Two-Fifty Tuesday: Putting Yourself Out There

Writing Fitness

I recently joined a gym. Normally, I’d sneak down into my home gym, alone, where there was no judgement. And I don’t mean no judgment from others—I mean no judgment from me about myself

Yet, buoyed by a desire for change, I ventured out. No surprise I was met with people who were way fitter than me. But I was here for me. I’d go at my own pace. 

And yet… 

It was hard to look at other people and not feel like a failure, no matter how objectively I knew that wasn’t true. I had two choices: return to my basement, or keep going and retrain my brain. 

I’m retraining my brain because the effort is just as applicable for writing. It’s so easy for us to compare ourselves to others. We don’t feel good enough or accomplished enough, no matter how much we know they may have had more time, experience, or luck. It still feels like we have to compete. 

Only we don’t. We can’t. No one has lived your writing life and you haven’t lived theirs. 

I’ll never be as fast or as strong as the other people in my new gym, but in only a little while, I am faster and stronger than I was before. That’s the measurement I’m going to stick with. 

Because writing, like fitness, is always going to be personal. 

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