I want to share something with you that may surprise you.
At school, I was rubbish at English.
I didn’t understand comprehension.
I didn’t understand where or how the teachers could extrapolate what was written into their interpretation of what the author meant.
And whilst I wasn’t too bad a spelling, it was because I’d had to write the word out 100 times after getting it wrong!
That said, my first job was working for an accountancy firm and I found 10 different ways to spell analysis (where was spell check when I needed it!!!)
The thing is, this left me with a belief that as I was no good at English, that I couldn’t write.
It became such a big limiting belief, that even though over the years I wrote user guides as an IT Trainer, and wrote “How to…” books, I couldn’t tell a story.
I couldn’t write fiction.
I was an author, but not a writer.
But here’s the thing with limiting beliefs, what was true then isn’t necessarily true now.
And here’s the thing about being a coach, when you spot a limiting belief, you can recognise it for what it is and you start to deal with it.
So, at the end of last year, I took the bull by the horns and started to take a creative writing course.
I have to confess, whilst I passed my first assignment, it was pretty rubbish.
But with each assignment, I got a little better and a little better.
I learned about things like Freytags Pyramid and suddenly book structure made sense.
I’m still working through the course but I’m starting to enjoy writing in a way my schoolgirl self would never have imagined.
So when it comes to writing, what’s stopping you?
Click on the comments below and tell me.
I’d really love to know.