Summary
As we ring in the New Year, don’t give up your dreams. Make them happen. Follow your bliss. Joan announces her new book to be released in 2023.
Follow Your Bliss, Become Your Highest Self.
“I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
Joseph Campbell
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere we go! Homes, stores and city streets are decorated with Christmas lights; Menorahs are lighting up each night as the eight days of Chanukah pass and we are all celebrating the “jolliest” time of the year. I wish that were true for everyone, but the reality is that this has been a very difficult year despite the holiday season. Let’s pray and hope for a better year as we enter the 2023.
Despite the disappointments and losses, we need to be grateful for what we have rather than whine about what we don’t. It’s easier said than done, but having a positive attitude is vital for well-being. This will be my last Newsletter for 2022. My blog is about finding gratitude for what we have.
I want to share with all of you that I am very grateful that Koehler Publishing thought my last book, I HATE THE MAN I LOVE, was worth revising. I am joyful to announce my next book, DO YOU HATE THE ONE YOU LOVE? Strategies For Healing and Saving Your Relationship will be released on October 10, 2023. This was my unexpected Chanukah/Christmas present!
Do You Hate The One You Love?
Some of you may not know that due to the timing of the pandemic, book sales were devastating, especially for me. I had to come to terms with the fact that with all my investment of time, money energy, hopes, wishes, and dreams, my book failed miserably. However, a prominent publishing company, my literary agent and editor felt it was worth another effort. With reluctance, anxiety and ambivalence, I agreed to start over with a new and revised book. So here I am again, along with my editor and my PC, pounding the keys to hopefully make DO YOU HATE THE ONE YOU LOVE? Strategies For Healing and Saving Your Relationship a success in 2023.
I have had self-doubt, fear and sleepless nights wondering if I made the right decision. Afterall, this was a huge risk after the failure of I HATE THE MAN I LOVE. I asked myself if I had lost my mind in taking a risk after the first loss. My muse and I battled this out for weeks. She won! I believe if it’s meant to be, it will be! Fate has as mind of its own. I just have to trust that when a person decides to commit, the universe cooperates!
Why am I sharing this with all of you? I am no different than any of you who have failed in your efforts to succeed in ventures, undertakings, and endeavors due to circumstances beyond your control. No one successful became successful without making mistakes. Mistakes are not mistakes; they are learning lessons. When we look back through the rearview mirror of the past few years, we can clearly see that there were many things that were out of our control. Some of us lost huge amounts of money in the stock market. Some of us had major losses in our businesses—setbacks that were not redeemable–others had health issues, relationship failures and some even lost loved ones.
Success and Failures: Never Give Up!
The human spirit has a life force to reckon with. Whatever your failures, we fight for success. Patience, trust, effort, and faith are what we are made of. I reminded myself how RJ Rawlings went from a struggling mom to the world’s most successful author. She used her last dime to pitch Harry Potter because she believed in herself. Here are just a few of the well-known people who did the same:
Successful People Who Failed
Sir James Dyson
Steven Spielberg
Thomas Edison
Walt Disney
Albert Einstein
Not that I remotely compare myself to the names above, it’s just that they too struggled to reach their dream, so why shouldn’t I? In his book, Childhood and Society, Erik Erikson, social psychologist, proclaims at my age I should be accepting my lot in life, and accept the loss of my dream when sales substantiated its destiny. Instead, I forged ahead and took another leap of faith. Most of my friends are playing pickleball or mah jong. I sit alone upstairs in my office and punch keys that my muse dictates. It may not have been the right choice, but it was the one I made. The moral of this newsletter is NEVER GIVE UP! Fight for what you believe to be your bliss, your truth, and your passion.
The choice I made may not have been the right one. I don’t know that as of this writing, but I followed my bliss, and however it turns out, will be what it will be — que sera, sera! Vous vets on, vets on. (Yiddish) Win or lose, I will have done my best and know that at least I tried. If I hadn’t, I might have gone to my death with regrets. In her book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Susan Jeffers postulates what I chose to do. Damn right I’m scared, but more afraid not to try again. You will know by next year if my choice was the right choice. I am not ashamed of failure; just of not trying when I have a second chance.
So as 2022 comes to an end, and as 2023 rings in the New Year, don’t give up your dream. Fight for your dreams. Make them happen. Follow your bliss. The struggles may be long, hard, and even foolish, but you never know unless you stay in the game.
Have a wonderful holiday everyone! Stay well and stay safe!
Joan E Childs, LCSW is a renowned psychotherapist, inspirational speaker and author of I Hate The Man I Love: A Conscious Relationship is Your Key to Success. In private practice since 1978, she specializes in individual and couple’s therapy, grief therapy, EMDR, NLP, Inner Child Work and codependency. Learn more about her services at www.joanechilds.com.
