People who are good at grant writing often give it this air of mystique as if they have some secret code to winning. So, that creates psychological pressure on people who are new to the process and you're left feeling like its some cabal that you'll never join.

Despite what most people say, preparing proposals that win is not that complicated. If you can write a college essay, you can write a grant proposal. But there is an art to knowing when its worth your time writing that proposal.

Grantwriting is stressful for most of us because its almost a perfect storm of our culture's biggest stressors such as:

time crunches and hard deadlines
money - and often in quantities that result in possibly laying off your team or not providing services.
win-lose competition
having your work scored/graded
facing possible rejection and defeat
most often it’s done on top of full-time jobs and so you’re writing in your ‘spare’ time
no certainty that your hard work will pay off

Really, the only thing worse would be if funders asked you to declare your weight and include a photo of you in a swimsuit :)

Thank you