Coaching you through panic moments, like when you’re stuck writing your book and not sure how to go on, how to keep going.

“Doing the difficult things that you’ve never done awakens the talents you never knew you had.”

Robin S. Sharma

How do you get through panic moments, where you’re convinced you can’t do the hard thing?

Like… writing a book, for instance.

I promise as soon as I stop having grad school ah-ha’s that relate to authors, I’ll stop doing this. But once again, something happened this past week that yielded a lesson I think will be helpful for you.

I was studying for my mentally challenging statistics class, engaging in my continual mental battle with my familiar old nemesis math. Reading the new chapter, I ran up against a stats wall. There was a formula that looked so complicated I couldn’t see a way around it. For a moment – a split second – okay maybe like 10 minutes – I panicked. All my old feelings of fear and helplessness around math overtook me.

But here’s the difference between me then and me now: As a teenager I did not have the life experience, self awareness, and strength of identity that I have now. I took a deep breath and reminded myself of this. My attitude about school (and everything else) is – I can only do my best, I don’t have to be perfect, I just have to use all the tools at my disposal and keep moving forward. There are no guaranteed outcomes. There is just me navigating the curves of the journey the best I can.

After a deep breath and a self talk, I returned to the formula and looked at it with fresh eyes. And you know what? I saw that I was missing a specific piece of algebraic knowledge. The formula that at first looked like a giant, overwhelming, menacing monster was now within grasp. I was just missing a piece of knowledge. So I went online, found the missing piece, practiced it and then returned to my stats textbook. And guess what? I slayed the monster!

Writing a Book as The Hard Thing

When you’re up against a task that seems overwhelming in size or complexity, like any part of “writing a book,” after the initial panic where you’re convinced you’re going to fail, take a closer look at it. 

Is there a piece of information, or resource, or skill you’re missing that could solve this problem? 

Look at creative problems like a scientist – break them down into pieces, find the gaps in the process, fill them one at a time.

And as I often tell clients of my author coaching program, create a step-by-step action plan to turn the overwhelming and complex, into bite-sized and actionable. 

“Writing a book” is “running a marathon.” Holding the published book in your hands is the finish line. Your action plan begins with marathon training, things like creating a daily writing habit, connecting with the WHY behind your book, and mapping out a Blueprint to follow while writing it. 

Once you are underway and hit those panic moments, taking a few deep breaths doesn’t hurt either.

Writing Habit Challenge!

Speaking of author resources: Starting October first and running through Halloween, I will be putting my psychology studies to good use and helping my Ink Authors members lock in a daily writing habit. Just in time for NaNoWriMo in November for those of you participating in that! And even if you’re not – who couldn’t use some research based strategies to cement a daily writing habit so you can finish your book?

Do you need more personalized writing coaching to get through the panic moments and finish writing your book? Let’s chat!