Revolution.Is: Act As If

I had the great pleasure of being featured this week for Amber Rae’s exciting new venture, Revolution.is.

As Amber describes the project:

Our mission is to motivate people to take initiative, trust their gut, and live what they love. Each week, we’ll share stories of up-and-coming change-makers, people who are changing the world by spending their energy living their passion instead of just talking about it.

Here’s an excerpt of my story — Act As If:

Just about every law of attraction tome advises dreamers to “act as if.” Act as if you are wealthy, act as if you’ve already achieved your biggest goals, act as if you’re on top of the world. I used to shrug it off as nothing more than an adult version of playing house. Nice in theory, but I’m not suddenly a doctor because I act as if I have a stethoscope in my hand.

I was wrong. It works, but in unexpected ways.

I’ve wanted to be an author ever since I was a little girl, sitting on the floor of the Green Apple Bookstore in San Francisco, dog-earing pages of books because I knew I would be back the next day. In 2008, after mustering up the courage to write a book for college graduates based on my blog, I completed the first draft. I told everyone I was going to self-publish because “I was on a roll” and “just wanted to get my book out there to the world.”

But deep down I knew it was because I was terrified that I had nothing of value to say and that I couldn’t handle the rejection that might come with pursuing a traditional publisher or of having a book that didn’t sell. And so instead of choosing a direction at the fork in the road – self-publish or pitch to big houses – I stopped . . . paralyzed. I didn’t open the Word file with my book in it for five months. Graduation season – my peak promotion opportunity – came and went.

For every day that I ignored my project, it felt like a part of me died. I was watching my life dream free-fall through my fingertips, and I couldn’t muster the strength to do a damn thing about it.

I started hating myself for giving up and for being so weak. I felt dull and uninspired and lost. But then – in an aha! moment – I realized that the only way to move forward was to act as if.

{Keep reading about what happened after my aha moment at Revolution.is…}