September 27, 2006

Becoming Willing to Succeed By Christie McKaskle
printable version

My first book was very close to being finished in July 2004. Its proposal had even sparked some superficial interest from a handful of publishers; but it was at a standstill.

I had written Accepting Your Resurrection in small chunks of time - early mornings and late at night - for almost two years. Now, this project needed my daytime hours. I needed to let go of my consuming job as a church office and bookstore manager. Besides, to finish the book I needed to live the kind of courage I was writing about.

Writing helped me to make a life long before it became my way of making a living. Freelance writing was the best possible course for me, but for reasons (and excuses) familiar to all writers,I was not making my living that way.

I had to be willing to become a different person, the kind of person that could imagine freelancing full time and was willing to succeed at what mattered most to me. As I cultivated that willingness through honesty and open-mindedness, I began to have little insights and ideas. More importantly, I began to take action.

I let friends and acquaintances know I'd be making the change. I wrote letters to people I barely knew to offer my services. I gave a month's notice to my church and signed up with a temporary service, thinking I'd temp to help support the family while I got my business started.

Life responded with a powerful signal that all would be well. Six days after I gave notice at the church, I was washing supper dishes when the phone rang. It was Debbie Luican of the Jodere Group. I enjoyed the first meaningful conversation with a publisher about my book, and I knew I was headed in the right direction.

As it turned out, I didn't take any of the temp jobs offered to me. I didn't have time for them. I was working.

Christine McKaskle is the author of Accepting Your Resurrection. Read
an excerpt and/or order the book at
http://www.booklocker.com/books/3347.html and visit her at
www.christinemckaskle.blogspot.com

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