Start Before You’re Ready

February 3, 2021-If someone offered you a seat on a rocket ship what would you say? Would you say that you had to think it over or that it was too big of a risk? Or you weren’t sure, but would get back to them? Poof. Opportunity lost. This happens to people in the writing world every. single. day. You’re not always going to be ready to start, but the point is, that you DO. Get started even when you’re afraid of the unknown. I’ve extended opportunities to writers/clients who have not taken me up on my offer; but I only ask once. I don’t waste time on waiting for people to decide. You show me you’re not interested and I’ll take your word for it and never offer again.  Whether it’s a publishing deal, a course, an opportunity, or otherwise, I only ask once. You can learn a lot from people who hesitate. I ONLY work with the fearless. The ones that when they can’t find a way, they make one.

You may not be ready to write your book. Write it anyway.
You may not be ready to send your book to a publisher. Send it anyway.
You may not be ready to launch your writing business. Launch it anyway.
You may not be ready to hear criticism about your work. Listen anyway.

If you’re using the excuse that you’re not educated enough, talented enough, you don’t know enough, or that you’re not brave enough, it’s time to start before you’re ready. Do you think that everyone had all of the variables worked out before they ever got started on anything? Nope. But they did it anyway.

If someone offers you a seat on a rocket ship, GET.ON. You may not ever have the opportunity again, and if I’m the one who offered it, I can guarantee you won’t. X LLB

Lights, Camera, Action

September 7, 2020–Happy Monday, Friends! I recently re-read The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles, and I must say, reading it a second time is when more of the information sank in. Part of the book talks about taking inspired action, so that’s what we’ll be chatting about today in this blog post; let’s explore what inspired action is and what some action steps are that you could take to change your writing life. 

Inspired action is when you get an idea, and you act on it immediately. Some of these ideas happen while having a shower, exercising, or meditating, but they all have one thing in common, you suddenly have a great idea, and without thinking about the nuts and bolts of it, you act on it right away. 

If we’re quiet enough, we can hear our subconscious, and that’s where the magic happens! There has been a lot of debate around books like The Secret and Law of Attraction type works, where some people think that all they have to do is think good thoughts and suddenly their mailbox will be full of cheques and money; that’s not how it works. Yes, positive thinking and maintaining a positive attitude are essential to success, but the other piece of the puzzle is that you must take action. 

So, how do we take inspired action for our writing/book business? 

1. Meditate /quiet your mind: This is the best way to solve any problem you have. By quieting your mind, you are allowing your subconscious to take the wheel and come up with solutions that your conscious mind may not have thought of. 10-15 minutes daily is great to start with, and you can work your way up from there. If your goal is to sell more books, but you don’t know where to start, before your meditation, ASK your subconscious how you can meet your goal. 
2. Be Clear: You can never get what you want if you don’t know what that is. Maybe your goal is to have one of your books hit number 1 on the best sellers list, or you want to sell 5000 copies of your book, or you want to see your book in the hands of a celebrity. Whatever your goal is, make sure that you are crystal clear. Don’t worry about the details of how it’s going to happen, just take action and keep taking action. It’s only a matter of time before things will materialize. You’ve got to put the work in though!

What can we do to take action now based on our goals? 

1. Don’t overthink, instead DO: When you have an idea, act on it right away. No matter how silly it seems, it could be what holds the key to success. Once, I was trying to think of a way to get some information on specific police procedures for one of my novels. I contacted a friend who put me in touch with the head of Toronto Homicide, who ended up consulting on my book. Also, that led to a private tour of the Ontario Police College, where I got to ask as many questions as my heart desired, and I got to view the campus, library, and ballistics room/training course. 
2. Make your requests known: I know a lot of people may disagree with me on this one because some of us are surrounded by folks who don’t want to see us succeed. Sad, but true. Plus, when people don’t know what you’re working on, they have nothing to attack. But I believe that the Universe conspires to give us what we want if we ask and take action. Other people can help us with ideas, materials, funding, answers and more. And we can help them too; life is reciprocal. If you don’t ask for what you need, you’re not taking action, are you? The person you ask may not be able to help you directly, but maybe they know someone who can. I once sent a letter to the Port Authority in my city to see if they wanted to buy copies of Panda the Very Bad Cat to give to kids at their company Christmas Party. They said yes, and placed their order. I have no idea why I picked that specific place, but it was inspired action, and all I did was ask. 

