Let me tell you about the time I nearly got shot in the head.

Though I’ve lived in many tough neighborhoods in my precocious youth it wasn’t a seedy street thug that nearly lodged a .22 in my skull. That was left to my friend Dale. At 16 we weren’t the brightest kids in the neighborhood, but I knew enough to respect guns. Dale not so much.

We lived on a military base and my sister and husband were gone for the weekend leaving me in charge of the house. Dale came over so we could talk about the girls we wished we were dating when out of the blue he tells me he’s got something awesome to show me.

“Look what I found under my dads’ bed.” He says pulling out a small caliber pistol.

“You shouldn’t be creeping in your parents’ room. You might find something you don’t want to. Put that away before you hurt somebody.” Came my sage like advice.

Dale then proceeded to say what every untrained, undisciplined knuckle head tends to utter when holding a gun.

“Don’t worry dude. It’s not loaded.”

With that he pointed the gun at my head and pulled the trigger. He couldn’t have been more than 10 feet away in the small confines of the kitchen and by some Godly intervention the bullet missed my head, smacked into the backdoor and pitched into the woods out back.

After I caught my breath and realized that I was in fact alive I promptly ended my friendship with Dale. He was a fun guy, and we had a lot of history together, but he posed a danger to my well-being. He was toxic.

That experience taught me a lot about the importance of who I spend time with and who I allow into my life. Good lesson to learn at that tender age and one that has stuck with me.

If you find yourself surrounded by toxic people, you owe it to yourself to remove them from your life as much as reasonable.

This includes social media.

You also need to ensure your talking to yourself with respect and kindness. Sometimes we punish ourselves with our doubting self-talk. When you recognize this negative voice shut it down and replace it with a positive affirmation.

As I journey down the road of authorship, I have found that many authors are their own worse critics. At constant odds with their struggle to share their craft and their fears of being judged poorly for their voice.

Writing and storytelling are our gifts. They are a joy. Don’t be a toxic Dale with your manuscript. Write the best you can with your current skill sets and unleash it upon the universe.

Your audience awaits.