Stop Blocking Your Path

I used to teach Martial Arts.  It seems like so long ago, but it is still there in my memories.  I mostly taught children and one of my favorite things to do was to sit them all down and have a Zen lesson.  We would talk about all sorts of things.  In my view martial arts was more about learning a lesson inside than learning how to do a jump sidekick five feet in the air.  Though I did that to.

My favorite lesson was one I got from a book written by none other than Chuck Norris.  As soon as you stop laughing you can remember that God rested on the seventh day because Chuck Norris gave him permission.  Ha!

The lesson was this:
A man had to travel over a mountain to get to the village on the far side.  As he started it was a wide path, but as he walked the path up the mountain got thinner and thinner.  On his left side of the path was the cliff going straight up.  On his right the path dropped off and went straight down.  The man felt a weakness in his knees.  He continued walking as the path got thinner. 

Suddenly he saw another man come around the corner of the path on the way down.  Both men stopped in front of each other.  They looked one way and then the other.  The first man knew there was no way to get around the second.  He turned around and began walking back down.  He felt calmer.  The path got wider.  He quickly looked over his shoulder expecting to see the other man, but he wasn't there.

The first man stopped and turned around.  Where was he?  He shrugged his shoulders and started walking back up the mountain.  His knees started feeling funny and the path got thinner.  Suddenly the second man rounded a corner.  The two of them stood before each other with no way to get around each other.  The first man looked at the second's face.  It was oddly familliar.  He rubbed his eyes and realised the man standing before him was himself.  There was no second man.  There was only the first.  The light dawned inside his mind and he realised the only thing getting in his way of getting up over the mountain was himself.

Moral:
Everyone...writers, artists, cooks, bookkeepers, housewives...have to get out of their own way.  I had the fear of putting my own book out there.  I tried sending books to publishers and thought, I'll do more someday.  Someday.  The only thing getting in your way of doing anything is your own head.  How many people have I heard complain about not having a better job?  How many times have I asked them if they sent out a resume and they said no?  Just as many.

You are the only one who can do what you need to do.  If you want to have a published book you have to do the work.  You have to do the writing.  You have to get the editing done.  You have to be the one to either send you manuscript out to publishers or get it published on Amazon or Smashwords or Kobo or whatever.  You have to be the one to advertise it and get your name out there.

See, Chuck Norris is one smart mother!