Oh, hi friends!
Here's one question.
What story are you telling yourself about your project that isn't true?
Maybe you think you need a PhD in lemurs to sell your book idea.
Or you need to know one very special fancy producer to help with your album.
Or you believe that the expense has to cost $2,000 or $250 or $20,000 because your friend's cousin once told you that was the case.
Or that no one is hiring right now or signing deals right now because your cousin's friend told you that at a birthday party.
Or that the research is not worth your time or energy because you can't see the finished product yet.
What story are you telling yourself about your project that isn't true?
If the story isn't true, seek an alternate opinion. New data. A separate case study.
But don’t stay still.
Start telling yourself a new story.
Your newsletter reminded me of Mallory Weiss’s workshop last night. The portion on Frivolity vs Direness. What keeps us from starting. Frivolous thinking says, it’s not important, our writing doesn’t count, it’s not real. While Direness convinces us that our work is so very important that we can’t possibly work because we’ll get it all wrong, just the act of writing it down will be a commitment we’re not ready or willing to handle. And at either extreme, we [collective ‘the writer’] self-sabotage ourselves so that writing becomes a non-starter. Thankfully, she gave us some tools to combat either of the extreme tendencies. The only real thing we have to do is to see what’s in our way. I think you recommended Mallory's workshop - loved it. Thanks, Kara!
Yes! We are going to tell ourselves stories no matter what, so let’s tell ourselves the ones that inspire us instead of the ones the deflate us.