Letting You In to My Success
Tonight I received an email from a graduate student doing a project on What Is Success, in the context of spiritual psychology. She asked for stories of success, and I was moved to share mine. Here's how I answered her questions.
I tried to be just as simple, straightforward and neutral as I could be.
1. What is your Success Story (from the dream to accomplishing the dream)? Please include any challenges.
I always wanted to be a writer, from the time I was six, when I composed long poems about the Fairy Paranabou on my Big Chief tablet. I took journalism classes and was the editor of my high school newspaper. After college, I became a social worker and my writing consisted of case notes and court reports! I married and divorced, then went to live in England for a couple of years. I left art supplies in storage in Texas and took my typewriter (easier to carry). I wrote poetry and enrolled in London’s City Literary Institute for a short story writing class. But I was busy with many activities and didn’t do too much with this.
Back in the States I discovered positive thought, affirmations, Religious Science and much more. I remember reciting hundreds of times: “I’m a writer, an author, I am success, flowing in wholeness and happiness.” I spent ten years as an editor/publicist/marketing manager for the Continuing Education Division at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and won a few cool awards in the process.
During that time, I switched career paths to counseling, getting my Masters from UNLV and immediately getting another Masters from USM, graduating in 1988. While attending USM I began a fantasy novel (still not published) called Copperstar. I also wrote The Smart Beginner’s Playbook as part of my second year project. A few years later, during my third year of USM, I wrote a how to text, Ask Inside (also not published). A little later I got the urge to write a mystery novel and produced the first draft of Capital Casework, a cozy featuring a social worker sleuth. (Guess what. It’s not published either.) Each of these books took months or years to complete and then languished on my closet shelf. A couple of rejections of my query letters did me in.
I completed the Doctor of Spiritual Science degree through Peace Theological Seminary in 2002 and had a notion that my Practical Treatise (Attuning to the Name of God) contained book material. I moved from the LA area to Michigan to join my husband who had taken a job there. In Michigan, I couldn’t find a job in counseling or social work, presumably because I was seen as over qualified. I couldn’t even get interviews for entry level work and I didn’t have connections to network into higher level positions. So I began to formulate the intention that I wanted a “portable career.” My husband was still subject to transfers and I was tired of starting over in new communities!
In 2004 I started work on a new book using some of my treatise research and findings. I started with pilot workshops to test the processes, and drafted a book length manuscript. In the fall of 2004, I queried the few publishers who didn’t require an agent. One was quite tempted by my approach, but my work didn’t fit the narrow niche of her company.
About that time I had a dream in which I had shot arrows into the universe and one came back with a bent tip. A message attached to it said, “This is not submissible, so we’re forming a plan to launch you instead.” I noted this dream in my journal and went on with preparations for moving from Michigan to Vermont because of my husband’s work.
Another writer friend took a look and said I had two or three books in one in that manuscript.
So, in between another cross country move, settling in, doing a new job in a new community, etc., I extracted text and created one very small book, A Way of Loving Intention. Last August, 2005, I was contemplating a final edit of WOLI and how to come up with funds to self-publish. My life coach nudged me to consider turning it into an ebook for publication on-line. He sent me a link to a free teleseminar by Ellen Violette. I signed up for Ellen’s 3-Day Quick Start E-Book Authoring Class to finish my book and propel myself into getting it published some way or another.
The first night of the class, Ellen strongly encouraged me to follow her process and create a new book. So I did. From concept to market research to writing, I produced a very respectable draft of a new book in three days of work. Wow! I was so impressed that I signed up for Ellen’s 10 week Internet Marketing Class for E-book Authors. I waited until it began in October, and then did what she said to do step by step.
Considering I knew nothing about internet marketing or ebooks a year ago, I’ve come a very long way indeed. My ebook The Power of Personal Peace: Reducing Stress by Loving Yourself from the Inside Out, was published in December 2005. A Way of Loving Intention needs a cover and then I’ll release it as an ebook also.
