No Payne No Gain: Writer's Block III

One approach to resolving writer’s block is to program the brain for success through building confidence and focus. Confidence is knowing you are going to be successful before you do something.

Focus is that single-mindedness that drives you toward a target or goal while simultaneously screening out the extraneous, irrelevant stuff.

We have a picture of who we are and that is who we are going to be. If we believe we can’t remember names, no matter how hard we try, the subconscious will not allow us to remember names. If we believe we can’t write, the subconscious will not allow us to write. This picture has been called the comfort zone, and we spend every second of every minute, of every hour, of every day striving to stay in our comfort zone.

The part of the subconscious that drives us into our picture and makes us act in accordance to who we believe ourselves to be has been referred to as the servo mechanism, automatic mechanism, creative mechanism and most often the creative subconscious. The reason it is referred to as the creative subconscious is because when we believe we can’t do something, the subconscious creatively makes us mess up or shuts our thinking down.

The creative subconscious has been compared to a homing device found in a missile, rocket or torpedo. The homing device is set to drive the missile toward the target. The creative subconscious drives us toward our picture, and if we see ourselves as nonproductive, a failure, or unable to write, then it is the creative subconscious to make sure our picture is realized.
We cannot control the job of the creative subconscious; it is our motivator. But we can control our picture, we can change the target. In other words we can trick ourselves into believing we are something we are not. The reason we can do this is because the creative subconscious cannot tell fact from fiction or imagination from reality.

So to change our target, we can imagine a different picture and begin to pre-live the picture (see Writer’s Block II). To pre-live the picture, we must imagine it to such a degree that the mind believes it. A person experiencing writer’s block actually believes they can’t write. That is their picture. One way to resolve writer’s block is to imagine oneself as a productive, creative, free-thinking author to such a degree that the mind believes it. This type of thinking must be so focused and so real it will activate the creative subconscious’ homing device and drive the author toward success. As one sees themselves successful, their confidence is restored and they begin to write and think freely.

One way to construct a new picture of success through building confidence and focus is to follow a few simple mental programming steps. Writer’s Block IV walks you through the steps to rekindle your writing talent that is buried within.

Dr. James Payne, a nationally-recognized scholar, educator and speaker, is a professor of Special Education at the University of Mississippi and a Fulbright recipient. He is the developer of the PeopleWise Event Management System and the PeopleWise Profile System.