Are you trying to be someone you’re not? If so, Why?

It’s was Monday morning at 10:00am. I was at the office and I’d been squirming in my chair for over an hour. I was trying to write the web copy for my book but I kept bouncing back and forth between email, Twitter and Facebook. I was stalling, wasting time, procrastinating. I wondered why it always felt so hard to just get started. I needed a coffee. But I started a fourteen day cleanse so caffeine was out. Great timing!  I needed to buckle down and start writing but I suddenly needed water. More stalling.  I contemplated going for a walk. I always feel more creative after a walk. No! I just needed to sit at my keyboard and write.

So I sat and stared at my computer screen. The cursor was blinking madly in front of me. It was taunting me, daring me to write something but it knew my mind was blank and that I had no words. It seemed as though every time I sat down to write the copy for my book I got stuck. I pushed away from my desk in frustration because I couldn’t find the right words. I looked at my drawer where I kept my secret stash of mini eggs. Maybe they’ll give me more brain power. I managed to control the urge to rip through the bag.

I paced my office with a million ideas bouncing around in my head. I’d read dozens of books and talked to so many different experts on the subject of web copy. It all felt like a big jumble in my head and I couldn’t seem to make any sense out of any of it. I tried three times to write the copy and each time it came out like a cheesy sales letter. That wasn’t me.

Last year I proudly gave birth to the How to Guide to Starting a Personal Training Business. The exact birthday is April 1^st. By the way the date was no accident. I figured if I published a book on April Fools Day I would never forget the date and I was right. In just a few days my book baby will celebrate its first birthday.  I feel like I’ve been trying to write the birth announcement for the last year.

On this particular Monday morning I was adamant that before I did anything else for the day I would get the copy written. Then Tuesday came, and then Wednesday and by Thursday I’d given up. I was convinced that this was one task I couldn’t do. I rationalized that I was too close to my own work so I couldn’t write objectively. I resolved to hire a professional. But then I remembered what a colleague of mine, Chris Fernandez, said, “The only person who can write your copy is you because you live it and are the best person to talk about it.”  These words kept haunting me. I knew he was right. I was a writer after all. So why was this so difficult?

I woke up early on Saturday morning after a tough week of trying to squeeze out the web copy. I usually get up about 5:00am even on the weekends. Crazy I know but my body is used to it from all the early morning personal training clients. I ate a handful of strawberries, half a grapefruit and poured myself a healthy cup of coffee. Yeah I know I wasn’t supposed to but I tossed in the towel on the cleanse. I flipped on my laptop and did my usual morning routine of checking email. Then I went to my Word Press site and without any thought clicked on to my book page.

I stared at the screen for only a moment and then my fingers took over. To my surprise words just starting flowing and I could hardly type fast enough to keep up. It was like a fog had been lifted and suddenly my brain knew what to say. It had miraculously sorted through all clutter and started to put it all together.

After an hour of writing I had a rough draft of the web copy and stared at it in disbelief. I wiped the tears from my eyes. I was crying out of a sense of relief and because I was finally able to get words to communicate not only the message but my passion for my book baby. I spent the next four hours massaging the words, adding pictures and changing things around.

So why was I having so much trouble getting the words to flow in the first place? What had been the issue? I was giving my brain another problem to solve. But then I realized, it was so simple and I could see it clearly now. If you aren’t true to yourself, if you try and be something you’re not or communicate in a style that isn’t you then you have little hope of succeeding. Even the simplest tasks become mountains to climb and you’ll never see the summit.

When I went to write my web copy my head was full of, “I got to sell this book”. I was writing sales copy and trying to use sales techniques to get people to buy it. While that may work for some, this type of approach has never worked for me. I’ve always been more of a people person and consider myself to be a coach and mentor. When I switched my thinking from trying to write sale copy to writing from the heart and telling a story, my mountain became an insignificant bump in the road.

I’ve heard the words, “Just be yourself” countless times in my life. I know what the words mean and I understand the meaning behind the words. But sometimes it’s still possible to get caught up in not being yourself and trying to be something you’re not. Maybe its peer pressure that throws us off track. Perhaps it’s the desire to be successful and thinking we have to act in a certain way to get it. Whatever it is that causes you to veer away from just being yourself ask yourself, is it worth it?

It’s only a few days until my book baby celebrates its birthday. I’ve learned a valuable lesson about just being yourself. So I guess kids can teach their parents a few things.

Take a moment and go to http://edgefit.ca/fitness-educators/products-and-services/start-your-own-personal-training-business/ and see where this story came from.