Yes, You Can Change - Quieting the Voice of Doubt

“It is never too late to be who you might have been.” George Eliot, (1819-1880)

Why do we give up on learning and not challenge ourselves to learn more? Is it because learning gets pushed to the bottom of our “To Do” list? How many people have settled for less because they didn’t want or were unwilling to push themselves that extra step to finish a degree or earn a certification? We are capable of so much more, but does that voice of doubt hold us back?

I have reached my first milestone after ten weeks into this college semester. I’m still enrolled in the class! Yes, it feels good. I have gotten past the hurdle when the voice of doubt would have told me I couldn’t do it and I would have normally dropped this Math (Intermediate Algebra) class. Always, I would promise myself that I would take the class again later. Well, there comes a point where there are no more next semesters and that voice of doubt begins to sound like a broken record. For all of us today, education is so important and it will unlock more doors and provide us with more opportunities than without it. I’m reminded of a saying from the writer George Eliot (1819-1880) “It is never too late to be who you might have been.”

How do you know when it’s time for something bigger and better in life? Each of us is searching for that ultimate goal in life to be able to say we did it. Have you seen the cartoon of the man and the little angel that sits on his right shoulder encouraging him to do something and then the little red devil pops onto the left shoulder and provides a doubtful response to all that the angel encourages? Listed below are some ways to silence that little red devil – the voice of doubt and pursue your goals.

You can’t do that! Let your mantra become, “I can do better than that,” and repeat it over and over again.

You’ll be old by the time you finish! Guess what? Time waits for no-one and you’ll be older anyway whether you take the time to get an education or not. Probably you’ll be a lot smarter than you were and making more money.

You’ll have to sacrifice so much it will hurt: What will you really be giving up? Assemble a team of supporters to help you while you pursue your educational goals or take that class that could move you to the next pay level. Sure, it will be an uphill battle, but the reward is worth it.

Stop doubting yourself and keep an open mind. Give yourself all the encouragement you can muster. Quoting Barack Obama in his acceptance speech winning the Presidential Election in 2008, “Yes, we can change.”

Good Luck in all your endeavors.

NaNoWriMo versus Algebra

Another year and again I will be unable to participate in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) Competition. In September I had enrolled in a Math class at the local junior college to finish up more units towards my English degree. Oh Sure! I feel like the kid that couldn’t come out to play. While so many of my writer friends are all participating in NaNoWriMo I’m figuring out the Quadratic Formula and completing the Square and stressing every time there is a test.

Can you just imagine all those writers creating stories that become novels? All those nouns, verbs, adjectives making sentences on the page and telling a story it gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. I don’t get those same goose bumps solving math problems and as for the people that thought of these equations they certainly won’t be on any of dinner invite lists.

While I don’t think it’s fair to bore you with examples of my math problems on this post, I’m going to send you to some writers who are participating in NaNoWriMo 2008.

• Morgan Mandel, http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
• Laura Crawford, http://greetingsfromthepolebarn.blogspot.com


Enjoy!



National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your pants approach to novel writing. Since 1999, Participants have begun writing their novels on November 1 and their goal is to write a 175 page (50,000) word novel by midnight on November 30. https://www.nanowrimo.org