Your Cat Does Not Overthink Anything, and Neither Should You

Lolli, Lil' Baby, and a Lesson in Not Overthinking It

My cats, Lolli (short for Lollipop) and Lil' Baby (named by my son Houston for a rapper), do not spend their mornings wrestling with self-doubt before they decide whether to jump onto the counter. They simply jump, and if the landing goes badly, they adjust on the next attempt without a single moment spent questioning their identities as cats who jump onto counters. I have spent entire mornings watching those two operate with more certainty about who they are and what they do than I manage most days, mostly because they are not burdened with a mind that narrates every move before they make it. Relate?

I Am Not My Thoughts. I Am What I Do.

That distinction is crucial for writers, because the thought that shows up most often when someone sits down to write a book is some version of "I am not a real writer," and that thought feels true enough to stop a person cold from actually WRITING.

~If you write, you are a writer. 

~If you play guitar, you are a guitar player. 

~If you farm, you are a farmer. 

This list could go on for hundreds of pages.

~If you do not farm, you are not a farmer, even if you own land and talk about vegetables.

~If you do not PLAY your guitar, and all it does is hang on the wall, you are not a guitar player.

~If you have a pen, paper, ideas, a computer, and a goal but do not WRITE, you are not a writer.

So, DECIDE and, more importantly, DO IT.

The Thought (Whether Negative or Positive) Is Not a Fact

Here is the truth nobody tells most first-time authors before they start. The thought "I am not a real writer" is not a fact about you. That thought is a sentence your brain generates, and sentences your brain generates are not automatically accurate just because they show up loudly and at inconvenient moments. A real writer, by every definition that has ever mattered, is someone who writes (VERB). 

The identity follows the behavior, and it does not arrive first as a feeling of legitimacy handed down from somewhere official.

I talk to writers on Publishing Pathway Calls who have finished entire manuscripts and still will not call themselves authors out loud in front of other people. Meanwhile, I talk to writers who have written three chapters and already introduce themselves at parties as “working on my book.” The difference between those two people has nothing to do with talent or how many words they have produced. The difference is whether they let a thought run their identities or whether they let their actions define them instead.

Your thoughts will keep showing up whether you invite them or not, and some mornings they will be loud, critical, and entirely unhelpful. You do not have to argue with them, silence them, or wait for them to quiet down before you write. You only have to notice that a thought passes through your head, let it pass on through, and sit down to do the writing anyway. The work is what counts. The thought is just weather. Side note: you CAN hike in the rain. Just wear a raincoat:)

Your Next Step

If the thought "I am not a real writer" has been keeping you from starting or finishing your manuscript, a Publishing Pathway Call with one of our advisors can help you separate what your brain is telling you from what is actually true about your capability.

Schedule your Publishing Pathway Call here:  Publishing Pathway Call

Books live forever!

Jody