Life in my corner is certainly interesting as I approach a huge change in my future.
Not only is the weather getting more chilly and rainy in my corner of the world, making the approach of winter more real,
But with the approach of December also comes the approach of a huge life change: a December baby.
As I have been super busy trying to finish all my work and prepare for the little one that is coming over the past 7 months, boy, are there a lot of feelings.
Taking care of my mental health has never been more important.
Creativity and writing are huge resources for me to stay sane, grounded and clear on where I need to put my focus at any given time.
So that brings me to what I want to talk about today:
my journey going from one notebook to many.
As a writer, I started young. I originally began with a single journal in middle school–and I wasn’t that great at keeping it.
When I was a teen, I was more interested in updating my blog (and my friends) through online publishing than filling a notebook with private thoughts,
so I had the same journal for almost ten years. That’s how long it took to fill it, one tiny update at a time (mostly about boys).
But after college, I read the Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
which encouraged me to write daily first thing in the morning regardless of if I really had anything to say or not–
thus, I began to truly keep a regular journal and develop a more consistent and prolific writing habit.
There’s something about me where I can’t necessarily remember what I felt the day before,
so my journals became a powerful resource for me to actually craft a life responsive to my feelings and needs.
I was better able to gain clarity on what I wanted and pursue things enjoyable to me, including following my dreams to start my own business in my twenties.
It was an indispensable resource so I dragged that notebook with me everywhere.
Over the years, I developed a shelf of filled-up such notebooks…
But even though they were all useful in the moment, I began to realize that something was still being lost in the shuffle long term–
I’d pick up an older notebook from a few years before and find ideas that still resonated, and gave me tingles,
but I couldn’t help but think, “Why did I never do anything with this idea?”
Considering this scenario happened over and over again, a burn grew in me to find a solution so ideas like these didn’t fall in the cracks.
Good news: I eventually figured out what to do!
I was able to create a system for myself where fewer of these ideas fell into the cracks, and more of them were developed into articles, business products, life changes and more.
I did this by transferring a lot of these thoughts to a digital organization system.
(I hope to talk a little more about how I’m doing that one day soon, but for now let me stick to the paper journals!)
The thing is:
For the longest time, I thought that having more than one physical notebook at a time would just add to my confusion and disorganization.
Surely, more notebooks = more cracks for my ideas to fall into and be forgotten…
But because I eventually learned to create a digital system that organized my ideas overall,
encompassing ideas from all my paper notebooks,
I could trust myself again, and gained a new freedom to explore.
That’s how I started keeping different notebooks for specific purposes!
Now I don’t have to worry anymore that things will fall into the cracks (because I have a digital system to serve as an umbrella for everything), and
I can dive into specific notebooks to drill down and focus on certain goals that are important to me without fear or overwhelm that I’m setting myself up for failure down the road.
I’m finding this balance really useful and I wanted to share what’s working for me right now.
I’m due in December, just had my 30 week ultrasound appointment today!
After this week, I’ll just be focusing on serving my final clients, finishing my other work and doing everything I need to do to get ready to be a mom.
…
Lately, with so much on my own plate to handle, I’ve been thinking about how creativity isn’t something that drains us—it’s what refills us.
When I am tired or drained, sometimes writing or doing something creative can feel like one more thing I just don’t have time for.
But I have learned that it’s usually the opposite:
the thing that can give me MORE time and energy is listening to my desires and being more creative and free.
There’s a core belief that guides everything I do in my work:
When you embrace your creativity, it can enhance your life in ways nothing else can.
Creativity doesn’t have to drain you. When you give yourself space to follow your creative drive, it opens up new possibilities and new energy.
Writing, expressing yourself, even showing up for your marketing in creative ways
—are not just additional tasks on your to-do list. They can also be ways to refill your own tank and reconnect you with what makes you feel alive.
That’s what I love helping my clients remember through writing coaching and editing.
Writing for a book or business is productive and the way I like to encourage people to do it is to embrace the lifestyle of being more creative in general and listening to your creative urges. Everything is easier.
Not only is it more effortlessly productive but it also can go soul deep and transform your life.
You may have heard that you need to show up and write for your book or business to be of service to other people, and that is true, but not enough is said about how the journey can heal and enrich your own life, as well!
I used to focus exclusively on the idea of changing the world with my writing, but I started to feel more peace when I realized it’s also okay to write and do things that will support me as an individual first,
because that is in itself world changing (I am a part of the world, am I not?).
In a strange way, focusing on myself first over the last few years and filling my tank has actually lead me to do much deeper work and better writing.
Better than when I was desperate to serve others and cutting corners on what I really wanted, overlooking my own needs and creative desires.
That’s the beauty of an inside-out approach. Fill your tank first and see what happens. Your mindset and thinking will be on a whole new level and lead you to unexpected places.
Listen to your creative desires: sometimes even when they don’t seem productive in a logical sense,
they still lead you where you want to go or somewhere better. It’s good to pull the thread and see what happens next.
Remember, I have just a couple of open spots left before I pause for maternity leave.
If you’ve been feeling the nudge to bring more creative energy into your life—or to finally get your writing project moving for your book or business marketing—now’s the moment to reach out.
It is official – I am now in the third trimester of my pregnancy.
It’s a little bit scary, this shift towards the beginning of the end (so to speak)…
I feel that clock ticking and there is still so much to do. Yet I’ve also finished or let go of a lot of things as well.
The last few days PAUSE has been such an important theme as I recollect my energy after visiting a friend.
It’s amazing how a small trip for a couple days has scrambled my routines and my mental clarity.
Every day, I have to be mindful of the pressure I feel to hustle and how it further scrambles my system.
