Revisions

Sometimes as a writer, it isn’t easy to see what is working in your own writing. What may have produced sparks on the first read becomes dull and diminished a few versions later. Mostly it works the other way around and revisions bring out the light but when it doesn’t, when the writing is revised from the outside in, revisions have the power to reduce what was about to burst into spectacular flames into a heap of lifeless ash.

What about ways we might revise ourselves for ‘our own good’ at the request of those around us? What if what drives us to revise is to have more, do more, be more?

I’m a list-maker and historically a people-pleaser. Sometimes my lists reveal how my people-pleasing can revise the fire right out of me.

Recently, I was going through my memory box to find old photos for a friend and came across one of my list books from almost two decades ago. When I look at the things on those lists that were consistently crossed out, they were (and still are) the tasks that make my heart beat a little faster, gets my creative mind in high gear and brings a spring to my step. My twenty-something self knew herself. She just didn’t trust that she did.

How does revision show up in your life? What are the ways you feel you always fall short of your list? Instead of revising from the outside, what about stoking the fire from within? What if the authentic self has little in common with more and better and resides instead in the presence of what is already magnificently there?

Instead of attempting to revise who you are, explore how you might re-vision who you’ve always been. Fall in love with yourself today.