Hello, and welcome to The Cherry Post.

I'm Becca and this is my substack on overcoming self doubt, wrangling ADHD and becoming a working creative.

So why am I here and what can you expect?

First things first, let's get acquainted. I’m Becca and you can find out more about me here.

I have wanted to write more for a long time. To be a writer? I’m not sure. But definitely to write. To share my thoughts and feelings. 

I’m sure at school the teachers thought I may do something involved with writing. As they did about most girls who liked to read and did well academically. In fact, I did have aspirations to be a lawyer at one point… although this was influenced entirely by watching LA Law and a desire to strut around in a power suit and high heels, being taken very seriously by all I encountered. This was the 1990’s though, a different time and what feels like a foreign country. Heck, maybe even a foreign planet. Now I’m not often found out of a jeans/sweater combo and the thought of a power suit makes me shudder.

I have dabbled with sharing my writing in the past. Instagram used to be the home for that. But not anymore, Instagram with its countless updates and quest to stomp out any and all competition doesn’t feel like a good place to share now. The algorithm means I see little of what I want and instead every time I open the app I’m met with a torrent of Ads and copious overwhelming noise. My brain is pretty noisy already, it doesn’t need more. 

I felt sad for a long time about Instagram. Hoping that they would decide to return to their photo roots. But, as with humans — you can’t change others, only yourself. So it’s time for new pastures. Having spent some time on Substack, reading the work of other creatives here. It feels like a nice place to be. A quieter, more gentle place to be.

I began thinking about sharing here last Autumn, when Substack started to seem like a viable alternative to Instagram — but self doubt held me back. ‘Who’s really going to be interested in what I have to say’ that mean inner critic chirps. Like many of those with ADHD, perfectionism has been something I have struggled with for most of my life. Although my flavour of perfectionism has, more often than not, had me frozen. Not taking action, the fear that the finished item will not live up to the perfect vision I have created in my head. A defeated perfectionist if you will. I mean why bother starting if you know the end result will never be good enough.

These letters are the antidote to this crippling self-doubt. Written to myself as much as they are to you. 

An effort to untangle my overactive brain. To hear that inner critic, but to try and soothe it and show up anyway. To prove to myself that it's not about showing up perfectly. That it's just about showing up, learning, and then showing up again.

I don’t have a long term plan for how this will work (planning and ADHD are not a match made in heaven) but I’m excited to be sharing on a new platform and seeing where the journey takes me. 

So here starts a new adventure. Thank-you for being here. You can expect The Cherry Post every Friday.

Thanks again for reading and see you next week.

Becca x