I know it will not help me to run around like Chicken Little. I must resist reacting out of fear or stress.
I am practicing the art of surrender to the limits of my capacity, changing day by day, and patiently tending to whatever need I have so that I can operate and function properly.
Things just tend to throw me a bit more at this stage of pregnancy. Being gentle with myself is something I have learned with age, and it’s never been more appropriate.
I wish you gentleness in your life as well.
I think at the root of a lot of dysfunction and stress reactions is a belief that it is not okay to receive,
-not okay to enjoy stopping to smell the roses before all work is done (i.e. ever),
-not okay to enjoy the moment before my baby comes because I have to be in control and fully prepared (impossible)
-not okay to love myself as a human being, instead of a human doing.
Growing up, I was taught that my value and worth was a function of what utility I had, what use I was, or how much money I was earning
as if I were a positive or negative line on a balance sheet.
In this belief system, choosing to pause or having to do so because of an incapacity to perform useful functions was dangerous. It triggered anxiety.
No wonder I had resistance to rest.
For many years, I was a workaholic, and the recovery time is slow. I’m a lot different now but just like with any addictive behavior, I have to keep an eye out to avoid falling back into old patterns.
Being on the brink of being a mother, myself, I would never wish my child to assess their own value the way I was taught to, like a line on a balance sheet.
I’m sure the people who loved me never wanted it either, but negative messages rang louder than their intent.
And so I aim to be the model of change. I aim to heal what came before so that I don’t pass it on to the next generation.
I’d like to say thank you to Melissa Feick, who recently wrote about blocks to receiving and how it continues through families in a book she recently published:
Although this theme is something I have worked on for years, her words still brought up additional layers of it to my awareness with new meaning and relevance.
I got to chew on everything she wrote many months ago while I had the honor of editing the book.
Highly recommend reading it for yourself!
By the way, this is the second book I’ve edited for Melissa, and because she writes about very deep spiritual subjects, it always delights me when reviews describe the writing as easy to understand.
I have a lot of interests, skills and hats I wear, but can I just say?
Editing spiritual nonfiction is definitely my jam. I’ve done a lot of editing on these sorts of books, and it dovetails nicely with my Masters degree in Spiritual Direction and Spiritual Care.
I love the reviews like those above because it shows me that her book didn’t fall into one of the common traps for spiritual writing.
If you are writing about spiritual things, it is incredibly easy to write in a manner that people don’t know how to comprehend in a grounded, everyday sort of way.
It comes off as airy fairy. It goes in one ear and out the other. It doesn’t mean something real to other people.
Although the author knows what they are talking about, the average person does not.
It can take the form of poetry and sound really nice to you, inspire you, and feel divine as the author…
but your readers may be left scratching their heads. Their eyes may glaze over reading. They don’t truly carry away the meaning that you are trying to convey.
Even though you are sharing something you feel is life-changing, they read it and their lives don’t change.
It doesn’t move them the way it moves you.
It doesn’t mean something deep to them if they can’t fully comprehend you or know how to apply what you are talking about to real life.
And if what you want to say is life-changing, that’s really disappointing!
I want more authors to be able to change lives like Melissa, so make sure that the people you are writing to can receive your message clearly.
Remember that you have to consider if your writing is easy to understand or not.
Another common problem is that when you try to edit your words, you lose the essence of the spiritual vibe you want to permeate the writing.
Basically, you are trying to do too much by yourself.
You are trying to imagine how people will respond to your words and that’s disconnecting you from yourself and your inspiration.
The result is writing that is watered down without being powerful.
Just so you know, it is a lot easier when you find the right editor!
You don’t have to figure it all out yourself. When you get help to edit (and your editor gets you), things are a lot simpler.
You can stay in your inspired zone, and the editor can suggest edits to help it be easier to understand.
I think we did a great job finding a balance in Melissa’s books so they are easy to understand while staying very rich in spiritual meaning.
Like the reviews state, this is part of why she is getting so many five star ratings. Her first book was also a very strong bestseller for many years.
Not only is her material fantastic, but if anything wasn’t 100% clear to understand, we caught it and tweaked it in the developmental editing we did together. So now it’s all clear as day.
Want to try this with your writing? You are in luck. I have a few spots open for editing before I go on maternity leave. 🙂
Here’s a note from Melissa that she sent me after I helped her edit her first book, “Your work is amazing. I love what you’ve done for me and the book!”
And if you need any help editing your nonfiction book, I have a couple of coaching + editing spots open before I head out on maternity leave. If you’d like to explore one of them, reach out to me by October 15.
My specialties include spiritual nonfiction, memoir, and personal development genres.
I am also a copywriter and available to edit business copy for your website, bios, service descriptions, sales pages, articles, email campaigns, promo posts, blogs, or video scripts.
I tend to work with sensitive and empathetic folks who want to take care with their words. This includes writers, healers, or service providers such as massage therapists, mental health therapists, spiritual support folks, conscious marketers, and more.
During that call, I’ll ask you questions about what you are working on, what you and your writing need–and then we can see if it is a fit for us to work together. We’ll talk about different ways I can help and what’s right for you. I often create customized plans for people, tailored services not found on my website, and I work with your budget.
Shoot me a reply today if you want clarity on how to make progress on your writing.
I’m great, I did my first real fall activity last week — apple picking. I’m currently wearing orange, and loving that it is October, my favorite month. Plus, I got to see some people who make me happy. I’ve also been getting some wonderful updates from clients lately. I’d love to share about one of them with you.
Ever feel blocked and unclear about your writing style? Heidi did too—until coaching shifted everything.
When Heidi and I first connected, she had two goals:
break through her creative blocks
and gain clarity on the scope of her work and her writing style.
