How I Improved My Writing Mindset by Making a Simple, Life-Changing Promise

Never Giving Up is a Choice You Hold

Have you ever feared doing something you didn’t want to do? It’s a strange twist on fear, because you know what you don’t want to do, but you’re scared you will do it anyway. 

A few months ago I came across this very thing. I was doing some work, but fear kept pounding against my head, demanding my attention. 

What was I afraid I would do? 

I was afraid I would give up. For much of my life giving up was against everything in me. Even when things got so hard I wanted to give up, I knew I wouldn’t. 

Yet in recent years at certain times I wonder if I will give up. I know I don’t want to, but everything I feel makes me want to. My fear is that my mind won’t be strong enough to outweigh my feelings one day—that I will give up even when my mind is telling me not to. 

It may seem silly, but perhaps you have had your own similar experience (or the exact same). 

How do we overcome this type of fear, when it is elusive and flexing in the future? When you fear inability of control and judgment, how do you manage your fear and your future actions? 

It’s a business of identifying, promising, and mindset, all of which we will cover today. If any of this sounds familiar, then you will be glad you read this post. 

The Fear of Yourself 

This is what you fear—yourself. 

You fear what you will do in the future. 

Will you succeed? Or will all your hard work be for nothing? 

Do you have the ability and stamina to finish that novel? Consistently blog? Submit to publishers? 

Fearing to fail, or of giving up, can make us indecisive in the present. We can panic and wonder what we can do now to prevent the future—we wonder if we even can  prevent ourselves from doing something we’ll regret in the future. Often this leads us nowhere. Thoughts run around our head until everything becomes gray. 

When you fear yourself, there is something you must build with yourself—or in a system—in case the feared time ever comes: Trust.  

A Promise to Protect

I’m careful with my promises, because I hold myself to them. 

Making a promise to myself to never give up, scared the crap out of me—I didn’t know if I could keep it, and I didn’t want to fail. 

But I made the promise. 

I promised myself that no matter how much I wanted to give up, that I wouldn’t. I would try and keep going on, and hope for better times. 

As soon as I made that promise to myself, the insecurity assaulting me fell away. I didn’t need to fear giving up, because I had made a promise that no matter what I felt I wouldn’t. 

As soon as the promise was made I could move on. 

When you fear yourself, you need to trust in yourself, a promise, or a support system to keep you from doing what you fear. 

The future is ever changing, and what we fear may never be an event we will face, but to move on and live your life we must first put our minds to rest that the future is secure—that there will be a future. 

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The Ultimate Mind-Game

I once had a figure skating coach who used to say if there was a skating psychologist they would make a fortune. 

Like figure skating, all of life works on a mindset. How you think about life, writing, or whatever you are faced with, will determine how you act. 

If you are scared, you will not move forward or improve. But if you can shape your mindset to hope and trust in the future, you will make it. 

If you decide you can finish that novel and commit to the steps you will need to take, you will finish. 

Everything is in the mindset. 

I’m not saying this is easy, though. If you have trouble keeping a good mindset or have any kind of mental illness (like myself) this is hard. But it is worth trying. 

While you can’t always change how you feel with what you are thinking, how you think can guide the way out of the dark and back into the light. 

How do you think about your life and writing right now? 

How can you change your thinking to contribute and not hinder your progress? 

Rise Above the Game

This is how we deal with fear—we writers must rise above its own game. 

When I begin to panic about what my future self could do, or what could happen in my future, I remember my promise. Immediately I find peace and, while I could still feel like I want to give up, I have a direction amidst the indecision—I will keep trying and not give up. 

Sometimes all it takes is a little promise, or reminder, to keep you moving toward your dreams. A little hope is a powerful thing. 

It makes a powerful writer. 

Featured Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash