Happy Friday!
My concern has always been that my students get to the point where they have sold their work, directed or produced it, or have gotten a job writing for TV. One thing that has always troubled me is that several of my most talented students worked incredibly hard and got almost to the finish line, and then quit.
My job is to get the material so good that they can get to the finish line, but this other piece of the puzzle has bothered me for years. Why steal defeat from the jaws of victory?
When I looked at back at my own history as a writer, focusing on the instances where I myself quit at the last minute, I realized that the problem was not talent or opportunity but rather self-doubt, lack of confidence and not being able to get the support needed to overcome the previous two problems.
I have spent much time and money working on these issues for myself. I have tried almost everything, including yoga and therapy.
I recently had an impulse to take a workshop at the Landmark Forum which I had heard about for years but always avoided because I thought it was a cult. It’s not.
I went and sat through a three-day workshop and came out feeling very much better than I did before I went!
The material taught in the workshop was new information and got under my skin in a way that nothing else had.
The following Monday I found myself twice as productive and free of the constant negative thoughts that often swirl around in my head.
The biggest takeaway for me was learning how to put the past back in the past, and thus, was able to clear the future, so that new, better things became possible because I wasn’t using memories as a reference!
I also recommend reading this book, The Three Laws of Performance, which discusses the foundational principles of the Forum.
I recommend this program to you as a potential methodology for removing those things that are keeping you back.
Here’s to your successful writing,
Professor Marilyn Horowitz
