Overwhelm can be paralyzing especially if you are writing a book. But you don’t have to let it stop you. I want to talk to you about a straight line to success that for many of us is achieved through a good mentor or mastermind group.

I still sometimes even to this day find myself in overwhelm mode when I think of all that must be done to keep my publishing and information marketing business moving forward. The feeling of overwhelm doesn’t last very long anymore because I realize that by just focusing on the task at hand along with a little faith will always get me to where I want to go.

As an author you don’t have to know about all the different steps to get your book written, published and marketed, you only have to get started. The universe always has a way of bringing to you what you will need next if you will only get started in the direction toward your goals.

You can’t see the next valley until you have climbed to the top of the first mountain. Once you conquer that first mountain rest assured the view will probably be greater than even imagined but you have to take that first step.

Even today I don’t worry too much about all the things I must learn and prepare for but I do know that I will have the right information and resources come to me when I get to the next step. Although I can most of the times get myself moving consistently along the track I still depend on both a good mentor as well as a mastermind group I meet with weekly.

My mentor and mastermind group have an uncanny way of being able to stand back from my situation and see it for what it really is, and more importantly keep me moving forward. I couldn’t or wouldn’t do it without them and I think many a successful entrepreneur or author would say the same thing.

Don’t let overwhelm defeat you but instead use it as your special sign to get a good mentor or become part of a mastermind group.
 

Overwhelm can be paralyzing especially if you are writing a book. But you don’t have to let it stop you. I want to talk to you about a straight line to success that for many of us is achieved through a good mentor or mastermind group.

I still sometimes even to this day find myself in overwhelm mode when I think of all that must be done to keep my publishing and information marketing business moving forward. The feeling of overwhelm doesn’t last very long anymore because I realize that by just focusing on the task at hand along with a little faith will always get me to where I want to go.

As an author you don’t have to know about all the different steps to get your book written, published and marketed, you only have to get started. The universe always has a way of bringing to you what you will need next if you will only get started in the direction toward your goals.

You can’t see the next valley until you have climbed to the top of the first mountain. Once you conquer that first mountain rest assured the view will probably be greater than even imagined but you have to take that first step.

Even today I don’t worry too much about all the things I must learn and prepare for but I do know that I will have the right information and resources come to me when I get to the next step. Although I can most of the times get myself moving consistently along the track I still depend on both a good mentor as well as a mastermind group I meet with weekly.

My mentor and mastermind group have an uncanny way of being able to stand back from my situation and see it for what it really is, and more importantly keep me moving forward. I couldn’t or wouldn’t do it without them and I think many a successful entrepreneur or author would say the same thing.

Don’t let overwhelm defeat you but instead use it as your special sign to get a good mentor or become part of a mastermind group.
 

I want to talk about how you must not confuse motion with action because one will keep you broke and the other will make you rich.

One of the biggest challenges I have is to keep my clients or students moving in the directions of their dreams. It is always nice when they email me or phone me to let me know they have finished their books and are very excited about the future.

It is a great feeling to know that I have helped in some way. But not all that start their books finish their books and I am constantly trying to increase the percentage of successful authors that take my courses.

One of the things I tell all my students is to check to make sure what they’re doing is not just motion but is actually action.

Motion is usually anything that you do from day to day. For example: If you make coffee every morning before you start to write that is motion. The motion of making coffee. If you turn on your computer and check you email that is usually a motion as well. Organizing your desk and on and on it goes until at the end of the day you have still not taken any action because you are too busy being in motion.
 
So what is action?

Action is a task that you do each day that moves you closer to your goal. In this case we are talking about writing, publishing and marketing your book.

So action would be finding a company to print your book. Then maybe after that it would be to contact a webmaster to make your website. Do you see the difference? Action puts another brick into your overall book business and gets you closer to your goal each day.

Motion is doing things that you do day after day that don’t bring you any closer to your goal. If you don’t take action you will never reach your goal as a successful published author. If you do the same things everyday and expect different results is that not the definition of insanity?

Take action and put at least one more new brick into your business each day and you will be amazed at how fast your life will change.

So many people lead lives of quiet desperation needlessly. If they only knew how very close they are to a miraculous life they would probably take more inspired action.

I remember many years ago when a business associate commented to me after I was telling him the great business idea I had discovered. His response to me was “I have been telling you that for a long time”. I don’t know why but a switch went on in my brain that particular day saying he had in fact been telling me about that very business idea for many years.

Why had I heard him that day but had obviously not heard him the many times before? It is because we can only see what we know and I finally knew what he had been talking to me about for all those years.

