In the book 50 Lessons I Learned From The World’s Greatest Achiever by Vic Johnson I learned more about facing my overwhelming fears.

Changing Your Definition of Failure

Here are five different definitions of failure.

1. Failure is not receiving the desired end.
2. Failure is the condition of falling short or being insufficient.
3. Failure is a cessation of proper function or performance.
4. Failure is non-performance of what was requested or expected.
5. Failure is a decline in strength or effectiveness.

Whatever definition of fear defines your situation, fearing failure will stop you from taking the necessary risks needed to achieve success. It helps to develop a healthy relationship with failure. Rather than beating yourself up for the failure, blaming yourself for taking the risk and failing, think of failure as a feedback mechanism. Analyze the failure to determine what went right as well as what went wrong.

Whenever I face failure, I don’t think of it as an end. Instead, I remind myself that failure helped Edison invent the incandescent light bulb.  According to some reports, he failed ten thousand times before came up with the solution. Since then, better, more efficient ways have been discovered that are even more efficient than what he finally came up with. It is through trial and error that any new thing is discovered.

Find A Failure Proof Mentor

My friend Laura McHugh and I on the night before the official launch of her first book Weigh Of Blood

The internet is full of expert who are willing to mentor you in one way or another. I am currently looking for someone to mentor me in the marketing of my books. There are literally hundreds of thousands of novels out there so the competition is fierce, therefore, finding someone who has actually done what I am looking to do (selling millions of books) will help me cut through the failure red tape.

One place to look to find best selling authors would be to go to the best sellers shelf in your nearest book store. A better and easier way is that you could go into Amazon and in the search look for books in your genre. Look for the best sellers in that genre and discover the author. Look at everything you can find about the author in Amazon. Analyze the author’s bio. Is there any way that you can improve your bio based on that author’s bio? Analyze the “Book Descriptions”. What can you do to improve your book descriptions? Look at the “Look Inside” feature in that author’s books. Analyze those first few pages of the author’s books. If you like those first few pages, you might want to read an entire book to learn even more from that author’s work.

Create a document on your computer titled the author that you are studying. Write down what you learned from the author and that author’s books on Amazon.

Once you have learned about this author from their Amazon pages, find that author’s “Author Central” Page (also affiliated with Amazon). There it repeats the same information you already found concerning this author, but it also offers a connection to other aspects of the author’s work like the author’s website, the author’s blog, as well as the author’s Facebook,, twitter page, and linkedIn page. You can also follow the author from that page. Go to those connections, follow the author in those locations. Leave appropriate comments..Join other groups that that author is on. Let the author know that you are a fan. Leave just enough comments to show that you are a fan, but not so much that you appear to be stalking the author.  If the author has a mailing list, get onto it. Whatever you do though, do not ask an author to read your work until you have followed that author for at least six months (and posted on the author’s forums and sites during that time.) Over time you will know this author on a more personal level on the internet.

Keep copies of all the interactions that you have with this author on the document you opened. On another page, write down all the things that you learned from this author then utilize those things  in your own writing.

This will work concerning any area of your life that you have fear or are not certain what area you fear. There are experts in any area of difficulty.  Go to Amazon, find books on the subject. If there is a writer who is especially adept at doing that think, get to know that author then when you come against difficulties, you can ask that author directly through social media.

Facing Fears

The only way to overcome fear is by facing that fear. First, you need to separate your fear of action from the action itself.

General George Patton said that he didn’t take counsel with his fears. In other words, he had them, but he didn’t give into them. Everyone experiences fears, but it is important that fear doesn’t govern our decisions.

A good rule of thumb is “If fear is the only reason for not doing something, and there is no logical reason not too. (An example of a good reason for fear would be the fear of stepping out of an airplane without a chute. If you are afraid to step out of an airplane without a chute, there is good reason supporting that fear.)

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said  that “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Small Doses Of The Fear Of Rejection

Science has taught us that we can overcome fear by taking what we fear in small doses and building over time until we no longer feel that fear. Procrastination could be a symptom of that fear. Because science has also shown that willpower is limited  to a certain amount every day,  it is a good reason to do whatever you fear early in the day if possible.

If you are an author who is looking to become traditionally published, but you fear rejection, take one small step every day and submit one query every day  to an agent or a publishing company. via email. Collect your rejection emails in a folder marked rejections. Think of it as a success that you sent out the query, think of it as a success that you received a rejection letter. Continue to improve your work and continue to send out queries.