Happy Monday! Here’s to another amazing week. X LLB

 

Ikea and Parkinson’s

July 22, 2020-Do you know about Parkinson’s Law? It states, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” What does this mean? It means that if you give yourself a week to write a blog post, it will take you a week to write it. If you give yourself a year to complete your novel, it will take a year to complete it and so on. However much time we give a project is the time it will take to complete it; that’s one of the reasons we procrastinate. We always get it done on time, so why do it early?

Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, has a different approach. He knows about Parkinson’s Law, and to combat it, he shares this idea; “If you split your day into ten-minute increments and you try and waste as few of those ten-minute increments as possible, you’ll be amazed at what you can get done.”

I admit I do this often. When I need to complete a task, especially one that I don’t like, such as social media scheduling, I set a timer for ten minutes. I do as much as I can in ten minutes and then move on to the next thing. It’s not very often that I don’t complete my tasks this way. It’s a simple and effective way to get started and to set and meet deadlines. I repeat this multiple times per day. Don’t worry; it’s not the same as multi-tasking as you’re only focusing on one thing at a time! Give this method a try for your writing tasks and send me an email to say how you made out: pandapublishing8@gmail.com. 

Happy Writing, X LLB 

 

Mini Habits (They’ll change your writing life!)

March 1, 2019– I was boarding a flight in Toronto recently, and while we were getting on the plane, I overheard a woman and her son talking about a book. Of course, I’m always interested in book recommendations, so I continued to eavesdrop. The young man said quietly to his mother, “This book is amazing, it’s easy, straightforward, and I think this will work for what I’m trying to accomplish!” The book that he had in hand was titled, Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results. I headed to my seat and took out my phone because the boy had piqued my curiosity. Of course, I had no idea what he was trying to accomplish in his life, but I thought the book sounded intriguing and he sure seemed to believe in it!

I looked up the book jacket info on Amazon and read some of the reviews; they were pretty impressive. I downloaded the audio version and plugged in while we waited on the tarmac. The book, in a nutshell, is about how most of our behaviour happens on autopilot and if we set small goals such as a single push up, once we’re in position, we’ll always do more. Eventually, these small goals will become habits, and we will operate from a place of automation instead of force. So, how can mini habits change your writing life? I’m so glad you asked!

1. You’ll exceed your goals if you start small. When I first became an author, I created mini habits unbeknownst to myself; I would write every day for only fifteen minutes. Soon those fifteen minutes each day became a habit and the fifteen minutes turned into an hour or more. I have an author friend who started writing only fifty words per day. Soon, his fifty words per day multiplied into fifteen pages per day. The point is, if you set a small goal and stick to it, you’ll reach your goal, and you’ll be motivated to do more.
2. You’ll create discipline without out even realizing. If you create a mini habit of listening to a business audio book every time you get in the car, or a mini habit of reading one page of a book per day, you’re creating discipline in your life and discipline equals freedom. You would have a massive amount of knowledge in one year if you read one page per day or listened to something while traveling! These mini habits will translate into big results because they will become as automatic and as disciplined as brushing our teeth before bed. Why do we brush our teeth before bed? I don’t know, because it’s a habit that we’ve had since childhood and we just do it. See what I mean?
3. You’ll get out of your comfort zone. I make it a mini habit of handing out one business card per day. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but over the course of a year it sure adds up! You can cover a lot of ground and grow your writing business if you just implement this one small thing. You could use this approach for sending out queries, submitting manuscripts, connecting with a stranger, or meeting new people. Having a mini habit is an excellent way to get you out of your comfort zone and into a better writing life. Imagine sending 300+ queries out to publishers or agents in a year? That’s a lot of action, and statistically, something is bound to happen!

Start with small mini habits and watch them grow into something amazing! In a later post, perhaps we’ll talk about taking this concept one step further with habit stacking. Stay tuned!