Sunday, March 11, 2012

You Have My Permission

Do you remember when you first started to believe in yourself? Most likely you were helped along by constructive feedback from a kind, encouraging and generous person. A teacher, perhaps. A loyal reader of your blog. Or perhaps a mentor, boss, or family member.

My blogging career owes a great debt to three readers, each of whom took it upon themselves to give me much-needed encouragement at my food blog Casual Kitchen. One reader emailed to tell me that I changed the way she eats. Another loyal reader told me I completely changed how she thinks about the food industry. Finally, a third reader, who runs a well-established food website, repeatedly tells her readers that Casual Kitchen is her favorite and most thought-provoking food blog.

It's impossible for most people--even highly talented people--to get to a stage of self-confidence where they believe they deserve to be read by other people. These three people essentially gave me the permission I needed to keep going.

Because of these generous souls, I'm still writing. And this blog, Quick Writing Tips, is my way to saying thank you to them. It's my effort to pay it forward, to encourage you to write.

So write! Take my permission and run with it. What are you waiting for?