When we set out to write a book or a movie—or when we embark upon any innovative venture—we’re taking a step that has terrified the human race since our days back in the cave.
This isn’t Nordkapp but it’s close
Why is creative commitment so scary? Because when we commit, we’re moving from the Known to the Unknown.
The definition of dream is that which exists only in our imagination. In other words, in the Unknown.
When we say, “Put your ass where your heart wants to be,” we’re proposing a mindset that is designed to outfox Fear of the Unknown. It says:
Don’t try to overcome your fear. Fear cannot be overcome. Instead simply move your will and your intention into the arena you fear… and see what happens.
When we sprint barefoot across the arctic ice and dive head-first into the frigid waters off Nordkapp, Norway, (yes, it’s a real place) we have literally flung our goose-bumped, Speedo-clad flesh into the Unknown.
Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.
A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.
Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.
Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"
For me, it’s not so much “fear of the unknown,” but “fear of being seen in a pair of Speedos” (which my Australian friend tells me are referred to as “budgy smugglers” down on the prison island).
Budgy smugglers, hilarious! I came across this quote: Barriers are entirely in your mind, and you can choose to accept those barriers, or you can have the guts to dance, to tango with the unknown, to take that first step and see what unfolds. -Albert Lin, engineer, archaeologist, Nat Geo Explorer
On the note of dance, I attended a wedding this past weekend. I dance as I always do, with no cares. (And yes, I look kooky.) A few women my age also danced. In a subtle way, they began to mock me and laugh among themselves. This was not imagined. I’ve had friends comment that when I dance, I hold nothing back. I thought, yes! I accomplished another successful day because I dared to chance making an ass of myself. I had fun. Dare, my friends, dare to see what unfolds.
Jackie,
I had a great picture in my mind of you dancing with wild abandon. Cracked me up.
As for speedos…a couple of buddies and I double-dog dared each other to do a couple of triathlons (olympic distance: swim 1 mile, bike 25 miles, run 6.2 miles). We were in Texas at an AF Base for some continued training after language school–and mid Texas was so flat you could look west and see the back of your head. Basically–it was so boring compared to Monterey, CA that we thought training for a tri would stop boredom.
The race was in Del Rio, Texas–the lake was warm. So…we show up, never doing a race in our lives, wearing budgy smugglers–and EVERYONE ELSE were wearing wetsuits. As one of the volunteers was using a Sharpie to write our numbers on arms and legs, I look over at one guy sheepishly. He tugs at his wetsuit and says, “Bouyancy!”
We were SO embarrassed!! 500 people in wetsuits, and us three standing in banana hammocks…
bsn
I’ve accomplished what I set out to do today, cracked someone up. Thanks, Brian. As for the banana hammock, (my other favorite name for a speedo), You learned that you can’t actually die from embarrassment and came away with a hilarious story.
Thanks for the link to Alan, Joe. Excellent three minutes or so. Only God knows where I’ll end up when I dance. But isn’t that part of the point, not knowing, but doing it anyway?
Joe,
Glad your back with your usual comments that invariably have me looking something else up, and going down other rabbit holes I would have never known existed.
I’ve been on a tear of Bryce Courtenay books–‘Power of One’ is akin to SP’s ‘Legend of Bagger Vance’…first breakout novel. It’s great.
‘Four Fires’ is what I’m listening to right now, which explains how eucalyptus require fire to propagate. Historical-ish fiction. If you haven’t read him, I encourage it.
bsn
B! Four Fires sounds good. I like this idea of fire being necessary for renewal and growth. This was something I’d written after a 50-mile backpack in NW Montana (along the Continental Divide Trail in the Bob Marshall Wilderness):
*****
The trail crossed into terrain burned by the 2007 Ahorn Fire. As we lost the shade, we pulled on hats and sunglasses. At first look, one might say this land was a boneyard, the skeleton of a forest. Blowdowns and standing trunks, some still with blistered bark hanging on after the 52,000-acre fire raged here more than a decade ago.
I would overhear a hiker say, “I hated going through that burn area. Hated it.” I looked around and failed to understand the thinking. The trail here was bordered with pink fireweed that’s often first to recolonize the ground after a burn. The spiky scarlet of Indian paintbrush splashed among chest-high lodgepole saplings with their needles a verdant green.