Here’s what she shared after our time together:
“Working with Sofia has been an absolute game-changer for my process as a writer. I began working with Sofia as a personal writing coach with the goal of breaking through creative blocks and further defining the scope of my work and my writing style.
Through weekly Voxer exchanges, Sofia was able to compassionately witness and reflect back some of the themes in my thought process and help me better hone in on my “why” as a writer — and as a person.
Her style of relating is personable and reflective and, each week, she provided excellent tips, resources, and wisdom that helped me dive deeper into my own process of self-discovery and emergence.
Sofia is also a wonderful editor, who is highly experienced in critiquing a variety of text types and I benefited from her developmental editing throughout the process of undergoing coaching with her.
Overall, my experience of coaching with Sofia has helped me become more authentic, strategic, and soul-led in my life as a creator and writer, and I would highly recommend her as a writing and personal development coach for anyone looking to deepen, expand, or sharpen their practice as a writer/creator.”
—Heidi Joy, writer and content creator
Heidi’s story shows what happens when you give yourself space to be witnessed, supported, and guided.
She walked away with:
clarity on her “why” as a writer,
a deeper sense of self-discovery,
practical tips and resources to move her writing forward,
developmental editing that sharpened her work,
and writing that now feels more authentic, strategic, and soul-led.
This is why I do this work. I don’t need hundreds of clients—I just need the right ones.
I help people clear the fog so you know what to write next for your book or business, and write as smoothly as a mermaid swims.
Plus, I aim to help you as a whole person, not only to improve your work, but also to help you feel more ALIVE, relaxed, and creative overall in life rather than stressed or burned out.
If you’ve been sitting with creative blocks on a writing project and craving more clarity, maybe this is your moment.
I have a couple of coaching + editing spots open before I head out on maternity leave. If you’d like to explore one of them, reach out to me by October 15.
My specialties include spiritual nonfiction, memoir, and personal development genres.
I am also a copywriter and available to edit business copy for your website, bios, service descriptions, sales pages, articles, email campaigns, promo posts, blogs, or video scripts.
I tend to work with sensitive and empathetic folks who want to take care with their words. This includes writers, healers, or service providers such as massage therapists, mental health therapists, spiritual support folks, conscious marketers, and more.
During that call, I’ll ask you questions about what you are working on, what you and your writing need–and then we can see if it is a fit for us to work together. We’ll talk about different ways I can help and what’s right for you. I often create customized plans for people, tailored services not found on my website, and I work with your budget.
Shoot me a reply today if you want clarity on how to make progress on your writing.
It is fully feeling fall today, I have a cup of tea by my side and a long sleeve shirt on.
After a week of hot weather, I’m relieved to finally get an autumn treat.
I have good news…
Lately, I have been feeling so satisfied with how I have been using my time.
I feel like I’ve been making progress on all of my writing, business, and life goals and using my time efficiently.
>>>I want to share the ESSENTIAL tips on how to make progress while juggling a lot of things.
Read on for those.
And one quick note: I will be pausing enrollment in my 2 month coaching program on October 15 because I am approach my maternity leave. The program will be available later in spring 2026.
….
I know many people feel lost, overwhelmed, or confused
–especially when they have multiple projects or areas of life to juggle, or tons of ideas to go between.
Welcome to my life, basically. I have always been THAT girl juggling a million things.
And being pregnant on top of that is a lot!
But I have been using a system I’ve created over the years to juggle:
my writing, my businesses, my marketing, my clients, my LIFE…
So that I can feel sane, grounded, mentally clean and clear on what I need to do or write next,
and also clear on what I am NOT going to do next (which is sometimes even more important).
Because I’ve got a system down now,
I’m not frozen with indecision and overwhelm,
and I can actually get more things done.
So what am I doing? Here it is, focusing just on the essentials.
An Essential Guide to Juggling Things + Getting Them Done
To keep it simple, there are three major steps.
Contain Your Ideas
Organize and Prioritize
Check Back and Execute
This sounds easy and simple, but there are some nuances so let’s dive into it!
Contain Your Ideas
-Books
-Articles
-Business Ideas
When you have different things to juggle or many ideas, you need to have a place to put them all.
How you choose to do this is up to you.
Perhaps you like a notebook that you carry around with you everywhere.
Perhaps you use a notes app on your phone or computer.
Some digital tools I like are Google Keep, Notion or Obsidian (all free).
Get all your ideas in there and get in the habit of adding to it regularly so that you can clear your mind and not forget anything.
This is one of the steps people love to talk about, because it can be fun to share what our notebooks or tools look like.
I have many behind the scenes on my youtube channel of the notebooks and digital tools I use to organize my ideas.
But don’t forget to do the other steps as well!
So you can make progress bringing your book, business or other ideas into real life.
2. Organize and Prioritize
This is the most important step. It is also probably the most complex.
This is the pitfall where many people drop off.
Now that you have all your ideas written down, it is time to be STRATEGIC.
Putting your ideas in a container is a great start, but you might not do anything with them unless you do this step.
In their raw form, having a million ideas can quickly become overwhelming to such a degree that you may give up.
Or you may find that you are unable to make progress in a way that truly makes you feel fulfilled.
If you are feeling scattered and lost, then this is the step for you.
All you have to do is make some time to review your ideas and organize them.
While you do so, add anything that is missing so that you have a total picture of all the things that you are juggling and thinking about.
Then you can prioritize so you know what is important to focus on in the short term.
You may want to move your ideas to a new container just for thinking through everything strategically.
MAKE SURE YOU WRITE YOUR THOUGHTS DOWN so you remember.
