Here’s a prompt for reflection, conversation or your journal today: What situation or subject in your right-now business or life can you squeeze some joy and satisfaction out of… or some clarity and wisdom out of… even though you’ve been judging it as “broken” because it’s not where you want it to be?

Here’s some context…

At Londyn’s school, there’s a wonderful teacher… a woman six feet tall who was a scientist before she started this work. 

Regularly, I walk in and the kids will be dismantling a broken fan someone brought from home to see if they can make it work again.

Sometimes they “fix” these things. 

But always they delight, bliss out and pass many joyful hours doing Miscellaneous Toddler Collaborations in the fun of taking the so-called broken thing apart. 

And that’s the point of school. That’s the point of life. The joy in the process. Not the outcome of the process.

So yesterday, when I showed Londyn that the last typewriter ribbon on her Smith-Corona Electric was broken and we’d have to order another, I heard it as a spiritual mic-drop when she replied: 

“That’s okay, Mama! I like broken things!”

And continued joyfully clicking and clacking away…while jogging in place. (I call it cardio-typing.)

Just SATISFIED.

Power bucket FULL.

That’s what happens when you learn to appreciate what is … simply because it is…. without judging it as bad, wrong or other than it should be. 

That’s what happens when you let yourself have the experience you’re having, and learn to be satisfied and eager for more at the same time.

That’s what happens when you decide to bloom right exactly where you’re planted, even though you don’t know what’s coming next, you haven’t written the book yet or started the business yet, or hit the business goals you have yet. 

To Londyn, “broken” isn’t even a negative. It’s a descriptor of something she can use and delight in differently than she would if it were in a different condition, stage or state. Nothing more, nothing less, no judgement, no turbulence.

See, your Inner Critic will tell you that you can’t indulge in expensive workout clothes until you earn the right by losing weight first. Because your weight is broken, or you’re broken until you lose that weight.

Your Inner Critic will have you holding your literal, physical breath and restricting everything from calories to money from yourself unless and until you hit some arbitrary “success” goal. 

Your Inner Critic will have you placing all kinds of conditions on your ability to live with a prevailing sense of ease unless and until you: 

• Find your mate
• Start the business
• Make a certain amount of money, or
• Lose 10 pounds.

Your Inner Critic will tell you that life will be perfect someday when some thing happens…. which is the same as saying life is broken now. 

And if you buy into this lie, you will live in chronic, low-grade conflict with your Wise Inner Being, who knows that you are already perfect, whole and complete. As you are.

Who knows that there’s nothing broken about you.

If you buy into that lie of your Inner Critic that things are broken now and you can’t relax until theyre fixed, not only will that “perfect” someday never come (because your Inner Critic will always find something to judge), you’ll miss out on the perfection that you are, the joy that life is trying to serve you and the perfection that you are constantly becoming as you molt and shift and shape and grow, every single day.

So don’t buy into it. 

You are not broken now. 

Your life is not broken now. 

Your business is not broken now.

You are the sculptor and the masterpiece-in-progress.

And the sculptor doesn’t judge the masterpiece-in-progress for being in progress. 

I don’t know about you but I’m stealing Londyn’s line for the rest of the week.

Whatever happens, I’m making it my mission to like the so-called broken things, including the areas of my life and my business that aren’t quite where I want them to be yet. 

I’m making it my mission to find joy and satisfaction and wisdom and power and even joy in whatever is…. however things are and however things look in this moment.

And I’m making it my mission to feel the satisfaction, the relief and the power of radically accepting the “in progress” things how they are right now… I”m making it my mission to let that satisfaction snowball and infect more and more of the moments of my life. 

Will you take up this mission with me? 

I hope so.

Head up + heart out,

Tara-Nicholle Kirke, MA, Esq.
The Inner Critic Coach™️
Founder + CEO of SoulTour

@taranicholle on FB | TW | IG | LI

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One of my teachers, Florence Shinn, wrote something I try to hold in my heart every time I’m trying to decide whether to make a significant change in my life. 

She wrote: “When in doubt, always do the fearless thing.”  

