Lance Wallnau

Do You Beat Yourself Up?

My first book “God’s Chaos Candidate” (written right before Trump got elected) was REJECTED by a leading Christian Publisher I submitted my work to. I was devastated. They said working with me was a risk. I was an inexperienced writer with no track record. I became convinced that If I wrote my own book and self published it I was likely to be a failure. I sadly concluded that nobody would want to publish my book and never went to another publisher.
However they miscalculated.
The book was so hot I ran out of my printed version and could not meet demand for the book as orders came in. Jim Bakker had to call off television promotion because my printer could not meet demand! Instead of 1 million sales I limited myself to 50,000.
But 50,000 for a first time author is huge. In spite of the limited supply the book was a hit and rocked up to Amazons Top 20 Best Sellers from all categories.
Beware how you handle critical feedback. I just read this quote and thought of sharing it with you.
“Recognize that all distinctive work brings criticism. The criticism that we most fear receiving and that we find the most wounding is criticism that matches up with what we believe about ourselves. Notice which past criticisms have stung the most for you. Notice if there is a particular criticism you most fear receiving. Perhaps it’s being seen as “arrogant” or “good but not great” or “lazy.” Simply notice what it is for you. In what way does this mirror what you believe about yourself, or fear to be true about yourself?
Your work is to turn your attention away from the outward criticism and develop a more accurate, compassionate assessment of yourself. When you’ve changed the belief about yourself, you’ll no longer be so afraid of or wounded by that criticism.
Typically, it’s not feedback itself that gets us in trouble, but the way we interpret it.”