Book Marketing For Authors Blog 75- Believing in Yourself

Believing in Yourself

 

It saddens me when I think about how many of us self-published indie authors look for others’ approval. We’re all scared. Me, too. We’re all looking for the world to say it’s okay to move forward. It shouldn’t be that way. After all, we’ve written books, right? We’ve done something most others only dream of doing. And if we can do that, there are no limits to what we can do, right?

Hey, we’re on the road to becoming full-fledge authorpreneurs. We cut our own paths. We make our own decisions. And we don’t need the world’s approval to move into the unknown. Instead, we bravely move into the unknown, and then the world follows the trail we blazed, right?

Oh… yeah… only if it was that easy…hmm…

Sadly, our primal wiring is to look for the sabertooth tiger rather than the good that can come out of something new and bold. It’s not our fault. That’s how our species survived in the wild, eons ago. Being smaller and weaker than the sabertooth, we couldn’t afford to be blindsided by it. So, our survival counted on us, not letting anything sneak up on us.

We would think that today would be different, right? After all, aren’t sabertooths extinct?

Well, yes and no. The actual animal, the sabertooth, which was bigger, stronger, faster, and fiercer than us, is indeed extinct. But the threat of the bigger, meaner world is still out there. And it can still hurt us somehow. It is still a clear and present danger, right?

So, how are we supposed to successfully compete with the big boys out there and not get hurt? After all, they have very deep pockets and many connections. What do we have?

Well, being smaller authorpreneurs, we have our agility and our ability to turn on a dime. We’re like the Barry Sanders, the Hall of Fame running back for the Detroit Lions, in our authorpreneur field.

The big boys and girls need to take very wide turns like the Titanic had to. It takes a long time to turn those large ships around. And that’s our advantage and their disadvantage. Even the big boys and girls can be hurt as we smaller ones get out of the way.

Think about this for a moment. Way back, in the wild, we smaller humans had developed the advantage of standing upright to see danger from afar. Then our opposing thumbs learned how to build and use weapons against the predators. Today, we authorpreneurs have our brains, our wits, and our quick decision-making and actions to stay a step ahead of the big mean world out there and carve out a place for our survival.

And now that we know this, we should be beaming with confidence. We have a place in this world. We’re going to survive and pass our genes onto the next generation of successful authorpreneurs.

You can do this. We all can do this. And we have to do this. Every time we don’t believe in ourselves, we are short-changing ourselves and our loved ones who are counting on us.

When we don’t believe in ourselves, it does a real number on our confidence and self-esteem. And without confidence, we’ll always be looking for external approval to build back up our self-esteem. And this all adds up to less money in our bank accounts.

We are short-changing ourselves too much. Too often, we ask for less than we deserve. Far too much, we accept less than we should. And way too often we don’t even ask because we’re afraid, we don’t believe in ourselves, and we’re looking for outside approval first. Basically, we’re following instead of leading in a business where we innately should be leading and not following.

Come on, everyone! Just by being an authorpreneur, we’re natural leaders. We’re trailblazers. Others, even the big boys, are supposed to notice the innovative things we do, and then try to emulate them because we’re cutting-edge. We’re really cool, and the things we do are really cool, too. So we need to stop this nonsense of not believing in ourselves.

You see, in the end, the world is going to end up giving us whatever we think we’re worth. Now, I know that sounds a bit Pollyannaish, but it’s true. Whatever figure we have in our head of our worth is usually the worth that emerges after it wiggles its way to the surface. It may take some time to happen, but whatever that figure is that is in our heads is usually what surfaces in the end as our pay.

So, what figure is in your head?

Do you believe in yourself and your value, yet?

Today. Right now! Let’s give our own selves permission to succeed. Let’s give ourselves permission to live the remarkable life that we deserve. And let’s give ourselves permission to do shameless self-promotion.

Listen, chances are the world isn’t going to tell everyone about how great we are. So, that means that if we don’t let them know, no one tells them. The world will never know how great we are. And everyone will miss out on the goodness we could have shared with them.

We need to tell the world what we have to offer them that will make their lives better. Don’t be scared. We’re doing the world a favor by shouting from the rooftops on how we can help them live better lives.

Don’t wait for permission to make the world a better place. Don’t wait to do very well by doing good. Got it? Good. Now get out there and make it happen, my brave authorpreneur!

Watch the free video lesson on this chapter!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO7u75qJVgk&list=PL_-39bUXJitwL8cHUpiZ5mO0-JJuaPOVl&index=76