Browsing Tag

infj perfectionism

Why INFJ Writers Suffer from Decision Paralysis

One of the most common problems for INFJ writers is when they become paralyzed when faced with making a creative decision about their writing. Sometimes this happens when the INFJ writer is trying to decide which writing project to start first, and sometimes it happens when they are already working on a writing project and they are trying to make a decision about which direction it should go in for the best forward movement on the project.

What’s happening when an INFJ writer is blocked in their decision-making is usually that we’re getting overwhelmed. This occurs when INFJ writers use thinking over intuition when trying to make creative decisions. Although we are strong in our thinking skills, these skills should be relegated to situations which call for straightforward problem-solving, not complex intuitive creativity. Continue Reading

Feel Like You’re Going Nowhere with Your Writing?

One of the biggest problems I see writers struggle with is that we often feel like we’re going nowhere with our writing. We may feel like we’re not making any actual progress, or we’ve been working on a project for a really long time, and still, we’re not seeing measurable results. When we’re in this painful place with our writing, we often feel alone and like we lack support, and like we also lack the structure we need to keep going with our writing. Continue Reading

When Writing Isn’t Fun Anymore

I was working with a new client who had come to me because she said she hated her writing life. As I sat with her on Zoom and asked her questions about her writing, I watched her face change as she described how she used to feel about writing when she was much younger, and how she felt about it now.

She looked troubled, and sad. And also confused. Why was writing so hard for her now? she asked. She didn’t understand why it felt like pulling teeth to sit down and crank out 500 words. Writing had always been something she loved. She didn’t understand why it now filled her with so much dread.

As we dug deeper into the layers of her problems with writing, the truth became more and more clear. Continue Reading

The 3 Biggest Self-Sabotage Traps for Writers

In my last article, Still Putting Off Your Writing Dreams? How to Stop Self-Sabotaging and Start Writing, I talked about how common it is for writers to self-sabotage themselves. What I’ve discovered after working with hundreds of writers over the past decade as a writing coach is that self-sabotage usually takes a very specific form with creative people.

There are 3 self-sabotage traps I see writers fall into all the time, and what makes it so difficult to get out of these traps is that, on the surface, they seem logical. Each trap is a belief or statement that the writer makes to themselves, or a goal they set for their writing, that seems like it will move them forward. However, each trap does the complete opposite and only blocks the writer from making any progress at all. Continue Reading

Still Putting Off Your Writing Dreams? How to Stop Self-Sabotaging and Start Writing.

Birthdays can be hard for many people, but they’re usually hardest on writers. Why? Because a birthday is a personal milestone that indicates another year has passed in your life—you’re one year closer to leaving this earth—and you still haven’t accomplished your writing dreams.

Maybe your writing dream is to finish your novel, or to write a self-help book based on your own life experiences that you know could really help people. Maybe you just want to finish a story—any story—because even though you’ve had a million ideas, you’ve never finished anything. So, when the day of your birthday rolls around, yet again, it only causes you pain, because it highlights just exactly how far away you still are from ever achieving these dreams. Continue Reading