Jessica Russell's Blog - Posts Tagged "celebrate"

We all like to assume that the old saying “laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone,” is a pearl of wisdom that should never be questioned. Well, the “cry and you cry alone” part is definitely true. As far as the rest of it, however, here’s a newsflash: the world DOESN’T always laugh with you. In fact, sometimes the more you laugh, the more the world scowls. If you achieve a little bit of success after publishing a book, you’ll soon learn that no truer words were ever spoken. Sure, you’ll get a lot of positive attention at first, but at a certain point, as sure as the sun comes up every day, a percentage of that positive attention will turn into cynicism and envy. And it won’t be easy to deal with. The bottom line is, the only person who can stop it from negatively affecting you is ( drumroll) YOU! If someone is gritting their teeth through a smile, asking questions designed to be friendly but are merely well disguised digs, or otherwise trying to bring you down, WALK AWAY. It’s the only solution. If you let their negativity and jealousy cook in your brain, YOU will eventually become a bitter person and you’ll end up devoting far too much time to wondering why we all can’t just celebrate each other’s successes and cheer each other on. Well, because life doesn’t work that way, unfortunately. So laugh whether or not the world laughs with you, cry alone like you always have, but never ever EVER let anyone put a damper on your success.