That’s a badass way to live, ain’t it? 

Depending on your wiring, it might seem absurd as a rule to live by.

Your Inner Critic might even be super-activated right now, listing off all the reasons you should never follow this rule.

“You’ve gotta think it all the way through,” says your Inner Critic. “You could end up broke … or worse, all alone.”

“That’s just irresponsible,” says your Inner Critic. “If you do that, Very Bad Things will happen.”

“Don’t you know how good your life already is? Who do you think you are to want more than you already have??”

Catch this principle: Your Inner Critic is the warped voice of primitive, misguided, self-protective fear that lives in your brain, your mind and your soul. It will always flare up and broadcast a signal of fear right on the brink of your making a change that would expand your capacity, actualize your potentials, fulfill your dreams or increase your income.

Always.

You may know in your heart that there’s a change your life and your Wise Inner Being want you to make.

Your Inner Critic wants you to resist.

But your Inner Critic is not the boss.

Your Inner Critic does not set the navigation or sit behind the steering wheel of your life. 

Here’s a Pro Tip: Start expecting your Inner Critic to start chiming in when you start turning the dial up on your Best Life dreams and goals.

And start declaring it “success!” when you hear your Inner Critic pipe up, because that only happens when you reach beyond your comfort zone and try to expand your capacity.

Today, I thought I’d just share this quick roundup of 11 things that WILL happen when you make the bold, badass, expansive-feeling, liberating-feeling life decision you’ve been contemplating: 

1. You will feel relief. Your Wise Inner Being is asking you to make a move… and when you do, it feels like relief. 
2. You will get all this energy back. It was taking a ton of energy to try to push your desires down, to fight your own Inner Being. When you put an end to the inner conflict of that… you get all that energy back. 
3. You will feel vastly more centered, focused and grounded, because you’re not being pulled in opposite directions. 
4. You will hear your Inner Guidance more clearly. When you go where you’re feeling called to go, it’s like giving your Inner Guidance the green light. You’ll feel less confused and more clear on what you should do and not do, moving forward.
5. You will feel some fear. Anytime you step outside of your comfort zone, that step will spark feelings of being nervous and agitated, even afraid. Learn to recognize that as always, always, 100% of the time a sign you’re making a step in the right direction. And know that your most authentic, most delightful, absolute Best Life lives on the other side of that cloud of fear.
6. The thing you most feared will dissipate. Most of your overthinking, analysis type fears are really lizard brain, brainstem, survival fears that your cognitive brain hooks onto. And when that happens, your brain will spin narratives of projected catastrophes. Thing is, almost all your catastrophic fears are highly, highly unfounded. They are fantasy. So when you actually DO the thing that sparked the fear? The fearful thing dissolves. Florence Shinn said the lion on your path turns into a bouncing puppy.
7. Your fear will change to excitement and exhilaration at your own expansion.

Your fear is just unintegrated excitement. The way you integrate your excitement is to wholeheartedly engage with the subject of your fear. If you have financial fear, get educated and dive into personal finance tools and set yourself a system up. If you’re afraid of dating, go on a buuuuunch of dates. Read books about dating. Listen to the Esther Perel podcast. Wholeheartedly engage with the thing that scares you the most and watch the fear dissolve.

8. You will feel a flood of self-respect, because you’ve honored your own desires instead of overruling or avoiding what is really true for you… and because you’ve proven your Inner Critic wrong. Repeatedly making bold, badass Big Life Decisions contrary to the advice of your Inner Critic is how you wire in the belief that you can actually trust life, this Universe…and yourself. 
9. Things will start happening that you couldn’t have made happen if you tried. You will kickstart a domino effect of doors opening, resources flowing to you, opportunities opening, collaborators showing up, bright ideas lighting up, wondrous “coincidences” sliding into place… that would never have happened had you not made the BBLC in the first place.
10. You will reflect months or even years later and think “Thanks, younger self. I would do that again.” 

Back to old Florence Shinn, who said “when in doubt, do the fearless thing.”

It turns out the data backs her up. (Don’t you just love when science catches up with Spirit?)

