Every morning, I eat two scrambled eggs.
Sometimes, I get so sick of eating scrambled eggs that I get halfway through my plate and cannot imagine taking another bite. I cannot imagine eating another egg ever again in my life.
When that happens, I don’t stop eating eggs. I just prepare them a different way for a while. Sunny-side up. Poached over leftover roasted vegetables. Hard-boiled if I’m feeling particularly Catholic.
This is how I feel about my career right now. I’m absolutely sick of eating scrambled eggs and cannot bring myself to eat another bite.
I've been building my current professional life for 13 years. I started teaching writing at the college level ten years ago. It feels a bit stale to me. I'm not excited about putting my heart and soul energy into it anymore. That building phase feels complete.
I feel like a sculptor endlessly polishing a finished piece. I crave the new block of marble, even though it intimidates me. Even though I know I have the skills (or I could learn them), I still feel like I'm chipping away at a giant slab with only a vision of the work inside my head to guide me. It takes much more effort than endlessly polishing, but when I end the day exhausted because I've hammered away at building the next version of myself, I feel joyful in my exhaustion.
I like to work!
Today, I am meeting with my practicum client for my book coaching certification to talk about her pitch plan. She's written an amazing novel that thrilled me at every turn. I could not put it down. With this plan for pitching to literary agents, I'm completing the final practicum for my Author Accelerator book coaching certification for fiction.
Originally, I signed up because I wanted to learn what book coaches do so that I could coach myself on my first novel manuscript, which has a great story but needs a ton of work to be pitchable. Instead I fell in love with storytelling craft and decided to get certified. I know part of my next phase will involve helping writers through the novel drafting, polishing, and pitching process.
Learning how to coach fiction writers on drafting, revising, polishing, and pitching has reinvigorated my love for teaching writing. Mostly because it reminds me that there are people out there who want to write, but limiting beliefs and nervous system responses have prevented them from getting started or finishing these beloved projects. It feels like a gift to be able to help them break through those barriers and WRITE. I just needed to do it a bit differently to recapture the magic. I love to teach, but I can’t do it the same way every day.
Oh, and rest assured, I'll be shouting it from the rooftops when my client's book gets published because it's going to be on everyone's TBR list.
Got an idea for a book?
I’ve got space in my calendar to work with three new clients this summer.
Here's how we can work together:
- Discovery & strategy session (Free 45-minute call): A deep dive into where you feel stuck in your life, whether it’s writing related or not.
- Six-week 1:1 coaching package ($475 total): You’ll get a 6-week introduction to my strategies for rewriting your stories, processing emotions, regulating your nervous system, and forging a new path to the life you’ve been waiting to unlock.
Thanks for reading!
xo,
Maureen
Photo by OC Gonzalez on Unsplash