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Your Mind Set

The mind is a very powerful thing yet most people just let it run without a leash. Events, emotions, and memories are stored in our heads - sometimes our head contains so much verbal and visual garbage that it weighs us down in our lives. Unfortunately we don't examine the contents of our minds often enough to weed out the garbage and revel in our accomplishments.

So after saying that, you need to first explore your mind to find out whether there's anything in there that's holding you back from achieving your goals.

After all, other people are not the ones who will stop you from making money from your writing. The publishers aren't the ones who dictate your career direction. It's you. You have the power to control your destiny.

Ask yourself: do you really think that you can be an e-book author? You have to have absolute sure otherwise the little barriers along the way will make you stumble and fall. You will likely fall many times, and if you don't believe in yourself, then you may not allow yourself to get up.

Waiting to hear from publishers is a degrading process. That's just a fact. When you finally hear from the publishers, it's often in a form a letter that says nothing of value. Writing experts tell you to develop a "thick skin", telling you that getting rejected is part and parcel of the profession.

But no matter how much skin you try to grow, self doubt still manages to creep in, and you wonder if you really are as talented as you thought.

Regrettably thinking this way will only turn you into a victim. At this day and age there's no point of being a victim when there are so many opportunities that you can pursue.

So tell me, what exactly is separating you from the writer, struggling to pay her rent, who can barely sell her work and the multi-million dollar e-book author who puts out 15 e-books a year?

Do you think it's talent? Close but not quite. According to the Oxford dictionary talent is described as a "special aptitude, faculty, [or] gift." There are plenty of people who fit the description, but they don't necessarily exploit it. So if it's not talent, then what is it?

My friend, the separating factor between you and the other writer is pure passion, determination and a razor sharp focus on the task at hand.

Previously I thought that lucrative e-book authors were seasoned writers that possessed the innate ability to write amazing prose. Boy was I wrong. In my research I found that writing beautiful prose had nothing to do with selling a book.

In the real world there are no rules.

I've spent hundreds of dollars on how-to books and all it did was make me think in a linear direction. Having a university degree in English literature didn't help me much either. My professors just reinforced the idea that there are right and wrong ways of writing.

I became so educated on the process of writing, the timing, the structure, the prose, etc. that I think I scared myself out of writing. Don't get me wrong; knowing the aspects of good writing will help you churn out quality books, however you shouldn't be paralyzed by the advice of others. Any writing advice should be used as a guideline only.

Now that we've discussed your mindset, we should take a look at your passion to write.

You do have a passion for writing, don't you?

Okay good. Now I want you to answer these questions. There is no right or wrong answers. Your answers are meant for your eyes only, so be honest with yourself.

" What is it about writing that you enjoy?
" How bad do you want to be a career writer?
" What is your motive for getting a book published?
" What will you get out of getting your book published?

Your passion and determination are the only things that will help you cross the bridge. Talent will only take you a quarter of the way there.

If you're like me, someone, a long time ago, told you that you were good at writing, and that you should make a living as a writer. That idea stuck, so here you are, proving again and again that you can write well.

You know that you have the God given ability to write, but you're working on launching your career. As we discussed beforehand, your writing ability alone will not make you a big-time writer.

And as you also know, a book can't be written on its own so I'm assuming that you are willing to put in a lot of hard work. Many other informational books will promise you the key to finishing your book in 1-2 weeks. But the promise is an empty one if there's no action on your part.

So the next question is… how can passion and determination help you in the pursuit of your target?

You need to dig deep to find all the successes you experienced, and have them on hand when you face challenges. All those experiences, the contests that you won back in grade six, or that little poem of yours that was published in a literary anthology, these successes no matter how seemingly insignificant, will continue to feed your desire to succeed as a writer.

Your Road Map

Like anything that is truly desirable, you need plan of action.

Imagine that you're the captain of a ship that's heading to Hawaii. Everything is in your hands to get all your passengers safely to the Island. Knowing this, you will make the necessary preparations and make sure that you have all the tools that will help you get to your destination.

