Home
>
Writing
>
Water to Swim In

Water to Swim In

Not long ago, I took stock of my unrealized desire to be a published writer, or maybe I should I say ???Writer??? with a capital ???W.??? For some reason it always seemed a lofty goal, to want to see my byline in print. I found this trepidation totally uncharacteristic to every other area in my life. For twenty years, I have ministered to women both in small home group settings as well as conferences. Especially in conference settings, friends would ask, ???Are you nervous???? Almost every time I could answer truthfully that I was not. I could easily stand up in front of hundreds of faces and feel quite confident in my own abilities. Yet, to put an article or query in the mail, or to push the send button to some unknown editor elicited in me, absolute, consuming insecurity.

I looked at my collection of books and realized with a bit of a jolt that I bought my first ???Writer???s Marketplace??? in 1997, and have bought one every year since. Beside them stood as many consecutive volumes of Sally Stuart???s ???Christian Writers??? Market Guide??? Another shelf, is full to brimming over, with books discussing every facet of writing, from getting ideas, to setting up filing systems, to time management. I have a filing cabinet almost busting open with ideas, and research and possible markets.

In times gone by, I have looked at those shelves and filing cabinet and have seen the investment of time and money that they represent. They could easily have become a monument to my failure to accomplish my dream of being published. Or they could be testament to the time I have been educating myself and practicing my craft.

How many of us have dreams to accomplish bigger things but allow consuming insecurity to win over us? Let???s redefine past failure as learning, and unfinished projects as practice, and rejection as apprenticeship. Let???s take a step toward that thing that we want the most, whether it be writing, or starting a small business, or finishing a degree.

For years I have dipped my toe into the scary world of publication, like a swimmer testing new waters. Each time I came close, I backed off and settled back into my comfy chair to wait for warmer conditions. That day I decided, that things are going to be different I am going to dive in, sink or swim??? I shut my eyes and jumped.

Does anybody else want to go swimming?

1. Set a manageable goal-When trying to overcome fear, or insecurity or just looking at an overwhelming task, set a small bite-sized goal. This goal needs to be very specific. To set a goal to ???write??? for instance, can set us up for days of floundering. ???Write an article??? is still not specific enough. I can easily waste hours, or even days, perusing magazines and websites in search of an idea. My goal is to write a short article about overcoming insecurity targeted to beginning writers.

2. Determine the steps-Even small tasks can be broken down into their simpler components. List each one of these components on a sheet of paper, or wherever you make lists. Cross off each task at each stage of completion. This provides a strategy or roadmap to complete our goal, as well as a continued sense of accomplishment along the way. We especially need to do this in tasks that cause us anxiety or just seem overwhelming.

3. Set a deadline- The deadline for small goals needs to be sooner not later, you may want to put time limits on each component. For this article I set the deadline for writing it today, and actually sending it tomorrow. The reason for this is that I find I need my work to ???set??? before I give it a final proof. This is a trick I learned in university, every time I wrote a paper, off the cuff, it had glaring mistakes. I have learned that my best work needs to have a setting time.

4. Jump! This is the moment of truth: fear, insecurity, relief, and accomplishment. I remember the feeling the first time I jumped of the high diving board. Everything seemed to go in slow motion. On the way down, I wished I hadn???t taken that step. Although when I finally hit the surface of the water, it didn???t seem so bad. Wow, I did it!

5. Do the whole thing over again- Use this new gained confidence to start the whole process over again.

Pamela Hatheway has ministered in the United States and Canada, both through her writing, as well as teaching and facilitating workshops, speaking at regular services and conferences.

Pamela lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick Canada with her husband David and their two daughters Anna and Olivia. Email phatheway@rogers.com

cleaning service near Mundelein ...

In The News:

Uber teen accounts now feature live video streaming from the driver's camera, but encrypted recordings stay on Uber's servers for up to 14 days.

Router firewalls and software firewalls serve different roles in protecting your home Wi-Fi from unwanted traffic and suspicious connections.

A Chrome extension with 70,000 users and a 4.7-star rating began injecting fake update warnings after a threat actor acquired and weaponized it.

Amazon's Alexa+ rolls out free to Fire TV devices across the U.S., but hands-free microphones and stored voice data raise key privacy questions.

Meta's new teen accounts settlement sets a default two-hour daily limit on Instagram and Facebook, plus night mode and school mode restrictions.

The CareCloud data breach exposed Social Security numbers, banking information and medical records belonging to more than 3.75 million people.

Waymo reveals its custom 5-nanometer chip and dual computing systems designed to take over instantly if the robotaxi's primary computer fails.

Identity theft now includes account takeover, phone hijacking and payment card exposure. Here's what to look for in identity theft protection services.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

The FBI and Justice Department seized domains tied to QScan and QTRouter, tools allegedly used by China-linked hackers to breach NASA and other agencies.

Uber Eats drone delivery launches later this year through a Zipline partnership, starting in Dallas and Houston with a goal of one million daily flights.

Medicare Open Enrollment scams start with data broker targeting months before October. Learn why August is the time to remove your personal info.

The World Humanoid Robot Games' crashes show how far the technology still needs to go to be useful, "Survivor" reality TV star and robotics scientist Christian Hubicki says.

X-Humanoid's TianGong Ultra ran 100 meters in 9.32 seconds at Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games, beating last year's winner by more than half.

A tap-to-pay charity scam is turning small $15 or $20 donations into charges of nearly $5,000, with victims losing thousands before they notice.

Kurt Knutsson shares seven emergency preparedness lessons from surviving Hurricane Katrina inside a New Orleans hotel as conditions turned desperate.

A contractor stored credentials in a Google Doc set to "Anyone with the link," and Google Search autocomplete eventually surfaced the password string.

New Orleans 911 uses Carbyne AI to triage repeat auto crash calls, but strict limits keep human call-takers in control of all other emergencies.

A single card skimmer can generate $1 million in stolen funds, and Secret Service video shows criminals installing them in under two seconds.

ChatGPT, Meta AI and Google now use memory, connected apps and past chats to personalize ads and responses in ways most users overlook today.

MagicalAuth by Glide.id uses cryptographic SIM credentials to verify bank logins without sending SMS OTP codes that scammers can intercept or phish.

A humanoid robot named Lightning Bolt ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, edging Usain Bolt's record.

An AI agent using Claude AI canceled another person's gym booking after finding a security flaw in the reservation system's authorization checks.

Trump signed a memorandum allowing vetted private U.S. companies to conduct cyber operations against foreign criminal organizations under oversight.

Your Social Security number appeared in a breach, but exposure and identity theft are not the same. Here's how identity restoration actually works.

Water to Swim In

Writing