I Am Seriously Overthinking This 🔪

The other day I spent 2 hours trying to decide on a curtain for my bathroom.

TWO HOURS!

Do I want a cafe-style curtain, so the bottom of the window is covered but I can still have the top open with a screen so all of the smells go out and no one has to be embarrassed when they come over? (By “no one” I mean me, and yes I am thirteen.)

Or am I finally in the “expensive wooden blind” income bracket? You know, the ones that are super wide and luxurious and all-white, like some guy named Dickie and his wife, Babs, would have on their sun porch in Charleston?

Actually, wait, no—those are plantation shutters. PLANTATION SHUTTERS ARE SEXY. Oh man, I’ve always wanted some of those. They’re the mack daddy of window treatments. Nothing gives “my haircut costs more than your rent” more than plantation shutters.

Then again, wood is probably a terrible idea in a bathroom. But maybe that’s what faux wood is for. Will faux wood look cheap? Will faux wood look faux? How many times can I write “faux” without it getting weird?

What about a top down, bottom up blind? Those are a thing, too. Or would a roman shade be better, or will it get moldy? But if I get either blinds or shades, I can’t open them to get air in, or everyone will see my butt from the road and forever talk about the scar I have from that one time when I sat on a flaming-hot flat iron when I lived in the basement of this lady’s townhouse in grad school. (I was going salsa dancing, I was in a hurry, it was nine o’clock at night, I WAS STILL YOUNG AND WILLING TO DO THINGS IN PUBLIC AT NINE O’CLOCK AT NIGHT.)

You know what I did after all that??????????

I bought a dumb little $28 curtain from Wayfair. The cafe-style one I was going to buy two months ago, but then didn’t, because I needed time to (OVER) think it, and in the meantime have been hanging my robe across the window like some kind of cockroach.

You know what else I’ve been overthinking?

How to get 1,000 pinecones off my lawn. Like, okay, I have gone out there with a rake and I have managed to make a few teeny piles but then I’m always like “there must be a better way,” and then I walk around picking them up one-by-one, and then I am like “this is NOT a better way” so then I get on Google and I search for “pinecone picker upper” and then I find items like the “Zozen Nut Gatherer” and I have to have a serious talk with myself before pushing “add to cart” and then let it sit there for another four days in an open tab while meanwhile the pinecones are still building up on the lawn and I am still in here typing and they are still staring at me out the window and, speaking of cockroaches, that’s exactly what they look like all over the lawn.

How have I stooped so low?

The pinecones remind me of when you’re having one of those rare “I’m a good samaritan” days and you gather up all your old clothes to go to the donation bin…and then the pile just sits there for months. Eventually, you put them in a contractor bag (big steps!) and then you drag the bag to the garage—and then it sits there for months.

I cannot let these pinecones sit there for months. The neighbors are judging me. Plus, I just spent a small fortune on cottage-style flower window boxes that I intend to painstakingly install with all the wrong tools over the course of three hundred and seven hours, so I can’t have pretty flower boxes and cockroach pinecones all over the place.

What kind of person would I be then?

So basically what I am saying is that I overthink things all the time, especially if wallpaper is involved, but honestly it’s all okay because worst case scenario, my house just looks like shit.

But you know what I am good at not overthinking???

Things that cost me money in my business.

Things like newsletters.

(You knew it was coming, didn’t you?!)

I’ve been reading through a pile of reader emails lately, and one of the #1 things that everyone’s saying is hard for them???

Overthinking (the hell out of) their newsletter. 🔪 Whomp, whomp, whommmpppppp.

Things you are worried about:

• Not having a content strategy or process ⚙️
• Not sounding like some washed-up regurgitated guru 🤮
• Looking desperate when you say things like “check out my latest blog post!” or “check out my latest podcast! 🙏
• Sounding authentic and not like you are too much or too little or too boring or too stale 🥱
• Being a hella perfectionist and laboring over every detail to the point of total inaction ❌
• Guilting yourself for writing for a few weeks and then dropping the ball and not being able to stay consistent, ever 🪩
• Feeling inspired to actually sit down and do the damn thing 🪄
• Making the TIME to sit down and do the damn thing when things get busy ⏰
• Finding your voice, that elusive sonofabitch 🙊
• And being able to sit down and write with confidence, flair, authority, and chutzpah 💥

GOOD NEWS: THIS IS ALL TOTALLY NORMAL.

Better news?

I can help you get the traction you need, grow your business the fun way, and start a newsletter you love (that will never feel like a chore).

It’s called The Crowbar Writing Workshop, my signature workshop for writing newsletters, essays, and emails with spunk, guts, and gravitas.

It’s on-demand, so you can start today. I’ll show you how to find your voice, stop sounding like a washed-up guru, and write the kind of newsletter people actually wait for.

And you will get the momentum & revived enthusiasm you’ve been hoping for…plus the relief that comes by not overthinking it.

Unless we’re talking about curtains.

I cannot wait to see what you write. 🎉

TO ENDING OVERTHINKING + STARTING A NEWSLETTER YOU LOVE. ❤️