Member-only story
A 2-Step Process to Stop Overthinking
Those nagging feelings of self-doubt are keeping you from doing your best work
Just as I was getting into the swing of my writing career, with one popular book under my belt, I hit a mental wall.
I kept avoiding writing and was willing to do anything — home repairs, workouts, errands, “research” that never led anywhere — to put off putting pen to paper.
After several months, this became a real problem. My prolonged avoidance of writing created a nagging feeling of self-doubt: “If I were a real writer, I wouldn’t have this problem. If I were passionate about writing, I’d be eager to write, not desperate to avoid it. Have I made a mistake? Is writing no longer my passion? Maybe it’s no longer my profession?”
If I’d listened to these thoughts, eventually, they’d become reality. I would have stopped writing. It’s a classic self-fulfilling prophecy. In the end, though, I did write my second book, Indistractable, which became a bestseller. Two big puzzle pieces allowed me to get over this problem:
- I realized I am not my thoughts.
Having the urge to avoid doing something doesn’t mean you should. The impulse to stop writing is just a fleeting thought, not a confirmation of your skills, talent, or character…