I often like to do this process by doing a review of how the past week, month or season went.
That helps jog my mind to celebrate my accomplishments, and build off of them while also noticing what fell into the cracks or didn’t get done so I can prioritize it asap.
What does this look like?
Take a look at all your ideas, and then to organize them, put them into order.
You can group things :
-Are some tasks related and need to be done in a certain order? Consider this part of one project. Maybe you make a project brainstorm list in one place so you know all the steps.
-Can some ideas be grouped into a similar or different category?
Maybe these will all end up in a related article or chapter. Group those ideas together. Now you can start to make a list of the different things you could write about, in one place.
You can prioritize things:
-What are the most important and least important things to have on your mind right now?
-What is a project or task you need to get done ASAP, versus next week, next month or later?
THIS IS A PRACTICE YOU HAVE TO DO REGULARLY.
And it can be a short process or take a while, depending on what you need.
I find that there are two different modes for organizing and prioritizing:
A. Deep Dive
B. Maintenance or Quick Cleanup
Deep Dive
A Deep Dive takes a while. It is something you do when you are really at a loss and don’t know where to start.
This could be part of a larger feeling of burnout or creative dissatisfaction.
Like if you know that something you are doing is not working and you need to do things differently, but maybe it’s drifted so far from the right path that you are having trouble finding your way back to it again.
Or it’s the start of a whole new chapter for you, a new season or year, a new endeavor and you need to find your way.
This is a great time to hire a coach (pick me! Details below!)
You might take some time off of pushing yourself to do as many things as you have been trying to do so you can think through your strategy. Seek some pause to ground and rethink everything. Block a day off.
It could look like relaxing, taking walks, talking to friends or coaches,
or it could be doing a course, going through old journals, taking a lot of time to write out your thoughts and ideas for the future.
At the end of a deep dive, you should find clarity on your biggest priorities.
The priorities and values you unearth by the end of your deep dive will be things that may take months or even years to actualize,
but the clarity will give you an immediate boost of energy and make things much simpler than they seemed before.
It’s like suddenly your inner compass is calibrated so that the arrow stops swinging from side to side chaotically.
Finally, you can trust that the arrow is firmly planted north and you can follow it safely.
Maintenance or Quick Cleanup
In contrast to a deep dive, a quick cleanup can happen over the course of an afternoon, an hour, or a few days.
It’s something that needs to happen every few weeks.
Basically, this helps you to sit down, remember your BIG goals (which you may have clarified previously during a deep dive),
and break down a manageable set of objectives for the upcoming week or two.
You decide what ideas and projects are going on THE SHELF, for later.
You chose what to focus on immediately, and what will be in your sights soon after.
Anything more than that can go on the list as a LATER item.
You will review and think about all those LATER items in future Quick Cleanups.
If you get anxiety fearing that you will forget about things, even though they are not as urgent or important as the other things you need to do right now,
that’s why it is so important to get in the habit of organizing via regular quick cleanups or deep dives,
because they create a safety net that helps prevent you from forgetting about important things.
The truth is that you can’t think about everything at once, but if you have this habit of organizing and prioritizing, then you will not have to.
You can trust that future you will jump in and remember to do the things that you do not have the mental space to deal with right now.
You will remember everything you are juggling, because it is written down, contained in the right place, and
(this is ESSENTIAL!)
you have a habit of regularly reviewing, organizing and prioritizing all those ideas.
Just FYI, I love making resources to help do this quick organization process:
If you have followed the previous steps, then the last one is easy.
All you have to do is check your list and execute.
For instance, let’s say you have organized a list of the most important priorities for the next two weeks.
To prepare for tomorrow, you can copy the 5 most urgent tasks to do onto a post-it.
Tomorrow you will see the post-it on your desk, and then you will get to work on one of those things. You just focus on the post-it of tasks. Just execute.
And remember, this post-it should help you JUGGLE things,
so you might have tasks from different projects or parts of life on there, including things that just make you happy like writing or creating or a hobby. It’s all important if you say so.
I find this is helpful, especially when my energy isn’t consistent.
In that case, I can lower my expectations and just hyper focus on one big item like:
-I will make pumpkin muffins first thing in the morning,
-I will not go to sleep without renting that car.
-The one thing I really want to do this afternoon is work on my taxes.
And if I have some other little things that need to be done immediately like email someone or go to the store, I just add them to the post it.
I cross things off or check them off as I go.
By breaking it into manageable chunks it helps to prevent overwhelm and being frozen.
Throwing away a complete post it feels satisfying.
But there is always the step of CHECKING BACK.
When the post it is complete or nearly done, it’s time to check back and set up a new post it.
Check back at the notes you wrote to organize so you always have a clear picture of the next thing you will be doing.
This step should feel relatively easy.
The things I am doing may be hard but I’m clear that they are the only thing I need to focus on at that moment, so at least I’m not scattered or uncertain about that.
My Quick Checkin goals list usually allows me to easily execute my ideas for about two weeks.
When I start to feel scattered or lost about what I should be doing,
it is usually a sign that I need to get to step 2,
get back into organization mode and get clear on what to do next. Then I come out of organizing with a new list of priorities for the following two weeks.
Then once I have that clarity, I make my next post it. I can go back to getting things done easily and quickly.
And I just repeat the process.
So that is the system:
Contain Your Ideas
Organize and Prioritize
Check Back and Execute
Lately, I have been using this process with much success.
A month ago I was really stressed about everything I had to get done, but now it doesn’t feel so overwhelming. Things are moving, I’m making progress.
I hope this helps you as well.
Did it give you clarity on which part of the process needs your attention so you can juggle things more easily?
What step are you working on now? Feel free to email me and let me know!
