You are a Writer – So Start Acting Like One!

“Fear melts when you take action towards a goal you really want.” ~Robert G. Allen

What do you say when people ask you what you do?

Do you reply, “Uh, I’m an aspiring writer.”?

If you do, you are in trouble.

It means you don’t believe you are a real writer.

And if you don’t believe in yourself, will anyone else believe in you?

However, there’s someone who can help you to make the transition from “I’m a wannabe writer” to “I am a writer”. His name is Jeff Goins.

In his 100-page ebook, You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One), Jeff has laid out a systematic plan of action you can use to launch your writing career.

Drawing on his hard-won experience, Jeff gives detailed advice on how to:

• get started
• find your voice
• build a platform
• establish your own brand and
• market your work using multiple channels of connection

Jeff’s advice is refreshingly unconventional and effective. If you always wanted to be a writer or are struggling to get started, check out his book here (not an affiliate link).

Here is my favorite excerpt from You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One):

“When I started writing, I had all sorts of anxiety. Who was I, pretending to be a writer? How could I possibly call myself one when I hadn’t even written a real book, hadn’t been published or paid for my work?

As I began to pursue my craft, I learned something important. In fact, I’m still learning it.

Writing is mostly a mind game. It’s about tricking yourself into becoming who you are. If you do this long enough, you begin to believe it. And pretty soon, you start acting like it."

And here is an exercise you can apply right away:

“Take a moment and write this down. Do it as an act of faith, of believing before you see. Say it before you feel it.

This isn’t positive thinking mumbo jumbo; it’s affirming something deep inside of you that you’ve been resisting. It’s time to submit, to surrender. Are you ready? Write it now before this sense of urgency leaves you. Grab a pen and paper — make this a tactile experience — and write the following words:

I am a writer.

Good. Now do it tomorrow and the next day. Continue this practice for the rest of your life until you believe it. And then keep doing it as a means of practice and ritual.

Because there will always be doubt. Always anxiety and second-guessing.

Welcome to the life of an artist.”

That’s what Jeff did. He told everyone he was a writer. He put it on his Facebook page and included it in his email signatures. He wrote that he was a writer wherever he could. 

Guess what? He found that it worked. He started to believe he was a writer and more importantly, he started acting like one. As a result, his writing improved and reinforced his belief in himself.

It worked for Jeff. It will work for you too. 

Remember what Einstein said:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

So try this today:

If anyone asks you what you do, look her in the eye and say, "I am a writer."

Check out  You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One) here.

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of the You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One) ebook from Jeff Goins. This has not influenced my review in any way.

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran - Book Review

Twenty-six Lessons on Living

If I were to be marooned on an island and could choose only one book as my companion, I would opt for The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. It’s only 132 pages, and yet, each time I read it, I marvel at the profound wisdom in each line.

The Prophet is the story of Almustafah. He had been living for twelve years in the city of Orphalese. Now his ship has arrived and he is returning to the isle of his birth. The people of Orphalese first try to persuade him to stay and then entreat him to “disclose us to ourselves, and tell us all that has been shown you of that which is between birth and death”.

In the next 26 chapters, he answers their questions about Love, Marriage , Children , Giving, Eating and Drinking, Work, Joy and Sorrow , Houses, Clothes, Buying and Selling , Crime and Punishment , Laws , Freedom, Reason and Passion , Pain, Self-Knowledge, Teaching, Friendship, Talking, Time, Good and Evil, Prayer, Pleasure, Beauty, Religion, and Death.

Each of his sermons is deceptively simple yet profoundly insightful.

For example, when asked about marriage, he advises, “Love one another but make not a bond of love.”

About work, his words contain this stern rebuke, “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”

“It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.” He advises a rich man, who asks about giving.

About religion, he says. “Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?”

Finally, before leaving, he says enigmatically, “Forget not that I shall come back to you. A little while, and my longing shall gather dust and foam for another body.A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.”

Published in 1923, the Prophet’s wise words are timeless and equally relevant today. It is a store-house of invaluable treasures; an unfailing fount of fresh inspiration and new insights. I feel every writer should have it close at hand.

The Prophet is Kahlil Gibran’s best-loved work and has been translated into more than 20 languages. Since its publication more than 80 years, The Prophet has never been out of print in the United States and elsewhere.

Don’t take my word for it; you can download it here:
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran