It wasn't easy telling my story.

The day I sat down to write my chapter for the forthcoming book Quiet & Badass, it took me 5 hours to get started.

I had the entire day blocked off.

I got up and lingered over breakfast.

Cleaned up some corner of the house I’d been ignoring for weeks.

Put in the laundry.

Two hours into my day, I managed to situate myself on the back porch in my favorite zero-G chair with my iPad in my lap. This would feel less like “work” than typing at my laptop on my desk, I reasoned.

I opened up the blank Google doc and stared at the blinking cursor.

Then a notification popped up from Apple News and I eagerly went down a rabbit hole of headlines for a half hour.

OK, back to the blank page…

But I haven’t checked my email all day! I’d better see if I’ve missed something important…

An hour later I returned to my Google doc and typed the title of the book at the top of the page and played around with the first sentence or two.

But gosh, I’m thirsty!

Up for lemonade.

Might as well make lunch while I’m in the kitchen.

And do all the dishes.

Another hour later I returned to the blank page and realized I should probably go pee before I got too settled.

And finally - around 2pm - with all my basic needs taken care of, I sat back down and started to write.

(I probably checked the news and email one more time first.)

I made myself a deal that I’d write my story UNperfectly, because otherwise I wouldn’t do it at all.

In fact, I gave myself permission to write the absolute worst book chapter that anyone would ever read.

I didn’t have an outline.

I had no idea really what I was going to say.

I had only a vague idea of the point I wanted to communicate.

I just knew that I needed to say it.

I knew there was a chance that reading my story might help someone, somewhere, with something, just like I’ve been inspired by others who’ve shared their truth.

So I started writing.

✍️ I wrote about the times my perfectionism made me suicidal.

✍️ I wrote about what happened when I lost everything.

✍️ I wrote about my biggest breakthrough.

And I talked about the tools I’ve learned to help myself and help others overcome perfectionism so they can be more kind to themselves and do more of what they want and less of what they THINK they “should” do.

I named my chapter "The Problem with Perfectionism."

When I hit “send” to share my draft with the publisher, I felt sick to my stomach.

❌ What have I done?!

❌ Why am I doing this?!

❌ What are people going to think?!

❌ Does it even make sense?!!

❌ Is it too late to back out of the whole project?!

Well, next week, you get to be the judge!

📖 My book Quiet & Badass: Visionary Women Embracing their Uniqueness to Create Epic Impact will be released on Amazon next Friday, September 23rd!

I am one of 18 brave women sharing their stories with the world, many for the first time.

All of us have found a way to make our voices heard as introverts and make an impact doing what we love.

✔️ If that sounds cool and you want to hear more, message me on Facebook or Instagram with the word YES to be added to my launch list.

I’m looking for 25 people who will buy the book on launch day for the special price of $0.99 to help us achieve best-seller status! All of the proceeds from the book launch will be donated to charity.

💛 I’d be so grateful for your support, to help make this whole process a little less scary (by knowing someone might actually want to read what I wrote).

Just send me a message and let me know if you’re in!

You rock,

Liz

p.s. Set yourself a calendar reminder to hop on Amazon on Friday, September 23rd if you want to be one of the first to read my story in Quiet & Badass on “The Problem with Perfectionism”!