After leaving clinical practice, I was a successful freelance writer for more than 20 years. I wrote for foundations whose mission was fixing the healthcare system or reducing medical errors or improving the patient experience. I wrote blog posts, articles, briefs, and expert meeting reports. Hundreds of projects over the course of those years. And without exception, with every project launch, I panicked.

You’d think that after six months, or a year, or even five years, I would have been able to get the go ahead from an editor and dive right in.

Nope.

Instead, I panicked, fretted, and procrastinated.

So how did I manage to finish projects, meet my deadlines, and pay the mortgage? I found a tool that worked for me and relied on it heavily: the tool of deception–lying to myself, that is.

I would open a file on my computer and name it something like “Worst Outline Ever” or “Rough Ideas Thrown Down on Paper” or “#@%!! First Draft.” Then I’d start writing, letting the ideas flow without censuring them. If it was a longer project, I’d revise outlines over and over until I had added so much detail, the first draft virtually wrote itself.

Creatively naming the files and “overusing” outlines lowered the expectations and the stakes, silencing my fears so I could move beyond the paralysis of procrastination and GET GOING. It was a way to use self-deception to my advantage.

Later, I’d come back and with an editor’s eye, and revise, delete, reorder. Voila, a finished work that my editor would rave about.

What tools might help you move beyond perfectionism, high expectations, or fear of failure? Where might some healthy deception of yourself be advised? What could you be achieving if you had a toolbox to get unstuck?

If you’d like some ideas, drop me a line!