Heard
Your audience is out here, waiting
The stoics tell us some things are in our control, and others are not. I have been trying to grow my following and get people to see my stories. Just last week I surpassed 1000 followers. It feels great, but just one thing, I could have gotten there a long time ago. I came up with every excuse for why I couldn’t make it sooner.
I have a 9 to 5 that keeps me busy. I have two teenage boys that require a whole lot of attention. I am running a household. Yes, and so? My mother was a full-time nurse, she also ran a household and had 5 children to raise.
The time will never be right. You still want to make a few tweaks to the story you are busy writing, just like me. I wanted to get dinner for the boys, clean the kitchen, and lay out my clothes for tomorrow before I sat down here to write. Then, I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about today. I thought, maybe I’ll just leave it until a bright idea pops into my head. I said, let’s just start with one line.
There is always the fear that no one will read your story. The fear that you will get one troll making nasty comments. Maybe you should keep your day job. It sounds ridiculous doesn’t it, but that’s what goes on in our minds. It becomes a run-a-way train.
The trick is to stop it as soon as it starts. Easier said than done. Think back to a time when you attempted something difficult. When you thought you were going to fail.
I think back to the time I was learning to drive. After a narrow escape and near missing going down a ditch, I thought I was never going to make it. Maybe I’ll just resort to being chauffeured around.
On the day of the driving test, I was very nervous. I thought of all the money I would have wasted if I failed the test that day. I asked for the day off from work so everyone knew I was going for my driving test. All my friends knew. The pressure. I thought it may be best to cancel the test and make up something like calling in sick.
Those who complete the course will do so only because they do not, as fatigue sets in, convince themselves that the road ahead is still too long, the inclines too steep, the loneliness impossible to bear and the prize itself of doubtful value.
― Thabo Mbeki
It was all over in about 45 minutes. When we stopped back at the traffic department, the instructor told me to go to counter 5 with this piece of paper, he held out a paper to me. I was not sure if I passed or failed. I was too scared to ask him. He looked at me and saw my confusion. Then a broad smile appeared on his face. I could not mistake that for anything else. I was elated. What if I decided not to go that day?
So it goes. Our imagined misery is always overstated. It is never as bad as you think it will be. Courage and boldness are the bridge between success and failure. It is in the moment of indecision when you decide to take the next step forward and go with it. When you decide to step into fear and uncertainty. What you find is that the next step appears and the next one and before you know it you’ve passed that period of uncertainty.
Even if you won’t succeed 100%, you are halfway there and you never have to go back to that place of uncertainty again, because now you know.
Will you be bold and courageous today?
Blessings, Michelle
If you found this story valuable and it made a difference to your day, I would love it if you bought me a coffee here: https://ko-fi.com/michelleokafor
