Think Growth

That is what life is all about – growth. From the minute you enter this world, you grow. You start to walk and talk, you learn at home and school, from your family and your friends. You learn when you go to college and, when you get a job, the learning begins again. Your life is one big round of learning and growing and some of it will even require you to make a conscious choice.

It isn’t easy; you will face challenges, hurdles, and you will suffer. But you continue to grow unless you make the choice not to. And that is what writing is all about. Growing, learning and growing some more. You don’t have to grow as a writer if you don’t want to; you could churn out the same kind of work year in year out, never deviating but gradually coming to hate your writing.

Or you can make the choice to grow, to develop your confidence and learn to love your writing instead.

Love Yourself AND Your Writing

You could be a bestselling author with numerous novels under your belt and still hate your writing. Perhaps you had a plan, you were going to write the novel to beat all others but it just didn’t pan out as you thought. There isn’t a solution to this and that’s OK. Some people like to hate their writing, they thrive on it and it drives them forward.

I do know this – if you can love yourself, you are far less likely to hate your writing. Self-love doesn’t come naturally; it is another process, another round of learning and growing.

Look after yourself. Take time out to eat a healthy diet, to get plenty of exercise and to relax. Be kind to yourself and cut out the negative self-chat. Instead of saying, “I hate what I wrote,” look at it and say, “I love it, even though it needs some work.” Think about all you have accomplished, at least once every day. Write your accomplishments in a journal. Read books or articles on learning to love yourself just a little bit more.

Avoid being around negative people and situations as far as you can and especially avoid people who put you down. If someone tells you off for writing, ignore them. In fact, whenever you get together with people, make writing off-limits as a topic of conversation – unless you are in a writing group of course!

If you don’t like or love yourself, you can’t possibly love your writing. If you find yourself hating it, remember – it is a process. It requires learning, practice, and growth. Instead of hating your writing you could grow to just dislike it a little when it isn’t so good. You never know; if you can learn not to hate your writing, if you can learn to love it just a little it, your writing will grow and you will write more, write better and write something that everyone can love, including you.