Lodgepoles are pyrophiles: they love fire. Their cones, tightly sealed with resin, will open and release their seeds only when fire has melted that resin. Viktor Frankl wrote, “What is to give light must endure burning.” Is that part of what’s drawn us to this wilderness in the Rockies? Are we also pyrophiles, seeking the heat of our effort to melt what is binding us and release something new?
Though the ground was ancient, all the life upon it was new. We were among infants that would grow to shade the bones of their charred ancestors, long after we’d passed through on our short journeys. There was nothing here to hate.
“There are moments on the brink, when you can give yourself to a lover, or not; give in to self-doubt, uncertainty, and admonishment, or not; dive into a different culture, or not; set sail for the unknown, or not; walk out onto a stage, or not. A moment only a few seconds long, when your future hangs in the balance, poised above a chasm. It is a crossroads. Resist then, and there is no returning to the known world. If you turn back, there is only what might have been. Above that invisible crossroads are inscribed the words: Give up your will, all who travel here.”
Nice stuff Joe! Excessive attachment–even to the point of doing nothing–kills our sense of adventure and the new thrills that await us. Trapped myself right now–where’s the frozen water?! Time to leap in!
Wow, great comments guys. From the sublime to the ridiculous and back again.
The only thing I can add is that Oliver Burkeman in his book ‘4000 Weeks – Time Management for Mortals’ explains that the difficulty we experience with seizing our time for meaningful creative activity, Resistance I guess, occurs because we are force to confront our finitude. Which is a great work, his not mine.
I think this and Steve’s known-to-unknown transit must be different sides of the same coin.
Other takeaways today:
Brian’s ‘banana hammocks’.
Joe: ‘We were among infants that would grow to shade the bones of their charred ancestors, long after we’d passed through on our short journeys.’
Haha “budgy smugglers”! This made me smile.
I wonder if the phones and other devices that exhaust our brains and creativity can be set aside as the ice cold water forces ALL the oxygen away from the extremities and to the brain! Wim-Hof style. Needed this plunge into the unknown today! Let’s do it.
I do not have ice cube trays or an auto ice maker in my fridge. That’s how much I don’t like ice. This post was scary, Steven. Almost as scary as my big, bad, Resistance.
I have to push back on this one. When one moves into the unknown time is involved. One is moving into uncharted territory. One is starting a new journey and has maybe only a precious hint that is calling him/her. A tiny little fire under my ass that is calling me to make a bigger fire. I could go on.
To run on the ice and jump in the ice water to me is a stunt, a trick, unless it took hours of training. Just say’in.
Thanks!
Yes, Bing you are right. Getting in a step at time might be preferred. Or, harder. Jump in or step by step, I need to move forward. Thanks for a reasonable perspective.
I am a 71 year old woman building my dream vacation house from scratch. Talk about scary – in this economy. My contractor tells me it is impossible to tell from one month to the next if the current sky high costs are going to go up or down. When I see how far we are over the original budget set two years ago I get scared.
But when other people ask; are you going to wait for prices to go down, my answer is NO. Not at my age, not when nobody knows if they will go down or continue to go up.
I am also writing a novel, and I see a lot of similarities with building a house. You start with an idea of what it will look like when it’s done, but there are many, many decisions to make in order to get there. So you fiddle with your plans. Get rid of this so you can afford that. Ask for help, do more research. Rewrite what you’ve already written.
Keep moving forward.
Alethia Christina Phillipson May 4, 2022 at 1:32 pm
That’s a great comparison! I am in that “industry” for my regular job that pays my bills. It’s more unpredictable than it’s ever been. I’m sure you feel like you can’t predict anything but neither can anyone else. In this economy, no on has the magical (correct) answer.
Alethia Christina Phillipson May 4, 2022 at 12:33 pm
Needed all this today… Sitting here staring at my Scrivener screen and drinking a bad bottle of wine (by noon) listening to Cream and thinking yesterday’s work isn’t bad….
“Because when we commit, we’re moving from the Known to the Unknown.” What I am coming to love about this unknown terrain Is actually the facing of the fears: not in the moments they’re looming of course…but by standing Spartan firm in the belief of the larger (yet still specific) Self and discovery and expression, they start to fizzle out!. And most of them when actually faced, are found to be a bit like the Wizard of Oz looming large but really being this scared human behind a curtain trying to pull scary tricks all the time. And the space that opens up in this territory is I’m finding, full of wonderful surprises and doors opening that I never would have come upon otherwise. Oh! this as a path is incomparable to any constricted, safe, predictable, boring, old self-preservation-system way. To authentic unraveling and the vast Ocean of energy and possibility beckoning our trust.
Fear is huge indeed, especially when the creation as an idea is enormously important and takes years and years until it is complete. But we must find all ways to keep holding on that goal, to never let go until it is materialized. A beautiful quote I found these days at the instagram is: “chase ultimate, not ordinary goals, for even if you fail at an ultimate, you will be a loser far higher than someone who succeeded at an ordinary goal”.
These days I will enjoy all the comments that our friends made here, too.
I continue to suffer the slings and arrows of a harsh edit as I make my way through the scenes I rushed to get to my beloved confrontation. I am no longer young which surprises me when I look in the mirror and see a mature woman – one who should smile as she moves non-arthritic fingers across a keyboard. Thanks to these releases – I am getting smarter – certainly older.
It is well known that the greatest problems, both personal and professional, are often rooted in a lack of knowledge or understanding of the situation. That may sound obvious, but it is often easier to acknowledge this truth than it is to actually achieve results. 1v1 lol
Helpful information is shared in this article. If you are looking for guidance for your dissertation work then you must check this page. Here you can get all types of essay or assignment work done by the experts after lots of research. What you have to do is only pay and get your work done on time.
Tetris was created by Soviet software programmer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. For a variety of platforms, it has been made available by a number of companies, most notably in the late 1980s during a court struggle over the ownership of the rights. Before Pajitnov and Henk Rogers co-founded the Tetris Company in 1996 to handle licensing, Nintendo released Tetris for a substantial period of time.
“Appealing a SASSA status? Ensure accuracy and timeliness. Provide supporting documents. Follow the official process diligently. Seek guidance if needed. Stay informed on updates. Sassa Status Check Appeal
Patronu aradığında sürekli hasta olduğunu söyleyerek iş yerine yalan söylüyor
porno hikaye Patronu artık bu kadarının gerçek olamayacağını ve rapor görmek istediğini dile getirip telefonu kapatıyor
türbanlı Olgun kadın hemen bilgisayarının başına geçip özel bir doktor buluyor ve onu arayarak evine davet ediyor
porno Muayene için eve gelen doktor olgun kadını muayene ediyor ve hiç bir sıkıntı olmadığını söylüyor
brazzers porno Sarışın ablamız ise iş yerine rapor götürmesi gerektiğini bu yüzden rapor yazmasını istiyor
brazzers porno fakat doktor bunun pek mümkün olmadığını dile getiriyor
sex hikayeleri Daha sonra evli olan bu kahpe doktora iş atarak ona yavşıyor ve istediğini alana kadar durmuyor
Porno İzle Karılarını takas etmek isteyen elemanlar hep birlikte evde buluşuyor
türkçe porno Güzel vakit geçirdikten sonra kızlara isteklerini iletiyorlar ve hatunlarda kocalarının bu isteklerini kabul ediyorlar
seks hikayeleri Hemen ellerine telefonları alan elemanlar karılarına video eşliğinde sakso çektiriyorlar
porno izle Hiç beklemeden sikişe geçen elemanlar hatunları değiştire değiştire sikmeye başlıyorlar.
