The Reluctant Writer

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I have a reluctant writer. He is an awesome student in many ways, but still, writing is not and never has been, his favorite way of expressing himself.

The problem comes in when I, the mentor, want the Scholar to be and excellent writer! I begin to worry (fear) he will not be a great writer and so start to feel panic (fear again) about failing to inspire him to love writing. This fear begins to permeate my thoughts. I've discovered that when fear begins to enter the picture, my conveyor-belt past begins to edge forward and want to take over the situation... literally! I want to fix it and I want to fix it now!

However, the Leadership Education way is different. It is not fear that leads to force. It is secure that leads to inspire!


"But, how do I do that?" you ask.

It is hard. I've been asking myself the same question. So, we had a Mentor Meeting with my son and discussed our "fears" that he would not be proficient at writing for his future. Since we have an open and loving relationship with this son, he then expressed how he feels his writing is good enough and that it feels like an assignment to him (which is what I had turned it into).

Hmmm...so we see he is not inspired to want to write the essay assignments I had given him. Looking back, I'm laughing at myself that I didn't see it sooner. Of course he is not inspired by my fear-based assignment! He needs a secure-based inspiration.

Today we sat down to discuss the types of writings that inspire him. I did also instruct him on the requirements that may be placed on him in the future, maybe in a career situation or his own businesses aspirations.

What kinds of things might he need to write? Advertising? Proposals of his ideas? Responses to inquiries about his business? Etc.

What skills does he need to adequately get his ideas on paper or electronic media? Punctuation? Spelling? Grammar? Etc.

So, what can he do to get those skills?

He decided that he wants to go back to a journaling approach where he records his ideas and interesting things that he learns about. OK. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but a step in the right direction, back to secure-based inspiration!