By Lisa Harris
For many years I wrote,
waiting—hoping—to find publishing success. When the day finally came when I
signed a contract with my dream publisher, I was convinced it would change my
life.
And it did.
But not in the way I’d
imagined. I was still a basically unknown writer, but all of a sudden there
were many more expectations and a whole lot more stress on me to write a series
where each book was better than the one before.
Not exactly what I’d
imagined.
As a writer, you might
be a lot like me. Spending too much time peaking at your Amazon ranking,
wondering whythat author got a nominated for an award when you
didn’t (and should have), and checking the bestsellers list to see if your name
has happened to magically appear. Clearly, our egos have a tendency to become
fragile when it comes to stories that are so close to our heart.
My idea of success,
though, has changed over the past few years. For a long time, I was convinced
that success as a writer would somehow solve all of my problems. But then I met
authors who had ‘arrived’, and I realized that their lives were far from
perfect. They still dealt with loss, sickness, and hardships with kids, and
yes, even feelings of low self-esteem. How was that even possible?
It’s possible because
success doesn’t make us immune to the difficulties life throws our way. Success
can be a blessing, but it’s not something we can base our happiness on. Because
success—as we all know—is fleeting.
We all have different
definitions of what success would be to us. Maybe it’s simply to land that
first contract. Maybe it’s to get in with our dream publisher. To be nominated
for an award, or hit the best seller list. None of these dreams are bad. In
fact, we all know that we won’t reach a goal if we don’t set it and go after
it. But there are several things we have to remember along the journey.
1. Often what we think we have to have is far less
satisfying when we finally get it.
2. Don’t let yourself get caught up in things that
will be over in a flash.
3. Don’t let your confidence come from your Amazon
rank, or anything else that is temporary.
4. Don’t neglect your faith, family, and friends in
order to find success. Life is simply too short.
5. Do set goals and reach for them.
6. Do celebrate your successes, while keeping in
mind that they aren’t what defines you.
7. When reaching your goals (finding your success)
seems impossible, make a list of what you already have that’s important to you.
The bottom line is to
learn to dream big, but always be thankful for what you have rather than
focusing only on what you wish you had.
Happy writing,
_______________________________________________________________________
Lisa Harris is a two-time Christy Award finalist
(Blood Ransom and Dangerous Passage) and the winner of the Best Inspirational
Suspense Novel for 2011 from Romantic Times for her novel Blood Covenant.
She has sold over thirty novels and novella
collections, including her latest release, book two in her Southern Crimes series,
Fatal Exchange.She and her family have spent over ten years living as
missionaries in Africa where she homeschools, leads a women’s group, and runs a
non-profit organization that works alongside their church-planting ministry.
The ECHO Project works in southern Africa promoting Education, Compassion,
Health, and Opportunity and is a way for her to “speak up for those who
cannot speak for themselves…the poor and helpless, and see that they get
justice.” (Proverbs 31:8)When she’s not working she loves hanging out with
her family, cooking different ethnic dishes, photography, and heading into the
African bush on safari. For more information about her books and life in
Africa visit her website at www.lisaharriswrites.com or her blog athttp://myblogintheheartofafrica.blogspot.com.
For more information about The ECHO Project, please visit www.theECHOproject.org.
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