Can you believe March is nearly gone?  Maybe it doesn’t feel possible because we’ve spent so much time over the past three months responding to weather events and longing for spring.

Well, spring is on the doorstep, and she’s bringing flowering surprises around each corner, spiders intent on finding indoor homes, and a lawn full of weeds.  She’s been building a sassy attitude all winter, so she can sweep into town on the heels of our first thunderstorms of the season.

What have you been building all winter?  When you look at your goals, and count up the ones you didn’t reach, what happens to your attitude toward writing?

Listening to our inner demons

I’ll bet some of the little voices in your heads are whispering, “You could have completed your novel by now if you hadn’t spent so much time with your family and friends.”

Or maybe they shout, “You would have more to show for the last quarter if you spent time planning your book, instead of diving in willy-nilly and writing yourself into a corner.”

Other voices chastise us with “You should have used your time more wisely, and written 5,000 words every day, no matter what was going on in your life!”

Unfortunately, we often allow those inner demons to create our ongoing attitude toward writing.  We decide those voices are right when they declare that we’ll never finish our book, we’ll never be a success, that it’s no use trying.

Stifle the voices that destroy our passion

Each of us host our own clique of inner demons and learned behaviors.  And we hear those “Coulds, Woulds, and Shoulds” as gospel–irrefutable truths about our character or talent.

But it’s our choice whether we let those voices stunt our enjoyment and enthusiasm for our passion for writing.

I for one intend to stifle those voices.  Maybe I didn’t accomplish everything on my goals list for the first quarter of 2015.  But I’m not about to throw my hands in the air and call it quits.

Flaunt a new attitude, stomp those self-doubt imps

Each season of the year brings another opportunity to reassess where we are, and where we want to be.  It’s a new chance to develop a sassy attitude toward writing, and step up our efforts.

When you reviewed your goals and what you’ve accomplished so far, did you immediately slide into the Chasm of Regret?   Did you chant with your inner demons “Oh no!  I’ve lost/wasted one quarter of the year.  I’ll never catch up now.  I might as well say goodbye to any hope of being a writer/finishing my novel/becoming a success”?

Are you really going to let those nasty self-doubt imps shape your writing life for the rest of the year?

Rediscover the joy of writing

Let’s make a pact to stomp our inner demons and silence the imps.  We’ll take it one day at a time.  And before we know it, we’ll be looking back at 2015 wondering why we were so worried about how much we could/would/should accomplish.

We’ll acknowledge the lessons we’ve learned from the choices we made in the first quarter of this year.  Our new writing attitude is “Can, Will, Do.”  But most of all “Enjoy.”

What attitude do you choose for the next nine months of 2015?  How do you stomp your inner demons and make the shift?