Writing can totally mess with your mind. If you don’t show anyone what you write, are you really a writer? And who doesn’t want people to appreciate our prose? But then that means putting yourself out there, which is quite unnerving for some people. Raising my hand on that one! Literary Agent wrote a great post on how to deal with your psyche.
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3 Ways to Change Your Thinking Today
The writing and publishing life can be hard on the equilibrium. It’s full of ups and downs, hopes deferred, dreams dashed, dreams realized, ego strokes and debilitating criticism.
We wonder if we’ll ever reach our goals. We swing between high-on-life optimism and crushing pessimism. We decry that this path shouldn’t be so difficult. We rail against systems. We wonder how to write a good book. We despair of ever reaching our readers.
But there is another way to think about it. Many of you have probably read Good to Great by Jim Collins, a classic book for business and leadership. In it, he explains what he calls the Stockdale Paradox, a way of thinking that can get anyone through the most harrowing of circumstances.
You can click here for a short audio clip of Jim Collins discussing the Stockdale Paradox, or Google the phrase to learn more about Admiral Jim Stockdale, a United States military officer held captive and tortured for eight years during the Vietnam War, for whom Collins named this Paradox. Admiral Stockdale had a unique way of looking at his brutal situation that allowed him to survive, and go on to thrive later in life.
As a writer, here’s how you can apply the Stockdale Paradox to immediately change your thinking:
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