Don't Give Away Your Power

Just a little pep talk about distractions.

A reminder that the mini #1000wordsofsummer starts this Friday and runs through Sunday, so you will lose me here until next week. But I’ll be over at that spot dispensing free cheerleading in the letters and in the comments. If you want a little encouragement and community, sign up at the link! We’ve got more than 10,000 people already. Should be fun and a nice warm-up for the big event in June.

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Hi friends.

Before I start the main point of this letter, I just want you to know I went and saw a whole mess of irises last night and I took way too many pictures and because I have spent so much time on irises lately I will now share only one of them. (But they were all very pretty.)

But I just need you to know there were a lot of irises there.

OK, that’s two. I’m done now, I swear.

And now we’ll talk about staying focused on our work.

Most people I talk to out in the world who are having trouble with their writing cite one of two main challenges to finishing their projects.

The first is being overwhelmed by a need to have their writing be immediately perfect. (Which is impossible.)

And the second is having a lack of focus because they’re giving too much time to their distractions.

I woke up today thinking about the distraction part.

There are so many of them now I’ve lost count. Local, national, personal. Not to mention the myriad mediums which are designed to target our susceptibilities to distractions.

Can you recognize them, then dispense with them today? Like, what if you committed to one distraction-free day and tracked how it impacted your writing?

I was thinking of it because I was so angry about something that happened politically that I lost more time to it than I actually had to spare. (Pick any terrible thing happening, really.)

And then I thought: I just gave away my power to those people. And that medium. And they are profiting off me. I gave away power that I needed for me and my work, part of which is supporting my community. And I can’t have that time back again.

Look, there is being aware about what is going on in the world and there is volunteering your time to make a change (even if it’s just making a phone call or a donation), and then there is just giving up your energy and your brain power when it could be dedicated to your creative practice or acts of service or being present for people in your life. It’s your power. Use it wisely. You deserve the chance to achieve all kinds of success.

Do not give them your power. It’s yours. You need it. You keep it. Then use it.

Jami

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on bluesky and instagram.