If you would like help, I offer coaching for people who want to write for their book or business.
Often my clients are juggling many ideas and projects–writing for books and business and more. I help them get clear on what to do next and make faster progress at every turn.
Note: I will be pausing enrollment in my 2 month coaching program on October 15 because I am approach my maternity leave. The program will be available later in spring 2026.
Get coached by Sofia
Ready to finally stop feeling overwhelmed or confused?
Consider me the translator between you and your writing ideas for your book or business.
I help you listen to yourself and your ideas so you can know what to do next to finish your projects, and in the process, evolve into the next level of who you are meant to be.
Don’t waste a minute more–know what to do next to write for your book or business as easily as a mermaid swims.
Reminder: I will be going on Maternity leave later in 2025.
Note: I will be pausing enrollment in my 2 month coaching program on October 15 because I am approach my maternity leave. The program will be available later in spring 2026.
To reach out about individual coaching, or editing services right away, just reply to this email.
I am now 25 weeks pregnant, meaning I am just 3 weeks shy of the third trimester and a baby coming near Christmas. It’s a little terrifying to be on the brink of this major change.
But I know that creating this process will evolve me into the person that I am meant to become, like all good creative projects do (more on that below).
So far I have had a lot of energy the past 2 months and have been doing as much as I can to be productive.
But I won’t be feeling like super woman forever. I have never been a morning person–but I notice that it’s getting harder in the mornings to gear up for the day.
Today I promised myself a baked good if I could pack up and get to a cafe as early as possible since all the good treats are gone after around 10.
Then I spent several hours on a Seasonal review including how the last season of summer went, what I learned, what projects I completed or didn’t and what is on the docket for fall ahead.
A seasonal review process really helps me feel like all my ideas for the next 3 months (for writing, for life, for creative projects, for my 2 businesses) are in one place
so I feel less scattered and can make best use of my time and energy.
I really need that right now so I’m glad I got that review done. All I needed was a bribe!
Today I’m sharing an article I posted to my Linkedin newsletter. I like my newsletter there, but I do fear that sometimes my articles don’t make it to enough people.
I really want people to read the article below as it is a message I really believe in.
My business has changed me. Becoming a writer has changed me.
And I have seen over a hundred writers and entrepeneurs enter the door of my virtual coaching office change their lives by following their inspiration and ideas.
So let’s talk about that 🙂
Personal Evolution Through Writing for a Book or Business
Not to freak you out, but if you are writing for a book or a business, you may have noticed that you have some difficult choices to make:
What are you talking about in your writing?
Who are you talking to in your writing? Who is the writing for?
How are you addressing the person you are talking to? Are you giving them something to relate to?
What is the purpose for your writing? What are you hoping they do next?
You don’t have to make these decisions this second, BUT they are things to think about.
And beyond these wide ranging questions, there are the simple ones:
How do you start?
What word do you put down first, and what word do you put in next….and on and on until you reach the end.
Writing is a sequence of difficult choices for many people, but, to be honest, I often find it extraordinarily easy.
It is that ease that I want to share with my clients, my readers and my community.
Because at its heart, writing is one of the most accessible tools of communication: all you need is a notebook and a pen, or maybe a computer or a phone, if you want to get fancy.
And it offers so many benefits.
Writing has been shown scientifically to improve the way people think and remember, and to even have the power to heal trauma.
Plus, I have seen with my eyes how the written word has connected people from around the world into communities, funded nonprofits, and brought businesses a higher level of success.
But so often, the daunting nature of the choices necessary to write for their book or business causes people to not write much of anything.
There’s another way
I won’t argue with you that writing can be a difficult endeavor.
I know this, I’ve seen it, and I have been there. I’ve also walked along hundreds of writers struggling to write time and time again.
So let’s not belittle the struggle. Let’s not turn it into a story about your personal failing or lack of skill or knowledge, or allow it to be an excuse to give up…as so often the inner critic wants us to do.
Instead, let’s move into the solution. Let’s talk motivation:
If you want to do something really difficult, then it helps to have a good reason for doing it.
So let’s discuss why you should bother pushing through difficulty to create that thing that has been coming to mind:
A book, blog, youtube video, podcast, a class, or marketing for it all.
All these things seem like projects that could be fulfilling, make you money, or serve someone in a deep way…
but what if it could do something bigger, something life-changing?
What if the ideas for your book or business were planted in your mind to help you become more of who you were meant to be?
Change sometimes comes from unexpected sources.
And your ideas may be showing you the way.
I’ve spent over 10+ years coaching and supporting writers and entrepreneurs. I know lives change when you engage your ideas and try to bring them to life.
I’ve seen:
-The article that healed someone’s past.
-The bestselling book that opened doors you couldn’t imagine.
-The class that taught the teacher even more than the students.
My 10+ years in business has changed me, as has the 25 years I’ve spent publishing my writing online.
Your book, your business is the spirit guiding you to the next level of who you are meant to become.
Pressure from the Outside
Think about what you’ve been feeling called to work on:
Your business, your book, a blog, a youtube video, a class, a podcast, your marketing…
These are things that may be on your mind, or on your to do list. They are in the realm of ideas right now, as you haven’t fully completed them yet.
Pick one of them. You may see this idea as an extension of your personal self – a way to express what is inside of you, or your gifts, talents, beliefs, and experience.
But I like to think of these ideas for books and business as something else.
They are forces of pressure pushing on you from the outside. They pushing on you to create them.
Ideas don’t have tangible form until you go through the process of creating them, but if it helps you visualize how they exist outside of you, you could imagine them as little thought bubbles or pools of light dancing near your head.
