When I copyedit and proofread late drafts for my corporate clients, I worry when I don't find anything to correct. No way everything is RIGHT! What have I missed? What typo or homonym or errant comma slipped through? 🤯
If we're asked, I'd wager most of us could quickly rattle off a frighteningly extensive and diverse list of our weaknesses, ways in which we don't quite measure up to an unattainable and ever-shifting level of perfection.
But the positives? Not always so easy to pinpoint.
Remember the praise sandwich?
Voilà!
Two positives, genuinely felt, for every reproof fills any and all feedback with beneficial energy, making the sandwich a lot easier to swallow. This person really cares about me, we think.
(Fictional Stuart Smalley was the master of the self-affirmation. Here, he teaches the technique to a little-known athlete.)
Reader, when is the last time you prepared and served yourself a plate of loving acceptance?
Image: sandwich
Take some time to assess and communicate to your writer self what you are doing well in your draft.
I promise you, dear reader, you are doing this well.
You got this.