In life, it’s easy to get bogged down with all the things you have to do and all the things you haven’t done. It’s easy to lose site of what all the many things you have done and what is going well.

But the chances are that you’ve done a lot right and you deserve to give yourself some credit. So try this – name five things you did right over the last week. Maybe it’s as simple as going for a run even though it was dark or making a phone call that you dreaded. Doing this can put things into perspective and give you more confidence that you will do a lot more right next week.

This applies to writing as well. When you’re stuck and feeling that your writing isn’t going well, try taking a step back and asking yourself what is good about it. Is there a sentence that you like? Are you happy with the lead? Is the ending good? Is there at least a section that you are satisfied with? Once you see all the things that are going right, you can more easily focus on what isn’t and maybe you’ll get more of an insight into why so you can turn it around.