Day 7
30 mins planning + 1 hr planned writing + 1hr journal entry
+ 10 mins gratitude journal
Today, we are being encouraged to think big. Jacqui invites us to flip our limiting thoughts, into their radical opposite: what if there were no limits, and you could achieve your full potential?
Not just as a writer, though. As a person as well.
As she is wise to acknowledge, this is a) terrifying and b) foreign to the critical minds of writers. “Yes” to a) and b) from me. (If you are a hopeful type of writer, I admire you, and wish I could be like you. (Although, sceptic that I am, I expect that you have a different set of problems. (Please take this as an invitation to prove me wrong.)))
Jacqui suspects – with the power and clarity of the all-seeing eye of Sauron, though obviously with better intentions – that the reason you (well, me at least) aren’t achieving your goals is because you aren’t applying yourself. And the reason you aren’t applying yourself, is because you aren’t believing in what’s possible for you.
I agree with this as a rule of thumb. People navigate various obstacles of various scale or complexity, but for most of us with the opportunity / freedom to read this blog, you get done the things that you believe are worth doing.
Paying your bills? Yes, you see the reasons for that.
Feeding your children? Commonly accepted as a good idea.
Watching mind-numbing TV? (I do this!) There will be a good reason. (For me it’s to de-stress and let my mind go into neutral).
The point is, if your writing is not getting done, it’s because some part of you believes that it’s not worth doing. Therefore, it’s not worth giving up other things for.
This is something I’ve struggled with for years; ever since I decided to become a professional writer. I made the broad life choices to allow it to happen, and it . . . didn’t seem to happen. Almost as if the person who was supposed to make it happen wasn’t showing up to work. Almost as if she didn’t believe it was worth coming in to the office. . .
Now, I recognise that positive mentality is my major area of work: far harder and more impactful than improving my writing skills. Over the years, I have found many well-argued, convincing, objectively reasonable excuses for why I couldn’t apply myself to writing. And for me, the greatest flip will be to start finding many well-argued, convincing, objective reasons why I can.
Journal Entry
Write about what would happen if you accessed your full potential.
Exercise
- 1,000 words: in your own way, your own pace, following no guidelines (I kept the additional 30 mins for planning)
- (she doesn’t mention day 3 of the gratitude journal, but I included it)
My response
- Planning + Slower pace + Inspiring music = scene I really felt part of. I’m happy with my 1,000 words today. (In fact, it was probably more than 1,000.)
- I was curious to find that, when I imagined accessing my full potential, I didn’t see myself as necessarily happier. I saw myself as more satisfied. I didn’t imagine that achieving my goals – or beyond – or adjacent – was going to solve my personal problems. I imagined that the reaching would make me aware of new types of problems – but that they would be the kind of problems I wanted to solve.
all course content copyright Jacqui Lofthouse thewritingcoach.co.uk