A study was just published that was conducted by Steven Leavitt, one of the authors of Freakonomics: Overwhelmingly, people who made a bold, badass life change based on a coin toss were happy they made the change six months later.

Over the long run, people who made BBLCs were way happier than people who thought about making a change but didn’t.

This was true regardless of how the BBLC worked out.

On the other hand, people who didn’t make the BBLC they’d been considering were content two months later… but regretted not making the change six months out.

Let that sink in: When you make a badass life change you’ve been considering, you almost never regret making it. 

Even if it doesn’t work out how you wanted it to. 

And when you don’t make the change that is tugging at you… you’ll almost always regret playing it small and safe. 

This data is 100% consistent with my observation from 25 years in the transformation business: 

No one regrets following their intuition, but almost everyone regrets ignoring it.

So… don’t ignore your intuition. 

Even if it’s asking you to make a BBLC. 

And even if…especially if… that scares you.

That’s just a sign you’re doing it right, [First Name].

Head up + heart out,

Tara-Nicholle Kirke, MA, Esq.
The Inner Critic Coach™️
Founder + CEO of SoulTour

@taranicholle on FB | TW | IG | LI

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A couple of months back, I had a few weeks where lots of things were breaking around my house, and each one took a lot of time and money to repair. 

So I wasn’t at all surprised when my fancy new water dispenser stopped working, too. In fact, when it didn’t work immediately, I rolled my eyes and made a note to call for a new one. 

But that night, when Londyn walked in, she took off her shoes (just like Mister Rogers, as one does), washed her hands, grabbed a cup and went to get some water. 

1000% ignoring my protestations that the machine wasn’t working, Londyn pressed the lever and… out came a steady stream of water. 

*cue raised eyebrows on my part*

Then she did it again, twice that night. And every time she made the water machine work I tried to do it too… and still couldn’t make it work at all. Thought it was a fluke of her baby spiritual guru manifestation sorcery or something.

Then the next day, it happened again. I couldn’t make it work all day… and it worked for her, on demand, the first time she tried. 

So I stood there watching her. And trying to replicate her success. 

Ultimately I did. And when I finally got some water out I realized: I had been pressing just a tiny bit too hard.

I had been pressing the lever too hard. Working too hard. I had been efforting too much. 

If I just gave it a little bit less pressure, water streamed out. 

Lesson learned.

Don’t work so hard. 

And here’s the other lesson I learned: I had been expecting too little. 

See, the thing that was actually wrong with the water machine was that there was a tiny, 3 second delay between pressing the lever and the water coming out that Londyn had the patience to wait through… but I didn’t. 

And because I was primed to expect it to break (given the recent history of things breaking at home), I’d been giving up on pressing the lever just a millisecond too soon.

So here’s the moral of this little parable, Brilliant One…

When you’re working hard and not getting the results you want, the answer is not to work harder.

The answer is totally contrary to our cultural programming. 

The answer is two-fold: 

Effort less. 

And expect more. 

Effort less.

Expect more.  

Effort less. Work less. Stop believing the lie that you’re the Director of the Universe. You’re not. In fact, look back at the best things in your life right now… did they ALL come to you through back breaking work? Did any of them come to you through serendipity, grace, perfect-place/perfect-time moments or those moments when everything just lines up for you? 

That’s what I thought. 

Effort less.

And expect more.

In her book The Trance of Scarcity, my friend the artist and author Victoria Castle wrote something to this effect, and it was a Spiritual Mic-Drop for real: 

“We don’t get what we want. We get what we expect.” 

Expect to be stuck and you will be.

Expect to struggle and you will.

Expect things not to work, and they won’t. 

Chronically expect people to be shitty or incompetent… expect the other shoe to drop… and the Universe will accommodate your expectations.

On the other hand, if you expect love, money and golden opportunities to flow to you freely and easily… they will.

Expect to be in love with everyone and expect everyone to be in love with you, and they will.

Expect things to be easy for you, and they will.

Chronically expect everything to always work out for you and it will.

