I Almost Didn’t Write This
Friday Flutter Report 3.27.26
If you’re new here, on Fridays I write about one action from the week that made an impact on my life. The goal is to remember that the small actions or decisions can make a big difference. One little flutter of your wings and your whole life can change 🦋
I’m starting to fall into the trap of overthinking my Substack. The more I work on it, the more pressure I’m putting on myself to improve, to be perfect with it.
Am I doing the best I can? Am I writing enough? Could I be more creative?
I’ll spend time thinking up notes only to erase and rewrite them multiple times. I’ll change the tone of my stories, from serious to trying to add humor to being less random or more random.
I want this to remain fun, yet I can feel myself creeping closer and closer to the switch that flips fun to overwhelm and obligation. I REFUSE to let that happen. I want to stay in the happy bubble where writing brings me joy and serves as a creative outlet. I need this to combat my 9-5 burnout, not add to it.
To prevent stress, I almost skipped today’s Flutter Report because I couldn’t decide on a topic. It felt forced and I started to question if it even made sense within the broader context of what I’ve been writing about. After all, the experiment for the month is travel writing, is it not confusing to see a Friday post about a random topic that isn’t travel related?
After some consideration and a deep breath (and some food), I realized that’s just the fear creeping in. The “never enough” gremlins shoving their way into my head. In the end, it does all tie together. Yes, my goal for March is learning about travel writing, but my overarching mission is creating an interesting life. Tracking the small actions adds to both of those goals. Who knows what small action will lead to some epiphany that allows for better writing, better perspective, or better experiences.
I also want to inspire others to create and pursue an interesting life. That means showing up when I’m scared or uncertain or imperfect. So, that’s what this week’s Flutter Report is about: the decision to keep going when everything feels uncertain. If we wait to feel ready, we’ll be waiting forever.
I’m not going to worry about if my point is perfectly clear or if it “fits” with my Substack (okay well I am going to worry a little bit but I’m going to push past it). Creativity is a messy process, and that should be embraced rather than feared. This is supposed to be FUN, remember?
If you’re struggling with what to create today, I’ll leave you with this quote from Dr. Brené Brown’s book Daring Greatly:
Perfect and bulletproof are seductive, but they don’t exist in the human experience. We must walk into the arena, whatever it may be…we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen. This is vulnerability. This is daring greatly.