Have you ever said to yourself ,”This is going to be different. I’m going to work on changing.” If you haven’t, I send a head nod of recognition your way. If you have, then you’re with me and understand my plight with a mental clarity others don’t know and can’t relate. I am my own worst critic. Most of us are. We look at what we’ve done and criticize it to the point of sometimes talking ourselves out of doing something that might be life altering.
What are we talking about, Kelsey? I’ve allowed myself to talk myself out of venturing into a new world of creativity for fear that I wouldn’t be accepted. Fear that I might not be heard and fear that I’d never finish the stories floating around in my head.
Crossroad one: Get over myself and leave that fear behind. Let go of it and know everyone has an audience. No matter what avenue they venture down, someone is out there. They are out there and willing to venture with you.
I told myself I wouldn’t fall into the same patterns I’d previously found myself in before I took a break from writing. I needed the mental break because I was moving into a space that wasn’t good for me. Instead of trudging along, barely hanging on, I took some time for me and focused on other things. I didn’t realize then just how much I would miss writing and interacting in the book world*.
Crossroad two: Don’t beat yourself up for slipping into old habits. Recognize the actions that lead you to repeat the same patterns and work to remove them.
My patterns usually end with me having a plate that’s so packed I feel anxious and like I’ve failed before I even began. I found myself doing the same thing when I entered the new year. It’s an action that could lead me to a dark place that I don’t want to ever go again. As such, I’m immediately changing course.
Daily affirmations, smaller goals that lead to bigger ones, and a vision board are helping me to keep organized and motivated to continue creating.
*For those of you that don’t know, on all of the social media platforms, there is an area that is fixed on books: authors and readers. There the newsfeeds are mostly related to discussing mostly books.