You will know approximately how long it will take to get to Hawaii. In your mind, you've already landed on the tropical island. There is not a cloud of doubt that you will get to the designated port.

So it's the same with your writing. All your life you've been preparing yourself for your writing journey. You will now make your plan, and will learn the tools in this book to help you get to your destination.

Now let's learn the steps that will take you to your ultimate goal.

Step 1: Writing Your Objective

Take up a pen and paper and write out a goal that you truly want.

This goal must be immediate, realistic and measurable. It has to be a five-star objective, and must be very real to you. You also need to make sure that this objective contains only actions that you are within your control.

I sat down and came up with this goal:

Within 6 months I will take all the steps necessary to make a living off of my writing.

To make it more realistic for myself, I used my imagination and injected real emotion and even incorporated my five senses to solidify the idea in my mind.

Create your objective using emotion and your five senses. This makes the idea that much more powerful. Just think; an athlete who is getting ready for the Olympics must practice day and night. While she has to practice physically, she must also practice mentally. The mental aspect is the part that will be the winning edge. So you too must visualize the end result until there is no doubt that you will prosper.

Because the world works in mysterious ways, you'll get what you want if you have a clear plan and want something badly enough. It seems that when things are clear in your mind, it sends out "vibes" or "feelers" until the perfect solution comes to you.

Maybe this happened to you before, and you attribute this as being a coincidence. But is it really? If it is, then how do you explain the times when you "sleep" on a problem and then get a solution the very next day?

And if it your mind (or something bigger) is at work while you sleep, then you ought to take advantage of it.

How you ask? You begin by acknowledging that something inexplicable is at work. And you attach a qualifying statement at the end of your objective. This statement is to ensure that whatever mysterious forces at work will be on your side and know that your intentions are for the good of all.

For example, I found that I was spending a more time procrastinating than writing my e-book so I sat down and wrote the following objective for myself:

Within 6 months I will take all the steps necessary to make a living off of my writing.
I trust you to make this or something better happen for the greatest intentions of me and of everyone involved.

Now that we've covered the plan, now we're going to look to see if it's feasible by …

Step 2: Writing Out Your Conflicts

Once you've written down your objective, you will have to analyze it. It's not enough to just have a written goal. You need to see if it's actually obtainable and realistic to you. As I mentioned before, your objective is something that you must have no matter what. And you have to believe that with 100% certainty that you can get it.

To ensure that you have this kind of certainty, you must look at your objective and flesh out all the conflicting arguments that you may have. If you read over your target and feel uncomfortable, even if it's just a hint of doubt, then you have a conflict that you need to address.

You can look at it as if you're doing spring cleaning in your brain. There may be some limiting beliefs that you've held as a child, or some other types of beliefs that you've gained along the way to adulthood that restrict you.

You should re-evaluate the beliefs that you have. If some beliefs are preventing you from reaching your goal, then you should chuck them out. Maybe someone told you that it's impossible to become rich as a professional writer. Deep down, do you really believe this? If so, then you may unintentionally sabotage your chances of having a profitable writing career.

Your subconscious desires should align with what your conscious wants. Your conscious mind might say "Yes, we can do this. We can get rich by writing tons of e-books."

Meanwhile your subconscious says, "Aunt Mae tells me that professional writers can only make a maximum of $10,000 per year. Therefore it's impossible to make more than that."

These two beliefs clash and you will unlikely write "tons" of e-books or become rich through your writing because you already have a belief that $10,000 is the maximum amount you can make.

There are many of these types of barriers that can get between you and your goal, and it's your job to be brutally honest with yourself. You need to discover the things that are holding you back and to clear them out from your belief system.

Although it's tempting to write only your objective and skip over the analysis part, don't do it. If you skip over this part, you will create more work for yourself in the long run.
By not addressing your conflicts, your inner editor will be whispering all kinds of negativity that will distract you from your dream. The real trouble begins when you start to listen to that voice and allow it to run your life, and point you in a different direction.

