Changing Perspective (Winner's Circle Network)

So it's National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short) and time for me to change my perspective a bit. Over the last month, my focus has been more on networking and increasing my name recognition in the world. 

It's been fairly successful and I've made some great contacts. The downside is I've spent less time actually writing.  For the last two weeks, the time requirement for networking has been a little crazy. I've actually started to feel a little resentful.

Which is why the following message from the Pacific Institute resonated with me. 

One of the keys to living a successful life is to consistently interpret your experience in ways that support you in getting the results you want.

  

Context Reframing is a technique that can help you do just that. It involves taking an experience that seems to be negative and imagining how the same experience can be an advantage if you see it in another context. Children's literature is full of context reframing. The ugly duckling suffered great pain because he was so different from his peers, but his difference was his beauty as a full-grown swan. Rudolph's nose, at first an object of ridicule, turned into an advantage and made him a hero in the context of a dark, snowy night.  

Many parents of disabled children help their kids turn what some call handicaps into special gifts. And plenty of folks have turned failure into learning experiences that helped them succeed in a big way down the line.

So, you see, it's not what happens to you in life that makes or breaks you. It's how you interpret what happens to you - and that decision is in your hands.

So instead of whining about how little time I have for writing I've decided to focus on how much time I have to meet and talk with other professional writers. The exchange of ideas and energy has done a lot to make me realize it is possible to make being an artist your day job. And the "job" part of writing is not a burden to bear, it is a joy to experience.

 Links: The Pacific Institute 

             National Novel Writing Month