Bad Decisions: They Can Ruin Your Career as a Writer
Sometimes change is needed in a writer’s life to help them make good decisions.
Bad decisions can ruin your career as well as sink your chances to be a good writer.
I could never understand why I made bad decisions.
For a period of 34 years, I made one bad decision after another. I just couldn’t get it right.
I really felt stupid, I was a loser, a phoney, aimlessly drifting from one job to the next.
A positive mindset was nowhere to be found. I was growing more and more depressed while drinking to the point of becoming an alcoholic.
I was ashamed and in a dark place. I was arrested and thrown into jail. I took the advice of many who encouraged me to sober up and attend AA meetings.
Never let anything control your life. Guard yourself against turning away from your good values.
Long story short I never had another drink. But why do I make bad decisions?
That question has nagged me for a long time, but I discovered through lots of reading, exactly why I made bad decisions and how to turn that around to good decisions.
Anger was ruining my life.
I couldn’t carry a conversation with my wife without getting angry.
Then I read a book by Neil T. Anderson, “Victory Over Darkness”. “…an outburst of anger should prompt us to reexamine what we believe and the mental goals we have formed to accomplish those beliefs.”
This was the first part that helped me rein in that anger. Notice I don’t say “cured”. Anger was systemic in my life for a long time and it would take a long time to weed it out.
I realize now, that when I catch myself getting angry, that I should re-examine my goals and learn why I’m angry and how to overcome the obstacle causing the anger.
I use my morals as a strength to accomplish my goal while not blocking the goals of my family, friends, and associates.
Back to making good decisions
Understanding anger was the first step on this road to making good decisions. But anger is more a symptom of a lingering problem I had subconsciously acquired. But I couldn’t pinpoint that problem until I read another book years later.
That book is “Change Your Life Now — Powerful Techniques for Positive Change” By Dr. William J. Knaus.
In this book, I learned your belief system and values are important to make any long-term change in your ability to make better decisions. Don’t get me wrong this is something that takes practice and dedication to successfully change your life. There are no quick fixes.
Before reading this book, I got my life back on track. I had a home remodeling business that was successful, and I was making good decisions. I felt like my increased focus and productivity were helping me in this regard.
I was right but focus and productivity were the outcomes not the catalyst for that change.
Outside sources can change your direction.
Then in 2008, the recession hit, and I was out of business in 48 hours because the banks were closing down. I was not in debt and had saved some money, but it was time to move on and start fresh, a new business venture.
My wife had started a small business, cooking prepared meals and selling them at the preschool at the church. She had a lot of customers but no real exposure. I suggested a new location where she could get recognized and build her business in a public setting.
That was 12 years ago. We own and run a successful business now. We accomplished that by making good decisions.
After reading Dr Knaus's book the missing piece of the puzzle came to me.
“Values that we live by and create in our life help to guide our decisions to succeed rather than fail because our goals have been changed and formed by our new set of values.”
By values, I mean spiritual qualities such as mind, character or moral excellence. Always putting the truth ahead of everything in life and in business. Like God, Country and Family values.
I know, I can hear Lee Greenwood singing in the background too.
I had changed my ideals to get myself under control. Control led to focus and productivity that were created out of my desire to have strong ideals.
These beliefs had guided me when I needed them the most. I just didn’t understand why until now.
How this affected my writing.
This book said “If you respect your neighbors they will respect you and you can live in harmony with the neighborhood. But if you don’t respect your neighbor it will not work in the neighborhood either.”
I learned that when writing a post that it is the initial purpose of the article that is important. If you get this wrong and it doesn’t appeal to your audience then your decisions from that point on are destined to doom because you didn’t respect your audience.
My audience is other writers on Medium. If I don’t violate their trust but continue to respect their wishes producing content they want I will continue to grow.
If I find something that can be of value to them outside my lane of writing then I can accomplish my goals and enrich theirs.
My purpose here is to help you see that your personal beliefs are of utmost importance to succeed in business and in life. No values equal failure. That’s a fact.
It doesn’t mean you won’t fail occasionally, but those failures are learning moments that can help to guide and direct you. You must study them to find the point of failure.
I keep hearing that it is an ebb and flow like the tide.
I believe that if my audience truly comes first I will succeed and eventually accomplish my goals even if I stumble along the way.
The takeaway
After correcting some bad habits, I started to re-access my core belief system and the values that I needed to follow. Those ideals helped me make better decisions to make changes in my life.
When I make decisions concerning headlines opening paragraphs, or the purpose of my writing I have a good shot at producing content that will improve every month. But only if I am writing to enrich the lives of my audience.
There is no guarantee as to how long it takes. I hold to the truth that a set value system has to be in place to reel me in when I get into deep waters and guide me along the way towards my goals.
How about you do you make good decisions?
