Lately I’ve been incredibly nervous that I’m performing poorly at my full-time job and my side hustle. Both involve me writing for two different organizations plus doing some design work and social media managing.
Let’s start at my side gig where my real anxiety lies.
I’m incredibly thankful to have something on the side to bring in some extra cash every month and give me additional writing experience. I’ve was hired in April 2017 because my boss loved the writing I did about them as a reporter.
He said, “Megan, I’m going to talk to the board and try to convince them to bring you on board.”
It all worked out! I really enjoy writing for them but my boss is a perfectionist. He might even be a robot, I’m not 100% sure though.
My anxiety tells me that my work won’t be good enough in his eyes and eventually grow tired of my work then sack me.
Here’s the thing: I have no evidence or actual reason to think that he’s displeased with my work. He continues to give me solid feedback and just gave me 3 stories to complete this month.
Anxiety tells me so frequently that my writing is bad, that I have chosen a profession that I suck at. My anxiety says that I should quit writing because nobody will ever enjoy reading it.
At my full-time job I am often asked to write in a style that I’ve never really written in before, a conversational style.
All through school and university I was instructed to write in a professional manner, to stick to the facts and leave any exaggeration or bias out of it. I am a journalist by trade so that is the way I have been trained to write.
Whenever I get my stories kicked back from my supervisor with edits up and down basically instructing me to rewrite it, I fear that I will be let go. I worry that because I struggle with a conversational writing style that they will fire me to find somebody else who excels at that.
My anxiety has always had a strong grip around my writing. I have always loved to write but my anxiety repeatedly tells me it’s all shit.
I’ve worked with my therapist about this issue for a while, clearly it’s something we need to revisit.
Stay strong and be alright, everyone!
Happy Hanukkah to all of my Jewish readers!
Be Alright 