Patronu aradığında sürekli hasta olduğunu söyleyerek iş yerine yalan söylüyor
porno hikaye Patronu artık bu kadarının gerçek olamayacağını ve rapor görmek istediğini dile getirip telefonu kapatıyor
türbanlı Olgun kadın hemen bilgisayarının başına geçip özel bir doktor buluyor ve onu arayarak evine davet ediyor
porno Muayene için eve gelen doktor olgun kadını muayene ediyor ve hiç bir sıkıntı olmadığını söylüyor
brazzers porno Sarışın ablamız ise iş yerine rapor götürmesi gerektiğini bu yüzden rapor yazmasını istiyor
brazzers porno fakat doktor bunun pek mümkün olmadığını dile getiriyor
sex hikayeleri Daha sonra evli olan bu kahpe doktora iş atarak ona yavşıyor ve istediğini alana kadar durmuyor
Porno İzle Karılarını takas etmek isteyen elemanlar hep birlikte evde buluşuyor
türkçe porno Güzel vakit geçirdikten sonra kızlara isteklerini iletiyorlar ve hatunlarda kocalarının bu isteklerini kabul ediyorlar
seks hikayeleri Hemen ellerine telefonları alan elemanlar karılarına video eşliğinde sakso çektiriyorlar
porno izle Hiç beklemeden sikişe geçen elemanlar hatunları değiştire değiştire sikmeye başlıyorlar.
Every day at the desk or easel, ass in the chair, defines badass. Where’s my bikini. Let me dive in! Have a productive week all.
Looking for some quotes on this topic. These floated to the top:
“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.” — Aldous Huxley
“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti
“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
(Thanks for the call-out last week, Peter and Maureen. All is well here!)
For me, it’s not so much “fear of the unknown,” but “fear of being seen in a pair of Speedos” (which my Australian friend tells me are referred to as “budgy smugglers” down on the prison island).
Budgy smugglers, hilarious! I came across this quote: Barriers are entirely in your mind, and you can choose to accept those barriers, or you can have the guts to dance, to tango with the unknown, to take that first step and see what unfolds. -Albert Lin, engineer, archaeologist, Nat Geo Explorer
On the note of dance, I attended a wedding this past weekend. I dance as I always do, with no cares. (And yes, I look kooky.) A few women my age also danced. In a subtle way, they began to mock me and laugh among themselves. This was not imagined. I’ve had friends comment that when I dance, I hold nothing back. I thought, yes! I accomplished another successful day because I dared to chance making an ass of myself. I had fun. Dare, my friends, dare to see what unfolds.
Jackie,
I had a great picture in my mind of you dancing with wild abandon. Cracked me up.
As for speedos…a couple of buddies and I double-dog dared each other to do a couple of triathlons (olympic distance: swim 1 mile, bike 25 miles, run 6.2 miles). We were in Texas at an AF Base for some continued training after language school–and mid Texas was so flat you could look west and see the back of your head. Basically–it was so boring compared to Monterey, CA that we thought training for a tri would stop boredom.
The race was in Del Rio, Texas–the lake was warm. So…we show up, never doing a race in our lives, wearing budgy smugglers–and EVERYONE ELSE were wearing wetsuits. As one of the volunteers was using a Sharpie to write our numbers on arms and legs, I look over at one guy sheepishly. He tugs at his wetsuit and says, “Bouyancy!”
We were SO embarrassed!! 500 people in wetsuits, and us three standing in banana hammocks…
bsn
I’ve accomplished what I set out to do today, cracked someone up. Thanks, Brian. As for the banana hammock, (my other favorite name for a speedo), You learned that you can’t actually die from embarrassment and came away with a hilarious story.
Jackie… following your cue on “the dance.” I’ve loved this passage from the British philosopher Alan Watts:
“When dancing, you don’t aim a particular spot in the room and say, ‘That’s where you should arrive.’ The whole point of the dancing is the dance.”
https://youtu.be/gTLYiOg9C6M
Thanks for the link to Alan, Joe. Excellent three minutes or so. Only God knows where I’ll end up when I dance. But isn’t that part of the point, not knowing, but doing it anyway?
Joe,
Glad your back with your usual comments that invariably have me looking something else up, and going down other rabbit holes I would have never known existed.
I’ve been on a tear of Bryce Courtenay books–‘Power of One’ is akin to SP’s ‘Legend of Bagger Vance’…first breakout novel. It’s great.