You could imagine them putting pressure on the veil between ideas and reality. Begging you to let them in.
However it helps you to understand, know that you can reach out, touch the idea (so to speak), connect to it, tap into it, and learn from it.
It wants so badly to help you create it into form that it is happy to shower you with love and all the help and support it can muster.
Not love from a desperate place of a child, either, but from the endless love of the most perfect parental figure, someone who wants well for you from a place of total personal detachment of their own needs.
Because in the end, bringing this idea into form is more about you stepping into your purpose than anything else.
You need the heat
The truth is, if it were all up to you–or any of us–if you could choose, you would probably stay the same.
Or you would choose to only grow in certain ways that are comfortable, controllable or make sense to you in your current state of mind. That mind is limited.
The biggest, and probably most positive, sorts of changes that you could undergo often involve outside intervention.
That means a pressure, a push into a new form. Some heat.
And your projects will provide that.
Your book or business will challenge you.
Here are some examples:
1. Your writing for a book, article, or blog will force you to explain things.
Rereading this first draft or thinking about how to put it into words will make you confront the things that do not make sense in your thinking. You’ll work on rewording the things you can’t explain, and find new ways to understand yourself or your work.
You’ll take things to a new level, whether it’s a new way to explain your brilliant ideas, or a new way to understand your past fears.
2. Your business will force you to learn how to ask for help, work through your money fears, talk about money with other people and many other things.
It will be one of the most challenging things that anyone can try to do, and the true reward won’t be financial, it will be who you will become out of it.
3. Anything you want someone to read or to buy will force you to learn how to market.
That will bring up your worst fears about being a fraud, being exposed, being rejected, seeming too much or too little.
You’ll face these fears and overcome them, becoming stronger in the process.
You Must Change to Evolve
If you really want to be successful, you have to change.
To change, you have to go through the process of creating your book or business and following your ideas to the end.
And that means that you have to walk into uncomfortable situations, do hard things, and resist the urge to run away screaming.
In order to make change less painful, and less scary, you have to change. If you don’t bend, you’ll break.
Many people have given up. What makes the people who stay in it different? They learn, they grow, they change.
And there’s something that I recommend that you try. Take on this idea: bringing your creative ideas into life is a collaboration.
It is not all on you. You are not alone. Something is rooting for your success.
Outside forces are shaping you into who you are meant to become.
You still have choices within this process, that’s what makes it collaborative…
But the challenges you face are shaping you, like pressure that turns coal into a diamond.
When you see it that way, it’s a little bit less scary because:
First off, you are not alone and the universe isn’t punishing you. It wants you to succeed.
Secondly, it means that there is no failure. You probably will make mistakes, or have things that do not work out.
But in the end, you’re always going to learn something and grow from it.
You can relax knowing that whatever happens, one way or another you will use the dung that you are given as fertilizer to grow something good.
My Hopes for You
May your creative process not be led by limited thinking.
May you release expectations of perfection, no typos, no stumbles, never looking anything less than cool or professional.
May you learn the concept of “good enough.”
May the success of your endeavors not lock you into a lifestyle of overwork that risks your health and relationships.
May you not be short sighted and reject everything that would give you joy for the opportunity to make or save a few dollars. Don’t lose sight of other factors.
May this creative process you are riding be led by something bigger.
May this adventure remind you of what is truly important to you.
May it help you value everything you have right now in this moment and see the things that are precious.
May you choose to leave limited judgements and anal-retentive impulses in the dust.
May this process of creation help you to become a version of yourself that you will be proud of on your deathbed:
fully alive, appreciative of the beauty in life,
free, creative, & whole.
I truly believe that if you listen for the ideas you are really called to pursue and write, and follow them to their end
then step by step you will find yourself making this alive, and free way of being a consistent part of your reality.
So remember that you always have choices.
And writing and creating is all about choices.
So choose to evolve your writing and your work in the direction of the person you are here to become.
Thanks for reading and have a good day!
-Sofia Wren
Get coached by Sofia
Ready to finally stop feeling overwhelmed or confused?
Consider me the translator between you and your writing ideas for your book or business.
I help you listen to yourself and your ideas so you can know what to do next to finish your projects, and in the process, evolve into the next level of who you are meant to be.
Don’t waste a minute more–know what to do next to write for your book or business as easily as a mermaid swims.
I got some bad news about Convertkit – the service I use for my emails that I have recommended to others as well. They are raising their rate for me quite a lot in the next month.
Just sharing in case you are one of the people I recommended Convertkit to, as perhaps this is something you are also thinking about.
Since I am planning a maternity leave, I’m not sure I want to pay extra right now…and making a change may mean moving to a whole different email provider.
Whether I stay with Convertkit and downgrade or choose to change providers will be a lot of work.
It means I’ll have to deconstruct all the systems for optins and email sequences and so on that I have built over many years. I will have to copy out a version of everything.
If I do all that, maybe I should just move.
Many people recommend Flodesk which has an unlimited emails plan available only for the next few months…so I’m considering that as an alternative.
If you have recommendations, you like your email provider, let me know and I’ll add it to the stewpot I am mulling over. I need segmentation, sequences and email automations.
But let’s get into what I really want to talk about, continuing a recent theme I’ve been discussing in my emails:
TIME.
Lately I have been going through a lot of introspection, getting clear on how to prioritize because there’s so much to do, so little time.
I’ve been seriously reevaluating my expectations of myself this week.
For example, when I really sat down to journal and reflect on ALL the things that feel like they are hanging over my head,
I realized that there was a huge writing project from 2021 that I still expected myself to go back to somehow.
I didn’t even realize that expectation was there, but it has been. Consciously, I don’t even want to do it. Subsconsciously, I’ve had a hard time letting it go.
Something that has finally helped me to “ungoal” from this project is some recent knowledge I’ve gained from the last week of introspection.
My Why
I now know what my deeper WHY is for writing.
I have two main reasons why I want to write these days:
A. To share about what I know and my experience as a service to others in a way that supports my business, helping people write for books or business.
B. To write as personal development for myself, i.e. for my own support, learning, self care and growth.
This particular project fits neither category, so I decided it is firmly going on the shelf for the forseeable future. Until things change I will not expect to make progress on it.
What a relief.
The Deep Why
When you know your deeper WHY and what you value, it makes it easier to prioritize.
And you can stop expecting yourself to do everything and anything.
It’s not just me, I see finding your WHY and clarity on your values works for other people, too.
I had a client come to me over the past few months with a lot of ideas and difficulty juggling them, choosing between them and maintaining long-term motivation on them.
Over these past 2 months talking with her, I’ve seen a groundedness emerge as we explored the WHY of all the ideas, and determined what is really most important.
Going Deep
Everyone has different values, we all have different reasons WHY we want to write or pursue different projects.
But the thing is, often, we just think about them. We think about how to get into motion, so we don’t really think that deeply about WHY we want to do them.
One of the things I have been really good at doing with my clients is helping them to nonjudgmentally evaluate ideas and their motivations for pursuing each of them. This helps them know what to do next or what to do first.
This illuminates things lurking under the surface. Often, people reveal that some of their ideas were subconsciously motivated by things that they don’t consciously value.
It’s human nature to do things subconsciously because it will please other people.
But consciously, many of us are aware that people pleasing isn’t that great of a reason to spend a whole lot of time on things that don’t feel fun or exciting otherwise.
It’s not that people are dumb not to immediately realize that these ideas are a waste of time from the get go,
it’s just that the world is fast and it is noisy.
It can be difficult to take the time, and have the space, to sit and reflect and evaluate different ideas and put them under the microscope in a new way.
To ask WHY? What would I get out of finishing this, really?
Once you finally have that quiet to poke and prod, and develop new shades of self awareness, only then can you realize–
“Oh, hey, I really only wanted to do this to raise my value in the eyes of other people. That means this is a form of people pleasing and I don’t feel like this is in alignment with the way I want to move in the world….”
And then it is entirely a no brainer to just let the whole project go.
I hope this is relatable to you, because the truth is we all do this.
I definitely uncovered my own version of it this week!
Try it
Explore the deeper why for your projects and ideas and what is motivating them.
Is there anything you are doing primarily to please someone else or have them think positively of you?
Take some time to write about it and explore, and I guarantee you’ll end up saving a LOT of time.
Because you really can’t control what other people think, right? So you’ll probably need to either dig deeper to find another reason to do that project so you stay motivated OR find another project to focus on.
Maybe you’ll be able to let some things go and remove them from your plate. But regardless, you’ll be able to focus on the things that really matter to you, and not just to someone else.
Get coached by Sofia
Ready to finally stop feeling overwhelmed or confused?
Get coached by Sofia Wren for more clarity, flow and ease so you can make faster progress on writing for your book or business.
Time feels like it is moving fast! We are already in September, and if you are like me, that feels absolutely insane. But here we are.
I managed to go to the pool 3 times this past weekend, since it’ll be the last time I can go this year…and who knows how we will make it happen in 2026 with a baby!
Today I want to share this video I made. I made it for a problem I have sometimes and I am sure others do, too.
When I’m really busy some times I can get my blinders on.
Which is too bad because sometimes that means I shoo away really brilliant ideas!
Let’s remember not to over do it and keep some creativity alive this week ahead.
I had a lovely moment this weekend where I checked something off of my summer bucket list:
I went to a local lake and watched the sunset go down over it with my husband.
It’s just what I needed to celebrate the transition from summer into fall that is happening all around me, cool breezes included.
And I also have been fighting off the recurrent little voice in my head that keeps telling me to hurry, hurry, hurry.
Do you ever have the feeling like there’s just not enough time to do everything you need to do?
A book, blog, youtube video, podcast, email series, a class, marketing it all. You might have a ton of ideas and things that you want to bring to life.
This stress about time keeps boomeranging back to me lately!
Especially since at this point I am 5 months pregnant!
I had a rough first trimester with brainfog, fatigue and nausea so I didn’t get so many things done that I wanted to in spring and early summer, and I have felt behind ever since.
There are things I want to write, projects for my two businesses I need to complete, classes to make new salespages for, etc. etc. etc.
Now that I have a bit more energy and mental clarity, my capacity to do things feels temporary and vulnerable.
Out of the blue, I sometimes am overcome with so much exhaustion that I can barely keep my eyes open.
And I feel like a new symptom or chaotic life event is going to crop up and dash all my plans any day now so I better get things done right now before that happens.
And of course when the baby comes sometime around Christmas, a lot more will change.
But the thing is—THIS URGENT FEELING IS NOT NEW.
Feeling a sense of needing to rush or hurry up is not unique to my being pregnant.
I have regularly felt some version of anxiety about time my whole life!
And so if you are feeling that sense of rush, then we are in similar scenarios.
The Power of Noticing Your Blindspots
To understand what I mean that this feeling is not unique to me being pregnant, let me back up for a second.
I know that a need for speed is one of my blindspots because I wrote it down and I regularly take time to work with my notes.
It’s really my super weapon.
This week I felt the seasons changing, so I felt compelled to look at what I consider to be my sacred texts:
my periodic reviews of the past week, month, and seasons.
The habit of reviewing the past has been totally lifechanging, and I always refer back to what I write about how the week, month or season is going as well as my intentions for the next time segment.
