The Independent Author--The Courage to Face our Dreams
Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist once said: "We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn't work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: "Oh well, I didn't really want it anyway." We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it and that the path of the personal calling is no easier than any other path, except that our whole heart is in this journey. Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how."
We all love to stand on the shores of the ocean, taking in her power and the strong winds she forms and we dream of distant shores, of sandy beaches and places others within our lives have never seen. There is something about that moment, with our feet in the sand, the thunderous applause of the waves as they crash down before us, almost begging us to embark on the journey that is stirring within our souls. Some people--or most people rather--will spend a lifetime only dreaming about setting sail for that distant shore and others, a very rare few, will actually dare to embark on that journey.
Yesterday, I set sail to embark on a new path within the journey of my life. It has been a little more than eleven years since I first picked up the pen and only about nine years since I first shared my works with others. I have wrestled with my soul to come to terms with the purpose of my life. And like many of you, I have struggled to fit in and feel truly comfortable with my surroundings, knowing there was more to me than what was seen within the life I was leading--the path I was walking. I have taken the unbeaten path many times in my life, not always for learning but more so for spite and the right to brag at the table over drinks about how I dared to walk a road most only talk about. When I have looked back at the mistakes of my life, I have justified them in comparison to the words of Robert Frost when he said, "Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the road less traveled by and that has made all the difference."
Looking back now on the mistakes of my life, the choices I made and justified, I have a better understanding of who I am and what my purpose is in this world. It isn't any easier when you discover your place and come to terms with your gifts because you soon learn of new struggles, the struggles to convince those who say they love you that you are living to your full potential by daring to be different, daring to dream and daring to take the unbeaten road. Many in my life--those who have proclaimed to love me--have questioned my intentions as though they have stood beside me all these years while I struggled and studied and learned how to apply my gift for the sake of the world and for the sake of a future that is now clearer to me than ever before. Most people will not understand why you choose to be different, and their attitude towards you will appear jealous, sometimes rude as though they are trying to "fix" you and at other times blatantly condescending. It isn't their fault however and you must understand that, as I have and that is what I keep telling myself.
All life is a journey and we all face common obstacles, either in the form of threshold guardians who try to keep us from accomplishing our dreams to tricksters who are misleading for the purpose of making us fall. We have mentors too, people who come into our lives at the right time, to say the right things just when we need to hear them. They are your signs, your indications that you are on the right track towards success. The people closest to me may not (yet) understand what I am trying to do with my life or where I am trying to go. And if they do have a sense for what I want to accomplish, they have no way of understanding the journey. Success is a process...not a destination. That is what the author Jeff Olson says. And if we work hard everyday at the thing we want to accomplish in our lives, we are then creating success in our lives daily. If success were a destination, then I wouldn't have any in my life. It's the little "invisible results" that I create on a daily basis, off the beaten road--the familiar path--that will one day set me apart. I don't do it to be different or better but instead because I want a better way of living. I want to live a life utilizing the gifts and talents I have been given.
I will meet with my new marketing agency today. I believe they are the people (and the owner is the person) I have been waiting to meet, to help take my career to the next level of sales, marketability and credibility. I have worked hard to get where I am today--three years of invisible results--and now my work is starting to bear fruit. It won't be long before I am on the road, touring, speaking, signing books and living the life I have dreamed of. And I won't accomplish it by any sense of luck--but instead--by simply working hard everyday to be prepared for the opportunity that will one day present itself.
Remember, people close to you love you and and they want you to succeed--but their measurement of success will vary from yours as the people closest to me don't yet understand the process of creating that success. My life will change and I will take a step up the ladder on a new venture of my literary career today. Where I end up, I won't know until I get there. How I get there however is clear to me...one day at a time...one step at a time...and with the full understanding that those who love me...may fall by the wayside...they may doubt me...they may completely quit on me...and today, I can live with that. Because if I was truly on the wrong path in my life...then why (I ask myself) are so many others...watching me...???
~Bobby Ozuna
