WEBVTT - How to be more persistent 

0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:06.040
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:12.480
<v Speaker 1>Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:15.760
<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is about a strategy you can use when

0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:20.360
<v Speaker 1>you're facing disappointment. Don't get me wrong, disappointment always stings,

0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:23.040
<v Speaker 1>but this is one exercise that can give you a

0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.800
<v Speaker 1>lot more perspective about it. I recently heard a speech

0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:30.320
<v Speaker 1>on this topic from novelist Camille Pagan. She was talking

0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.600
<v Speaker 1>about her career, which from the outside appears to be charmed.

0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:36.800
<v Speaker 1>She writes a novel a year, most recently one called

0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:40.240
<v Speaker 1>I'm Fine and Neither Are You. Her novels are almost

0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.560
<v Speaker 1>always at the top of Amazon's charts for women's contemporary fiction.

0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:46.720
<v Speaker 1>She has been optioned by major film companies. Definitely good

0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:49.320
<v Speaker 1>stuff for a writer. So when she said in her

0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.279
<v Speaker 1>speech that she wanted to talk about persistence and then

0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:54.680
<v Speaker 1>mentioned that her first novel, The Art of Forgetting, sold

0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:57.280
<v Speaker 1>for six figures at auction, I wondered where she was

0:00:57.320 --> 0:00:59.760
<v Speaker 1>going with this. This sounded more like a story of

0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.040
<v Speaker 1>constant success, not persistence, and maybe not too helpful for

0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.000
<v Speaker 1>the rest of us. But then, after telling us about

0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.839
<v Speaker 1>the six figure book deal, she shared this that first novel,

0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:13.640
<v Speaker 1>she said, sold a grand total of a hundred and

0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.120
<v Speaker 1>three copies. It turns out that what happened is that

0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.640
<v Speaker 1>she released this novel with big hopes, but she knew

0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.800
<v Speaker 1>little about promoting books, and various other things went wrong too.

0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.679
<v Speaker 1>With the publisher investing so much money in this book

0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:27.920
<v Speaker 1>and with so little to show for it, she was

0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:30.040
<v Speaker 1>going to have a very hard time getting anyone in

0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:32.640
<v Speaker 1>the publishing industry to take a chance on her again.

0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:36.679
<v Speaker 1>She tried. She wrote a novel and then decided it

0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:40.600
<v Speaker 1>wasn't any good, so she trashed it. She wrote another novel,

0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:45.880
<v Speaker 1>it also wasn't going to work. Finally, many years after

0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.440
<v Speaker 1>that first novel, she had an idea for a book

0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:52.560
<v Speaker 1>that was called Life and Other Near Death Experiences. Her

0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:55.160
<v Speaker 1>agents sold it to a different publisher for a much

0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:59.880
<v Speaker 1>much smaller advance than that first book, but something clicked.

0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:03.680
<v Speaker 1>It's sold like crazy. Her new publisher wanted more work

0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.640
<v Speaker 1>for her, and she is now a happily productive career novelist.

0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.000
<v Speaker 1>I asked Camille how she'd been able to keep herself

0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:12.560
<v Speaker 1>going through those years where she looked like she was

0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.240
<v Speaker 1>going to be a one hit wonder. She said that

0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:17.560
<v Speaker 1>she wrote five year plans, and she had a very

0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:21.079
<v Speaker 1>clear vision for her future. She always knew she was

0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:23.960
<v Speaker 1>going to be a successful novelist. What was happening now

0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.320
<v Speaker 1>was part of the story, but it was only part

0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:31.240
<v Speaker 1>of the story. It wasn't the ending. It was just

0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.160
<v Speaker 1>that low moment for the hero that any good novel

0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:38.760
<v Speaker 1>has to have, because otherwise the novel is boring. I

0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:41.000
<v Speaker 1>love this idea of having such a clear picture of

0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.560
<v Speaker 1>the stories later chapters that you can see that the

0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:47.720
<v Speaker 1>current one is only a plot twist on the way there. Indeed,

0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:49.640
<v Speaker 1>Camille and I later talked about how it might be

0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.799
<v Speaker 1>helpful for other people to try doing this exercise by

0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:55.360
<v Speaker 1>picturing themselves doing exactly what she was doing when I

0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.760
<v Speaker 1>heard her. She was up on stage giving a speech

0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:02.280
<v Speaker 1>about her life. She told the story of the setback,

0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.280
<v Speaker 1>but it was just a part of the story that

0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:09.639
<v Speaker 1>had a happy ending. So if you're facing some disappointment

0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:13.440
<v Speaker 1>to either professionally or personally, try to picture yourself several

0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:18.080
<v Speaker 1>years in the future. Picture yourself telling an audience your story.

0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.160
<v Speaker 1>Explain how this low moment was part of the journey.

0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:25.799
<v Speaker 1>Maybe you got laid off from your job, and your

0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.520
<v Speaker 1>future story you could explain that this stung, of course,

0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.320
<v Speaker 1>but while you were looking for something else, you began

0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:33.680
<v Speaker 1>consulting for a friend's small business on the side, and

0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.520
<v Speaker 1>then to gather you were able to make it so

0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:40.400
<v Speaker 1>big that you're now hiring tons of people, including some

0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.880
<v Speaker 1>of your favorite colleagues from your old company. Or maybe

0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.240
<v Speaker 1>you're going through a painful breakup, but you could picture

0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:51.280
<v Speaker 1>yourself at your future wedding telling the assembled guests about how,

0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:55.160
<v Speaker 1>because things ended so suddenly, you were finally amenable when

0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:56.920
<v Speaker 1>your aunt offered to set you up with one of

0:03:56.960 --> 0:03:59.640
<v Speaker 1>the members of her running club, you had an open

0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:02.320
<v Speaker 1>mind and good thing, because here the two of you

0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.960
<v Speaker 1>are exchanging your vows. I'm not saying any of this

0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:09.360
<v Speaker 1>will come true, of course, but probably something good will

0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:12.800
<v Speaker 1>happen in your future. By recasting this current moment as

0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.560
<v Speaker 1>just a twist in a larger narrative, you can make

0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:20.359
<v Speaker 1>yourself more resilient. You can open your mind to possibilities

0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:25.120
<v Speaker 1>and open your heart to see what's next. In the meantime,

0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.880
<v Speaker 1>this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:41.040
<v Speaker 1>the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.000
<v Speaker 1>hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:47.839
<v Speaker 1>or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,

0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:53.479
<v Speaker 1>and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four,

0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:57.480
<v Speaker 1>then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me

0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:01.880
<v Speaker 1>an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com

0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.400
<v Speaker 1>that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:07.119
<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.039
<v Speaker 1>Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For

0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.160
<v Speaker 1>more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart

0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.599
<v Speaker 1>Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:23.320
<v Speaker 1>favorite shows.