How I Started to Write

“Write, just write.”

That was what that whisper of a voice inside of me kept saying.

It was the summer of 2008. I was enrolled in my training to become a coach, and therefore was spending a lot of time being coached by other students in the program, so that I could experience the coaching tools as my future clients would.

That meant that quite often, I was being asked big questions: What do you really want? What does your intuition say to you about your next step? What would bring you greater happiness?

Almost always, when I turned inward to ask myself these questions, the answer was the same: “Write, just write.”

It was so simple and so consistent I bored all my fellow student coaches.

But I wasn’t bored. I was surprised, and hesitant. I didn’t adore this answer. I wanted and expected the answer to be “quit your job and start your coaching practice.” “Redecorate your home” or “take a sabbatical in Europe” also would have been fine.

But the answer wasn’t any of those things. When I really listened inward, and didn’t just spit out the line my mind wanted to be true, the answer was there: “Write, just write.”

That felt a little mysterious, a little scary, because I hadn’t written much besides white papers and grant proposals in a long time, and I knew that wasn’t what the voice was talking about. I didn’t know what that voice wanted me to write, or why. I did have the sense it wanted me to sit down at the desk, alone, and dive deep into a sea.

And so I wrote. I kept my job, my salary, my regular old life, except that at 5am I’d get up and write, before heading to work.

At first it was clunky, stilted, and so difficult, but I began writing about the ideas that mattered most to me—ideas about how we could live more compassionately and mindfully, about doing work with meaning, about the miraculous in our midst. Many days I didn’t know what to write about, so I wrote about Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving and I wrote about Mexico when I visited Mexico. Sometimes, I knew no other way to get started than to look around the room and write about what I saw in front of me—the pale yellow wall, the canopy above the bed, the bougainvillea.

Quickly, though, I fell deeply in love with writing. I’d start out in a grumpy mood, all stiff and irritable inside, and end the hour or two of writing in a totally different place—uplifted, softened, cleared out of stuck thoughts, resentments, anxieties.

(I think this is how other people feel about going for a run?)

That inner voice was right. Writing was the answer to all the questions: What would bring you greater happiness? What do you really want? What does your intuition say to you about your next step?

Six years, 424 blog posts, 43 poems, and one book later, writing is at the center of my life.

Sometimes, something deep within us knows a lot more than our conscious minds do.

Next week, I’m going to tell you about my book, Playing Big: Find Your Voice, Your Mission, Your Message, which is coming into the world very soon. It’s a labor of love, and I’m so proud of it.

“Write, just write” is a part of how it came to be. And it begs the question for all of us: what is that whispering but persistent voice inside of you saying? And how can you follow its instructions even when they are mysterious to you? And how can you heed it, even as you care for the rest of your life?

Love, Tara

LAST BUT NOT LEAST! I have a new Facebook page now, and I’ll be posting all kinds of updates & good stuff there. If you’d like to be connected on Facebook, please click HERE and “Like” the page.

Click to tweet: Sometimes, something deep within us knows a lot more than our conscious minds do.

Some guidelines for finding that voice inside:

Give yourself a quiet and relaxing space—take a walk somewhere beautiful, go to a favorite spot in your home and read some poetry or literature that calms you, put on favorite music that moves you emotionally, or immerse yourself in water—hot tub, bath. These are all good ways to slow down and connect with yourself a little more.

Then just check in: “what do I really want?” or “what’s important for me right now?” or any simple question like that. Use a question that begins with “what,” not a “why” question or a “how” question or a “yes/no” question.

Then notice what surprising answers immediately arise. Listen to them.

Watch out if any inner critic voices, fears, or “shoulds” are creeping in, and gently let those pass by as you again ask the question. It might help to put your hand on your heart or your belly and imagine asking for the answer that comes from there.

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LAST BUT NOT LEAST! I have a new Facebook page now, and I’ll be posting all kinds of updates & good stuff there. If you’d like to be connected on Facebook, please click HERE and “Like” the page.