Now, please hear this: Elevating your expectations takes some time and practice. 

And your expectations on some subjects will be easier to elevate than others.

Like, if your family has been practicing the story that the struggle is real or that money doesn’t grow on trees or the story that you can’t trust people… it may take some time to rewire those thought habits into a more expansive, more easful, higher expectation relational template with the world around you and with your own desires, and dreams, and goals.

It takes some time. But you can do it. 

You can start by observing those around you who are already living and reaping the results of having elevated expectations like the ones you’re creating right now. 

Then you make a commitment to your own wholeness, liberation and joy. Don’t make a commitment to your 5 year action plan. Make a commitment to your wholeness, liberation and joy.

Then you decide to get ready and willing to set them old sad struggle stories down, take what feels like a risk and go where maybe no one you know has gone before: Into the realm of expecting more out of life. 

Requiring more our of life. 

Demanding more from this Universe. 

And along the way, you reflect over your life and connect the dots, remembering all the times things did work out for you and practicing that story instead of the bad feeling struggle version of your autobiography. 

And then moving forward, you take great care to notice all of your wins and your loved ones wins and revel in them… that’s how you learn to elevate your expectations and trust in pronoia: the Universal law that all things are collaborating and conspiring to benefit and bless you.

So. Here’s the question of the day….

What are you ready to start expecting? 

A word of caution: Be advised that when you expect more, you require more from this Universe, it will answer. And that will kickstart a domino effect of alignment in your life which means: any old struggle stories you tell will start to sound extra played-out and lame, in your own ears.

You might get sick of your own stories. 

Any disharmonies you’ve been tolerating will get super uncomfortable, until they leave your life or you let them go…

Your self-limiting patterns, low-vibe relationships and thxe old, disempowering drums you’ve been beating will start to chafe at you like some old, outgrown jeans, because they can’t come with you in the season you move into when you elevate your expectations.

Here are a couple of Pro Tips for elevating your expectations:

• As you write what you want to expect going forward, try not to reference your status quo reality, your current circumstances, your past limitations or lack or your past and present low expectations at all. Let all of that be irrelevant to the expectations you are creating.

• Don’t talk to the stingy, scared, sad sack people you know about what you’re doing. Don’t tell your complaint buddies you’ve decided to stop complaining and start expecting more. 

• Also don’t tell your struggle buddies: the ones who think there’s virtue in keeping a brutal calendar, or who think that if you don’t, the whole world could fall apart. 

         You know who I’m talking about. 

• Be as general or specific as feels good to you. You can write about general feelings you’re ready to start expecting, or you can write about very specific experiences you’re ready to expect down to what you want to be wearing when you’re doing them so long as it feels good to you to write about that. 

  ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​If and when it stops feeling good, stop writing or write more generally.

• As you raise your current expectations, don’t let your Inner Critic judge you for your low, past expectations.  If you get the urge to judge your past or present expectations, smile inwardly and choose to see it as a treasure that you’ve discovered a new little tendril of self-judgment to release, and keep it moving. 

Head up + heart out,

Tara-Nicholle Kirke, MA, Esq.
The Inner Critic Coach™️
Founder + CEO of SoulTour

@taranicholle on FB | TW | IG | LI

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Answering your callings is not exhausting or depleting.

Refusing them — resisting them — is.

When you answer your callings, you begin to fulfill your Sacred Contract and purpose for coming to this planet, which is to learn some sacred lessons; to turn your thoughts into tangible things and to live in freedom, growth and joy, for the upliftment of everyone who watches your life unfold.

As part of that Contract, you were assured to have access to everything you’d need to do what you came here to do.

All the time.

All the energy.

All the money.

All the connections you need.

(You might not get everything you want exactly when you want it, but you will have access to everything you need to fulfill your Sacred Contract, exactly when you need it.)

The more you refuse your callings — and real talk: we all do at first — the more depleted and disconnected you feel. Because you are literally refusing to connect with and receive from Source.

But the more willingly you answer your callings to be, do, have or create whatever you came here to be, do, have or create, the more energized, charged up and inspired — fueled by Source, Spirit and All That Is — you’ll become as you go along.

