A TASTE OF WHAT’S INSIDE THE BOOK

essential quality #2 — Confidence

EXPRESSING YOURSELF WITH CONFIDENCE

To focus, to choose the appropriate words, to trust your sense of organization; and to trust yourself as all this happens, without second-guessing or self-doubting.

What needs to happen inside you to experience that? What can help (from inside / from outside)?

Confidence isn’t about being boast-worthy; it’s about being “in tune” with yourself.

When you are truly in touch with yourself, when you are present to yourself, you are confident. There is no outer authority to obey, no one to look towards to see if you’ve “done it right” or are worthy of approval. When you are with yourself in the moment, you know, undeniably, that what you are writing is aligned with who you are. That’s when you are in tune with yourself.

Have you ever been “in tune” with yourself under circumstances other than writing? Perhaps you sang a song, and felt the vibrations of the music align the very molecules of your being. Perhaps when you were in nature, and felt a connection to the trees, the grass, the breeze, the birds singing? Perhaps when you followed an instinct or intuition without questioning it, and found that every step turned out to be the right one, leading you someplace you really wanted to go, and that you enjoyed the journey along the way? . . .

These are simply a few expressions of confidence.

It helps to recognize that there have been times and situations where you felt confident, so that you can begin to connect this to your writing. Becoming aware of what confidence felt like for you in those situations helps you recognize that when you’re in your element (or simply free from the inner critic), you can feel confident about whatever you do. If you can feel confident in one area of your life, then you can learn to translate that into being confident in your written expressions. . . .

The first step in invoking the essential quality of confidence may simply be realizing that it depends on being present to yourself.

CLEARING OBSTACLES

TO LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN WRITING A BOOK

Perhaps the problem is less about “What do I have to do to be confident?” or “Am I worthy of feeling confident?” and more about clearing out the obstacles in the way.

What kinds of obstacles?

• Do you tend to censor, diminish, or mask what you really want to say from yourself?

• When you think of writing, do you imagine enjoying the process of self-discovery and leaning into what you find? Or do you find yourself focusing on the fear of being criticized?

• Do you think, “Who would want to read what I have to say?” and thereby continue to treat yourself as dismissively as you may have been treated (regarding your writing, or in other ways) when you were young?

• Do you equate confidence with being boast-worthy, rather than simply being at home in yourself about your writing?

Take a brief look within:

What is your current relationship to writing? Does it come easily or only with difficulty? Are you aware of any obstacles to your feeling confident? What’s your current sense of what confidence is — how it might free you concerning your writing? How has confidence already played a part in your life? How has it let you know it was present? Could you take a small step in that direction in your life, and gradually let that seep into your writing?

Let your reflections come forth as they will.