Julie Tallard Johnson
  • Home
  • Writing
    • Writer's Sherpa
    • Writing Circles
    • The Initiated Writer™
    • Write by the Lake
  • Online Courses
    • Be The Cause of Your Life
    • The Initiation Course
  • Books
  • Counseling
    • Counseling Q&A
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
    • Payments
  • Home
  • Writing
    • Writer's Sherpa
    • Writing Circles
    • The Initiated Writer™
    • Write by the Lake
  • Online Courses
    • Be The Cause of Your Life
    • The Initiation Course
  • Books
  • Counseling
    • Counseling Q&A
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
    • Payments

Julie's Blog

The Humble Writer

11/20/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Humility is one of my superpowers. This mention of course is a contradiction, much like the guy who got the humility award at work and wore his badge of acknowledgment for weeks. However, what I mean here is we all have this superpower, inherently, if we choose to access and develop it. 
 
Humility as a writer can go a very, very long way.
 
Humility was not one of my strongest qualities until a few years ago when I started working for the UW, Madison as an educator and for the local paper as a reporter. I also joined Al Anon, which took what little humility I did have to attend. 
 
Up till a few years ago, (excluding the first 10 years of my vocation as a Social Worker in MPLS) I have been on my own. Since 1989, I’ve been my own boss, in private practice or hired as a private consultant or educator. In that time, I have run successful practices in Minnesota and Wisconsin, trained internationally, authored 11 books; taught in several different settings, and have written freelance for magazines and papers. (For a couple years I even did a quarterly article as a psychic for a national teen magazine, Astrogirl, where I wrote predictions on the stars. Surprised?) I pretty much made my own hours. Feedback came from those who attended my trainings and workshops but never from someone who would be considered a boss or supervisor.  
 
Working at the UW, writing for the local paper and attending Al Anon offered many lessons in humility I could not have gotten elsewhere or on my own.
 
I have always been open to feedback, guidance and even criticism from publishers and editors. I can attribute my writerly improvements to taking on their feedback and integrating it into my work as a writer.
 
Still, I was on my own to do what I wanted with their suggestions.
 
When it came to working for the UW I was unversed at being supervised. My first evaluation was like a foreign language to me. And it disrupted my inner status quo. I have had several lessons in humility writing for the local paper, some which come through simply sitting in on the monthly board meetings, to being accountable to the editor and readers of the paper. I have only developed my skills as an educator and reporter because I have had feedback in areas where I needed to improve. Al Anon is a practice of humility every time I attend a meeting where I listen to stories about our shared humanity. We’re all just fumbling through this life – nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing to hide. 
 
Increasing my humility has made me a better human being and most certainly a better writer. 

As a writer, humility lets you learn from others; gives you an inherent willingness to learn and grow in your writerly skills. Humility as a writer includes:  
 
  • listening to the Other.
  • being nonresistant to feedback.  Don’t take it as an affront to who you are as a person instead as a way to be better, write better. Take ownership of what is yours and move on. 
  • An openness to being influenced by others, always.
  • Receptivity to your limits and flaws 
  • Listening for the bigger story (it’s not about you)
  • Being vulnerable in your writing; taking risks 
 
Humility shows us how everything is connected to everything and everyone else. Our actions and choices are never isolated. 
 
Our heroes in our stories all have humility. Some more prominent than others. The villain I can reassure you, does not. 
 
Humility begets serenity – a foundation to Al Anon.   I’m still teaching through the UW. I am still writing for the local paper (as of this week anyway), and I’m still a proud member of Al Anon. I hope to strengthen this superpower till I can walk anywhere, serenely and joyfully, writing my merry way. 

​I wish the same for you. 
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    All Write Wednesdays: World into Word

    ​All Write Wednesdays is a blog about living the writer's life. Everything in our lives is material. Read all of the All Write Wednesdays posts. 

    Zero Point Blog

    The Zero Point blog shares my teachings about living your life from the inside out and becoming the cause rather than the effect of your life. Read all of the Zero Point posts. 

    Support this blog

    A CUPPA JAVA for JULIE Your support helps keep this Sherpa writing and helping others. Please consider a donation.
    Donate
    Author and counselor Julie Tallard Johnson
    Julie  lives in Mount Horeb WI where she walks her dogs through Stewart Park, gardens her corner lot, attends yoga at Perennial  Yoga in Fitchburg and waits for spring 11 months of the year. She is author of The Zero Point Agreement & ten other books.  She also writes for the local Mount Horeb paper and in her free time listens in on others' conversations at Sjolinds.  

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Picture
Home | Writing | Books | Counseling | Blog | About | Contact  -  ​Subscribe to receive my blog by email
©2019 Julie Tallard Johnson. The Writing Sherpa
​All rights reserved. Admin