So, you may be wondering why I talked so much about self-compassion and now I am starting to talk about social media.
They are unrelated, right?
Nope. They are very related.
First, developing self-compassion skills (and I do believe it is a skill you can develop) and social media skills will both serve us tremendously as artists.
Second, it was through developing self-compassion for myself that I have been able to expand my capacity for sharing.
What do I mean?
Self-compassion is a skill that allows you to practice speaking to yourself like a friend. It is encouraging and comforting and will sometimes lovingly kick you in the butt, but it does not bully or shame. It’s a practice that took me a long time to develop and it is still developing.
And alongside developing my self-compassion skills, I worked on expanding my capacity for sharing. It is really scary to put yourself and your work out there, but it was through the combination of practicing self-compassion and taking baby steps on sharing, that I was able to build both skills.
Neither happened overnight. And I am not promising that by buying my book, Goals, but Different, or going through my playdates, Social Media for Authors, will give you immediate results.
They can. They might. But it is unlikely.
More likely is you will begin building a foundation that will allow you to have steady footing to give you the security to try new things.
And trying new things, experimenting, that is where the fun can be.
Experimenting is how I approach a lot of things in life. Let’s try this and see what happens.
I don’t have a strategy, except to be the best possible human I can be at any given time. To others, but also to myself.