This is where pronoia comes in.

You know what paranoia is, right?

The idea that everything in the world is out to get you?

Pronoia is the opposite of paranoia.

Pronoia is the principle that every person, place, thing, resource and atom in this Universe is collaborating and conspiring to bless you.

If this seems implausible to you, let me just insert one quick thing.

You are a powerful storyteller.

All humans are.

We make meaning of our lives by telling stories about what has, is and will happen to us, and why and how it’ll happen.

Through a phenomenon known as confirmation bias, we also have the power to find and even create evidence for any story we tell.

So if you choose to tell and believe and live into the story that the world is a hard, cold, scarce, harsh place and you never get what you need?

That will become your reality.

And if you choose to believe that every atom in this Universe is conspiring and collaborating for your highest good?

If you choose to tell the story that everything is always working out for you?

Then that will be your experience of life.

Up to you. 

Head up + heart out,

Tara-Nicholle Kirke, MA, Esq.
The Inner Critic Coach™️
Founder + CEO of SoulTour

@taranicholle on FB | TW | IG | LI

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I saw a meme on the Internet the other day that said: 

“The calling of your soul is not a conference call.”

That’s what I like to call a spiritual mic-drop.

For years I’ve been telling my students to stop asking other people for their opinions on whether you should answer YOUR soul’s calling… because other people can’t hear your calling. 

They can’t feel the bliss you feel when you get that inspired idea for a business or a book or a movement or a move around the world. They can’t feel that energy and expansion, because it’s not for them. It’s for you.

So other people ain’t even qualified to have an opinion on whether you should do your calling, because it’s not their calling. It’s not their assignment. 

It’s not their sacred contract.

So they may not be aware of or have access to the same inner and outer resources that will be available to you to do what you came here to do. What you’re called to do in this season.

More importantly…other people may feel some kind of way (like: threatened, triggered, intimidated, afraid or like their relationship with you might change) about you answering your callings. And that may inform the advice they give when you ask.

Here’s the truth: 

When you share your big dreams and inspired ideas with others, you may be seeking support and connection and collaboration… or your Inner Critic might be magnetizing in someone who will collaborate with your fear and tell you whatever you need to hear to retreat on the brink of your breakthrough, reverse course, stay safe and stay small.

Only you can know what you’re going for when you ask for opinions: encouragement or an excuse to stay small.

One way you can know what you’re seeking is this: You can predict what someone in your life is going to say about your idea, before you even tell them what the idea is, almost 100 percent of the time. 

If you know they’ll encourage you, the impulse to ask their opinion might be coming from your Wise Inner Being. 

But if you know they’ll discourage, naysay or scare you out of taking action, the impulse to seek their approval might be a self-sabotaging impulse of your very own Inner Critic. 

For example, I have a number of friends and clients who call me every single time they have an out-of-the-box idea that is exhilarating, that sparks bliss for them and that they really want to give themselves permission to do… but that also feels scary.

Because they know that 100% of the time, I’ll encourage them to make the leap. 

I’ll probably have some substantive thoughts about it, too, but I’ll almost always encourage people to do the things that light them up… and I’ll help them re-assess the risk, usually downward. Our neurobiology is wired to make us think our goals are much riskier to pursue than they almost ever are.

So let me give you a handy rule of thumb:

Anytime you ask someone for their opinion on your dreams or goals, their advice will be infused with whatever their greatest fear is… the thing that person most wants to avoid.

The thing I most dread in this life is that any of us die with unfulfilled potential and dreams. 

So when people ask me for my opinion, it will always be encouragement to fulfill your potential, dreams, unique spirit and personality. 

But if you ask someone who is afraid of running out of money…

Or you ask someone who is afraid of being criticized…

Or you ask someone who is afraid of looking foolish or making a public mistake…

Then that’s what their advice to you will be based on. 

So.

Incubate your dreams for a while in your own precious heart before you expose them to the fears of others.

And when the time comes to seek support or collaboration, I urge you… be careful who you ask. 

