Have you reached the lowest point of your life? Is nothing working out the way you wanted? Are you flat broke or owe a fortune? Is your confidence at its lowest ebb?
If so, I have good news for you. This week’s mini-series is here to shake you out of this self-misery.
Let’s start with the old myth “it’s not your fault”. Whether that’s true or not is irrelevant. We can be told over and over again it’s not our fault, that we shouldn’t worry about it, that it doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things, but does that help? Not really.
Right now, we are where we are, and no amount of words will change the external world that is conspiring to ruin our lives.
And even if we get past that notion, and blame ourselves, it’s still irrelevant. The blame game has always been exactly that. Pointless.
Every dictator that ever lived, proved it – and they continue to prove it today. Blame is a two edged weapon. It’s used to crush opponents, yet once crushed, the only person left is ourselves. And who cares? No one.
Until we remove blame from our lives, we will be stuck in ever decreasing circles.
As struggling copywriters (beginner or veteran) we will always do two things. 1: blame ourselves, and 2: blame the world (or vice-versa). Just understand that blame is pointless.
Put yourself in the shoes of a client. Just like us, they play the blame game. “It’s the recession”. “It’s that virus”. “It’s the lousy exchange rate”. “I’m rubbish at business”.
Yet also just like us, that last thought is the most common one playing in their head. When things are bad we lose confidence and look for excuses. “The market has changed.”. “I didn’t see it coming”. So what. It came and went. It’s history. We can’t do a thing about it. We just wasted a whole bunch more time trying to figure out who or what to blame.
But it’s worse than that. The blame game crushes us, and unless we do something about it, it will continue to play havoc with our lives.
Your first task this week is to stop blaming yourself, others, and the universe. How? Just for now, whenever you feel like moaning, stop yourself on the spot. Listen out for it and create a new you by ignoring the desire to moan (blaming is just moaning in disguise). Part 2 is here.