“What structure is deserving of your voice”- thank you so much for sharing this with us. I feel my shoulders dropping with some relief, along with a lot of other humans who just took in that message. 🫶🏼
I appreciate this so much - I have gone through so many phases of trying to lay out a deadline/structure of publication, which works for awhile…until it doesn’t, and then I get to a place where I miss a deadline and then struggle to get back to anything at all… I am in one such pause right now, and listening, and this today reminded me that I could really think differently, look at my work with the idea of what my voice needs to say rather than what the calendar demands - and be ok with that.
Thank you for this, Amanda. I feel seen, and your response to my question unlocked so much for me, both emotionally and in my writing life. It was a moment that revealed how deeply I still held the performance (or "works") aspect of my past experience with religious legalism. Just as I am not a better person if I wake up at 5am daily to pray, I am not a better writer if I post every week on Wednesday. It's not about the act or the schedule, it's about my desire to connect with people through my writing in a way that connects with myself as the writer.
Thank you for sharing that Amanda. Although my substack is being woefully neglected lately, I did have a breakthrough writing my book. I planned to write something every day, as little as a sentence. But I ‘failed’ that having covid twice in 4 months. That’s when I realised that – for me – the only streak that matters is how many times I get back on the horse, not how many times I fall off.
And now I’m going to try that with my stack, where guilt for not posting more often is definitely not helping me.
I love this so much: "my heart is disciplined and aligned to what nourishes it." I've realized that my heart isn't aligned to posting once a week (or to other structures that work beautifully for others). It's aligned to posting writing I feel good about sharing, and due to life and cognitive circumstances I'm just not creating that on a consistent schedule. It's not aligned to reaching certain numbers, but to making meaningful connections with readers. Sure, I'd like bigger numbers, but if that's what really mattered to my heart, I'm guessing my actions would be different. I think we all do what we deep-down really want/need to do, and it's the voices of other people/pressures/measures that make us think we're undisciplined when we're really just differently disciplined.
Is it because we are pulling into the fall that discipline and organization is on our minds? I just did a short piece on missing my Filofax and writing things down. I too have adhd and all sort of reading issues. I struggle with executive function. Ok I have almost none and do everything backwards. But! I am trying a new thing: a day planner and three weeks in I’m loving it! It has helped me to see a week at a time and not miss things. There is discipline involved to keep the phone and planner updated. It’s worth it so far. Please take a peak at today’s post if you are struggling with organizing yourself!
“What structure is deserving of your voice”- thank you so much for sharing this with us. I feel my shoulders dropping with some relief, along with a lot of other humans who just took in that message. 🫶🏼
I appreciate this so much - I have gone through so many phases of trying to lay out a deadline/structure of publication, which works for awhile…until it doesn’t, and then I get to a place where I miss a deadline and then struggle to get back to anything at all… I am in one such pause right now, and listening, and this today reminded me that I could really think differently, look at my work with the idea of what my voice needs to say rather than what the calendar demands - and be ok with that.
Thank you for this, Amanda. I feel seen, and your response to my question unlocked so much for me, both emotionally and in my writing life. It was a moment that revealed how deeply I still held the performance (or "works") aspect of my past experience with religious legalism. Just as I am not a better person if I wake up at 5am daily to pray, I am not a better writer if I post every week on Wednesday. It's not about the act or the schedule, it's about my desire to connect with people through my writing in a way that connects with myself as the writer.
Thank you for sharing that Amanda. Although my substack is being woefully neglected lately, I did have a breakthrough writing my book. I planned to write something every day, as little as a sentence. But I ‘failed’ that having covid twice in 4 months. That’s when I realised that – for me – the only streak that matters is how many times I get back on the horse, not how many times I fall off.
And now I’m going to try that with my stack, where guilt for not posting more often is definitely not helping me.
I love this so much: "my heart is disciplined and aligned to what nourishes it." I've realized that my heart isn't aligned to posting once a week (or to other structures that work beautifully for others). It's aligned to posting writing I feel good about sharing, and due to life and cognitive circumstances I'm just not creating that on a consistent schedule. It's not aligned to reaching certain numbers, but to making meaningful connections with readers. Sure, I'd like bigger numbers, but if that's what really mattered to my heart, I'm guessing my actions would be different. I think we all do what we deep-down really want/need to do, and it's the voices of other people/pressures/measures that make us think we're undisciplined when we're really just differently disciplined.
Beautiful. Such tenderness. Thank you, Amanda.
Is it because we are pulling into the fall that discipline and organization is on our minds? I just did a short piece on missing my Filofax and writing things down. I too have adhd and all sort of reading issues. I struggle with executive function. Ok I have almost none and do everything backwards. But! I am trying a new thing: a day planner and three weeks in I’m loving it! It has helped me to see a week at a time and not miss things. There is discipline involved to keep the phone and planner updated. It’s worth it so far. Please take a peak at today’s post if you are struggling with organizing yourself!
https://www.womenssurvivalguide.com/p/filofax-day-planner-phone
"Discipline is returning to the thing which you value" This is such a refreshing reframe!