Eat Creative Fear for Breakfast with this 5 Step Worksheet
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No matter how experienced you are at writing and creating, this still comes up: FEAR. One moment you're excited and inspired, and the next moment you freeze. Your project seems impossible, impractical, or worse, embarrassing! Thus, you fold it up into a paper airplane and launch it for the trash.
As your writing coach, I want to tell you, “Stop right there!”
The stuff that brings up intense fear is usually your gutsiest most glorious material. You just have to work with it a little.
If you make working through fear a habit, the rewards are unbelievable. Your biggest professional and creative breakthroughs will come from working through fear. That’s why I’ve created this 5 step worksheet to help you out. Here we go!
1. Face It
What’s the thing you’re afraid to do. Write it down now. I’m serious, stop and write it down. In fact you can print this out and write it here:
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2. Get Some Internal Guidance
Now, as you face what you’ve just written, take inventory. Some emotions might be coming up. Try and look beyond that flurry of whatever you’re feeling. You might notice you have a heightened sense of internal or intuitive guidance. Pause. Get quiet. Take notes. What’s the first bit of advice you get about moving forward? Write it here.
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By the way, if a bunch of personal insults and problems come up, that’s not internal guidance. We need to get past that because it’s basically a manifestation of your anxiety. Even if your “inner guidance” is mentioning real honest-to-God problems, we’ve still got to move past that to something more creative. You might ask her something like, “Well, if that’s the case what do I do?” Jot that new (productive) advice here:
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For those of you with a super bitchy inner guide, who just says, “Don’t do it.” We’ve got to keep going for a better answer, because if that were the correct answer you wouldn’t still be thinking about it. You wouldn’t still be reading this worksheet. Tell her that, and see what she says. If it’s positive, write it down here.
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3. Take Action
Great. Hopefully you’re moving forward with some guidance. Now, from that guidance cull a specific action step you can take today or tomorrow. Act now. Any step. Write it down here.
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4. Gain Insight
Okay, as you move forward and take that action step, you might feel an increase in your sensory perception. This is a natural response to moving through fear. Sure, often it comes up as anxiety or discomfort, which doesn’t seem helpful, but I want you to use that increased sensory perception on the discomfort itself. Go into witnessing mode. What is that discomfort telling you? What are you learning about your fear by leaning into it? Write that down here.
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5. Eat Fear for Breakfast
Often what you learn about fear can give you a deeper understanding of the actual content you’re writing. If you really want to eat fear for breakfast, use the insight you gained in step 4 as inspiration for what you’re creating. Is there a character or a metaphor or an essay you can glean from it? That could be really amazing! I suggest you get out a separate sheet of paper. Write it there.
The fact is, we’re creative beings. We’re constantly creating. We can’t help it. When we don’t follow through with inspiration because we’re afraid, we end up creating more fear instead. Our lives become safer and less exhilarating. The irony about staying safe is that it’s suffocating, and paradoxically not safe at all.
If self-protection can’t keep you safe, then the only real safety is courage.
That’s what I’m here for! Courage can be tough, but you don’t have to do it alone. Right now, I’m opening spots for 4 new coaching clients. If you’re interested in getting one-on-one support for your writing, sign up for a Free Consultation so you can get a first hand experience of the author coaching program.