If you are a business owner and are afraid to make cold calls, make it a point to pick up the phone first thing in the morning to make one of those calls. No matter what the outcome of the call, celebrate the moment. Give yourself a pat on the back, give yourself a relaxing break before continuing with the rest of your work. Do this every day for as long as it takes.

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Donna Brown is an ordained minister. As Author Cygnet Brown, she  has recently published her first nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues. Her upcoming book A Coward’s Solace will be available soon. Click here for more information about Cygnet Brown and her books.

Today I am Continuing  what I have learned from the book 50 Lessons I Learned From The World’s Greatest Achiever by Vic Johnson.

Just because we have goals with actionable steps does not make life as smooth as the Saragossa Sea. There are those rough spots in life where we need inspiration to keep us moving forward through the challenging times and beyond them. Visualization tools can help get us through these difficult times.

One visualization tool can be a physical photo of your goal. For instance, my visualization picture is the new photograph that  have had taken as my author photo on my book. It is also my photo in my signature at the bottom of this post. Looking at the photo inspires me to try to continue to try strive toward the image of a prosperous, productive author.

Using Our Day Dreams Constructively

One visualization tool that we can use is daydreaming, but not in the sense that we use daydreaming to escape reality. Rather, we should use it to inspire us to picture what we want our future to look like. Imagine your goal coming to fruition. Imagine every aspect of that goal. Imagine through every sense. See it, Hear it. Smell it. Taste it, and especially feel it. Feel the exhilaration.

Now take that feeling and apply it to imagining your next step. Imagine that step going perfectly. Imagine working through a problem related to that next step.

Fall In Love With Your Dreams

Do you remember when you first fell in love. I do. Every waking hour I would think about the object of my affection. I would feel bliss whenever I thought about him. Every time I was not with him, I would count the hours until I could see him again. I’ll stay out and talk with him for hours. Sleep is the last thing that I want to be doing when I am in love.

That’s the way it is when a person falls in love with his or her dreams. My dreams are like that. When I have to do something that does not relate to my dreams, I am looking forward to getting back to those dreams. when I go to bed at night I actually look forward to getting back to working on my dreams.Do your dreams excite you like this? Are you so in love with your dreams that when the alarm goes off in the morning, you can’t wait to jump out of bed and get started? Are you willing to work for hours toward making those dreams a reality? If so, you have found your passion. If not, perhaps you should keep looking for that kind of love.

Get obsessed with things that surround your passion. Search out music that inspires you toward your goals. Look for movies and literature that motivate you toward success. Write down new ideas and follow the inspiration wherever it leads.

Following My Passion Is Not Always A Bump Free Journey

Just because we want to do something does not mean that it is always an easy road. Back when I was in High School, I failed t typing. Because I knew that typing was a necessary ability for a writer, I knew that I had to get proficient at typing. Though I failed typing in high school, as an adult I discovered an online typing course from which I learned what I didn’t learn in high school. Now I prefer to type all my writing directly onto the computer. I don’t think about the letters that I write any more. I just do it. My personal learning style is simply more conducive to online learning than in a classroom environment which is probably why I graduated with honors in an online college program.

Another course I failed in school was French. About a year ago I discovered Duolingo and immediately began to learn Spanish.  In August I will finish the Spanish program and the next language I plan it take up is French again.  Because I was successful at learning the Spanish lang uage, I know that Iwill be ready to tackle French again.

When I wrote my first novel, at first I tried to go the traditional route. It was at the time of the most recent crash when most traditional houses were downsizing.and no one was interested in the books that I was writing. I tried about one hundred literary agents and publishing houses before I finally decided to self-publish. Through trial and error, mostly error, I have been learning the ins and outs of publishing as an indie publisher.

Therefore, I have been learning to ward off apathy and have held tight to my dreams. I have surrounded myself with visual aids that inspire me  to continue the pursuit of my dreams. I am a self published author because I did not quit. I fell in love with my dreams and despite set back, I have never looked back.

Photo by Joyce Bohm Photography

Donna Brown is an ordained minister. As Author Cygnet Brown, she  has recently published her first nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues. Her upcoming book A Coward’s Solace will be available soon. Click here for more information about Cygnet Brown and her books.