First, remember why you love your work. List why you love to write and why you became a writer in the first place. Generate the positive feelings before the fear of failure and looming deadlines started to negatively impact the excitement and joy of writing. Your life’s work is a huge source of energy, either positive or negative, and by adjusting our attitudes, we can help create a positive flow rather than a negative one. Keep this list in a place where it will remind you why you are a writer, even on those days when you wonder about it yourself.
Second, identify factors that decrease your energy and result in low expectations. Depression, fatigue, poor diet, seasonal affective disorder, disorganized or noisy work spaces—all of these can leave you listless and unmotivated. Now create a third list of things that energize you—like gardening, cooking, or spending time with family members. You can now begin to eliminate or address items from the first list that block your positive energy and try to incorporate things that create good feelings. For example, address the issue of a poor diet, and add some gardening time to your daily routine.
We’d love to hear about your number one reason for being a writer. Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a reply. Let’s share all of the positive energy we create as writers.