Hey Reader!

I was born in Toronto, which means I have the great privilege of holding citizenship in two different countries. 🇨🇦 🇺🇸

According to Canadian law, my kids can inherit my citizenship. There are forms to fill out and identity documents to collect, you send them all to some office in Ottawa and hey presto! You get a Certificate of Canadian Citizenship.

It’s pretty handy to have nationality options, especially these days. So you might think that I jumped on this years ago and got them their shiny citizenship documents. 🏆

Sadly, you would be wrong.

It’s not that I haven’t tried - I’ve sent the package in twice; each time there were problems that needed fixing. And then they needed info from my birth certificate, and it turned out that I didn’t have a copy, and then it was a complicated process getting a new one and, and, and…

And I’ve been worrying about this whole thing for YEARS 😫 and I’m still not finished.

I’ve been a champion procrastinator for decades. By which I mean a gold medal, top of the podium, national-anthem-inspiring queen of doing it later. Often much, much later.

I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise to discover that procrastination is just another sneaky outlet for anxiety. When I’m scared or stressed or uneasy I retreat to my vast list of Things I’d Rather Be Doing and abandon that one thing that would actually move the needle on my peace of mind. ☮️

I'm slowly getting better about attacking the thing I want with all my heart to ignore, whether that’s spending an hour on the phone with the insurance company or finally sending my aunt a much-overdue letter.

It feels so good when it’s finally done, which then begs the question - why didn’t I accomplish this task weeks (months? years?) ago?

Because there was something about that task that triggered my fear, or shame, or self-doubt. 🙀

I don’t put off writing newsletters very often because we’re generally on friendly terms. But I certainly know plenty of people who would rather get between fighting pit bulls than sit down to a blank page and try to write a cheery, persuasive missive to their audience.

I get it. It might trigger all of YOUR feelings of doubt and shame and any other uglies that hide in your subconscious, ready to jump out at the most inopportune times.

But! Here at Newsletter Therapy we do not stop because we’re uncomfortable!

We soldier on, practicing, practicing, practicing, because that is what makes us better at things. 💪

I’m not really a therapist, but if I were I might tell you that this is the time to relax your nervous system, do some slow, deep breathing 🧘🏻 and remind yourself that you are smart, you are competent, you are good at many things.

And that your email does not have to be perfect.

In fact, it’s probably better if it’s not. Because the point of the newsletter is to make yourself visible, quirks and all. 👻 It’s a chance to show people who you are and why working with you is different from working with any other person out there in the world.

Perfectly polished prose does not send that message.

Keep practicing being as you as you can - that’s going to make writing a whole lot easier.

Yours in keeping it real,

Julia

​The Tragically Hip believe that patriotism includes unfiltered social commentary, and so does this email. Forward it to someone who stands for something.