Hello!
Writing is a funny thing. As someone who’s been a writer for basically as long as I could understand what a story was, it’s something that’s been a part of my life and my days for as long as I can remember. I always want to write, I’m always thinking about things that I need to verbally work out on a page, but I don’t always get myself to sit down and actually DO it. For example, there’s a writing project right now that I’d really like to tackle, but I’m struggling to start.
I’ve been thinking about this — the sitting down and doing the thing you want or maybe even need to do (whether it’s writing or going to bed earlier or whatever) — this week. And, discipline and confidence, both of which I think are naturally adjacent to taking any sort of big step or bold move or owning the actions and direction of your life. They’re all sort of tied together cosmically,
It seems to me that confidence is really the biggest driver of it all — the believing you can do xyz, or that you’re good enough for [insert ideal end result]. You can be as disciplined as a monk and still have trouble committing without that underlying inclination to bet on yourself. Hell, I’m extremely disciplined (call it Type A syndrome) and I still struggle to do certain things that deep down I do want to do. This is normal! No matter who you are or how amazing you may be, or even how confident of a person overall you are in life, too often we get in our own damn ways, telling ourselves stories in our heads that we can’t do something or should be intimidated to even try.
The confidence piece is really just silencing the negative critics and skeptics in our heads. After that, it’s all kind of like running, you know? You just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and imagining yourself crossing that finish line. No matter how complicated the situation or thing you want to be doing, as long as you allow yourself to keep going, you will get there.
On a semi-related note, today is the two year anniversary of my mom being diagnosed with cancer. I still remember the afternoon vividly — my mom calling me and sharing what the biopsy showed, and then me calling my husband and then my best friend, no words, just sobs. I am not even sure how either one of them figured out what I was calling about. That day, I didn’t know how I would make it through my mom’s diagnosis or her cancer treatment journey, nor what that road would look like (during the early days of COVID, no less). But, I did, and all the even tougher days after. I just had to trust myself.
We can all rise to the occasions of our lives, and dare greatly (in big and small ways)… we just need the opportunity to try.
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Wishing you a lovely weekend, friends! Take care of yourselves, and if you feel like it, I’d love to hear how you’re doing in the comments. xo
Thanks for reading,
Joelle