Life Has A New Chapter for You, But You Have to Turn the Page
Life has been chaotic, but now it’s a new season and chapter in our lives. Sometimes we hesitate to turn the page even if the last chapter was stressful. Why do we do this?
Why is it so hard to let go of something we didn’t enjoy? My research has shown that burnout literally changes our brain’s structure. The amygdala enlarges the prefrontal cortex thins. The Prefrontal Cortex controls your memory and your decision-making skills. The amygdala controls your brain’s fear centers. When you’ve been in a state of chaos, stress, and burnout for a long time, the structure of your brain deteriorates. It’s hard for you to make decisions and to remember things. On the flip side, the amygdala enlarges and over-processes fear stimuli. Although our brain structure changes with prolonged stress, that is only one factor. Sometimes we can’t let go of the past because we feel justified in being angry about what happened. Other times we get stuck in the bottomless pit of what if. And sometimes, the unknown of starting a new chapter in our lives can be a little unsettling. Even though the past was uncomfortable, we still know how to handle it. The unknown can be intimidating. When we move into a new chapter, we must remember to leave the past in the past. Do not drag all of the pain and drama from the past into the next chapter. Sometimes we destroy our pleasant future with the pains of the past.
Whenever you find the clouds parting and the sun starting to shine through in the chaos of life, take a moment to let go of the past and step into the bright new future.
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I hate it when I put my heart and soul into clients, and they don’t follow through. As a new coach, this really hurt me, and I always thought there was something wrong. Maybe something was missing in my coaching program. So I would add more information. I would add more worksheets. I would add more tips and tricks. But over time, I realized the lack was not within me or my program. The lack was in the client. Something had stifled their ambition.
I have put so much into the Author Biz 101 course that I’ve had some people tell me there’s so much information it’s almost overwhelming. I know it’s not a lack in the course itself. So what could cause this?
That’s when I realized that ambition was a tricky character. While you’re all fired up with a new project, ambition comes easily. When life hits and other things come up, ambition starts to wane. That’s when I encourage my clients to look back at their purpose. Why did they want to write a book in the first place? Who did they want to touch with their writing?
I also found in some cases that the client was subconsciously sabotaging their own efforts. If it were a lack of self-esteem or a feeling of unworthiness, they would find things to self-sabotage their efforts. Then I started encouraging my clients to change their mindsets about what they deserve. If you feel called or led to write a book, I believe there’s a reason and a purpose for it. You are good enough. You are capable. And there are so many tools available. Writing a book has never been easier than it is right now.
I hate dealing with grammar Nazis and those with a limited mindset who discourage new writers from even starting. I had a new writer who was desperate for a critique. I gave him a good critique, but he wanted someone that was a little harsher, so I sent him to a grammar Nazi. I wish I hadn’t. This grammar Nazi put down his work, but he also told the new writer not to get published because there was no money in writing anymore. Unfortunately, this new writer was so insecure that he took this advice even against my own, and I have never heard from him since. It’s a terrible shame because it has been a long time since someone could move me with words as this man did. I only hope he will get the courage to step up and share his work with the world in the near future.
Dealing with people who do not know how to make money with their writing is one of the things I despise about author coaching. Thousands of indie authors make six figures a year or more with their writing. If I had to go back to traditional publishing, I would probably refuse because I make a hundred times more money publishing independently.
They’re still money to be made publishing traditionally, but quite frankly, it’s much easier and quicker to do it on your own. Unfortunately, this grammar Nazi didn’t know how to make money with his writing, and his limited mindset caused another writer to give up. I will never again send someone looking for a critique to a grammar Nazi. When I researched this man, he’s never published anything in his lifetime to make things even worse. He knew so much about grammar but nothing about making money.
What I love about Authur coaching:
I love it when I can inspire a writer to start a new book. I love the excitement. You can feel it in the air as they begin to talk about their new book. I love helping them form the thoughts of their imaginations and helping them bring them out to the world. I love to inspire and motivate and encourage.
I love the feeling I get when I watch a new writer publish their first book. It’s like watching your child receive an award at school. I’m thrilled to be a part of their journey. I enjoy signing their certificate when they complete my course. I love packaging up my golden ink pins to give away to my authors who complete this journey. Unfortunately, I don’t get to do that very often. So many people want to quit halfway through their book and never finish. That’s the part I hate.
So what’s the point? The point is I want to encourage you to finish the projects you start. When you finish a project, there’s a feeling of joy and satisfaction that comes across in a way that you can’t explain unless you complete your task. Writing a book can be hard, but it doesn’t have to be. I’m here to help, but you still have to finish.
What would you like to accomplish in your lifetime? Have you started on the journey only to be distracted by life? I encourage you to start again. Don’t quit. Follow through. You’ll never know how it feels until you finish it.
If you would like help with your book, check out my author coaching courses. I also have some one-on-one coaching options available through Patreon.
There’s a wise old saying that says, “for as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” What does that mean, exactly? It means you become what you think about regularly. Your consistent thoughts become your actions, and your actions change the reality around you. I know this sounds like a bunch of hoodoos, but I promise you there’s science behind it.
