When we were little kids, the world seemed full of endless possibilities.
My mom told me that I could grow up to be a president or a fighter pilot or anything that I wanted. Since all of my superheroes wore capes—Superman, Batman, Zorro—all I had to do was wrap a towel over my shoulders, and I’d feel invincible. I’d jump out of the loft of the barn, or wrestle five bullies at once.
As you can imagine, I got hurt. A lot!
As we grow, we all begin to learn that it’s dangerous to jump from high places or jump into a fight with a crowd.
Eventually, we realize that the world is not as limitless as we had imagined.
When that happens, many people stop dreaming. Instead of striving for something new, instead of stretching and growing, we start sitting and shrinking, until we grow cramped and feeble, and all of our dreams die.
This is a common problem among people as they age. They begin to imagine that there is “nothing I can do,” and so they do nothing.
With writers, I see it all the time—people who are caged by their own self-limiting doubts.
But the truth is, as writers, as we grow, we become wiser and more skilled. We don’t have fewer options than in the past, we have more. We can still write. Our voices matter. We can still change the world, one word, one sentence, one page at a time.
At the Writer’s Peak Workshop this coming November, we’ll help writers learn to recognize and destroy self-limiting beliefs. Capes are not required, since we will all be coming in disguise. Please note that due to the popularity of this workshop, we have opened it up to more people, so we have made room for you. You can register here!
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