I’m busy. You probably are too. It’s still early enough in the year you might remember all those goals and plans you created for the new year. How are they going?
Yeah, me too. Mostly.
Truth is I’ve been working hard, but I feel like I’m not getting anywhere. It’s a familiar feeling. It’s all part of the merry-go-round that is my life. But I’ve gotten off before, and it was wonderful. Now with my new Steemit adventure, I plan on stopping this crazy thing (Jestons anyone?) I'm on and getting back to wonderfulness. And I want you to join me.
But first, here’s a little history.
A few years ago (more like 10) I began making a conscious decision to improve my life, starting with myself. I became a student of self-help books and programs. Ultimately I signed up for Jack Canfield’s Success Principles coaching after having read the book and listening to the audio version for months. It was the pivotal moment that began a process of change in my life. It wasn’t cheap for sure, but the coaching led me to live the principles. First, I began to see the changes in myself, and then outwardly my situation started to change.
The coaching is based on Jack Canfield’s Success Principles: How To Get From Where You Are To Where You Want Be. It contains 64 principles that successful people follow. They apply to anyone, in any walk of life. I’ve been on a bit of a rollercoaster since I completed the coaching. But whenever I am trying my best to live by those principles, life gets better.
If you’ve never read the book, but have a desire to be successful (whatever that means to you) get a copy and study it. If you’ve read it before, pull it out and blow the dust off. You might want to refer to it from time to time – or start living by it again.
Over the last few years, I began creating a writer-specific version of these principles. I’d say most are inspired by the principles in the book, though some are more directly linked. I’m not entirely done yet, but I want to start sharing them here.
I’ve found such an incredible writer’s community that I’m hopeful my version might help inspire people to continue to write no matter what. Maybe even a few would-be creators who lurk in the comments might find the courage to put their writing out there after reading these new principles.
I call them Success Principles for Writers. Well, I want to call them that, but I probably can’t as I’m sure the term is copyrighted or trademarked by Canfield’s business. So, I’ll call them A-yet-to-be-determined-number-of Guidelines for Successful Writers.
Doesn’t exactly flow off the tongue, does it? Well, I’m working on about 4 hours sleep so give me time! I’ll come up with something better eventually.
UPDATE: I'm going with Rules for Successful Writers. I've changed the title to match. I didn't want to use "rule" for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that people hate rules. But for now, it more closely matches the concpet of principles in Canfield's book so I'm going with it.
But enough rambling! Let’s start with….Number 1.
This first guideline I believe is the most important. If you can’t make it past this first one, you’ll falter on the rest. It’s:
Take 100% responsibility for your writing.
Simple enough, yes?
But just like in Canfield’s book, this principle requires a little tough love. Stick with me though; it gets easier after this one.
Whether you write or not
It’s difficult to accept that whether or not we sit down to write is our responsibility. If another day passes when we haven’t written, or fall short of our word count goal, it’s easier to blame circumstances. For instance,
- The kids were home today and couldn’t find a moments peace
- Traffic was bad, and my errands took longer than expected
- I didn’t have time because (fill in the blank).
All of these may be true, or maybe not, but ultimately it is your choice if you decide to let them be the reason you don’t write. And if you look hard enough, and honestly enough, you’ll probably discover your reasons weren’t actually reasons at all – just excuses you used to feel better about not writing.
- So the kids were home and needed your attention, but what about those two hours you spent checking email and your Facebook page before they even woke up?
- Your errands included going to Starbucks for a latte and a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting. You spent 25 minutes waiting in line and by the time you left, rush hour had begun. You would have been home hours sooner if it weren’t for that darned cupcake.
- In reality, you didn’t have time because you spent an extra hour catching up on the latest TV series on your DVR, or procrastinating by cleaning the bathroom (a worthwhile endeavor to be sure), or chatting with neighbors…an infinite number of ways to procrastinate exist.
Only you can decide on whether or not the fact you didn’t write when you planned is due to a valid reason, or an excuse. And even if it is a valid reason, own it. Understand and accept how it came to be, and what if anything, you can do differently next time.
Heeding the inner critic
Every writer has that voice in their head: the one that says you aren’t any good, what you just wrote is crap, you’ll never get published, people will laugh at you, and you just might as well give up now.
I know you know it’s true. I’ve found my inner critic is a most persistent little bugger. I’m sure yours is too. But whether or not we let the critic get the best of us – whether we believe it or not – is a choice we make every time it speaks.
Heeding the critic is an easy way to avoid the responsibility of whether we write or not. Although the voice is our own, it doesn’t feel like it is so we can “blame” the voice. Many good books and processes help writers deal with their inner critic. If you struggle with it, take time to see what successful writers have done. Find a technique that works for you and keep on writing. If you don’t it isn’t the critic's fault - it’s yours.
Inferior work
If you write for a living as I do, you know the pressure of deadlines and meeting client or publisher expectations. And sometimes you might not measure up. When that happens, a litany of excuses usually pop into your mind, justifying why you couldn’t do your best.
Whatever the circumstances that led to delivering an inferior piece of work, whether a novel, article, or blog post it was you that created it. An honest look might show that you procrastinated too long, you didn’t do adequate research or background work, or maybe your heart just wasn’t in it. It doesn’t matter. Only by taking responsibility for the situation, acknowledging it was you that produced it, and figuring out what went wrong, will you know how to avoid it happening again.
Embracing 100% responsibility for your writing is a fundamental step towards becoming a successful writer.
Next post I’ll write about the second guideline. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what being a successful writer means to you, what excuses you’ve used in the past, and what changes you can make to take 100% responsibility.
And remember, if you want to make sure you see the rest of the guidelines to help you be a successful writer be sure to follow me!
Note: A version of this post was on my blog at Writethenextstory.com in 2013. The site has been down almost since then because I didn't have time to keep it up. The Facebook page is still up though (I own that page too). The content may be buried out there in some archive, but I couldn't find it online. This is my original work (new and updated too).
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Thank you for your words of wisdom. Taken the responsibility for writing or anything else your doing in your life is one of the fundamental soils everyone needs to consider.
Yes, it's true in all aspects. Canfield's book goes into detail on that. A good read if you haven't yet.
Hi ms. @ntowl. thank you for sharing your blog. Know that you are an inspiration to a new writers. I loved to write too. There's a lot of ideas in my head but somehow, I couldn't write it on paper. Because the time I do, I thought it was just a crap.
Sorry for the late comment. Don't stop writing because you think it's crap. I might be, it might not. Or, it might start out like crap and you can make it better. Just ignore those voices in your head that tell you it's bad and keep writing!
If you want to keep trying, join my writing classes on the Dynamic Steemians Discord channel. It's full of great people as well as information to help people write better and succeed on Steemit. Here's the link: https://discord.gg/2WmTac9