Step 3: Re-writing Your Objective

No matter how great your objective sounded in the beginning, your objective may have dropped to a three or a four star rating. Instead of forging ahead, you need to stop what you're doing and listen to your gut instinct. There is something wrong with your objective and you need to revisit it.

Re-write your goal again until it's a five star rating, and you once again experience a sense of rightness.


Step 4: Standing Up To Conflicts

After doing step 1-3, you should have a workable objective that rates five stars. Doing the exercise should have brought many objections to light. You are now aware of what you are consciously or unconsciously telling yourself, but you need to move to the next stage and address your conflicts.

Your conflicts are essentially distress calls from your subconscious. You may be superficially aware of them, but you need a deeper understanding of your conflicts, and that means you need to explore your entire belief system.

I encourage you to write out your thoughts and feelings in a journal, but to take it one step closer you can personify your objections and speak directly to them.

Speak to them? Yes, personify each of your conflicts and get to know them. Strangely enough that when you speak directly to your objections, you will find that they all have different personalities. And they all have something they want to tell you.

Say, for example, that Miss Editor is criticizing your work to the point where you are no longer confident about your writing. You start off by posing a question or two to Miss Editor and she'll come back with an answer. You may not like her answer, but she'll be honest with you.

If you find that you get tired every time you go to write, you know what? Miss Editor is trying to call you. Find out what your editor is trying to tell you. If you do this, you can flesh out the reasons and understand why you behave a certain way.

Many times you can compromise with your conflict. For instance, if your editor criticizes everything you write, you can strike a deal with her and her to remain silent until you've finished the first draft.

Your "conflicts" only wants you to hear them out. When you sit down, listen and then negotiate a deal that will satisfy both parties, then will they quiet down and leave you to do your work.

This step can also be used to address writer's block. Writer's block is a curse that all writers face at one time or another. No matter how long you stare at your screen, the words simply won't flow properly. You might try using a variety of techniques to break through the block; however the techniques you use may not work all the time.

You see, "writer's block" is a psychological symptom. And yes, you're right - your subconscious is trying to tell you that there is a problem. If you ignore the distress call and don't get to the root of the problem, you will experience long periods of inactivity and frustration.

So instead of touting writer's block as your enemy, get friendly, talk to it and part company with a deal that you're both happy with. If you do this, I guarantee that you will learn things that you were never aware of.

Now that you've dealt with all your conflicts, you go to the next stage…

Step 5: Reminding Yourself of Your Goal

You've done steps 1-4 and everything seems fine. Well, you better keep it that way. Objections come back to haunt you quite frequently and you know that they will cause problems for you if you ignore them. It's so easy to be distracted by the daily things happening in your life, so you must make it a point to keep reminding yourself of your goal.

A simple way to keep your goal at the forefront of your mind is to review it everyday. Take a pen and a pad of paper and write out your goal at least ten times a day. You could even make this activity a part of your morning ritual.

You will find that you have a sharpened focus, and you will do whatever is necessary in order to obtain your goal.

You've got razor-sharp focus, so now it's time to go to the final step…


Step 6: Rating Your Daily Performance

This last step is for your reference only and can be done on as a nightly ritual. Before you go to bed, you should rate the day's performance on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being poor and 10 being excellent. If you are especially productive one day, then you need to tell yourself "great job!", give yourself a 10, and maybe reward yourself with something that you really enjoy.

You can mentally take note of your performance, but I suggest that you keep a log of your progress. This way, you can have a record of your progress. You can make it fun by purchasing a set of stickers and placing on exceptionally productive days.

However, on unproductive days, you will see where you went wrong, and you can go back and clear out any conflicts by review steps 1-5.

All these steps combined is yet another method in helping you stay focused and ensure that you remain on the right track.

By Chantal Lima