This past weekend, as I looked at my ever-growing list of things to do, I began to slip into overwhelm. You know, that feeling that you must do all the things, RIGHT NOW! My face scrunched up and my shoulders tensed and for a few minutes, I fell down the rabbit hole of there is just no way I can do all this.
In other words, I was doing exactly the opposite of the focusing on one small step everyday towards my goal I talked about last week. I was losing sight of the reason I started writing in the first place: because it’s fun. It’s fun to create characters and stories. It’s fun to talk to readers about them. It’s fun to participate on panels and go to book clubs. Even the business stuff is mostly fun for me, because I’m constantly learning something new. Individually and in the moment I enjoy each of these things. It’s when I think about all of them all together all at once that it begins to seem like an impossible amount of work and energy and time.
Which of course it is.
The key is not to forget the fun. So as January winds to a close, I’ve chosen my word for the year: fun. Yes hard work, but one step at a time and not without losing sight of what I enjoy about it.
I would love, love, love to hear from you in the comments below. What is your goal for the year and that word that will keep you out of the rabbit hole of overwhelm?
Join my email list and be the first to know about new books and get exclusive access to my monthly newsletter where I share an inside look into the writer's life.
So 2014 for us is the year of home improvements. It’s great that we get to do a bunch of things to update our house, but it has started to stress me out and it’s a ton of work. So as I’m moving all the furniture from one room to another to have hardwood floors put in, and as there is dust everywhere from contractors coming in and out of the house, and as I’m scouring the internet to find that “just right” rug or tile, I’m reminding myself that is all just icing on the cake. None of this HAS to happen. It’s just nice to have. And it may take longer than I anticipated, and my house may just be really messy for a while, and I never may find that “perfect” whatever…and that’s ok. It’s all just icing. 🙂
I love that! I think “icing” should be your word!
I have a tendency to worry and fret about, well, EVERYTHING. So I think my word should be “perspective.”
Yes! That is a really good one – I think we could all use that word sometimes 🙂 !