I reported a few weeks ago about the experience of massive self-doubt on a new fiction piece I’m just starting. This has been superseded in the past week or two by a period that I’m sure we’re all depressingly familiar with: When you work hard hard hard every day and see absolutely no progress.
That’s Steven Pressfield from…
I know that the attack of the Self-Doubt Monster is more likely when I don’t have a clear “why” for something. The self-doubt often asks me: “Why are we doing this?” …and if I don’t have an answer, that feeds further self-doubt. If I have a clear “why”, then I can answer my self-doubt’s question.
I find why is the best place to start with a new project.
It then becomes overlaid with how. And if like me, you have a preference for the practical and the technical why can become buried by the how-focus.
Reflection to the rescue.
How did I do?
It can feel self absorbed but this question keeps us true to what we felt was important about the journey we started on. It is the question that keeps us on track and more likely to be ‘successful’.