Jasmine Nicole

One of my biggest obstacles to pursuing my writing more consistently is self doubt.

I’m not sure where I lost courage in my abilities but it happened. When I sit down at my computer, I lock up. So many thoughts swirl in my head about how I’m not good enough; I worry about how much writing I’m able to produce; I think about what other people will think. In college, I was always able to push through all my fears and was able to push out so much amazing writing. I could sit down at my laptop and write anything and everything that came to mind.

I literally had no fear and welcomed the criticism that I got from my peers and professors with open arms. The most interesting part is that my ability in writing has grown so much since then yet my confidence in my writing has gone down.

Believing in yourself is the sauce to success. When you have confidence in yourself, not only do you convince yourself that you can do anything, you truly believe it and belief becomes action.

When you lack that confidence in yourself, that is where your self doubt bleeds into everything that you will attempt to do and It’s very crippling.

As a writer, I find that what can push its way up past all the bullshit is to clear my head of everything that’s blocking me from writing. Sometimes I journal just to dump all of my thoughts out, especially those intrusive ones and to clear up some space in my mind for more productive things.

I also surround myself with inspiring things. I read, I talk and spend time with people who have similar goals, and I take time to do activities that really get my mind working. Sometimes taking a break from writing will get me back to where I want to be.

For me, inspiration is like a wave and sometimes the waves come and go naturally, but sometimes I have to be the one who makes those waves. I have to be the one to make room for inspiration to come into my life.