You see the universe or higher power which ever you prefer to call it is always supporting us for our higher purpose if we would just be open to it. The universe sends us messages many ways. It may be a friend, business associate, event, book or an article just like this one. We’re getting our lives queued constantly if we would just open up to the new and let go of the old.

I teach a course, How To Write & Publish a Book In 40 Days, many times per year in the Vancouver BC area. It is obvious to me that everyone in the classes I am teaching has been given a nudge by the universe to write a book or else they wouldn’t be there.

That being said why do many of the students get all pumped up at the class but then run out of gas on their book project a short time later? It is because they can’t see themselves as published authors yet. This is a tragedy because finishing their books would make a miraculous difference in their lives.

I truly believe we are put here on this earth to help each other and writing your book is a great way to help many people and in fact in most cases it is our obligation to do so.

I know my life purpose is to help as many people as possible to expand their lives through the process of writing their book. Many of my students do finish their books within a few months of the course and I am grateful for that.

Others it may be years later when someone says to them after they are beaming at the miraculous life changes that have come to them after writing their books. I said to you years ago that you should write a book.

Hear me now this very day that you can write and publish your own book and you will leave your life of mediocrity for a life of change and miracles. Can you hear me?

It’s that time of year again when you will soon be pondering a new year’s resolution. What is it going to be? Will it be to loose some weight, quit smoking or maybe to just treat your fellow man with more kindness and respect.

What about being a published author by writing your own book in 2008? Almost 81% of our North American population say they would like to write a book. That means that over 4 out of every 5 people who will read this blog post have expressed an interest in writing their own book.

So with so many people wanting to write their own book how come only a small percentage of people actually achieve published author status? Well it is no secret that the mighty excuse is the reason for stopping so many would be authors in their tracks.

The two biggest excuses I hear are I don’t know how to write and the second one is that they suffer from perfectionism. Their book is just never quite good enough to put it out into the world of readers.

Well here’s my professional opinion on these two excuses.

# 1 I don’t know how to write.

If you can hold a conversation you can write a book. Write your book in a simple conversational style and you will do just fine. It is a myth that you need to be a literary giant to make it as an author. If you need proof just read my book. It is doing just fine and I am making a very substantial secondary income from being an author.

#2 The book isn’t quite good enough yet to be published.

There are a lot of people that suffer from perfectionism and I was in its spell for too many years as well. First of all there is no such thing as a perfect book so thinking that your book has to be perfect before being published is an illusion. The bottom line is a mediocre published book will always do better than an author waiting for their book to be perfect.

Use a simple template to help you write your book and spend about an hour per day writing. Within one month you will have a book that will be about 200 pages in length and you will be ready to publish a book that will completely change your life for the better.

Think about it this way! For about 20 or 30 hours of writing you can start attracting all sorts of life changing opportunities by becoming the author of a book. I know of no other opportunity that is available to so many people like you and I. Take advantage of it and make 2008 the start of the best year ever.

Having taught so many would be authors how to write and publish their book has really given me a keen sense of how faith plays out in our lives. With 81% of people in North America saying they want to write a book why is it that so few actually do?

Lets face it if you are coming to my class it is probably a given that you are more serious about completing your book than the rest of the population. With that being said why do I have so many students that come to my classes with an almost completed book but they still have not reached the finish line?

In fact I have had several students that say they have been writing their book since the late 1960’s and still aren’t to the finish line. What up with that? What’s up is always the same answer I get from every student and that is when they are ready to pull the trigger and shoot their book into the published world they loose faith.

They loose faith that what they have written is good enough and worthy of their reading audience. They loose faith that they really can be a published author and they loose faith that they themselves are good enough.

Here they are standing at the door to ‘Published Author’ and they loose faith. So who is the guard standing at the door stopping them from going through? It is their worst enemy and it is the enemy that has stopped them from enjoying a more full and successful life.

That enemy is their own mind working against themselves. This is the same mind that might even encourage a friend or even a total stranger to go for it but when it comes to them they feel they are not worthy and loose faith. So close and yet so far because nothing happens until that book is out there for people to read.

The tragedy of this thinking is that probably 90% of the people who would read their book will be much more supportive and kinder to the would be author then they are to themselves. How ironic!

This reminds me of the fly that continues to fly up against the closed window looking for freedom until death. Had the fly moved over 6 inches to the open door the fly would have had total freedom to live out its life. It is the same story with the would be author. If they could just have the faith to let their own mind go they would see the miraculous results that being a published author can bring to their lives and the lives of their readers.

If there is one big piece of advice I can give these authors on writing a book it is this. To just let it go and have faith. Have faith in yourself and have faith in your readers and you will join the ranks of published author and I promise you your world will change.