Nervous but excited

So I’ve got this new assignment to work on, and I’m super excited about it.

I’m also super nervous. I’ve got some big shoes to fill, following in the wake of some extremely popular work that’s come before. My inner critic keeps telling me, “They’re gonna hate it! Everybody’s gonna say ‘this isn’t anywhere near as good as that previous thing that everybody loves.'”

Maybe that’s true. But then again, maybe they won’t say that. Maybe they’ll like it. I won’t know until they see it. Which means I need to get to work on it. And I’ve got a great editor who’ll tell me if I need to make it better.

I just need to tell my inner critic to go take a hike. I’m going to do the best work I can, and use the nervousness to spur me to make sure that what I turn in is as polished and good as I can make it. Then it’ll be up to the readers to decide whether I did my job.