Create With Purpose Part 1: Confidence & Awareness by Kirsten McNeill
Let’s welcome back Kirsten McNeill as she shares with us “Create With Purpose Part 1: Confidence & Awareness” Enjoy!
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What do you love about writing? What lights you up when you put words on the page?
If you’re like me, you love to inspire others with your creative light. Maybe you just want to make others laugh, or teach them a valuable life lesson.
Whatever your reasons are, you’re passionate about writing.
However, sometimes your thoughts get the best of you. That fear, self-doubt, and criticism creep in and tear down your confidence.
If you’re struggling with your mindset and questioning if you’re good enough to be a writer, read this piece to learn how to change that. To learn how to be your most confident self.
Welcome to Part 1 of my Create With Purpose blog series: Confidence & Awareness
What does Confidence mean?
Confidence is connected to self-love, the inner workings of your mind. It’s the belief that “I am awesome and nothing anyone says to me can take that away.”
I love promoting inner validation on your creative journey. Confidence isn’t about tearing others down. It’s about feeling good within yourself and happy on your life adventure.
When you are aware of the amount of confidence you have, you can understand your brain and train it to boost your confidence even further.
The Patterns of the Mind
Your brain loves finding patterns in your thoughts and your daily routine. When it recognizes something you do every day, it decides to use less brain power to perform that activity.
It puts you on autopilot because it trusts you to complete the same process that you’ve always done.
Have you ever zoned out while driving to one of your favourite spots? Or questioned if you locked the front door when you left the house?
That’s your brain putting you on autopilot. It recognizes a pattern and doesn’t want you wasting unnecessary brain power.
The same process happens when you think negative thoughts about yourself and your writing career. It flags the words you say regularly and puts you on autopilot to repeat them because of the pattern you established.
“I am not a good writer.”
“No one will care what I have to say.”
“It’s too hard to write this book.”
It’s important to bring awareness to your thoughts so you can create new patterns for your brain to recognize, making it easier to have a positive attitude toward yourself and your writing experiences.
How can you replace your thoughts?
When you notice a common thought that you want to change, try these strategies.
The Delete Method: Say DELETE or STOP in your head. Saying it out loud will work more strongly too. This tells your brain that you’re tired of this thought and you’re ready to remove it from the rotation.
The Garbage Bin: Imagine crumpling the thought into a little ball of paper, then tossing it into a garbage bin. This gives your brain the same message as the delete method, and if you’re a highly visual person this will be especially useful. And fun! Drawing it out may help you too if you need that added layer of visualization.
The New Thought: This works as a great partner to the first two strategies. Not only are you getting rid of the thought, but you’re replacing it with a better thought, a kinder one.
If you’re thinking “I am not a good writer”, change that to “I’m a great writer” or “I’m a passionate writer”. Something that fills you with joy and tells your brain what you’d rather be thinking.
Positive Friendships: Ask a friend what they do in situations when they want to reframe negative thoughts. Or, simply pretend you’re talking to a best friend and share what you would say to them if they were in your situation.
We always say nicer things to our friends compared to ourselves, so this is a great reminder for how to be kind to yourself.
Compliments: Practice complimenting yourself. Saying nice things in your head will work wonders for your confidence. Repetition is your friend. Writing them down creates a stronger impact on your brain.
Saying it out loud creates the strongest. There’s something about hearing your own voice that lets your brain know you are ready to make a change!
Practice Makes Progress
It will take time to master the art of changing negative patterns into positive ones, especially when you’ve reinforced the negative for so long.
When you think negative thoughts, you’re creating a normal routine. Your brain doesn’t know that this is wrong, so it doesn’t warn you about it.
If you get so comfortable with the negative, the positive will feel foreign, especially when it comes to complimenting yourself.
But your brain is open to relearning how you want to treat yourself as long as you’re willing to put in the work!
Take yourself off autopilot to explore your thought patterns. Bring awareness to your current state to understand what you’d rather be doing and thinking.
You deserve kindness, confidence, and self-empowerment. You deserve to go forward on your writing journey shining your creative light.
Building a confident mindset helps you create a more enjoyable writing life. It’s not a one and done thing, but a roller coaster of ups and downs.
The best part is that YOU get to choose how you experience this roller coaster. You can white knuckle your way through or throw your arms up and scream at the top of your lungs.
Whatever you decide to do on your writing journey, never forget that you are worthy.
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ABOUT KIRSTEN MCNEILL
Kirsten McNeill is a Confidence & Writing Lifestyle Coach, Podcaster, and Self-Published Writer. Her mission with Worthy Writers is to bring sunflower sunshine to the creative world, connecting writers to the confidence and passion they desire to help them publish and share their stories.
Receive a FREE download of the PDF I Am Worthy: 3 Tips to Confidently Embrace Your Writer Status when you subscribe to the Worthy Writers Confidence Newsletter: www.worthywriters.ca/contact
Instagram: www.instagram.com/confident.kirsten
Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/theworthywritersnook
You Are a Worthy Writer with Kirsten McNeill on The Worthy Writers Podcast: www.worthywriters.ca/you-are-a-worthy-writer-with-kirsten-mcneill
Book Recommendation:
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Joe Dispenza