I’m steadily learning more about internet marketing. I have a website, which will soon be expanding from 5 to 35 pages. I've learned to build my own web pages. I do regular teleseminars. I blog on subjects related to my niche. I have about 1200 subscribers to my newsletter mailing list. I’ve been invited to co-develop and co-teach a class for coaches for a huge organization, and have begun that process with my colleague. I consider that I’m still laying the foundation for my business, but it's beginning to have a life of its own. My book is a ticket to credibility as an expert and I am feeling my way step by step as this unfolds. I feel like I have “backed into” a new career and I just now have enough information about my new field to start making some informed choices on how to direct myself.
2. How did you accomplish your dream?
This is the first time I’ve spelled it out from start to finish like this. I must say, I’ve simply gone step by step. I’ve had many disappointments and appeared to lay aside and ignore my dream from time to time over the years. But I kept coming back to it!! I definitely had spiritual help, from my inner spiritual master and the Christ Consciousness. I couldn’t have done this without the inner support. Also extremely important was the support of my husband, who is another USM grad, and my coach. My husband yelled when I tried to give up, he challenged when I faltered, and he was always there with his loving. My coach helped me to hold the focus and stay accountable to myself through all sorts of life changes.
3. How does it feel to be living your dream? How has your life changed?
My life is a lot more fun now! I feel I’m finally doing something I’m meant to be doing, in perfect timing. The many threads of my experience are coming together in a beautiful way. I use my counseling, speaking, writing, marketing and artistic skills and much more, often all of them in a single day. I’m enjoying a flow of creative energy like nothing I’ve ever known! I wake up with ideas and put them into action right away.
4. What do you attribute as the key to your success?
Persistence. Loving myself enough to keep going. Loving myself enough to keep growing on every level possible so that I was ready when the timing was right for me to step beyond my previous boundaries.
It was a blessing for me to write this out and see how my process has unfolded in such a gradual and gentle manner. I'm not defining this level of success as finished, either! There is surely more unfolding day by day and I am open to the miracles of the process.
I'll be inviting you to join me in more upcoming teleseminars. Stay tuned.
In Loving and Light,
Dr. Ilenya
P.S. If you want more information about Ellen Violette and her classes, click here
http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=295952
I tried to be just as simple, straightforward and neutral as I could be.
1. What is your Success Story (from the dream to accomplishing the dream)? Please include any challenges.
I always wanted to be a writer, from the time I was six, when I composed long poems about the Fairy Paranabou on my Big Chief tablet. I took journalism classes and was the editor of my high school newspaper. After college, I became a social worker and my writing consisted of case notes and court reports! I married and divorced, then went to live in England for a couple of years. I left art supplies in storage in Texas and took my typewriter (easier to carry). I wrote poetry and enrolled in London’s City Literary Institute for a short story writing class. But I was busy with many activities and didn’t do too much with this.
Back in the States I discovered positive thought, affirmations, Religious Science and much more. I remember reciting hundreds of times: “I’m a writer, an author, I am success, flowing in wholeness and happiness.” I spent ten years as an editor/publicist/marketing manager for the Continuing Education Division at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and won a few cool awards in the process.
During that time, I switched career paths to counseling, getting my Masters from UNLV and immediately getting another Masters from USM, graduating in 1988. While attending USM I began a fantasy novel (still not published) called Copperstar. I also wrote The Smart Beginner’s Playbook as part of my second year project. A few years later, during my third year of USM, I wrote a how to text, Ask Inside (also not published). A little later I got the urge to write a mystery novel and produced the first draft of Capital Casework, a cozy featuring a social worker sleuth. (Guess what. It’s not published either.) Each of these books took months or years to complete and then languished on my closet shelf. A couple of rejections of my query letters did me in.
I completed the Doctor of Spiritual Science degree through Peace Theological Seminary in 2002 and had a notion that my Practical Treatise (Attuning to the Name of God) contained book material. I moved from the LA area to Michigan to join my husband who had taken a job there. In Michigan, I couldn’t find a job in counseling or social work, presumably because I was seen as over qualified. I couldn’t even get interviews for entry level work and I didn’t have connections to network into higher level positions. So I began to formulate the intention that I wanted a “portable career.” My husband was still subject to transfers and I was tired of starting over in new communities!
In 2004 I started work on a new book using some of my treatise research and findings. I started with pilot workshops to test the processes, and drafted a book length manuscript. In the fall of 2004, I queried the few publishers who didn’t require an agent. One was quite tempted by my approach, but my work didn’t fit the narrow niche of her company.