If you study Neuroscience, you’ll find out that every time you have a thought, whether negative or positive, your brain will send out neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that will change your physical state. So, if you’re thinking negatively, your brain will send out stress hormones like cortisol. If you’re thinking about the positive things, your body will send out serotonin which gives you the feeling of bliss.
What difference does it make? That’s the scary part. It makes a huge difference. When your body is overfilled with cortisol, it starts shutting down from the inside out. Cortisol has a specific purpose. It is supposed to go along with the fight-or-flight mechanism to help us in times of crisis. When we fight off a bear, our body doesn’t care if it digests food, so it stops. It also doesn’t care about cleaning the toxins out of your system, so your kidneys and your liver will stop functioning as well! Not only that, your cells stop their reproduction process. Every moment of our lives, our body regenerates itself from the inside out. Our cells die and reproduce constantly. This process is also shut down because your brain thinks it doesn’t matter if you’re dead. That’s true if you’re fighting a bear, but unfortunately, we stay in a constant state of stress in our modern society. This constant state of upheaval will cause massive amounts of health issues. Think about it. What kind of toxins are in your system because you’ve stayed stressed out for years? What type of health problems could we avoid if we found a way to release the tension in our bodies? A man named Norman Cousins was dying of a deadly disease. The doctors gave him no hope, but he had an idea. I don’t know where it came from or what inspired him to do this, but it saved his life. In 1964, he was diagnosed with a deadly connective tissue disease. When the doctors couldn’t do any more for him, and he knew the only thing he faced was a terribly painful death, he decided to take it into his own hands. He had been studying biochemistry and how emotions can affect the body. When all medical hope was lost, he decided to take massive doses of vitamin C and combine that with something unique. He created something he called laugh therapy.
Now I know what you’re thinking. It sounds ridiculous, but if you were dying and only looking forward to a slow, painful demise, wouldn’t you try anything too? So he decided to have the nurses read him the comic strips out of the newspaper. Then he would watch comedy videos continuously. He spent as many hours as he could laughing as hard as he could. It was painful to laugh, but he continued the process, knowing that he was filling his body with good healing hormones every time he laughed.
Norman Cousins walked out of the hospital, cured of his illness to the astonishment of his doctors. He wrote a few books and didn’t die until the ripe old age of 75. It had been a full 26 years after his brush with death.
Now I am not advocating that you forgo going to the doctors when you have illnesses or for depression and anxiety. I am encouraging you, however, to add a little bit of laughter and happiness into your daily routine. While you may have to deal with some health problems, a positive attitude will always help you through it better than a negative one will. So, today I ask you, what are you thinking about? (Yes, I know it’s a preposition at the end of the sentence, but it’s necessary—laugh grammar nazis of the world. The point of this article is you need to laugh more! ) Scientists have told us that we have 100,000 thoughts a day or more. They also say 75% of those are negative. I can’t imagine going to the doctor’s office and asking her to give me 75,000 shots of cortisol, can you? It sounds insane, but we are doing this to ourselves every day! No wonder everyone is sick. Now think about this, what if you purposely made yourself think of positive things as many times as possible during the day?
I encourage you to find ways to increase the joyful moments in your day. Whether it’s putting a picture of your child on your computer or pictures of your dream vacation, maybe it’s watching comedy videos when you get home from work. Whatever it is, insert more joy into your life. This year, the theme for Synova Ink Publishing is “learning how to live again.” Let’s all learn how to enjoy the journey in 2023.
Please check out my affiliate links in this article. Any purchase you make using my links will help support Synova Ink Publishing. With your support, I will continue producing high-quality free content for more people like you. Thank you in advance!
There are many strategies to make six figures as an author, but there are ten core principles that any successful writer must follow to achieve this type of success. Now, I will share them with you.
#1. Create a quality product
First and foremost, you get paid for bringing value to the marketplace.You do not get paid for books. You get paid for bringing value. So if you release a hundred cheap, low-quality books, you won’t make six figures. Everything You release must have a standard of excellence, especially if you are an independently published author. People tend to discount mistakes in a traditionally published book with little thought. But if they find an error in an indie book, they make a big deal of it. Why do we have this double standard? I don’t know? I know that it is a real problem, and you must watch this. Nobody’s perfect but make sure everything you publish is well written and edited to the best of your ability.
#2. Think of yourself as an entrepreneur
Most successful authors think of themselves as entrepreneurs. They don’t think of themselves as only a writer. They think of themselves as a business owner. I am an author, but I am also a speaker, a businesswoman, a podcaster, a YouTuber, a blogger, and a marketing junkie. I’m sure I could add more, but you get the point. I am officially an entrepreneur. I write books, yes, but my business is Synova Ink Publishing. As an entrepreneur, I have a written business plan for Synova Ink Publishing, and every so often, I will refer back to it. If I am not furthering my goals, I will find another path. The key is I think of myself as a business owner.
#3. Know your target audience
Every successful author out there knows their target audience. You can’t be everything to everyone. You’re not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. That’s okay. You must find the people interested in your type of work and market to them. Don’t advertise to the masses. You’ll waste a bunch of time and money and won’t see very many results. The point is to find your target audience and focus on them. Provide value to them and forget the rest.
