What's That Knocking Sound?

Rob Parnell

We've been busy these last couple of weeks going through staff applications and we've just started conducting interviews.

It's fascinating to view so many different people and gain some appreciation and insight for their very different lives, hopes and dreams.

As a writer, coming into contact with new people obviously fires my imagination and makes me think of characters I may not have considered - or imagined - before.

Be that as it may... (one of those strange cliches that doesn't appear to say what you think it means.)

It's also interesting to me because the whole experience of expanding my horizons has made me re-evaluate where I want to take my writing business in the future.

The other night I couldn't sleep. I was thinking about what I would do if I had a huge staff of helpers, consultants and writers. What would be possible? Just what could I achieve, I thought, if I had a large corporation of people to run, occupy and motivate?

Instead of just trucking along with a few websites and an off line writing school, what else could I do?

It was a liberating moment - even exhilarating to think of all the wonderful things that might be possible given the resources.

I realized there were no end of possibilities. I could write hundreds of books, publish them all, get them into shops and spend a fortune or promotion and marketing...

I could sell franchises, fund charities, give grants to artists, make movies and TV series. I could set up writing schools in every town in the world. I could feed the starving, terraform Mars...

Heady stuff indeed.

And I realized later that this was a lesson too.

That we're often restricted by our own limited world view. And that in order to grow we sometimes need to not only use our imaginations but also to begin taking some action.

I remember reading in The Secret that we should imagine our goals as though they'd already happened. But, try as I might, I never felt I was more than kidding myself - that I was merely play-acting and couldn't really grasp any real sense of having something I didn't actually possess.

Maybe my goals were too large, or too nebulous. I don't know.

Law of Attraction gurus, Esther and Jerry Hicks say the same - that if you visualize your goals and wants as manifest - that is, already existing, then somehow the emotional connection to your desire magnetically draws you towards your results.

All very good in theory. But personally I never liked the implication that if you don't pull off this magic trick of 'experiencing what you don't have', then success is never going to happen to you.

Sounds like a self help guru's cop out to me: The by now old "You attract failure because that is what you want" argument.

I guess I find visualization hard - and I think this goes for many - because I/we know what real success and achievement feels like.

Those moments in our lives when we're amazed at ourselves and are elated are so deeply etched on us that 'faking' them seems counter-intuitive.

I will never forget how fabulous I felt when I got my first advance of money for a screenplay. That feeling of overwhelming joy and fulfillment stayed with me for at least a couple of months. There's no way I could fake that!

I think what I'm trying to say is that if you want to achieve something special or important to you, like writing a book for instance, you need to take the actual steps necessary. That is, begin the journey.

Don't spend lots of time thinking. Spend more time doing.

Take action.

Anthony Robbins once said that opportunity does not come knocking at your door.

No, it often comes crashing through your house.

But many times we don't actually like the mess that opportunity makes and we tend to brush it away before we get too involved.

Don't be afraid to open your mind to new possibilities.

In your fiction - and in your life.

Keep Writing!

rob@easywaytowrite.com
Your Success is My Concern
The Easy Way to Write