From
Paranoid Schizophrenic to a Life of Service
by
Don Karp at http://donkarp.blogspot.mx/
I was
labeled "paranoid schizophrenic" back in the '70's and had
multiple hospitalizations of about a month each over a ten year
period. Having survived this battle with my demons, I wondered if I
could help others with similar problems. Since I do a lot of
journaling, I decided to start writing about my experiences.
It took
me 18 years until I finally published my memoir: "The
Bumpy Road". This was “gutsy”, but “I got a little
help from my friends”, as the Beatles song says. Meeting an
award-wining writer, who asked me to provide her with my manuscript
was the beginning of making this publication a reality. She read it
and told me, along with many editorial suggestions, “I was so
absorbed in the story that I forgot to go to my yoga class! “
Things
just seemed to fall into place after that—I was in the
“zone”--meeting an artist who did my cover, a web designer who
introduced me to social media after designing my page, and a graphics
person to do the formatting, and then finally self-publishing in
March 2012.
I began
to ride the wave of many book events. Getting up in front of a crowd
to speak about my life was scarry! “Who cares about me?”, I
thought. I managed to get some sales. But was I really helping those
in need?
In
October of 2014, I took a gutsy leap and enrolled in a course
in online marketing. On my very low social security budget, this was
a huge leap of faith. I have designed a landing
page, and am offering a free ebook for those who sign up for my
blog, leveraging my memoir and life experiences to offer comparisons
of digital self-help programs to boost self-esteem. In the future I
will create products based on what my readers tell me they want. The
blog launch will be around the fall of 2015.
Now I
feel I am finally pursuing a way to help others based on my own life
experiences.
Couldn't
you do the same?
Getting
gutsy is all about stepping outside your comfort zone to reach your
goals and live a life that makes you truly happy. This post is my
entry for Jessica
Lawlor’s Get Gutsy Essay Contest.
To get involved and share your own gutsy story, check out this post
for contest details and download a free
copy of the inspiring Get Gutsy ebook.
