Recently I have found myself drowning in writing assignments and have been feeling drained—physically, emotionally, and most of all, creatively. When trying to write this very article, I struggled for days. In fact, I struggled to find a topic worth publishing up until an hour before I had to meet the deadline.
In a desperate attempt to produce something, I made the executive decision to publish a list of something. People love lists and tend to read them more often than they would read a paragraphed article. When trying to find a topic for this list, I came across a quote from J. Cole.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think something’s not good enough, and I won’t stop until I feel like I’ve made it. I’m never satisfied.”
This quote made me think about my writer’s block. I put a lot of pressure on myself to top the article I wrote last week. This pressure turns into insecurity. Is what I’m writing worth reading? Is it relevant?
This all builds to a point where I can’t commit to a topic to write about. As a person majoring in journalism I feel the pressure to publish thought-provoking and inspiring articles.
The fear of inadequacy is almost debilitating at times. Writing as often as I do used to be easy, but the amount of writing that I have been doing has created pressure. It comes with the territory.
I recently did an interview with a public relations professional, who told me what she thought the secret to success was.
“You have to believe in your skills to be successful. Know what you can do really well and figure out ways to integrate that into all parts of your job.”
The secret to getting over writer’s block is to believe in my ability to write good articles. I know I’m an adequate writer, and in order to write well, I need to be able to tell myself that I can write.
If you’re reading this and aren’t a writer, there’s still something you can take away from this article. The key to success is to believe in yourself. If you can’t believe in your own abilities, other people won’t believe in you either.
Please note that there is, however, a line between confident and arrogant. Do not erase that line because arrogance will rid you of any respect you might have gained from colleagues and friends.
