“A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.” ~Rita Mae Brown

In 2005 I decided that I was going to write a book.  As I mentioned in my last entry, this wasn’t a consciously made choice.  My unconscious mind decided that it was time to take action and let me know this at the end of a seminar.

I am not sure why I made that decision at that particular time.  I had known that I would benefit from a book for years; as a seasoned and in-demand seminar leader, I almost always had the opportunity to sell products at the end of my presentations.  Instead I used this time for chatting with attendees and over time, many of these chats ended up becoming coaching or consulting clients.  (Although I can successfully coach virtually anyone that speaks a common language with me, I only consult on a handful topics.)

So, these seminars, along with other marketing techniques, kept me with a consistently full coaching practice, commonly with a waiting list, and I was complacent.  Not lazy, just complacent.

Use me as a BAD example

Once I had made the decision to become a published non-fiction author, I thought about it virtually every day.  And there is the beginning of the first mistake.  I thought about it everyday.  I invested energy into it every day.  I felt bad that I wasn’t writing more – almost every day.  What I didn’t do was take action on it every day – that would have taken a different and much wiser decision!

Three Mistakes I Made

Looking back 6 years, I am embarrassed.  I should have known better!  As an NLP practitioner, I had helped hundreds of people get unstuck and begin taking consistent action from a place of pleasure.  From my slightly more enlightened future, I can look back now and see three big mistakes that I made.

  • My first mistake was not deciding – not committing to – taking action every single day.
  • My second mistake: I was using a pitiful motivation strategy to get myself to take what little action I did take!  (I’ve talked about good and bad motivation strategies before and I will again – really useful stuff!)
  • Finally I was not accountable to anyone for getting this book done.  The only person I was reporting to about it was me and that was just not good enough.

Next time I’ll talk about what I would do differently and what I am doing differently now to write books.

Till next time faithful reader…Jack

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“Choices are the hinges of destiny.” ~Attributed to both Edwin Markham and Pythagoras