I keep the worksheets I made to do this in a disc bound notebook I call my “Get Fired” book, or my motivational commonplace book.
I also archive them digitally in my second brain which is in Obsidian, so it’s all available to me quickly.
(My classes about how I use Obsidian to digitally organize my ideas and notes are coming back later in the fall.)
When I went back to the notes I took in January about my plans for the year, I saw it in black and white:
one of my major goals for 2025 was to put myself first by taking my time.
And why was this a goal?
Because rushing and getting anxious is a pernicious pattern I have noticed over the past few years.
It became very obvious since 2021 as I started digitizing my notes and journals and noticing patterns among them, like how often I said I was stressed about time or feeling behind.
Getting things done in the time I have can be a huge source of anxiety for me, and it is not new.
Of course, when I am in a rush and feeling all the urgency, this goal of TAKING MY TIME feels totally impossible.
Mindful Exploration
But this week, I decided to try to be more mindful so I have been sitting with the feeling of needing to rush and be busy. Exploring it. Questioning it. Musing about it.
Am I sometimes busy as a way to feel more control in the face of uncontrollable change? Probably.
Does hurrying up to do something help me avoid sitting with deeper feelings that I need to process? Sure.
I can’t just sit decide to do nothing all fall, but I also can’t run myself into the ground rushing to do everything without ever taking a breath.
There has to be a MIDDLE way.
And my goal is to find that.
Because it is true that I AM busy, and I do have limited time,
but getting into a frenzy because of this will only result in more anxiety, less control and less clarity about what is really important to get done in the first place.
I feel like a part of my mind has so much trouble accepting the idea that going quickly can actually be more work and be less effective…but it’s really important for me to slow down.
Why it Matters
For years I have been saying this:
If you are digging for treasure, it is more important to get clear on where the X marks the spot is on your treasure map, before you start digging a deep hole really fast.
When I feel a hurry energy, a part of me just wants to get moving into action.
But what if I am digging a deep hole in the wrong place?
Throwing all my time and energy into the wrong tasks?
There are MANY things I could be doing with my time. Even if I do it quickly, I still can’t do all the things.
I need strategic thinking to make the best possible use of my time as a writer, creator, entrepreneur and human.
And that requires higher level thinking, and
a connection to my whole self not just my fight or flight system.
I can’t have that mental clarity if I am always in GO MODE,
frantically focused on checking off every little tiny thing on my to do list like my life depends on it.
I have to take a breather, get perspective so I can really know what are the biggest most important things to tackle next are.
Ungoaling
Many people tell me they are faced by this same conundrum of how to tackle all their ideas in the limited time they have.
A lot of my clients talk to me about it.
-Should they do the book now, or start with a blog?
-Then there is the website, and they want to start posting on social media…
-But what about an email list, or networking groups?
-They also have a youtube channel or a podcast they want to start, so when is a good time to do that?
-Which thing should they do in their business first, the 1-1 coaching, or launch 10 classes about XYZ things?
I’ve made it part of my job as a writing and business marketing coach to talk people through their ideas,
and really explore WHY each idea matters to them so that they can find clarity and clear direction before running into action and burning out.
A lot of times after we talk, they have decided some goals don’t make the cut.
The reason for doing them was not powerful enough, or maybe it was that they subconsciously wanted to impress people.
Once they realize that their motivation for some ideas isn’t really coming from a healthy or authentic desire, they find that they don’t really care about doing them right now.
I call this ungoaling, releasing the pressure merely to do things because you said you would do them before…
Often goals sloof away like old skin cells under a loofah. And you can leave them behind.
Me and You = Same Boat
If you are feeling pressed for time. I feel you.
I’m on the journey with you.
And I don’t believe the answer is to tell you that you really can do it all at once, because I don’t think that is true.
I think we just have to be honest about our limits and try to make the hard choices about what really matters to get done with the time that we have now.
Hopefully that doesn’t mean sacrificing everything that you DESIRE to do, just to tackle what you need to do.
Let’s allow ourselves some whimsy, some beauty, some peace, some space.
But avoid overly high expectations that are either setting you up to fail, or making you too stressed to function.
as I, too, try to make the use of my time and energy for important projects,
as well as take a deep breath in the space I have now before I enter the cave of motherhood in a few months.
I’m on this creative journey of living life and needing to prioritize, just like everyone else.
And I hope my one life is not all about being busy, and that I do create memories and moments that not only make me satisfied with what I got done, but also make me smile.
I love this new book-related video game that I picked up, called Tiny Bookshop.
“Leave everything behind and open a tiny bookshop by the sea in this ambient narrative management game.
Stock your tiny bookshop with different books and items, set up shop in scenic locations, and run your cosy second-hand bookshop while getting to know the locals.”
5 Stars from me.
It’s easy to play for either a ten minute chunk or way longer, depending on how much time you have.
Worth checking out!
And now for a deeper topic that I hope inspires you to write and create!
New Article
The Secret to Creative Clarity by Sofia Wren
Learn how to gain clarity on your book, business and writing projects by letting them guide you.
People come to me about their creative projects: books, business blogs, articles, emails, sales pages, marketing launches, websites, posts, and videos.
Often, they meet with me because they have been struggling. They have a lot of questions and choices to sort through in order to make progress for their book or business.
Confused, and stuck between different actions that they can take, they start telling me about the whole tangle.
Often, the confusion is compounded because they worry about doing things the wrong way, going in the right direction, or writing the wrong thing.
If you struggle with this confusion and overwhelm, it can be a lot.
If you want to know what to do next to make progress on your nonfiction writing, marketing or business project, you have come to the right place.
