Ditch What You Think You Know About Things Having to Be Hard In Order to Be Worth It 😉

Or, the secret to stop making everything feel so damn difficult.

I was scrolling Instagram at 3am, as one does, when I came across something that gave me pause. 

It was one of those cutesy quote images with moons and stars and all the woo-woo imagery you can think of. 

But that’s not why I stopped scrolling (even though I love hippie dippy clip art as much as the next guy). 

The quote just said: “Let it be easy.”

And just like that, all of my hardships and challenges in life disappeared. I woke up refreshed and energized like I was 23 all over again. 

Just kidding. 

Nothing changed at all. 

Except, it sort of did. 

It was one of those things that you just can’t get out of your head, no matter how hard you try. Everything keeps reminding you of it and it plays over and over in your mind like an annoying song. 

My husband knows just how much it drives me bat shit crazy to get super annoying songs stuck in my head (which is freakishly easy to do). 

So of course, he takes any chance he gets to start humming, whistling or just straight up singing a song he knows I’ll be mentally playing on loop for the next six straight days. 

Yesterday it was “Sweet Home Alabama”, which is admittedly not as awful as some, but it’s still skipping through the hallowed halls of my brain today. 

So, you know, this quote just keeps showing up…

“Let it be easy.”

I was doing a lot of freelance writing work at the time and I sat down one day to work on an article called “5 Tips for Socializing With Your Kid’s Friend’s Parents as an Introverted Mom” (what a mouthful). 

I had quickly drafted an outline, did some light research, and was working on my first draft when it hit me. 

“Let it be easy.”

This article was anything but easy. It wasn’t just the subject matter (though I really do hate socializing with some of my kid’s friend’s parents… why does no one warn you that you might someday have to make nice and play with the mean kids because now they’re actually the mom of the kid who your kid is besties with today?)

My writing process is what really made things hard, though. 

I would write, edit, revise and finalize in one foul swoop... 

I felt like, if I let that first shitty draft just sit there, who knows what would happen? Maybe someone would hack into my Google Docs and read it and laugh and spread it all over the internet and let the world see just how awful a writer I am. 

And I couldn’t let that happen. 

So I rushed through, forcing and pushing and making sure to arrive at a perfectly curated article so that no one would be able to see the messy middle. 

I hated that process so much that I didn’t really write much at all and I certainly didn’t ever actually enjoy myself. 

It all felt really fucking hard.

I realized my reality was the opposite of “Let it be easy” and that’s probably why the quote kept reappearing and popping into my head over and over again. 

I longed for things to be easy. Or at least, to not feel so damn hard all the time. 

That’s when I decided to find a way to ditch the perfectionism 

I wanted to find a sense of ease in my writing practice. 

I wanted to let my writing practice be easy.

It’s a foundational concept in the Courageous Writing philosophy.

When we release perfectionism and just allow ourselves to show up fully, as we are, there begins to be a sense of ease and flow… 

Showing up is the hardest part. 

When you show up with ease, the words begin to flow with ease. 

That’s a huge part of why I wrote Courageous Writing - in hopes that other writers can find the ease, too.

A great way to let more ease into your writing (and your life) is to start by identifying the opposite. What feels challenging to you today? What walls do you keep running into?

Hopefully that’s enough to get your creative juices flowing today, whether that’s in a journal or into your next story or project.

Until next time… let it be easy.