In my early twenties, I had the desire to be a writer. I did all kinds of things to make that happen, but my brain wasn’t convinced. Whatever I tried seemed to make little difference in my progress.
But, “I’m an aspiring writer!” I yelled out and my mind would answer “Yes, you are!”
Then why wasn’t anything taking shape?
At that time, I had started a career in the computer field, so writing was kind of a side gig. Every year I spent time writing, taking classes, going to workshops. Again, nothing really made a difference.
Then I learned just how plastic our brain is. It forms connections based on what I read, hear and experience. Every experience directs the brain to create new connections. We can think of those connections as memories. Collectively, those connections define our reality.
That’s when I understood that I was right all of my life. When I decided that I was an aspiring writer, my brain wired itself to accept that as reality. The reality that I was an “aspiring” writer. And I could spend the rest of my life “aspiring” to be a writer and never reach my real goal.
Consider the difference between these two statements:
“I want to be rich.”
“I am rich.”
Again, you can spend your entire life in a state of “wanting to be” rich. Or you can live in the reality that “you are” rich. Different energy in those statements.
With this new knowledge, I sat myself down and said “I am a writer.” Not aspiring, or a wanna be. I am. It shook my brain up. It had to create some new connections, get rid of some of the old ones, and define a new reality in which I was a writer. Having believed that I was an aspiring writer for a few decades, it took awhile to make the adjustment.
There was one surprising glitch to overcome. (That’ll be in the next post)
Now, I can happily state that I “am” a writer. Not aspiring, but am. And my brain is in sync with that reality.
The next step is to create the reality where I am a “published” writer.
Soon. 🙂