By Books Author Denise Turney

Prepare for victory if you’re ready to stop caring so much about what others think about you. Prepare for victory if you’re ready for a healthy dose of self-honesty. After all, these two are linked to the one thing that you want most but are starting to think you’ll never grasp and keep.

What’s that one thing? Freedom.

If you’re like many people, you want the freedom to do what you want when you want and not just on weekends. And you want that thing to bring increasing empowerment, peace and joy to you. For me, that’s writing intense novels, the types of books that leave readers thinking, sometimes rattled and definitely, entertained, and dare I say — changed.

Prepare for victory with clarity

However, saying what you want to become victorious at and achieving that goal don’t always link up right away. Sometimes, you gotta fight for what you want.

Which brings up the first step in victory preparation.

To prepare for victory, get clear about what you want. Once you get clear about what you want, you can write the goal down in one to two short sentences. You can stand in front of a mirror and, in less than 15 seconds, tell yourself exactly what you want.

Forbes shares that knowing what you want may be linked to happiness. Forget trying to talk yourself out of what you know you really want. For now, just get clear about what that experience is.

The next step in preparing for victory might scare you, especially if you grew up in a traditional home. And here it is. Be willing to fail. Be willing to fail often. If I told you how many times I’ve tried a book marketing strategy that fell flat, you might think that I’m nuts to still be writing novels.

Victory steps

The ups and downs, failures and successes are not all fun. It doesn’t always feel good. And you’ll certainly need to keep working to keep your confidence and enthusiasm up. But it’s worth it.

Other actions that can help you to prepare for victory are:

• Use a new scale – Stop giving more weight to what others think or say than to what you think. The old scale that I was using while I wrote my first novel, Portia, almost stopped me from publishing the book that went on to become a classic.
• Identify blocks – There’s a verse of scripture (Mark 11:23) that says it’s possible for you to move a mountain if you speak that the mountain move (gotta know what you really want to pull this off). You also have to believe that the experience will happen for you. But you need to identify the blocks (mountains) to know what to address. Journal writing, meditating, freestyle writing and jotting down dreams are ways to identify blocks. Another way is to pay attention to times when you feel uncomfortable for seemingly no reason (e.g., someone compliments you in a crowd, you’re given a gift).
• Ask for what you want – Give up magical thinking. Victory may not fall in your lap just because you want it. Eventually, you may need to ask someone to help you.
• Become your number one fan – Lack of self-love shows up in so many ways. Times when I struggled with lack of self-love, I felt uncomfortable around nearly everyone. Not loving yourself can create a viscous cycle of projection. So, love yourself. Genuinely love yourself no matter what. It’s a lesson that I share through the character Raymond in Love Pour Over Me.

Paths to victory

Paths to victory vary. But you can shorten the time that it takes to experience victory, by incorporating the following steps into your life.

• Make room for victory by being open to change – You could do this in small ways like wearing a different pair of shoes (if you generally wear the same pair of shoes), wearing a new hairstyle, driving a different way home, speaking to a stranger in a safe environment and talking with others to avoid becoming self-absorbed.
• Keep good company – Surround yourself with people who love you, people who are pursuing their own victories. Free yourself of people who belittle, mistreat or abuse you.
• Celebrate each forward step – It may take months or years to get the victory that you want. Enjoy the journey and celebrate in healthy ways.
• See things differently – Start seeing yourself achieving what you want. Start seeing yourself enjoying experiences that you want. After all, when it comes to people enjoying a love-filled, joyous life — why not you?

Prepare for victory and you could avoid nesting these top regrets or unwanted motivations once you reach the end of your physical journey. You could feel more love, peace, joy and centeredness even as you move through a chaotic world.

And that is my hope for you. After all, your joy and peace help to light the way. But first you need to prepare yourself for victory. You most certainly can do it. The victory that you’re preparing for and truly want is going to come from right inside of you. Are you ready to go get it?