What Makes Me Qualified To Be A Wrestler?

Following this morning’s post, I decided to do a quick Google search to see what the internet says it takes to become a writer.  A funny thing happened as I wrote “what does it take to be a wr.”  Before I could type the last four letters, Google assumed that I was looking for “what does it take to be a wrestler.”

Always one to get sidetracked, I decided to see what the World Wide Web thinks it takes to be a wrestler. You know, in case this whole writing thing doesn’t work out.

After looking at a few different sites about how to become the next Hulk Hogan, I decided to perform the same voices of fear exercise from earlier.  Let’s take a look.

Voices of fear for why I could never be a wrestler:

• Lack of size and overall strength
• I don’t like tight fitting spandex
• No catchy or imposing nickname
• Too much body hair

This time, the voices of fear seemed a little more daunting. But after another quick Google search I found my answer to each one of those voices of fear:

• If The Situation can do it, so can I.

What Makes Me Qualified To Be A Writer?

Eight years ago I started a blog.  Blogs were fairly new so I said “what the heck, I could probably create a popular blog.”  Like many people out there, I was really into in for the first week but eventually went months went by and I didn’t make any updates and finally the blog dissolved in less than a year.

In order prevent the same thing from happening again, I asked myself “what makes me qualified to be a writer?” In typical pessimistic fashion, I ended up answering the question of “what makes me unqualified to be a writer.”

In the book Start, author Jon Acuff talks about our voices of fear that tell us we can’t do certain things.  Acuff encourages his readers to write down their voices of fear because acknowledging them can make them shrink and not seem as imposing.

So I’ve decided to write down the three main voices of fear that kept creeping into my head anytime I asked “what makes me qualified to be a writer?”

Voices of fear:

• I am not a grate speller and my vocabulary is limited
• I never come up with clever and witty sayings, such as “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” – Mark Twain
• There are too many better writers out there.

Once I saw the voices of fear on paper, I knew exactly how I could refute each one:

• I am not a grate speller and my vocabulary is limited. Computers have this new great thing called spell check and there are numerous word of the day apps that can increase my lexicon.
• I never come up with clever and witty sayings, such as “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” – Mark Twain  Every time I write my mom a Mother’s Day poem, she puts it on the fridge.
• There are too many better writers out there.  If The Situation can do it, so can I.

What voices of fear do you constantly hear in your life? Put them down on paper or write them in the comments section below and it will help you see that they are really not that imposing after all.