How to deal with guilt in 13 ways | Publication Coach - Deepstash
The Startup Collection

Learn more about writing with this collection

How to secure funding

How to market and sell your product or service

How to scale and grow your business

The Startup Collection

Discover 95 similar ideas in

It takes just

14 mins to read

Guilt

Guilt

Did you know that guilt can affect your health? Negative emotions and thoughts will elevate your adrenaline and cortisol. These are stress hormones that cause our bodies to respond when we encounter threats. But when high levels of these hormones last too long, we get high blood pressure, a rapid heartbeat and inflammation. Don’t do this to yourself!

  • If you’re struggling with this issue , particularly relating to writing, here are 13 ways on how to deal with guilt:

19

92 reads

1)Make sure your writing goals are reasonable.

  • And base them on analysis rather than hope or guesswork.
  • Setting unrealistic — or unexamined — goals is a huge barrier to success.
  • Make your goals small and then hit them out of the park.

18

71 reads

2)

  • Writing is time-consuming and make sure you allow yourself a reasonable amount of time to get the job done.Instead, as the old expression goes, “under promise and over deliver.”
  • Track how long it takes you to write and build in plenty of extra time for researching (first) and editing (later.)

18

51 reads

3)Appreciate the mistakes you make

  • Striving for perfection is totally unrealistic. And, most important, mistakes help us learn. You will learn far more from every screw-up than you will from any laudatory achievement
  • Allow yourself to see how a mistake that made you feel guilty has helped you become a better, more skillful writer. Remind yourself that today is a great day to make mistakes.

19

39 reads

4)Avoid people who blame, shame and judge.

  • These people will always find more than one way to make you feel guilty.
  • If this person is your boss, seriously think about looking for another job. The market currently favours job seekers over employers.

19

46 reads

5)Don’t accept the standards and expectations of other people

  • You are you. This makes you different from everyone else around you. Decide how much time you’re able to spend researching, writing or editing and start smaller than that. Yes, smaller.
  • Even a five-minute-a-day writing habit is infinitely superior to a no-writing-per-day habit. (And five minutes a day is also superior to 35 minutes once a week, even though the volume of time is exactly the same.)

19

45 reads

6)Look for the emotions beneath the guilt.

  • If you think guilt is stopping you from writing, consider whether the real problem might be fear. Or impatience. Or anger
  • Deal with the real problem and the guilt should dissolve.

18

45 reads

7)Stop magnifying your guilt.

  • If you’ve made a mistake, then apologize for it and figure out how to avoid repeating the problem in the future. Everyone makes mistakes. We’re all human beings.

18

38 reads

8)Stop comparing yourself to others

  • We’re all different and we all have our own strengths and weaknesses. Looking at what another person can accomplish will not help you in the least
  • Break the bad habit of comparing yourself to others and, instead, focus on competing against the old you
  • Did you used to be able to write a 500-word article in 60 minutes? Try to do it in 45. Or 30. That’s the only type of comparison that’s going to be meaningful and useful to you.

18

29 reads

9)Understand the difference between “busy-ness” and being truly

  • If you feel guilty about your lack of productivity, you’re not going to be productive at all — you’re far more likely just to be busy.
  • Productivity means doing what you really need to do to reach your goals

18

32 reads

10)Understand that while you can’t force creativity, you need to

  • I’ve always loved the quote (that’s been attributed to a wide variety of writers): “I believe in inspiration and I see that it’s available at 9 am every day.
  • Set up the conditions under which creativity can thrive.

20

37 reads

11) Make changes, instead of wallowing in guilt

  • Most guilt simply makes us feel bad about ourselves. Instead, figure out how to build a sustainable writing process, so that you can do what you say you’re going to do.

18

40 reads

12)Stop calling yourself a bad person (or a bad writer).

  • Of course, you’re responsible for your actions but they don’t make you a bad person. Or a bad writer. In fact, the belief that you’re bad is precisely what contributes to your “bad” behavior.
  • Change and learning occur when you recognize you’ve made a mistake, and when you develop a strategy for correcting the problem. An attitude of self-compassion will help (while guilt will usually interfere.)

18

20 reads

13)Ask yourself, “what can I learn from this situation?”

  • Torturing yourself won’t make you a better person. Learning will. You may resist examining what you did wrong but performing a thorough analysis of your mistakes is what will help you to stop repeating them.
  • Remind yourself: I don’t need to do good all the time to be a good person.

You’re a smart, capable person. If you learn how to deal with guilt, you’ll become a much more effective writer.

19

31 reads

CURATED BY

kokhul_736

Kokhulash.com

CURATOR'S NOTE

For writers and ....

More like this

stash-superman-illustration

Explore the World’s

Best Ideas

200,000+ ideas on pretty much any topic. Created by the smartest people around & well-organized so you can explore at will.

An Idea for Everything

Explore the biggest library of insights. And we've infused it with powerful filtering tools so you can easily find what you need.

Knowledge Library

Powerful Saving & Organizational Tools

Save ideas for later reading, for personalized stashes, or for remembering it later.

# Personal Growth

Take Your Ideas

Anywhere

Organize your ideas & listen on the go. And with Pro, there are no limits.

Listen on the go

Just press play and we take care of the words.

Never worry about spotty connections

No Internet access? No problem. Within the mobile app, all your ideas are available, even when offline.

Get Organized with Stashes

Ideas for your next work project? Quotes that inspire you? Put them in the right place so you never lose them.

Join

2 Million Stashers

4.8

5,740 Reviews

App Store

4.7

72,690 Reviews

Google Play

Ashley Anthony

This app is LOADED with RELEVANT, HELPFUL, AND EDUCATIONAL material. It is creatively intellectual, yet minimal enough to not overstimulate and create a learning block. I am exceptionally impressed with this app!

Sean Green

Great interesting short snippets of informative articles. Highly recommended to anyone who loves information and lacks patience.

samz905

Don’t look further if you love learning new things. A refreshing concept that provides quick ideas for busy thought leaders.

Shankul Varada

Best app ever! You heard it right. This app has helped me get back on my quest to get things done while equipping myself with knowledge everyday.

Laetitia Berton

I have only been using it for a few days now, but I have found answers to questions I had never consciously formulated, or to problems I face everyday at work or at home. I wish I had found this earlier, highly recommended!

Giovanna Scalzone

Brilliant. It feels fresh and encouraging. So many interesting pieces of information that are just enough to absorb and apply. So happy I found this.

Ghazala Begum

Even five minutes a day will improve your thinking. I've come across new ideas and learnt to improve existing ways to become more motivated, confident and happier.

Jamyson Haug

Great for quick bits of information and interesting ideas around whatever topics you are interested in. Visually, it looks great as well.

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Access to 200,000+ ideas

Access to the mobile app

Unlimited idea saving & library

Unlimited history

Unlimited listening to ideas

Downloading & offline access

Personalized recommendations

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates