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It’s Not A Mountain, It’s A Molehill

Written by: Ron Ruhle

Article Overview: Okay, you’re raring to go. You’ve got an idea for a newsletter. You’re all excited. You’ve done the research, mastered the skills and you’re ready to start your first article. Your very first article. It involves writing one measly page. One single page, that’s all. It’s so simple but then…you suddenly change focus. You stop focusing on the one single article and your mind races ahead and focuses on what you’re going to have to write in the next five years.

It’s Not A Mountain, It’s A Molehill

Almost 500 different articles!!!

"Arrrrgggghhhhh! Oh my word", you think. "That's impossible!!!"

This is you choosing to see the task as a mountain. It's your choice. And whenever you think like this you will get what's known as 'writer's block'. You'll sit there and nothing will come out. You'll start to feel a little panicky. You'll start to get stressed out. It's like a vicious circle of doubt spiralling out of control.

Time to break this habit. But how?

The only way to break this habit is to try your hardest to only think of your task as a molehill instead of a mountain. Focus on only one article at one time. If you find your mind wandering into the future, slowly bring it back. As with all habits, this will take time to change but it will change if you just keep trying. And a lot quicker than you think.

When you've formed this new habit, writer's stress and writer's block will disappear and become a thing of the past.

Pain Versus Pleasure

"The Only Motivating Forces"

Have you ever noticed that the only reason anybody does anything at all is to avoid pain and/or to gain pleasure?

Let's take the beam example I gave you earlier. In the first instance the beam was on the floor and I had a fiver waving around in the air for you if you went along the beam. You quickly evaluated that there wouldn't be any pain and you would be able to spend the fiver on a couple of beers or something (Pleasure), so you would have done it, no sweat.

In the second instance I raised the beam. You then changed your mind slightly. There was more of a chance of some pain. You might have slipped and landed one leg either side of the beam. Not nice! But then I upped the pleasure you could gain and you decided it was worth the risk.

Then, when I moved the beam to the top of a skyscraper. Mucho incrediblez pain! If you'd have slipped, you'd be history. Not even one million pounds was enough to get you to come across. But then I got evil and dangled little Johnny over the edge. Your evaluation changed once again because of the immense pain of guilt you would feel if you didn't come across and save him.

Do you see what I'm getting at?

So let's give you something to think about. Let's swap the beam for your newsletter writing career but this time the beam is going to be three foot wide with banisters to hold on to on each side. The beam is too long for you to see where it leads but let me tell you what's at the other side...

FREEDOM

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Article Tags: developing a newsletter, how to write newsletters, newsletter related articles, newsletter writers, newslettersadd a newsletter, through a newsletter, write a newsletter, write a newsletter



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Hi! New to Forum - Hello everyone. I am Trevor Lawrence. I am just now working on my project. I worked on it yesterday, and I got a lot done. But I have a lot still to do. I live in SE Tennesee, USA. It is beautiful country here amid the Appalachian Mountain chain. We are close to the Great Smokey Mountains, with Gatlinburg as its resort village. I have so many hobbies that time doesn't allow me to fully pursue them all. Every day I work on the computer. I love the PSP program, and I am taking several lessons to learn more about the complex tools that it has. I am also learning Oracle 9i. I have made three presentations so far. I love music and easy listening. I write prose, poetry, and didactic writings. I am sure there's a lot of interesting topics and discussions happening on this forum and wanted to check it out. This is about it. Trevor Lawrence


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