#4. Have a marathon mindset
Successful Indie authors have a marathon mindset. They don’t just work on one book at a time and focus on that alone. They don’t put all their hopes and dreams into their first book and then never write another one. Every successful six-figure author out there has a series of books available.
#5. Building a mailing list
The money is in the list. You might think JK Rowling doesn’t have a mailing list. She might not, but there are millions of Harry Potter fans on a mailing list, and you can guarantee that her publishing house has them on a list. Now, if you are your own publishing house, you better have a list. Nowadays, traditionally published authors have to have their own list before reaching success. So go ahead and start building a list of email addresses. Start with your friends and family. I don’t care who it is. Start a list later on. You can narrow it down to your target audience. But start somewhere
#6. Think outside of the paperback
You need to think outside of the confines of a paperback book. There are ways to provide value to the marketplace as a writer beyond the paper. Of course, ebooks are available for those who like to read on their phones. There are audiobooks for those who prefer to listen in their cars. But there is even more available besides those three options. I’ll give you an example.
I used to write about cold cases that needed more publicity for those of you who have just started following me. I worked with the victim’s family members to raise awareness about their case, hoping to bring in leads for law enforcement. So how did I do this? I realized that every cold case needed several things. I highlighted the story by writing an article for my blog.
Then I made a series of YouTube videos about the case for my channel. I also had a podcast where I reviewed the cases and sometimes interviewed the victim’s family members. I also put their story in one of my case files books at the end of the year. So how did this help raise awareness about the story?
Instead of the story being in one place, we ended up with a blog post, YouTube video, a podcast episode, a paperback book, an ebook, and an audiobook. So, I had taken the same story and recreated it six times. How many more people have I reached by saying the same thing six different ways? Think about this in your business. How many more people will see your story if you share it in different ways?
#7. Keep learning
William S. Burroughs once said, “when you stop growing, you start dying.” The more you learn and know, the more your business can grow and help more people. Trends are constantly changing, so you must keep learning about your industry. Now the trends in the fantasy industry aren’t the same for True Crime writers, and they are definitely different in the coaching industry. I don’t study the trends for Fantasy writers except for on the occasion when I am coaching a fantasy writer. I do constantly study marketing, personal development, and business.
#8. Avoid burnout
I struggle with this. I will be honest with you. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the process that you forget yourself. Focus on organizing your projects and schedule in time for yourself. Learn to say no to projects and people that don’t serve your highest goals. It’s hard, but if you don’t take care of that beautiful brain of yours, you won’t be able to write.
Find something bigger than yourself
When I started writing, I started writing things that I enjoyed. I quickly learned that this was not enough to keep me focused for the long run. Remember, we’re on a marathon here. Once I found my purpose, I got a drive within me to keep me going. When you’re working for something bigger than yourself, and you’re trying to make the world a better place, it pulls you through the hard times. It helps keep you focused and moving when you’re tired, when you’re sick, and when you feel like giving up. Find a purpose outside of yourself for your business.
#10. Networking
No man is an island. We’ve all heard that saying, but we tend to be more reclusive as writers. We’re more comfortable in our own space, typing away hiding in our imagination. Unfortunately, that is not conducive to good business practice. Networking is vital when it comes to building a business. Find chances to network both online and in person. Don’t forget to cross-promote those writers in your genre too. By cross-promoting them, you actually open up their audience to you.
A terrible title can destroy your book and keep you from reaching the world with your words. The title is like a reader’s first impression right behind the book cover. So, how do you come up with a title that will propel your book toward success?
Millionaire Success Habits: The Gateway to Wealth & Prosperity
Millionaire Success Habits is a book designed with one purpose in mind: to take you from where you are in life to where you want to be in life by incorporating easy-to-implement “Success Habits” into your daily routine.
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A terrible title can destroy your book and keep you from reaching the world with your words. The title is like a reader’s first impression right behind the book cover. So, how do you come up with a title that will propel your book toward success?
I have a simple strategy that I teach the writers taking my course. Today I will share it with you all.
Step #1: Find the top five best-selling authors in your genre and study them.
What were the author’s last three book titles? Look for keywords that seem to resonate with the readers. While searching through these fifteen books you will notice patterns that might fit with your book. Keep in mind to take note of both the title and the subtitle of each book.
Step #2: KISS
Remember that old saying, “keep it simple sweetie?” I say “Keep it Short Sweetie.” Short book titles with no more than 3-5 words seem to work the best. You can make up the difference using a subtitle if necessary.
Step #3: Start a list of possible book titles
Create a list of possible titles and then compare them to the best-selling titles of your targeted authors. How do they compare? Are they longer or shorter? Did you use some of the same keywords?
Step #4: Test it
After you get your list down to two or three possible titles, send them out to a test group and see which title gets the best response.
I know this sounds strange, but don’t forget to make sure your title truly resonates with your book’s topic and purpose. Sometimes in the race to find the perfect, compelling title authors forget that their title must convey a message to the reader first and foremost.