‘Four Fires’ is what I’m listening to right now, which explains how eucalyptus require fire to propagate. Historical-ish fiction. If you haven’t read him, I encourage it.
bsn
B! Four Fires sounds good. I like this idea of fire being necessary for renewal and growth. This was something I’d written after a 50-mile backpack in NW Montana (along the Continental Divide Trail in the Bob Marshall Wilderness):
*****
The trail crossed into terrain burned by the 2007 Ahorn Fire. As we lost the shade, we pulled on hats and sunglasses. At first look, one might say this land was a boneyard, the skeleton of a forest. Blowdowns and standing trunks, some still with blistered bark hanging on after the 52,000-acre fire raged here more than a decade ago.
I would overhear a hiker say, “I hated going through that burn area. Hated it.” I looked around and failed to understand the thinking. The trail here was bordered with pink fireweed that’s often first to recolonize the ground after a burn. The spiky scarlet of Indian paintbrush splashed among chest-high lodgepole saplings with their needles a verdant green.
Lodgepoles are pyrophiles: they love fire. Their cones, tightly sealed with resin, will open and release their seeds only when fire has melted that resin. Viktor Frankl wrote, “What is to give light must endure burning.” Is that part of what’s drawn us to this wilderness in the Rockies? Are we also pyrophiles, seeking the heat of our effort to melt what is binding us and release something new?
Though the ground was ancient, all the life upon it was new. We were among infants that would grow to shade the bones of their charred ancestors, long after we’d passed through on our short journeys. There was nothing here to hate.
Here’s my favorite, Joe…
“There are moments on the brink, when you can give yourself to a lover, or not; give in to self-doubt, uncertainty, and admonishment, or not; dive into a different culture, or not; set sail for the unknown, or not; walk out onto a stage, or not. A moment only a few seconds long, when your future hangs in the balance, poised above a chasm. It is a crossroads. Resist then, and there is no returning to the known world. If you turn back, there is only what might have been. Above that invisible crossroads are inscribed the words: Give up your will, all who travel here.”
~ Diane Ackerman, Deep Play
That was a wonderful quote, Maureen. Thank you for sharing <3
This is a good one, Maureen!
Nice stuff Joe! Excessive attachment–even to the point of doing nothing–kills our sense of adventure and the new thrills that await us. Trapped myself right now–where’s the frozen water?! Time to leap in!
Luv these quotes! Thanks Joe 😊
Great quotes Joe! Thanks for sharing.
Wow, great comments guys. From the sublime to the ridiculous and back again.
The only thing I can add is that Oliver Burkeman in his book ‘4000 Weeks – Time Management for Mortals’ explains that the difficulty we experience with seizing our time for meaningful creative activity, Resistance I guess, occurs because we are force to confront our finitude. Which is a great work, his not mine.
I think this and Steve’s known-to-unknown transit must be different sides of the same coin.
Other takeaways today:
Brian’s ‘banana hammocks’.
Joe: ‘We were among infants that would grow to shade the bones of their charred ancestors, long after we’d passed through on our short journeys.’
Cheers guys,
Peter
Thumbs-up, Peter!
Haha “budgy smugglers”! This made me smile.
I wonder if the phones and other devices that exhaust our brains and creativity can be set aside as the ice cold water forces ALL the oxygen away from the extremities and to the brain! Wim-Hof style. Needed this plunge into the unknown today! Let’s do it.
I do not have ice cube trays or an auto ice maker in my fridge. That’s how much I don’t like ice. This post was scary, Steven. Almost as scary as my big, bad, Resistance.
“Fear (of the unknown) cannot be overcome!” It’s true.
Of course, sometimes it’s even worse to know what to expect.
x
I have to push back on this one. When one moves into the unknown time is involved. One is moving into uncharted territory. One is starting a new journey and has maybe only a precious hint that is calling him/her. A tiny little fire under my ass that is calling me to make a bigger fire. I could go on.
To run on the ice and jump in the ice water to me is a stunt, a trick, unless it took hours of training. Just say’in.
Thanks!
Yes, Bing you are right. Getting in a step at time might be preferred. Or, harder. Jump in or step by step, I need to move forward. Thanks for a reasonable perspective.
“. . . we have literally flung our goose-bumped, Speedo-clad flesh into the Unknown.”
“Literally”? Ouch!
I am a 71 year old woman building my dream vacation house from scratch. Talk about scary – in this economy. My contractor tells me it is impossible to tell from one month to the next if the current sky high costs are going to go up or down. When I see how far we are over the original budget set two years ago I get scared.
