Just Write Something: How To Get Over The “Newbie” Jitters

Stop second guessing yourself.

Stop making excuses.

Stop being afraid.

Sure, it’s easy for me to say, I wrote more than 500,000 words last year. But do you really think I was never in your shoes? I’m still fairly new at this whole writing thing.

I’ve only been writing in a public forum for about 6 or 7 years.

That’s NOTHING.

The king of marketing, Seth Godin has been blogging since 2002. You don’t even want to know what I was doing in 2002.

I can remember when I was first starting to write in my blog. If you’ve been following since those days, you know first hand that my writing has changed a lot. In fact, the majority of my early posts are no longer live because they were so bad. But at least I did it.

Because guess what?

If I never got over the stories I was telling myself….

“No one will want to listen to me.”

“I’m not even an expert yet.”

or “I have no real credentials to suggest I know what I’m doing.”

I would be still waiting for the right time. There is no right time.

The best time to start writing was last year and the second best time is right now.

If you’re a writer, I’m sure you started off with similar thoughts. If you’re a blogger, I’m sure pressing publish on your first few blog posts seemed like a big accomplishment on its own. And it was. Because pressing publish is one thing that most people are scared to do.

Why?

I’ve thought about this a lot and I’ve realized that the same reason I struggled at pressing publish in the early days, is the same reason so many others struggle today. It’s not because we don’t think we’re good enough. It’s not because we don’t have enough experience.

It’s because we’re afraid of what other people will think.

We’re afraid of what other people will say.

We’re afraid of the haters.

IGNORE THEM.

When was the last time you made a car payment using someone else’s opinion? (Tweet this)

Look, I’m not going to act like I don’t often doubt myself. I doubt myself on the regular. I stress when I don’t feel prepared for a speech or deserving of an award. I second guess pressing publish on certain posts and articles. In fact, early on in my career, I allowed my own fear to hold me back from SERIOUS opportunities.

For the most part, we’re suffering from this thing called impostor syndrome. A psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.

Even Albert Einstein suffered from the syndrome near the end of his life. A month before his death, he reportedly confided in a friend: “the exaggerated esteem in which my lifework is held makes me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler.”

So how can you deal with it?

Surround yourself with people who are doers. Allow people who take action to inspire you to do similar things. Surround yourself with people who encourage you to do things that make you uncomfortable and are more likely to question your inaction than action.

Write something today. Write something about your industry. Write something you’ve learned in the last 2 weeks. Write something about your life. Write anything!

Just get started. 

I hope this mini-rant resonates with you and within the next few weeks, I’ll hear back from you with a link to something you’ve created. I say created because this isn’t just about writing. It’s about shipping. Getting things done. Creating more and consuming less.

What will you create? What will you build? What will you write? I’d love to hear about – write me back or comment on the original post with your thoughts.