Tara Schuster

I created a journal that f*cking works!  If you’re a journaling skeptic (hi, former me 🙋‍♀️), some one who swears you“don’t have time,” or you’re a journaling fiend whose practice has grown a lil moldy, consider this my open letter to you: Journaling transformed my life, and I made this so it can change yours, too. This Journal F*cking Works brings together 15 years of my own practice, two bestselling self-help books, the trials and tribulations of my own journaling club, an obsessive deep dive into ritual design, behavioral science, positive psychology, mindfulness, expressive writing, and trauma studies. It’s the first journal of its kind to bring together research, the road-testing of a literal journaling club AND crucially - humor! Because GOOD LORD could we all use a light right now. Amirite? My goal: to help you become the kind of person who journals not because you “have to,” but because you *want* to.  As a gift to you (and to me honestly) if you order a copy (link in bio) I’ll invite you to an exclusive meet-up where I’ll give you tips to start or renew your practice.  Just comment “JOURNAL” and I’ll send you the link to sign up and hang!  Thank you for your support. I can’t wait for you to read it, write in it, scribble all over it, and then message me screaming, “You were right. It f*cking works.”  Xo T$ *Special shout out to @jessraephoenix on her dope af cover design!

“You can’t career pivot from being a TV executive to being an author.” “Authors don’t make money.” “Most books never sell.” “You’ll never earn back your advance.” ALL real things really said to me. Welllllllll…250k books and counting all I got to say is: how you like me now😎? . This is not blowing smoke, this is not unrealistic: don’t let other people limit you. When someone else tells you what *you* can’t do, they are really telling you what *they* can’t do. . I wrote LILIES *while* I also had a full time, stressful job. I woke up early every day to write, I aggressively saved money from my corporate job, I made writing as safe as humanly possible because I was scared I would be penniless and I needed financial security before I felt comfortable fully pivoting. . I didn’t throw caution to the wind. I didn’t follow my passion or my dream as my full time job. I had a good enough job and MADE time to see if I could manage to switch careers. . I don’t regret a thing. I learned so much in my corporate job that I use everyday as an author and entrepreneur. . Having financial security and a job to fall back on was and is really important to me. . So this one goes out to all the people who think it’s too late, to the people who think that if they were talented they would have made it by now, this one goes out to all my risk averse bffs…just keep going. Just because you didn’t throw caution to the wind doesn’t mean you’re not talented - it just means your strategic. 🥂 . Can I get some love from the step-by-step folks?! I love you so so so much!!!! 😝 . T

It’s 2023 and you know what that means: IT’S TIME TO GLOW, BABY! My next book, Glow in the F*cking Dark drops February 28th and I couldn’t be more THRILLED to share it with you. . After I had re-parented myself and found stability in my life (omg, who knew that was possible), I was, ironically, healthy enough for my deepest traumas to come boiling to the surface.  . GLOW is my experience healing at the most fundamental level, recovering my soul from the trauma that diminished it, and finding a light within me that can never be dimmed, diminished, or damaged. AND THAT’S WHAT I WANT FOR YOU! . YOU HAVE GLOW! You don’t need to earn it and you can never lose it. This is just science because we are made of the elements that came out of the stars. FOR REAL. Not some cute myth. You automatically have glow and I wanna help you unleash it!  . You can *preorder now* in bio or anywhere books are sold but particular shout-out to your local Indie bookseller! . I LOVE YOU AND I CAN’T WAIT TO GLOW WITH YOUR BAD SELF! . xo T$

Try me again next month! What's one email you've been marking as "unread" for weeks?

I had a "dream job" at Comedy Central. Getting paid to take David Spade to dinner. Learning comedy from Jordan Peele. From the outside? Insane luck. Underneath? A low hum of anxiety that said: This isn't it. It's close. But this isn't it. In my mind, the "almost right" thing was the best I was allowed to have. Here's what was actually keeping me there: I was scared that if I tried to become a writer, I'd go broke, become unhoused, then die. Literally. That was my reasoning. For me, 9 times out of 10, my fear keeps me in places and relationships I’ve outgrown. So now when I feel that HUM of anxiety, I ask myself two questions: 1. Am I here because I genuinely want to be? 2. Or am I afraid of what happens if I leave? When something feels like settling, it usually is. And the fear keeping you there is almost never as logical as it pretends to be. Comment HUM if you can feel that low anxiety humming under your own life right now. PS: I AM SUPER GRATEFUL to Comedy Central for SO MANY THINGS - including my job. And arguably it set me up for ALL of my later success. I don’t regret working there for a minute. I was, in fact, lucky. What I’m trying to tease out is just knowing *why* we are staying in something that doesn’t exactly fit. Because if we know why, we have enough self-awareness to make plans for what’s next…like when I sold my first book while still at Comedy Central. Thus allowing me to save money and move into my actual passion.

“I've chosen to stop insulting myself. The simple reason is that nothing good comes from it." “You simply can’t draw the right person into your orbit if you are busy with the wrong one.” “That’s not you speaking. That’s your inner assassin.” Send this to a friend who needs a little reminder today. 🤍

At what point do I start invoicing for emotional labor and calendar management? Send this to your group chat and see what happens 👀

I used to think I was “taking the edge off" with 🍃. In reality, I was just taking myself out of my own life. On the Second Wind Podcast with Marion Jones and Suzanne Evans, I talked about what happened when I stopped hiding from my feelings and started actually living with them. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t pretty at first. But that’s when everything started to change.

Not to be dramatic, but I will be blaming the solar system for this. Send this to your “it’s definitely retrograde” friend 🪐

Mother’s Day is complicated and I want to have a real talk about it with you. In my personal essay this week I explore the possibility of being a mother without having kids of my own. I’m here to talk to you in the safety of my newsletter community - I read and reply to every comment 💕 just comment MOTHER and I’ll send to you. I love you, T$

Send this to the friend who picked up the phone when no one else did. 💕 “The people you surround yourself with make up the quality of your life. These are the people who influence you, whether consciously or subconsciously.” “Working out for me is now nonnegotiable.” “I have built for myself a good case of pronoia - the belief that people are secretly plotting for my well being.”

Sets you up for your whole day. ☕️ Send this to your friend who's been threatening to move to New Zealand for, like, a decade.