Whenever I take my time to talk someone through their anxiety, I always come away feeling much better than I did before. I remind myself of the ideas that rightly deserve a place in my head—the ideas that will push me to be better and that will carry me to where I need to go.
Remember that you got to where you are by doing the best you knew at the time. Now you know better. Appreciate yourself as you are now, but know that you’re improving yourself. Everything worthwhile takes time and effort, but you will get where you want to be by putting in the work.
Don’t be bogged down by regret and shame once they have taught you to be a better person.
A lot of us confuse plot with story. We imagine that the thing that drives us to flip the page is a dramatic plot or the twists and turns of a convoluted plot. This could not be further from the truth. The truth is more obvious, yet we totally miss it.
What compels us to keep on reading is the curiosity to find out how the external elements are going to affect the protagonist internally. Story is not about what is happening externally; it’s about how our protagonist is feeling, reacting, and changing because of external events.
