Leap of Faith

How do you decide when the time is right to try something new and unknown? What do you do with thoughts and ideas that wake you up at 2 am? How much do you tell others about all the hopes and dreams swirling in your head? When do you ignore the naysayers and just “do it?”

I’ve decided that the time for me is now; that I am going to pay attention to those thoughts and ideas; that I am only going to tell my hopes and dreams to those who will be supportive; and that I am just going to “do it.”

My dream is to make a living as a writer and I have decided to pursue it with every last bit of time, energy, perseverance and desire that I can muster. And I have decided that the world – and particularly my home state of Michigan – needs some good news.  And my 30 years of freelance writing; 20 years of public relations and marketing; 15 years of creating newsletters, yearbooks, news stories, press releases, radio scripts and more have positioned me to be just the person to deliver it!

I have recently launched www.GoodNewsMichigan.net, as an online monthly resource or e-paper, for success stories about people, businesses, communities, neighborhoods, events and ideas around the state. I got support and sponsorships from the network of people I have interviewed over the years, and words of encouragement from the handful of people I shared it with. I started it on shoe-string; I bought a $100 web designing software and have spent the last 5 months teaching myself how to use it. I asked three of my closest friends and my sister to help and I found a local web designer, who helped me with my 1001 questions. I am keeping my “day job,” and taking it in small steps. It has been a huge learning curve as I realized my years in publishing didn’t transfer to understanding how the online publishing world works.

I pushed through anxiety, frustration and doubts that were there at every step; I lost pages, whole files and sleep; I worked into the nights after working long days and wondered out loud “What the hell am I doing?” more times than I want to admit. I made so many revisions I started losing track of which pages I did what to. And when it came time to upload the site, I had to wait two days to talk to someone from the software company to help to interface with my web host, because they are based in the UK and were closed for the Queen’s Jubilee!

But, I have tapped into my entrepreneurial spirit, and it feels good. I don’t know where it is going to go, maybe nowhere, but I am enjoying the feeling of turning one of those middle of the night ideas into a reality.