Recently, one of my life coaching clients was struggling with negative thoughts. As we spoke, he realized that he kept connecting his current struggles to his past, to old issues he hasn’t worked through.
“He who doesn’t look ahead, remains behind.” — Proverbs
The choices we make today will shape our future lives as authors. Many of us have painful writing histories (as well as other experiences). We’ve received multiple rejections, failed to find an agent or publisher, been shredded by an editor we hired, or humiliated in a critique group. How we’ve handled those experiences have shaped us into the writers we’ve become.
You have the choice to use the rejections, the shredding, and the humiliations as valuable learning experiences that move you closer to your goal. They are like science experiments. You know better what you want when you learn what doesn’t work.
Think back about what you’ve learned from your past experiences.
Now–more importantly–choose to do some things differently. Choose actions that will propel you forward to become a better writer today.
Just as my client had to choose to stop looking back and using those experiences as excuses for not moving ahead, you as a writer need to focus on what choices you can make today to shape and spark your future, rather than dwelling on what isn’t working or using the past as an excuse to not move forward.
you will never grow.”
Jessie Rex 
Fantastic advice. Very practical and to the point. Making better choices now leads to a better future. Thank you.
Thank you, Madeline!