But when other people ask; are you going to wait for prices to go down, my answer is NO. Not at my age, not when nobody knows if they will go down or continue to go up.
I am also writing a novel, and I see a lot of similarities with building a house. You start with an idea of what it will look like when it’s done, but there are many, many decisions to make in order to get there. So you fiddle with your plans. Get rid of this so you can afford that. Ask for help, do more research. Rewrite what you’ve already written.
Keep moving forward.
That’s a great comparison! I am in that “industry” for my regular job that pays my bills. It’s more unpredictable than it’s ever been. I’m sure you feel like you can’t predict anything but neither can anyone else. In this economy, no on has the magical (correct) answer.
Just like writing.
How do you move your will?
That’s really inspiring.
Needed all this today… Sitting here staring at my Scrivener screen and drinking a bad bottle of wine (by noon) listening to Cream and thinking yesterday’s work isn’t bad….
One of those above is B.S. and it’s not the wine.
Let’s keep writing.
“Because when we commit, we’re moving from the Known to the Unknown.” What I am coming to love about this unknown terrain Is actually the facing of the fears: not in the moments they’re looming of course…but by standing Spartan firm in the belief of the larger (yet still specific) Self and discovery and expression, they start to fizzle out!. And most of them when actually faced, are found to be a bit like the Wizard of Oz looming large but really being this scared human behind a curtain trying to pull scary tricks all the time. And the space that opens up in this territory is I’m finding, full of wonderful surprises and doors opening that I never would have come upon otherwise. Oh! this as a path is incomparable to any constricted, safe, predictable, boring, old self-preservation-system way. To authentic unraveling and the vast Ocean of energy and possibility beckoning our trust.
Boom!! Needed!
You forgot the part, “Now write until you are in Tahiti!” Ha! It’s gonna sook. Got it. Keep moving.
“Without faith in your ability to grow, you become risk-averse. For people caught in a fixed mindset, failure damages the sense of self.”
Janzer, Anne. The Writer’s Process: Getting Your Brain in Gear (p. 63). Cuesta Park Consulting. Kindle Edition.
Thank you so much dear Steve,
Fear is huge indeed, especially when the creation as an idea is enormously important and takes years and years until it is complete. But we must find all ways to keep holding on that goal, to never let go until it is materialized. A beautiful quote I found these days at the instagram is: “chase ultimate, not ordinary goals, for even if you fail at an ultimate, you will be a loser far higher than someone who succeeded at an ordinary goal”.
These days I will enjoy all the comments that our friends made here, too.
I continue to suffer the slings and arrows of a harsh edit as I make my way through the scenes I rushed to get to my beloved confrontation. I am no longer young which surprises me when I look in the mirror and see a mature woman – one who should smile as she moves non-arthritic fingers across a keyboard. Thanks to these releases – I am getting smarter – certainly older.
The Tarp Co. is one of the best Online tarp sellers in the USA.
It is well known that the greatest problems, both personal and professional, are often rooted in a lack of knowledge or understanding of the situation. That may sound obvious, but it is often easier to acknowledge this truth than it is to actually achieve results. 1v1 lol
Helpful information is shared in this article. If you are looking for guidance for your dissertation work then you must check this page. Here you can get all types of essay or assignment work done by the experts after lots of research. What you have to do is only pay and get your work done on time.
Tetris was created by Soviet software programmer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. For a variety of platforms, it has been made available by a number of companies, most notably in the late 1980s during a court struggle over the ownership of the rights. Before Pajitnov and Henk Rogers co-founded the Tetris Company in 1996 to handle licensing, Nintendo released Tetris for a substantial period of time.
Exploration brings answers; curiosity bridges the gap between both. Goku drip Jacket
I have read so many great advice that I can apply in life. I hope that I can see more from you
geometry dash
If any one want to buy waterproof sites, visit here.
If anyone want to buy any kind of socks, visit here.
“Appealing a SASSA status? Ensure accuracy and timeliness. Provide supporting documents. Follow the official process diligently. Seek guidance if needed. Stay informed on updates. Sassa Status Check Appeal