My biggest hurdle was (and still is) my Inner Critic, who I named Eris. Despite my deep passion for writing, I struggled to bring my stories to my personal finish line because I was always convinced “they weren’t quite ready.”

This is a sly way of telling myself they weren’t good enough.

The next time I was faced with the choice between “Do I try again?” or “Do I give up?” I knew right away what I’d do. For me, giving up wasn’t a solution. Giving up was avoiding, running away from something that was difficult.

I accomplished a huge transformation. I overcame limiting beliefs and wrote myself a brand-new story of empowerment, creative abundance, and joy.

That’s when I knew I was worthy of every dream I could ever conjure. From there, things took on a whole new meaning, and life became a lot more fun and adventurous.

Did that mean my journey was struggle free? No. I still had a lot to learn about the writing field, not just overall story development but also publishing, marketing, and networking.

I’m naturally shy, a dreamer, and introverted. Would much prefer to write my stories in a private writing studio with a view of wild nature—then send them off to someone who would publish them without a moment’s hesitation.

Like I said, I’m a dreamer…

However, I do have a practical side to me and I truly want to write stories that draw in ravenous readers.

So I had to learn how to work with writers, take constructive criticism, and become familiar with all things writing, publishing, and marketing. In general—put myself out there.

The first vision I surrendered was the When. I couldn’t continue to get caught up in a timeline that did nothing but make me feel like a failure. I had to make peace with the fact that if it hadn’t happened yet, it’s because I’m not ready in one way or another—not because I can’t make it happen—and to embrace this period of growth and learning.

The second vision I surrendered was the How. I stopped worrying about how I would succeed and started working on believing that the Success Train was already headed my way. I just needed to be open and accepting to its arrival, no matter what it looked like.

Throughout this work I began to incorporate positive affirmations into my daily life. Every time I caught myself hooking into a limiting belief, I would stop, flip around my inner talk to something empowering and lean into that instead.

The more I did this, the fewer times I fell into a downward spiral, and the spirals didn’t last nearly as long as they used to.

Speaking kindly to myself eventually became a habit and this spilled into all areas of my life. My writing improved, my relationships strengthened, my overall attitude towards the world sweetened.

Sure, every now and then, I’d slip up and have a crummy day where I fed into the negative self-talk.

But the difference now was, when I finally did catch myself, I could see how ridiculous those limiting beliefs were. How pointless. How wrong. How wasteful.

Limiting beliefs are dream-crushers. I’d experienced what it was like to live with an empowering belief system, where my dreams thrived.

So each day it comes down to making a choice about how I want to treat myself.