Being Your Own Worst Enemy

[alanajoli]

I was having a conversation with my chiropractor yesterday and talking about my writing. In response to my saying something about how I was delaying on a project, she made the comment, "Well, don't be your own worst enemy."

This struck me as pretty sage advice. There are a lot of moments when I'm the only person standing in my way--and yet, I still stand there, just hanging out on the path to success and not going anywhere. (Or, at least, the path to accomplishing something with my day. Success is subjective, after all.) I've been trying really hard to follow amieroserotruck's excellent example, which I blogged about last week, in writing at least one sentence a day. To be honest, it's not a fun way to write. But rather than sit down and write more than a sentence or two, I read books I've been meaning to read, work on other projects, and generally do other things that get in the way of my progress. It's not that any of these are bad decisions--and everyone deserves a little time off now and again--but they are decisions that keep me in the struggling stage with the new WIP.

At any rate, today I'm going to start trying to stop being my own worst enemy, starting with getting on top of that project I talked to my chiropractor about. And who knows? Maybe tomorrow I'll write a whole page. ;)

Comments

[amieroserotruck.livejournal.com]

Well, amieroserotruck doesn't always follow her own excellent advice, so don't beat yourself up! I also have one writing teacher who firmly believes in giving yourself downtime, that your brain works on solving problems when you're not actively working on them. I too am my own worst enemy, and the enemy now has more ammo that the library is done and ready to be stuffed with books!

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

*Laugh* I'm not beating myself up too much. I'm really just pondering. (I had a conversation with a therapist recently where she told me that beating yourself up over something almost never helps you change a behavior--and can actually prevent you from making those changes you desire! I'm trying to follow that advice in general in my life--because I do have that tendency to come down on myself.)

I think downtime is important, too, but balancing that with actually accomplishing something is important. ;)