{"id":37,"date":"2015-05-22T15:09:32","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T15:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/?p=37"},"modified":"2015-05-22T15:35:08","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T15:35:08","slug":"anne-lamott-overcoming-the-voice-of-self-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/anne-lamott-overcoming-the-voice-of-self-doubt\/","title":{"rendered":"Anne Lamott: Overcoming the Voice of Self-Doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-49\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/anne-lamott.jpg?resize=660%2C495\" alt=\"Anne Lamott speaking at #CONFABMN\" width=\"660\" height=\"495\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/anne-lamott.jpg?resize=1024%2C768 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/anne-lamott.jpg?resize=300%2C225 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/anne-lamott.jpg?w=1320 1320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/anne-lamott.jpg?w=1980 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/annelamott\" target=\"_blank\">Anne Lamott<\/a> shares her wisdom on slowing down, paying attention, and just doing.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>All writers have the same problem: their minds<\/li>\n<li>We&#8217;re all here, trying to communicate important, complex, human things<\/li>\n<li>Every day, you gotta &#8220;do your scales&#8221; &#8211; sit down, practice the &#8220;mundane&#8221;, just do it &#8211; that&#8217;s how you get to play Mozart, Chopin<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I don&#8217;t believe in inspiration&#8221; &#8211; waiting to write until you&#8217;re inspired can be an excuse<\/li>\n<li>You figure out how to do stuff by doing it &#8211; you take the action\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Take the action and insight follows&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Listen. Take things in. And take notes. Don&#8217;t just write down what people say. Write how they say it.\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;I write down everything I love.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>When you write, even if it&#8217;s too much or not that great, it&#8217;s still something.\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;I will have six pages that didn&#8217;t exist before that.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>We need to try things. And fail. And try again. And fail again. And try better. Fail better.<\/li>\n<li>Your most important spiritual practice is to be where your butt is.<\/li>\n<li>A B+ is a fantastic grade.<\/li>\n<li>Half of creativity is taking stuff out.<\/li>\n<li>On drafts\n<ul>\n<li>First one: child&#8217;s draft (SFD!)<\/li>\n<li>Second one: adult&#8217;s draft (better)<\/li>\n<li>Third one: dental draft (get in the weeds, wiggle each detail, fine-tune what needs to be stronger <em>and<\/em> what needs less polish)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Pay attention. Breathe.<\/li>\n<li>Share your story. It&#8217;s good enough.<\/li>\n<li>Perfection is the voice of the oppressor.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Make more messes.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anne Lamott shares her wisdom on slowing down, paying attention, and just doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-confabmn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/63"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}