Happiness is Hard Work Paying Off

Have you ever worked toward something without achieving the heights you’d envisioned, but you stay at it, knowing it’s what you need to do? Maybe it’s a relationship, or maybe it’s a new business you’ve started.

Patience is a virtue, they say, but really, WHO said that?

Don’t we want abundance right now? It’s easy to get caught in the thrall of instant gratification. I know I have been, and most of the people in my life have been as well. What’s so bad about wanting something to turn out big the first time?

Nothing.

But it doesn’t always work that way, does it?

Take me, for example. Quitting my old career to launch into this new one as a writer was scary. Yes, it was what I was meant to do, but it required a leap of faith and it also had a heck of a learning curve. And then there’s the work. Do you think putting out four books in four months was a piece of cake? It was as challenging as some of the war zones I’ve visited.

But this week, something magical happened. A little while back, I followed my own guidance about seeking support and hired an assistant to help place me on various readers’ blogs. We all need connections, and this person has been a godsend to me. She asked a while back if I wanted to be a part of a holiday hop, and I said, sure. I was happy to donate a few books as a giveaway. I didn’t have all the details, but on Sunday, my Facebook page started getting Likes. And I don’t mean a few. I mean a lot.

Within three days, I had doubled the number of likes on my page. Why is this important? Because it means more readers have a chance to discover me and my books. What’s funny is that I didn’t even realize it was connected to the holiday hop until I saw the post saying the way to enter the book giveaway was to like the authors’ FB pages. 

Wow!

Now that’s what I call surprise abundance.

But it also was a whole lot of hard work finally paying off. I was able to connect with new readers and enlarge my platform. Get my message out to more people, because it all comes down to the message for me.

I couldn’t have been more delighted. So even though I knew not to fall into the trap of thinking FB likes meant people “liked” who I really was, I decided to simply enjoy it for what it was. New connections. New readers. New fun. And all that hard work paying off on social media.

What about you? Is your hard work finally paying off and making you happy? Or are you still working hard to get there? 

Take a moment like I did this week. You might be surprised at how far you’ve come, and that’s something not just to be grateful for, but also to be happy about.