With only two days into National Novel Writing Month, I was ready to quit.  Self-doubt kicked down my door and blasted my self-confidence all over the wall.  What a mess I was!  And how did I get in this state?  Simple:  I started looking at what other people were posting for their word counts.  I've been off to a slow start – no, the reasons aren't important.  But when I saw that some of my friends had written at least 1,000 words and others were merrily churning out almost 3,000 words, I just felt soooooo discouraged.  I had only managed a mere 628 words of total garbage on the first day of NaNoWriMo.  There was no hope for me at all.

Or was there?  Why did I decide to participate in NaNo this year? Was I really doing this for me, to kickstart my writing?  Or was I unconsciously thinking it was a competition – that I had to meet or beat the word counts other people said they did?  A big "ah hah" moment here for this writer.

I committed to NaNo for myself, to establish a habit of writing every day no matter what. So whether I write ten words or 1,000 words, I have the personal satisfaction of knowing that I am achieving my goal.