Noah St. John, author of the Book of Afformations, recently wrote about Prince’s belief in himself and in his vision: Prince’s belief in himself was so strong that he signed a recording contract at the age of 19. Then he fought for—and got—total creative control over his first three albums. (Which is kind of unheard of in the record industry.)
Noah writes about Prince’s belief in himself, “I believe in myself and understand my vision better than any of you do. So I’m going to do things the way I want to do them.”
Then Noah asked his community, What about you? Do you believe in yourself? Have you stood up for your vision?
In this article, I’m sharing an example of how signs from the Universe helped me stand up for my vision, and how you can harness the power of Prince for your vision, too.
So, early in 2007, I hired a top-rate editor in the spiritual niche to edit a book I was writing. Although she was tops in her field and I was open to her input, I knew my book needed a “light” editing—meaning language and grammar and tense—rather than content editing. I was confident my book was a memoir of my spiritual reconnecting process as the Universe had supported the writing of each page. What I mean is that crazy amazing, favorable synchronicities happened almost daily that became content for my book, once I had tapped into the reconnecting / creative process. It’s how my book got written.
(Read on, a sample of one of those amazing synchronicities is coming up shortly …)
My editor recommended I write a “how-to” book instead, rather than a memoir of my process. After all, she explained, you’re an unknown. (So was Prince, by the way, before his albums went platinum.)
We exchanged a few email conversations and I finally convinced her I needed to do it my way. This was a book on intuition; I had tapped into intuitive flow; it only made sense to honor my intuition, my higher self’s guidance, I had explained. It’s how my book got written. She finally agreed.
But then, rather than honoring her word to edit my manuscript as we had agreed, she spent hours rewriting it. She deleted my wonderful, true-life examples and repeated a bland, Buddhist-inspired message over and over again that I wasn’t even in agreement with—exactly what I asked her not to do. Then she sent me a big fat invoice.
Well, since she hadn’t honored her agreement, I could only use maybe half of her work. I sent her a letter explaining the issues, including references to our previous emails, and paid her slightly more than half of the invoice. I thought I was both generous and fair.
Adamant that I pay every penny, she threatened legal action against me. But I chose to stick to my convictions. I knew I was in the right.
Two months later, I received a letter from a collection agency. Further research on standard industry practices confirmed I had a decent case. I wrote the agency a letter explaining the matter.
Then she wrote the agency, stating that in her 38 years of service, nobody had ever taken issue with any of her invoices, or advice.
I wrote another letter in rebuttal, thinking that would be the end of that.
But the case wasn’t closed. About a month later, at the end of June 2007, I received a letter from a law firm in San Francisco. Too upset to even look at what was inside, I shoved it unopened in between the seats of my car.
But then a few days later, while working on polishing my manuscript and listening to music over the radio online, I got an intuitive message to go get the letter out of my car. (I usually didn’t listen to the radio while writing as it’s distracting, but I was “inspired” to do so that day. Just following my intuition, I was …)
Walking back from my car with the dreaded letter in hand, I was informed that if the balance of the editor’s bill wasn’t paid immediately, a lawsuit would be filed against me. Furthermore, additional amounts would be owed in the event of litigation.
I have never been sued before, so this was disturbing and upsetting. Furthermore, I was now risking lawyers’ fees in addition to the original balance, and I only had a small sum of money to launch my book project.
I trudged back into my house disheartened, heading towards my bedroom, back to my computer, my spirits crushed. Nobody believed in me. And not only did my editor not believe in me, she was now going to sue me …
But as I walked into my bedroom, the first words I heard were: She a-howlin’ about the front rent, she’ll be lucky to get any back rent, she ain’t gonna get none of it!–of course sung by “Bad to the Bone” George Thorogood.
I knew this was a sign from the Universe as these sorts of things happened to me almost daily, sometimes several times a day, when I was writing my book!
I felt inspired immediately and wrote a letter to the law office explaining exactly why I wouldn’t be paying the balance. And I’m telling you, I haven’t heard from the lawyers or the editor since.
I self-published my book so I could have it the way I wanted it, the way the Universe was showing me to do it, and later it was recognized by conventional publisher North Atlantic Books as one of four “notable spiritual awakening memoirs” of the last several years, along with Eat Pray Love, The Happiness Project, and Star Sister.
Now … what about you? Do you have a vision for your life, a vision that comes from your heart and soul, but not a whole lot of support from the people around you? I’m here to tell you that when you reconnect with your higher self and follow your inner guidance, the Universe itself will show you it supports you. Your stronger relationship with your higher self will empower you and charge you up with the power of Prince. And that’s because the Universe supports the dreams that arise from your soul.
Do you want support for your vision from the Universe? Get my free spiritual awakening Quick Start Guide and follow the simple instructions. It’s time you manifest YOUR vision in the world.
Have a similar story? Please share YOUR story or your dream in the comments below.
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