When Failure is a Gift author:Angie Dixon source_url:http://www.articlecity.com/articles/self_improvement_and_motivation/article_1578.shtml date_saved:2007-07-25 12:30:18 category:self_improvement_and_motivation article:
I wanted, for many many years, to be a mystery writer.
Finally I wrote a mystery novel.
I got a best-selling novelist to be my mentor and help me with the rewrite.
I got an agent.
They sent the book out.
And sent it out.
And sent it out.
And it went nowhere.
I tried writing another book, and my mentor told me to dump it and start a third book.
I did, but couldnt get into the idea and the book never materialized.
Which is all okay, because today Im a life coach, something Ive wanted to do for a long time and which allows me time to write if I want to, and I never would have gotten here if that book had been published.
You see, I can write part-time while I coach as a profession, but if that first book had been published, I would have seen myself as a mystery writer and nothing else.
Thats the mindset I had at the timeIm going to be a mystery writer full-time.
Now, having failed at something important to me, I realize that I dont have to do only one thing.
I dont even have to do anything for the rest of my life.
I may coach for five years and say, Im done.
What my failure as a mystery writer taught me is that I have choices about what I do, and Im never locked into any one thing.
That was a gift I could never pay for or find anywhere else.
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