Head up + heart out,

Tara-Nicholle Kirke, MA, Esq.
The Inner Critic Coach™️
Founder + CEO of SoulTour

@taranicholle on FB | TW | IG | LI

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In my mind, my body, my life and my relationships, it is “snap together” season. Divine Order is being established and I am aligning to it in every single area of my life, faster and faster every day.

It feels so damn good. 

And… it requires a lot of me.

A lot of showing up.

A lot of being “on”.

And that is requiring me to be more flexible than normal on some of the firm boundaries I used to have around my time, so that I can go all in on the things that matter the most to me.

So I’ve been doing a lot of my own inner work lately on the subject of time scarcity and time consciousness: the way we experience and relate to TIME. 

One word keeps coming to my mind as I feel for what does and does not work for me, as I experiment with new ways of relating to time:

Zerrissenheit. 

Zerrissenheit is a German word Anne Morrow Lindbergh uses in her beautiful classic Gifts from the Sea, and it means “torn-to-pieces-hood”. 

Zerissenheit is that fragmented feeling of being pulled in many directions and, ultimately, pulled apart. 

But Lindbergh also suggests that there’s a way in which you can live a life in which you extend and radiate energy out in many ways, purposefully, and also at the same time cultivate and maintain a peaceful core, a peaceful center. She uses a wheel as an example: spokes radiating out in every direction from a still, solid, steady core. 

Lindbergh says that occasional, intentional, regular solitude is the antidote to Zerrissenheit.

An interlude of alone time, an Inner Retreat, every day, every week, every month… every quarter… and maybe a longer interlude of alone time once a \year. 

Solitude gives us some time to rediscover ourselves and replenish our inner resources so we can maintain that solid, still, powerful core as we extend our life and energy out in all of the directions our callings and passions require us to.

Solitude allows us to return to center. Return to ground. Recalibrate. Tap back into our natural strength and power. Reconnect to Source. 

Solitude lets us naturally reset back to our own inner clock and pace. 

Solitude invites our own Inner Guidance to speak and gives us the energy and quiet to listen.

Solitude reminds us why we do the things we do in the first place. 

In solitude, we recoup the energy we normally are investing every which way, and in every direction and pour that into ourselves, receive that back from ourselves.

And this solitude is necessary, regularly, even for busy, successful people. Even for entrepreneurs. Even for those who teach and care for others. Even for Moms. 

Especially for Moms. 

But don’t get it twisted: Solitude is not a chore or a “should”. It is nourishment to your soul and spirit and nervous system. 

Catch this principle: Solitude is air and food and water… not luxury. 

Let no one convince you otherwise… not even yourself.

I invite you to find a way to nourish yourself with a little solitude… a little inner retreat… a little “me time” every day, every week, every quarter… and beyond. 

And just as important: I invite you to stop explaining why, justifying yourself or apologizing for the solitude you need to let your true, sacred self come fully online.

Head up + heart out,

Tara-Nicholle Kirke, MA, Esq.
The Inner Critic Coach™️
Founder + CEO of SoulTour

@taranicholle on FB | TW | IG | LI

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Marcus Aurelius said “it is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is in your power.”

Ram Dass said “during life, keep death on your shoulder and identify with your soul.”

Meaning: Engage fully in your life but never ever ever forget this thing the gospel song says: 

This world is not your home. 

You are eternal soul and spirit in this meat-covered skeleton for a season. 

A long, lavish, luxurious season… a wild and precious season (to paraphrase the poet Mary Oliver) but just for a season nonetheless.

So, knowing just how singular, wild and precious this life is… ask yourself these questions: 

What are you ready to stop participating in?

What are you ready to prune and release so fresh and new can grow and flow in? 

Are you ready to see that you have the capacity to take in the fullness of life… now? 

What would that full-capacity, maximum awake, maximum alive life look like in your wildest dreams, if someone was making a magical movie about your life? 

DO NOT justify or explain why it’s unrealistic or could never really happen. I’m trying to train you to overrule and override your Inner Critic instead of overruling and overriding the desires of your heart. 