About that time I had a dream in which I had shot arrows into the universe and one came back with a bent tip. A message attached to it said, “This is not submissible, so we’re forming a plan to launch you instead.” I noted this dream in my journal and went on with preparations for moving from Michigan to Vermont because of my husband’s work.
Another writer friend took a look and said I had two or three books in one in that manuscript.
So, in between another cross country move, settling in, doing a new job in a new community, etc., I extracted text and created one very small book, A Way of Loving Intention. Last August, 2005, I was contemplating a final edit of WOLI and how to come up with funds to self-publish. My life coach nudged me to consider turning it into an ebook for publication on-line. He sent me a link to a free teleseminar by Ellen Violette. I signed up for Ellen’s 3-Day Quick Start E-Book Authoring Class to finish my book and propel myself into getting it published some way or another.
The first night of the class, Ellen strongly encouraged me to follow her process and create a new book. So I did. From concept to market research to writing, I produced a very respectable draft of a new book in three days of work. Wow! I was so impressed that I signed up for Ellen’s 10 week Internet Marketing Class for E-book Authors. I waited until it began in October, and then did what she said to do step by step.
Considering I knew nothing about internet marketing or ebooks a year ago, I’ve come a very long way indeed. My ebook The Power of Personal Peace: Reducing Stress by Loving Yourself from the Inside Out, was published in December 2005. A Way of Loving Intention needs a cover and then I’ll release it as an ebook also.
I’m steadily learning more about internet marketing. I have a website, which will soon be expanding from 5 to 35 pages. I've learned to build my own web pages. I do regular teleseminars. I blog on subjects related to my niche. I have about 1200 subscribers to my newsletter mailing list. I’ve been invited to co-develop and co-teach a class for coaches for a huge organization, and have begun that process with my colleague. I consider that I’m still laying the foundation for my business, but it's beginning to have a life of its own. My book is a ticket to credibility as an expert and I am feeling my way step by step as this unfolds. I feel like I have “backed into” a new career and I just now have enough information about my new field to start making some informed choices on how to direct myself.
2. How did you accomplish your dream?
This is the first time I’ve spelled it out from start to finish like this. I must say, I’ve simply gone step by step. I’ve had many disappointments and appeared to lay aside and ignore my dream from time to time over the years. But I kept coming back to it!! I definitely had spiritual help, from my inner spiritual master and the Christ Consciousness. I couldn’t have done this without the inner support. Also extremely important was the support of my husband, who is another USM grad, and my coach. My husband yelled when I tried to give up, he challenged when I faltered, and he was always there with his loving. My coach helped me to hold the focus and stay accountable to myself through all sorts of life changes.
3. How does it feel to be living your dream? How has your life changed?
My life is a lot more fun now! I feel I’m finally doing something I’m meant to be doing, in perfect timing. The many threads of my experience are coming together in a beautiful way. I use my counseling, speaking, writing, marketing and artistic skills and much more, often all of them in a single day. I’m enjoying a flow of creative energy like nothing I’ve ever known! I wake up with ideas and put them into action right away.
4. What do you attribute as the key to your success?
Persistence. Loving myself enough to keep going. Loving myself enough to keep growing on every level possible so that I was ready when the timing was right for me to step beyond my previous boundaries.
It was a blessing for me to write this out and see how my process has unfolded in such a gradual and gentle manner. I'm not defining this level of success as finished, either! There is surely more unfolding day by day and I am open to the miracles of the process.
I'll be inviting you to join me in more upcoming teleseminars. Stay tuned.
In Loving and Light,
Dr. Ilenya
P.S. If you want more information about Ellen Violette and her classes, click here
http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=295952
posted by Ilenya Marrin, DSS @ 11:59 PM
1 Comments:
At 3:08 AM,
Maria Palma said…
Thank you for sharing your story of success with us! It is very inspiring and I'm happy that you are living your dream.
I, too, loved to write as a young girl and even started writing a book in the fourth grade. I even typed it out! My parents bought me my first typewriter when I was four because I wanted to be a secretary "when I grow up".
I never dreamed that I would actually be a published writer - I've always thought I'd get into business, psychology or working with children. I've actually done all of those, but writing is something that I've come to truly love...and like you, I'm living my dream of "working" for myself.
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