How To Deal With Overwhelm

How to Beat Overwhelm & Start Achieving Your Goals

Michelle Christina

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…

You’re creative. You’re driven. You’re passionate about writing. You have endless ideas, a blog, a novel in the works, a growing writing career.

With that kind of epic creative charge, you feel like you should have seen more projects through to fruition by now… right?

But instead, you keep finding yourself sighing at the end of each week, consumed by a sense of overwhelm rather than a sense of accomplishment.

You’re all over the place.

You feel frustrated—maybe even jealous when you see other writers who “have their shit together”.

Why can’t you seem to make things happen?

There are many reasons an idea doesn’t become a finished project, but I believe one of the most common is overwhelm.

To deal with overwhelm, you have to take a close look at the way you’re living.

Let’s examine this modern epidemic from all angles, so we can get off the inspiration hamster wheel and start making moves. Here’s our best advice on how to beat overwhelm and start achieving your goals.

(more…)

How To Fall In Love With Writing Again - Day Job Optional - Michelle Christina Larsen

How to Fall in Love With Writing Again (Even if It Feels Impossible)

Michelle Christina

Don’t judge me, but… my laptop is totally going to be my Valentine this year. *slow jam plays*

Yep, I’ll be spending February 14th writing about New York Fashion Week and sipping an endless supply of coffee while snow pummels the ground outside.

The countdown to the most romantic day of the year had me thinking about the ups and downs of love this week. I started to see some vivid parallels between a love for writing and love for human-folk.

That said, let me ask you something: Is being a writer really what you thought it would be?

Are your visions of scrawling cutting-edge articles, breathtaking travel stories, exciting fiction or the wittiest copy on the planet panning out?

If you’re knee-deep in writing career bliss right now, I am sending you a giant high-five through the screen.  That is awesome. But for those who’ve begun to feel a little lukewarm about our writing work, just know that you’re not alone.

Writers of all levels sometimes groan at the thought of hitting their word count. Even the pros sometimes feel tempted to reschedule a client call they just don’t feel like having.

So the question is, how can we get the magic back? How can we fall in love with writing again?

After almost a decade of falling in and out of love with my writing career, I’ve put together some tried-and-true tips on rekindling the flame.

Pour yourself a glass of wine, put on those sexy tunes, and read on.

(more…)

PHONE BACKGROUND - How To Write Every Day: Desktops & Phone Backgrounds For Writers - TOP

Free Download! Desktops that Remind You to Write Everyday

Krystal Raydo

True or false: It’s really hard to develop a daily writing habit when we’re all so freakin’ distracted.

Fellow writers, we have officially reached the age of information and inspiration overload, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Now more than ever, we need a gentle (or not-so-gentle) reminder to stay focused on our writing.

So what’s the magic trick to writing every day?

I was pondering this while setting up my new phone screen this week. I suddenly thought, “why not put something in the background that’ll help me reach my goals this fall?”

After all, my phone is the thing I look at the most during the day, second only to the bottom of my coffee cup, so I might as well utilize it.

Thus, these desktop wallpapers and phone backgrounds were born, with a pop of tropical color and a reminder to get the pen (or cursor) moving.

Click below to grab them for free.

(more…)

You Can’t Manifest Your Dream Life Until You Understand This

Michelle Christina

Your dream life.

It looms in the corner of your mind as you plug away at projects, cake layers onto your to-do list, and set aside the someday-stuff in favor of whatever task is urgently blinking at you.

There’s a fresh of breath air that you’re missing out on, somewhere out there.

At the end of your work day you sink into the subway seat as the train careens through the pinball machine chaos of Manhattan, through dark rat-infested tunnels that usher people back and forth from the rat race you’re more familiar with.

You burst back into daylight and cross the river before rattling into Brooklyn.

The train screeches to a halt on the raised platform above a bustling crosswalk, and empties out like a tipped jar of marbles…

Finally, you’re home.

Exhausted, you still have a thin sliver of inspiration left to “get something done” this evening. Something for your someday.

You make a cup of black tea and light a basil candle for a moment of reprieve before crawling into a pile of pillows with your laptop…

(more…)