Self-Empowerment: The Key to Getting Things Done

We just finished an election season. Thank God that’s over. It never ceases to amaze me that many elections are held around the premise that someone else will fix our problems. They are not. Ever? Never. We fix our own problems.

Bringing this home to writers, it's crucial to recognize that writers possess unique qualities that set them apart. Writers often make the mistake of looking outside themselves for solutions to their problems. But as a writer, you have a distinct gift. Your heightened intuition, creativity, and resilience are unparalleled. There's no problem that you, yourself, cannot solve. True empowerment of your life and career begins by combining these three elements with a key ingredient: accountability. You have the ability, just like your characters, to face challenges head-on and embrace the personal growth that comes from that self-sufficiency. Consider yourself a spec script, and it is your job to write the story.

So, how do you do that? I’ve come up with a couple of ideas that I use in my life.

Each day, I build self-empowerment through my own self-directed personal development and growth. I wake up thinking about growth. I’ve got a growth mindset. I know life’s challenges and my challenges each day as a writer are best served through my inner resilience. Each day brings setbacks. Instead of avoiding or dreading them, I welcome them. They are a chance for me to grow; they are a chance for me to see how I can improve what I’m working on. If it’s not working, that’s great. I’ve got a chance to make it better. I feel better when I make something better. I feel better when I’m grounded through the mountains and valleys of the creative process. Writing well and taking responsibility for it is tied to my emotional well-being; conversely, my emotional well-being is tied to my writing well and taking responsibility. By persisting, I stay true to my voice and story. I grow. I put myself in a position to grow.

Writing means implementing our voice. We really can’t rely on someone else to write anything for us. We must do the hard work, fail, do it again, lather, rinse, repeat. In my position, salespeople try to get me to recommend writing programs and apps to writers to help them develop stories. I decline. I don’t believe in them. You alone know the story you need to write. A mechanical program can’t do it for you. Oh, it can. I take that back. But what you end up with will be mediocre and trite, as it has already been done a million times because it is based upon some algorithmic formula. You’ve got to go inside to get an original idea. It would be best to be self-empowered, not handicapped by some silly app for $59.99. By making yourself specifically accountable, you own your own story; you write your own story. As independent contractors and spec writers, we can’t wait for others to make things happen. We must be proactive in everything from writing to publishing and marketing. Independently published or traditionally published, the buck stops with you. Accountability means being a leader. Accountability means being self-sufficient. Accountability means setting your goals and then following through. Accountability means practicing time management that sustains your writing rather than waiting for some external motivation. If you’re waiting for NaNoWriMo to inspire you to write a novel in November, you must figure out what to do for the other eleven months of the year. That comes from you. It can only come from you.

Self-empowerment means being able to take the punches. Part of the writing process is rejection, criticism, and self-doubt. Being resilient through self-empowerment will help you persevere and maintain the focus needed to write an entire novel, edit it numerous times, and live with it for years before it sees the world. In this, I think part of your self-empowerment is realizing you can’t sustain it alone. You need to contact other writers, mentors, agents, editors, and beta readers to keep your motivation. This human connection is not just important, it's vital. It’s often said writing is a lonely and solo process. I don’t think so. We need human connections. Reaching out has its dangerous sides. You become vulnerable, but your self-empowerment lets you discern the significant criticisms for the not-so-good or even not-the-best intended. These connections are your safety net, your sounding board, and your inspiration.

Self-empowerment means that you are never the victim. There’s nothing wrong with the publishing industry. Lots of people are making a lot of money in the publishing industry. If you are not, the problem is not the industry; the problem is… Well, you know where that’s going. Avoid the victim mentality. That is everything that self-empowerment is not. Don’t blame circumstances, editors, or the current market or trends. If there is a setback, own it. What did you do wrong? What could you do better? Maybe it is fixing your writing? Address the complexities and moral challenges of your writing directly and boldly. Use all setbacks again as opportunities to grow rather than things that permanently set you back. You will not change the process, and you will not change the industry. But you can learn both so that you can thrive within the system. If things are not working for you, self-empower yourself and realize that you can’t change the system, but you can change your prosperity within the system. And that all falls to you. This is the essence of self-empowerment- the ability to rise above setbacks and keep moving forward, stronger and more determined than before.

For me, self-empowerment is a spiritual thing. It is based on faith. Not faith that some angel will descend and lead me to glory. It is inner faith in myself, of knowing I’ve got talent locked in me somewhere and I need to find it, of knowing that any problem is not too big that I can’t figure it out if I put enough thought, effort, and time into it. I become empowered by knowing this. It keeps me stable. It keeps me motivated. This faith in yourself, your abilities, and your potential is the cornerstone of self-empowerment. It keeps you going when the going gets tough and propels you to new heights of creativity and success.

So, how do you self-empower yourself? You’ll have to find that, too. We are all individuals. We are all motivated by different things, want different things, and bring different gifts to the desk every day. We must self-empower ourselves by knowing ourselves, both our strengths and our weaknesses. But know this. You are important. What you have to say is essential. Please don’t wait for someone else to permit you to say it. Please do it now. Don’t wait for external validation. Empower yourself. Build your platform individually and share that boldly and courageously with the world. The only way you will do this is through your own empowerment.

Each day, put yourself in a position to grow, make yourself accountable and proactive, cultivate resilience, seek human connection to help you succeed, overcome industry setbacks, and accept accountability when you fall short rather than blame the industry or the times, find your spiritual strength knowing with faith that you have the power to succeed, and each and every day empower yourself. You have it in you to achieve what you put your heart, mind, effort, time, and courage to accomplish. Start today. Be proactive. Remember that the power is not out there but in you.

Your voice needs to be heard, but you must be the power behind it. Start now.