The HEA Cafe

Do you ever sabotage your dreams because you refuse to change? Or take a chance? Or admit you’re on the wrong path?

As January’s fresh start fades, we’re at a crossroads. The past stretches out behind us and the future before us. There are as many roads, physical, mental and spiritual, leading away from this moment as there are stars in the heavens. We can hang onto the past and the mistakes we’ve made, rehashing old wounds and reliving bad habits. We can freeze in the moment and refuse to look back or scan the roads ahead, in essence stalling our lives and our careers for a comfortable status quo.

Or we can risk everything and step forward into the unknown.

If saying the word unknown makes you break out in a sweat, I’m right there with you. So much pressure. So much risk.

I was at a crossroads last month with my career. For over a year, I’d been on a different page than my agent.  I assumed the fault was mine; I hadn’t made my expectations clear. Writing everything down, I filled a page with what I wanted and then had a heart to heart talk with her. She reassured me and we moved forward. Unfortunately, within a few months, I again felt we were on two very different pages. I tried addressing my expectations again but now felt like a pesky child instead of a career-focused author. Were my expectations too great? Probably, but my solution was to avoid the issue all together.

According to quantum physics, the hovering of an electron in all dimensions of possibility is what propels the leap to a new nuclear orbit. For me, life is a compass. If I start off in one direction and something doesn’t feel right, I turn my inner compass in a new direction and start off again. However there are times when nothing feels right or what feels right defies logic, and, oh my, I am nothing but logical! So, what do I do? I insist on maintaining status quo. That’s exactly what I did with my agent dilemma. I hovered. I maintained. In fact, I spent a whole year hoping I was finally going to get on the same page with her.

Our styles were too different, and come this January, I knew I had to make a decision. I had to stop hovering in the same orbit and hoping for something better. Having spent years trying to attain a great agent, my logical brain scoffed at my intuition’s insistence that it was time to move forward. To take the step into the unknown.

But during that year, I sold a novel and a short story with no agent involvement. The death grip I had on being an “agented author” had become less strenuous. I had seen possibilities that excited me to my core. Even my logical brain couldn’t stop thinking about them.

So if you’re hovering, do it with an open mind. Your electrons will be moving and your orbit’s going to change, guaranteed. The trick is to see the opportunities that exist on any path or orbit that comes your way.

No matter what crossroad you find yourself at this year, cut yourself some slack about picking the right path. Remember, we’re all in this together and the possibilities are as abundant as stars in the sky.

P.S. My first paranormal comedy novella, Witches Anonymous, comes out February 24^th. I took a risk and entered a contest – and I NEVER win contests – and found myself on a new career path with this story