On Monday, I returned from my second trip to Barcelona, a city I absolutely love! When I went two years ago, I visited Montserrat in the mountains of Spain. Excited to return, I began explaining the journey up the mountain to our friends. What I didn’t know before planning the trip is that our friend is extremely afraid of heights. The look on his face said it all—that tourist attraction was out of the question!
The Monastery built in the year 1025 stands 4055 feet above sea-level. To get there, you must ride a cable car suspended in the air, or the funicular that travels at a 65% gradient up 3280 feet (check out the pictures below). Standing on the glass bottom, I felt like we were crashing down the mountain, even though it only travelled at 5 mph! Once we reached the top, the only thing between me and the 3280 footdrop was a small wooden fence. No guard rails, no metal railing.
It reminded me of something that happened recently. Everything was going great for the release of my first novel in April. I took my own advice from my last blog, BE BRAVE, and asked a number of people to read a pre-release copy of my book and offer reviews. That’s when the negativity started.
My familiar “friends”, fear and rejection, came for an uninvited visit and wouldn’t leave!
They reminded me of all my failures. No one will want to buy your book. You’re going to get terrible reviews. You’re not a writer; you don’t even have any writing credits.
Sound familiar? They played over and over in my head for two days, like a song set to repeat on my playlist, paralyzing me with fear and doubt.
Thankfully, a friend gave me the book 40 Days to a Joy-Filled Life: Living the 4:8 Principle by Tommy Newbury for Christmas. She picked the perfect book for me, not knowing what lie ahead. As I read the pages, the choice became clear. I was allowing negative thoughts to keep me from success.
What struck me the most, was that here I was on the edge of a cliff and the only thing standing between success and failure, was whether I looked up or down. If I looked down, I would crash into the rocks below, falling over 3000 feet. But, if I looked up, there was a pathway through the mountain to get to safety.
We are all given a choice: success or failure. Where will you look? I hope you will LOOK UP. Only then will you see what’s in store for you!
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