Yesterday, I signed up for my first writing course. It is an online course being taught by the awesome Alice Bradley of FinSlippy fame.

I have been a big FinSlippy fangirl  for quite a while now and so, when Alice made the announcement about her course yesterday, I jumped at it!

And then I went and caught up on a whole bunch of her blog posts that I haven't read yet.

I didn't have to go too far back to find a post that made me feel like I got hit with a hammer in the head...

Alice posted this video on her blog and introduced me to the genius that is Jay Smooth, aka illdoctrine.com.

I swear he took all of these thoughts directly out of my head!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TpmJgSfZ_8[/youtube]

I don't care what you do. Be it a writer, an artist, a blogger, a stay-at-home mama, or you are working 40+ hours a week at a job you love/hate, we all have issues with the little hater.

I've written about my little hater before. She likes to come and see me from time to time and no matter how hard I try to exile her from my mind, she finds another way in. Lately her hate spewing is not so much about my parenting, but more so about ME. It's about my writing, it's about my purpose in life, it's about what I am contributing to my community and what will be my legacy in this world (besides the two amazing little humans I have helped create who are going to ROCK it!!).

And as much as I HATE the little hater, I think in some way I need her. Since watching Jay's video (about 5 times already!) I have really been thinking a lot about what that voice is saying to me and why? What is it that am I missing in all of this?

And then it hit me...

Jay talks about being a perfectionist in the video and I get that, I am one too, but beyond that, I love instant gratification. I am an impulse buyer, a watch it now even though I have a PVR television show watcher and a compulsive email checker. This is probably why I like Twitter so much. When I tweet something brilliant, people respond to me immediately. ;)

As a writer though, I think I really need to get over this. I need to realize that with any kind of creative outlet there will always be with those who love what you do, those who don't, those who will shout it from the rooftops and those who will silently enjoy it. And the trolls, there will always be BIG haters too. It is the price paid for putting our words, thoughts, and ideas on the interwebs for all to see.

Ultimately, I also need to remember who I am writing for. In a recent #blognow chat on Twitter, the awesome Tanis from The Redneck Mommy said it best.

[tweet https://twitter.com/redneckmommy/status/245693554645663744 align='center']

Moral of the story. Sometimes the little hater in our head in a necessary evil that helps us to figure out what really matters. We can give in to that little mean voice or we can use it to grow, learn and keep on going!

I choose the latter.

And Phase One of my learning and growth starts with getting my writing butt kicked into high gear by Alice!

Natasha~

P.S. I am VERY happy to have all of you as my audience and I do so love when you leave comments too. Even a little one is nice! {Thank you}