The Dreaded C word

You know how sometimes just hearing a word can send you into overwhelm?

Causing you to resist any and all of the thoughts that come after what has just been said.

Well…that’s what happened for a client of mine recently.

I said the word & immediately her expansive energy began to curl at the edges. Threatening to turn back into the contracted ball we were in the process of unfurling.

Furrowed at the brow, she looks at me and finally winces it out, “ufff,” she sighs “commitment?”

Her reaction told me we were moving into obtrusive territory. And, I knew exactly how she felt. 

Commitment is a loaded word. It conjures up thoughts of restraint and duress.

Just the Oxford dictionary definition of it as ‘an engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action’, is enough to send a liberty-loving creative running.

What I know to be true though, is without commitment

our book doesn’t get done.

What I also know to be true, is just because you’re not writing as much or as often as you’ve diarised it, doesn’t mean you’re not committed.

You are committed, but probably to another inner narrative. One that isn’t in full support of the book dreams you’ve defined for yourself. 

For some that narrative shows up as believing we don’t have the time.

For others, it’s the fear of their writing being seen as too weird or woo-woo.

For me at one point, it was the absolute surety that my writing wasn’t good enough. (While that’s another story to tell, I had to transform that belief before I could publish my work.)

The truth is we are never not committed.

The question is, what are we committed to?

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May your commitment to the energy of your book be bigger than the stories that take you away from it.