A Season of Confidence & Wins

How to Bring Out Your Inner Peacock

Author

Sara Hamdan
September 09, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

When I talk about my journey to becoming a published author, I always highlight the highs (Netflix award! Landmark two book deal!) and the lows (Years of rejection! Ten year bumpy road!).

It’s an exercise in many things – resilience, patience, delusion – but I thought to focus on ‘building confidence’ in today’s newsletter.

How do you maintain an inner conviction that things will work out when everyone tells you ‘no’ and the odds are fully stacked against you?

If you are trying to get a promotion, bring a creative project to light, or win an argument with a toddler, I wanted to share three pieces of advice from my personal experience:

  1. Growth mindset - You can learn from every setback. Each time you meet a hurdle, it doesn’t necessarily mean failure or ‘try harder’ - it could mean ‘try a different method.’ Or, it simply shows you how much you really want what you’re after.

  2. Meditation - The same way we eat nutritious food and hit the gym to maintain a healthy body, meditation is a spiritual discipline to strengthen the mind. It’s helped me through tough times.

  3. Fun hobbies - I’ve always been a high achiever. Ivy League, Dean’s List, working for the biggest brands, you name it. It helps me to embrace a hobby where I can make mistakes, mess up, that I don’t do perfectly… for the sole aim of having fun. No perf required.

So to that end, here’s me at my latest imperfect drums class. It’s been two months of mistakes and laughter - the ideal outlet:

What helps you build confidence? I would love to hear!

📕Read: Books to Give You a Boost

Here are three reads – fiction and non-fiction – that will give you a snarky smile and inspire you to reach your potential:

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

My novel’s title is What Will People Think? because my main character is only able to reach her true potential when she no longer cares about the answer to that question. This is a great book about acceptance and… a chill vibe.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Early 1960’s, pregnant scientist revolutionizes cooking shows and upsets the status quo. Badass protagonist and unique story - no wonder it’s become a hit TV show, too.

I used to be terrified of public speaking. My husband signed me up to a standup comedy course, which ended with a performance. In front of people. With eyes. It was terrifying! The course, and this book, have helped me become a great public speaker - I now enjoy moderating major panels. The main character of my novel is also a standup comic :)

Write: Building Characters

The characters I create must feel like real people, which means they have flaws and vulnerabilities, favorite foods, defining physical characteristics and so much more. For the most part, they live in my mind, but these days AI tools are brilliant at helping to create an image to visualize them better.

Canva’s free AI image generator is one useful tool that I like to play around with, as well as Chat GPT’s paid limitless image builder. There are so many options out there these days, you can end up going down a rabbit hole!

Inspire: Meditate to Confidence

The road to getting published in such a big way was anything but linear for me. Lots of stops and starts due to work, kids, pandemic, rejections… but the one consistent tool to help me navigate it all was meditation.

Take 10 minutes, even if it’s in your car or on a lunch break and try this one:

It’s a wild world out there. As a mother, a journalist, a human being - I really struggle to see news about school shootings and bombings like they are normal headlines. Here’s random stuff from the internet that spreads positivity:

Countdown to My Novel’s Publication Day:

Timer from emailcountdowntimer.com

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

With kindness,

Sara