Are you dealing with your personal problems head-on, or are you avoiding them?

Do you engage in conversations about hard things, or do you shut down when you’re confronted by a truth you don’t want to hear?

Would the people who know you best describe you as brave? Focused? Determined? Disciplined? Or would they say you’re aloof, timid, or uncaring?

It’s hard to face your real-life problems instead of running away from them. And it’s easy to turn to substance abuse or other unhealthy patterns as you try to escape from reality.

Henry David Thoreau said, “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

Just because you’re a writer, it doesn’t give you the license to check out of real life. You need to show up on the stage of life where the action is happening.

Nobody is perfect. But your writing should reflect the person you are trying to become—bold, brave, and above all, a true-life superhero to the people you love the most.

Today’s Challenge: Think about the past twenty-four hours. What did you do that was brave, bold, or fearless?

The post Before You Sit Down to Write, Stand Up to Live appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Business tycoons love the art of the deal. Sports figures love the rush of physical conflict. Skydivers love the sight of the ground rushing toward them, sentencing them toward certain doom unless their parachute opens.

You may like all of those areas of excitement. But there’s a good chance that when it comes to your writing, you’re playing it safe.

What does it mean to play it safe as a writer? It means you avoid sharing a controversial viewpoint when you feel convicted about it. It means you are not willing to upset anyone. You don’t say what you really think. You refuse to share the parts of your story that could really help someone, even though it has some unsavory parts.

At its worst, playing it safe means not sharing yourself at all.

Playing it safe is an illusion. When we play it safe, we are avoiding perceived conflict or judgment. In the end, however, if you don’t share your work, if you don’t share your heart, that is the most unsafe place to be.

It means you haven’t made a difference or shared your authentic self. That’s not a place you want to be.

So, don’t play it safe. Share what you need to share and be brave, be bold. But by all means, don’t play it safe

Daily Question: Are you playing it safe in your writing? What could you do to be more brave and bold?

The post Playing It Safe is Not Safe appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

If writing is a house, each of us lives on two levels.

The ground floor is where we invite people in. We share things we think people want to hear. We say a lot of nice things, put some coffee on, and invite people to sit around the table. On the ground floor, we have the furniture arranged just so and we try to keep things spic and span.

Underneath the ground floor, there is also a basement. The basement is where we keep boxes full of the things we really want to say. But we rarely bring them out because we’re not sure how people will respond. We keep things in the dark out of fear. But it’s important to bring those things into the light.

What might some of those things be? Maybe it’s a trauma you experienced like losing someone you love or going through a divorce. Maybe it’s your controversial opinions about something. Maybe it’s telling the not-so-nice parts of your story so you can help others. Maybe it’s talking openly about your mental health issues. Who knows what it might be—it’s different for every person.

The point is that you have things to say that people might object to, things that might get you in a little trouble. It’s not that we should seek to be controversial for its own sake. Rather, the point is we should be brave and bold when the time and situation are right.

We must be smart about all this, of course. But there is a time to stop holding back and just tell it like it is. Could it be that your time has come?

Daily Question: What is it you really want to say? What is holding you back from saying it?

The post What You Really Wanted to Say appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

It’s not unusual for writers to remain hidden. There is something about writing that attracts people who don’t want to be on camera, on stage, or behind a microphone.

The writing world is also home to many ghostwriters, who by definition are hidden behind someone else’s name. And then there are novelists, who create characters and worlds that exist apart from the writer’s identity.

All of this is well and good. If you’re a writer who likes to stay a little bit hidden, more power to you. That being said, I challenge you to let the world see your true self a bit more. Even though you might feel more comfortable staying hidden, what would it feel like to challenge yourself and put your voice and face out into the world a little more? Is there perhaps something you’re missing by indulging your shyness?

E. B. White said, “All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation—it is the self escaping into the open. No writer long remains incognito.”

You’ve made a difference with your words. Now imagine the even greater difference you can make when you take a step outside your comfort zone. This might mean doing podcast interviews, creating videos, or even hosting your own show.

By challenging yourself and coming out into the open a little more, you might encourage someone else to step outside of their comfort zone as well. Strange and wonderful things happen when we confront fear and do the thing we’re afraid to do.

The post Come Out Into the Open appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

One of the essential themes of the superhero genre is that of the double life. When the character puts on their costume, they are a powerful hero who rushes into the battle to save lives. But in order to conceal their true identity, they usually take on some sort of mild-mannered job or role that is the total opposite of their superhero persona.

• Batman is Bruce Wayne, an aloof billionaire playboy.
• Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four is a scientist.
• Spider-Man is Peter Parker, a nerdy newspaper reporter.
• Superman is Clark Kent, another nerdy newspaper reporter.
• Wonder Woman is Diana Prince, an ambassador to the United Nations.

Superheroes aren’t the only ones who live double lives. We writers can develop an alter-ego if we’re not careful.

It’s easy to appear bold and brave on the page… but how do we handle the challenges of real life?

Are you dealing with your personal problems head-on, or are you avoiding them?

Do you engage in hard conversations about hard things, or do you shut down when you are confronted with a truth you don’t want to hear?

Would the people who know you best describe you as brave? Focused? Determine? Disciplined? Or would they say you’re aloof, timid, or uncaring?

Tough words, to be sure. It’s hard to face our real-life problems instead of running away from them. And it’s easy to turn to substance abuse or other unhealthy patterns and addictions and run away from reality.

Henry David Thoreau said, “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

Just because we’re writers doesn’t give us the license to check out of real life. We need to show up for real on the stage of life where the action is happening. None of us are perfect, but our writing should reflect the person we are trying to become—bold, brave, and above all, a true-life superhero to the people we love the most.

The post Brave on the Page, Brave on the Stage appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.