The Journey of Learning to Ignore the Imagined Judgement of Others

And how the Observer Effect at a macro level applied to self-reflection can be such a powerful and debilitating phenomenon

Photo by Jonas Verstuyft

I’m writing and publishing every day because I want to find my writers voice.

But by using this platform I’m also able to see, daily, exactly how what I write is received.

And it’s really tricky to not put too much weight on that as a metric of the quality and even value of what I’ve written.

But what’s far worse is that it’s really tricky to ignore that imagined audience when I write. And by not putting that imagined audience (that’s you by the way) to one side, they (you) start to weigh heavily in my thoughts. I can feel them (you) sitting right beside me, right now, not-clapping and not-reading what I write.

What I’m trying to do, I think, is practice being in the zone where writing flows through me. Where I am one with the muse from whom my pen name is taken. Although “Muse” is of course a double meaning and I hope to inspire you to your own flow. … That’s not even true, actually, at least I don’t think it is, that I chose the name “Muse” for you .. but it sounds good doesn’t it?!? Please tell me, I need to know.