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Last week, we started to explore a fear that haunts many writers, which is the fear that they aren\u2019t good enough.\n\nOr they think they aren\u2019t enough. I hope you've explored the root of this fear and other fears that hold you back as a writer. I hope you're ready to move past the fears.\n\nInstead of worrying, wondering, or fearing you aren\u2019t good enough to write, you\u2019re going to do something about it. You\u2019re going to be a better writer.\n\nFor the next few weeks, we\u2019re going to introduce, review, and practice some things we can do to improve, so that we\u2019re getting better all the time.\n\nErnest Hemingway said, \u201cWe are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.\u201d In other words, we'll always be growing and changing as writers. When we have a beginner's mindset\u2014when we see ourselves as an apprentice\u2014we can continue to learn. Even those who feel confident in their writing skills can discover room for growth. We are all apprentices capable of becoming better writers.\nBelieve You Can Change\nIt sounds so simple, but any writer can get trapped in the belief they are stuck where they are in a kind of personal stasis\u2014they assume their writing skills and ability are finite and unchangeable.\nThe beginner\u2019s fixed mindset\nThis fixed mindset can haunt the insecure writer who feels he is trapped in mediocrity, unable to evolve and improve. He believes he'll never be good enough to submit his work to a journal or agent.\n\nHe believes he wasn\u2019t born with that gift of writing, so there\u2019s only so far he can go. He settles into the space he feels he\u2019s allowed to occupy and sort of gives up.\nThe experienced writer\u2019s fixed mindset\nThe thing is, this static mentality\u2014this fixed mindset\u2014can also plague the more experienced writer who\u2019s found some degree of success. He settles into a comfort zone, seeing that he can consistently turn out material at about the same level of quality and readers continue to respond with enthusiasm.\n\nWhy change? Why grow? "Why fix what ain't broke?" he thinks. So he writes without stretching himself, satisfied with how his writing life has unfolded and where it\u2019s taken him. He sees no need to grow beyond this.\nBoth writers, stuck\nI'm glad for those who have reached goals and arrived at some level of success. Congratulations. But I confess...I hope to encourage those writers to believe they, too, can get even better and write even more challenging and captivating projects, whatever they may be.\n\nSo wherever you find yourself on this spectrum, I\u2019m going to try to change your mind and your mindset.\n\nIf you feel you weren\u2019t born with the writing gene and you believe have no hope of improving, I\u2019m telling you, it\u2019s time to learn about\u2014and even test\u2014the growth mindset.\n\nIf you\u2019ve built publishing credits and produced an impressive portfolio of work\u2014if you\u2019ve sold books and hit bestseller lists\u2014you, too, can improve. You\u2019ve been received well, but you can be an even better writer.\n\nBecause we all can.\n\nNone of us is stuck or static.\nEmbrace the Growth Mindset\nIf you\u2019ve been told only some people are natural born writers who emerged into the world with some kind of supernatural artistic gifts, that\u2019s a fixed mindset, and the fixed mindset causes us to slam a door that was actually standing wide open to us.\n\nThis belief is supported by plenty of outliers we can point to\u2014people for whom writing does seem easy, whose work astounds.\n\nBut writing skills can be learned and writers\u2014even so-called natural-born writers, if they exist\u2014are not locked into one level of greatness. None of us needs to feel stuck, yet many of us cling to the fixed mindset. \u201cOh, that\u2019s not for me. I'm not a great writer. I can\u2019t do that.\u201d\nEverything Is "Figureoutable"\nThe growth mindset reflects reality.\n\nSomeone with a growth mindset says everything is "figureoutable." Marie Forleo uses this word\u2014this phrase\u2014in her videos and attributes it to her mother. It\u2019s a fun and freeing attitude toward life and work.