I love guest posting at Jami Gold‘s wonderful writing craft blog. Does anyone else experience a first-of-the-year time of anxiety in which you feel you have to do ALL THE THINGS? It’s a fun time, full of hope for the coming year, but also all those things you are excited to dive into may cause you some anxiety. Check out these six lessons I learned last year in dealing with and overcoming anxiety, so I could clear my mind and get back to writing.

A Year of “Forced Growth”

At the end of 2016, my critique partner and I made a promise to each other. 2017 was going to be our year. We were going to take 2017 by storm, things were going to go our way; publishing contracts, personal success, all the things we’d lined up over the years were going to finally fall into place in 2017.

What happened instead was a year of, what I like to call, “forced growth.”

Can You Relate to “What Doesn’t Kill Us…”?

I don’t know if we can blame 2017 on Mercury, Trump, or El Niño, but I’m not the only person I know to experience a year of forced growth.

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