{"id":403,"date":"2009-11-12T08:45:10","date_gmt":"2009-11-12T15:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/2009\/11\/12\/403\/"},"modified":"2009-11-12T08:45:10","modified_gmt":"2009-11-12T15:45:10","slug":"self-limiting-beliefs-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/2009\/11\/12\/403\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-Limiting Beliefs & Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nCurrent mood:\u00a0\u00a0bouncy
\nCategory:<\/strong> Writing and Poetry<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hi Everyone,
\nI have something special to share with you all today – a wonderful blog by the amazing and inspirational Rhona Berens who is a Hollywood movie industry Life Coach here in Los Angeles. I love her work and have learned so much from her. I asked Rhona to guest blog today and in this post, she addresses self-limiting beliefs that affect our lives and specifically, how this works against novelists – so read on and enjoy! Love, A.J.
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Self-Limiting Beliefs & Writing by <\/strong>Rhona Berens<\/font><\/strong><\/a>, PhD, CPCC<\/p>\n

<\/strong>As a Life Coach, and writer, I\u2019m always looking for ways to navigate creative roadblocks. I recently read some advice for screenwriters that went something like this: one way to get in the game is to throw your hat in the ring. If a writer announces\u2014to colleagues, professional contacts\u2014that she\u2019s polishing a script for an agent, or [fill in the blank with a time-constrained goal and someone to whom you pledge completing that goal], the deed will be done. If we create accountability structures\u2014actions for which we\u2019re accountable to others\u2014we\u2019ll propel ourselves forward and \u201cjust do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s sound advice. Solid advice. Inspiring advice, even. Except if you\u2019re a writer for whom self-doubt (and its pal, Paralysis) is a more familiar comfort-zone than confidence (and its buddy, Action). If you\u2019re that kind of writer, it\u2019s often hard to get into the game and, harder still, to stay in it. So what\u2019s that fiction writer to do?<\/p>\n

I want to introduce a technique to help you step more consistently away from self-doubt and toward self-confidence. In other words, I\u2019m going to encourage you to expand yourself as a writer by expanding yourself as, well, you. (Groan.) I heard that; I also saw the dismissive wave some of you just gave. Bear with me. What does any of this have to do with staying in the game? First of all, it\u2019s pretty hard to tease apart you from the writer, the writer from you. Second, shifting how you do things (including how you view yourself) is an opportunity to befriend those, sometimes, elusive comrades: Confidence, Accountability, and Action. The idea is for you to hone a new skill that helps you generate sustained energy and passion to get your work read\u2026 and bought \u2026 and published. Who knows? Maybe you\u2019ll also find some golden nuggets along the way to improve your writing, too.<\/p>\n

The story of your reality
\nI\u2019ve been thinking a lot lately about the ways in which people\u2014not just writers\u2014storify pretty much everything. I stumbled on the word \u201cstorify\u201d a few weeks ago when I considered turning the noun, story, into a verb (e.g., to story my experiences), just like businesspeople have morphed the word \u201cgrow\u201d so that now they can grow a company. Turns out, storify does what I was looking for: \u201cTo form or tell stories of; to narrate or describe in a story;\u201d or, most succinctly, \u201cto make up.\u201d<\/p>\n

To state the obvious: Fiction writing is, at its core, the ability to storify scenarios and characters. To state the not so obvious: Autobiography\u2014including our self-focused thoughts and beliefs that we never write down\u2014is how we storify ourselves. What I mean is, we believe a lot of the stuff we make up about ourselves (or others); we often believe what others make up about us; and, sometimes, we believe what we think they make up about us. In short, humans storify all the time; writers take that skill and parlay it into art.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a closer look at one common \u201cstorifying\u201d tool that\u2019s an entr\u00e9e into growing ourselves (and a boon to character development): Self-Limiting Beliefs. Brian Tracy, a motivational speaker and author, defines a Self-Limiting Belief (a.k.a. SLB) as: \u201cAn idea you have that you are limited in some way, in terms of time, talent, intelligence, money, ability, or opportunity.\u201d I\u2019d add a few other items to his list, like the belief you\u2019re limited by how well or poorly (you think) others love, respect, or treat you. Plus, there are limitations you might ascribe to yourself based on appearance, cultural or ethnic background, gender, age… you get the picture.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is: SLBs constrain how (far) we take action in our lives. If we\u2019re in the territory of our SLBs, we might take some action, maybe the first or second or third step toward a goal. Then an SLB will intervene, either in the form of discouraging words articulated by our own Inner Critic or by rejection\/criticism from people in our daily lives, whose opinions matter to us (even when we say they don\u2019t). What\u2019s the impact? We stop sprinting full-tilt boogie toward the finish line for the things we really want to do, the person we believe we can be, the dreams we yearn to fulfill. In other words, when it comes to our own lives, SLBs suck the momentum right out of us.<\/p>\n

Want to find out how you can overcome your SLBs and use SLBs as a tool to develop fictional characters? Click Rhona Berens – Self-Limiting Beliefs & Novelists at http:\/\/www.fortedreams.com\/resources-overview<\/font><\/a> to download a free copy of Rhona\u2019s complete article. If you\u2019re interested, you can also sign up for a complimentary coaching session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Current mood:\u00a0\u00a0bouncy Category: Writing and Poetry \u00a0 Hi Everyone, I have something special to share with you all today – a wonderful blog by the amazing and inspirational Rhona Berens who is a Hollywood movie industry Life Coach here in Los Angeles. I love her work and have learned so much from her. I asked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-category-writing-and-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}