How would it feel to be all in on your life? 

What would be possible for you if you could get there? 

What would it take for you to feel all in on your life? 

What’s the natural next step? 

Head up + heart out,

P.S.: One more question: What step would you take if you knew for sure that everything was always working out for you? 

Tara-Nicholle Kirke, MA, Esq.
The Inner Critic Coach™️
Founder + CEO of SoulTour

@taranicholle on FB | TW | IG | LI

Sign up to receive Transformation Tuesday in your inbox, here.

I’ve been having the time of my life teaching some super-short Spiritual Strategy Sessions on Instagram and TikTok lately. (TikTok is where the 1 minute versions live.)

I thought for this week’s Transformation Tuesday, I’d share some recent favorites with you.

Note that you don’t have to have an Instagram or TikTok account to watch these … just click the link below… but if you ARE on these platforms, follow me there!

• How to say an enlightened hell no

Watch on Instagram | Watch on TikTok

• The parable of the water dispenser 

Watch on Instagram | Watch on TikTok

• A soothing mini mantra

Watch on Instagram | Watch on TikTok

Head up + heart out,

Tara-Nicholle Kirke, MA, Esq.
The Inner Critic Coach™️
Founder + CEO of SoulTour

@taranicholle on FB | TW | IG | LI

Sign up to receive Transformation Tuesday in your inbox, here.

Today, his life matters.

We shed tears.

We exhale.

We grieve, as mothers. As humans. As a collective.

We give thanks.

And we appreciate the truth — in this moment — of these words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

Head up + heart out,

Tara-Nicholle Kirke, MA, Esq.
The Inner Critic Coach™️
Founder + CEO of SoulTour

@taranicholle on FB | TW | IG | LI

Sign up to receive Transformation Tuesday in your inbox, here.

NOTE: The audio of this post has a lot in it that the text does not. You might want to listen, even if you usually read. Carry on!
 
1) Write very imperfect or even very shitty rough drafts with all the thoughts you think you want to convey and the thoughts that connect each thought to the next. 
 
At this stage, your goal is not to write something good. Your goal is not even to write complete, intelligible sentences.  You’re only doing it right if you get the draft out of your head very rapidly and it’s very imperfect or even bad.
 
(hat tip: Anne Lamott)
 
2) Cut the first 30% of what you wrote. Or 40%. Give people credit for being intelligent, but don’t assume they have time to (or need to) read every single thought that led you to the real meat of what you’re writing about. 
 
3) Cut one paragraph of every 3 and one or 5 sentences from every paragraph. Give your readers credit. People are smart. And they are beings of soul and spirit. Soul and spirit seeks out resonance, so anytime you can describe the inside of their experience or provide new language for a real experience they are already having, your readers will tune in to it. 
 
4) Read the whole thing out loud and edit for conversational tone and flow.
 
5) Don’t ask for feedback from people who are not either (a) paid, professional editors or (b) prolifically publishing writers.
 
6) Hit publish just a little bit before you think it’s perfect. 
 
If it’s perfect you waited too long.
 
7) If you get an inspired idea, a Divine Download, or a golden thread… whatever you want to call it, write until you’re empty. Even if you have to stay up all night. That’s how the Divine speaks through you.
 
8) Cultivate a morning free-writing practice that invites inspired ideas, Divine Downloads and golden threads of inspiration.
 
That is all.
 
Okay, that’s probably not all, but it’s enough for now (see #6).
(9) Oh, yeah… add a story to the top of whatever you wrote. 

Head up + heart out,
 

P.S.: I’ve read dozens of books about writing, but two were formative in my own journey to being a prolific, published and radically liberated writer: Ann Lamott’s Bird by Bird on mindset, and Steven Pressfield’s Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It, for strategy.

P.P.S.: With anything beautiful, impactful, blissful or profitable you ever want to create, about 20% of what you need is the right strategy. 

The other 80% is mindset.

Tara-Nicholle Kirke, MA, Esq.
The Inner Critic Coach™️
Founder + CEO of SoulTour

@taranicholle on FB | TW | IG | LI

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