Let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time there was a single girl who really wanted to be loved. She also really wanted to be a writer. Despite the fact that she didn’t lack talent, she had an amiable disposition and relatively no disfigurement to talk about, she didn’t believe that she had what it took to be successful in either love or authorship.
Until she had a bright idea. What if she used project management methods to help increase her chances in love? And what if she wrote a book about this experiment?
So she did. She worked really hard and she found the love. She also wrote the book.
However…
There is the twist for you (for a story to be good we always need a twist, right?). She still didn’t believe herself talented and worthy of love. A handful of agents rejected her book. She couldn’t write anything else. She tried but the victories were small and far between. She was in constant conflict with herself and with the man she married. So what if she did this Love Project thing? Maybe it was worthless. Maybe she was worthless? Maybe their love wasn’t real?…
Fast forward six years (interestingly, she had also been single for six years before The Love Project), she finally had enough of her own excuses and stepped up to the plate. She sorted her act out. She reworked her book for the last time and the ghost of The Love Project finally stopped haunting her.
She came full circle both in love and writing. She ticked the mental box in her brain that stopped her from moving forward. And instead of rushing it out to agents again, she is taking her time. Putting love and intention in every query. And wishing only that it reaches the world in the form it is meant to (self-publishing is planned for January if she doesn’t secure agent representation until then).
I know, you’ll say. She has been promising this mythical book for years. Brexit will happen faster!
True. But something held her back. The story was so intimate and the wounds she tried to patch during The Love Project were far from healed. She didn’t feel strong enough to let it be seen. But now she did the work and she is ready.
Don’t get me wrong, The Love Project is far from being perfect. But she finally let go of the perfectionism that got her stuck (Read: I will only be worthy of love if I’m perfect) and something even more incredible happened. She is writing another book!
Here’s the moral of the story for you. The work is never done until it’s truly done. Keep working. And, by Jove, please do not listen to your own bullshit. It’s still bullshit, even if it’s you who’s telling it.