I learned something this week: If when something I don’t like happens, or I feel that something is being done to me, I can laugh, say aloud, “I pronounce this good!” Then take a breath.
Performing this routine makes me smile and diffuses my annoyance, upset or whatever negative emotion I’m feeling. I relax, thus gain emotional distance, and have time to reframe the experience to see how I can benefit from it.
For example, you miss your train and are late as a result. You’re upset, or angry but then you find out later that something bad happened on that train, but you avoided being caught up in it because you missed the train.
The next level of this technique is to verbally “Pronounce it good,” and then add, “And I choose this.” Of course, you didn’t consciously choose some unpleasantness. Still, we have two roads to travel here: either we’re victims and have no control, OR on some unconscious level, we were involved in inviting it. That’s a bitter pill to swallow, so please forgive the cliché, and accept choosing it not because you really did, but because you will FEEL more in control if you pretend. Why you would choose anything unpleasant is another conversation. For now, these are ways to keep you in a good frame of mind.
Feeling good about things is often the result of feeling that we are in control. And why is it important to try to feel in control? Because being in control gives you momentum, and that is the secret to success, especially for writers. What keeps momentum going is being able to remain in a positive frame of mind. So you need to feel positive to sustain any action, especially writing!
It’s often hard to start writing, so you need tools like the techniques above to keep you churning out pages. Once you start writing, it’s much easier to keep going.
I suggest that you write the word “momentum,” on a piece of pretty paper in large letters somewhere you will see the word whenever you are going to write. Try it.
We are writers, and our words are powerful!
Happy Hanukkah!
Here’s to your successful writing,
Professor Marilyn Horowitz
