Don’t Plan to Write a Book in 2015

Are you starting to think about what 2015 is going to look like for you? It seems like everyone I know is talking about how awesome 2015 is going to be and frankly I’m not so sure.

Every December people start talking about how great next year is going to be (myself included); and then next year just looks like last year.

I mean really, what’s so special about January 1? The calendar is obviously completely arbitrary. The only magic that happens with the flipping of the calendar year is the magic we make up in our heads so why do we have to wait for a certain date to create that magic.

What I have found is most people don’t like to make magic as much as they like to talk about it.

Let me tell you a story:

Going into 2012 I had a goal to start doing more partnerships. I named 2012: THE YEAR OF THE JOINT VENTURE! I bought programs about partnerships. Read every free offering out there. Talked to people who were doing joint ventures well. I even hired 3 different people to help manage partnerships for The Author Incubator. No one I hired worked out. Then I thought it was a mental block so I hired a coach to see why I wasn’t making partnerships happen or why I was hiring people who weren’t a fit. That didn’t work either.

I was convinced the thing that would take my business to the next level was partnerships. I tried for 2 years and then, in December of 2013, I gave up. Cold Turkey.

Trying to make this partnership thing happen was creating this horrible negative shame cycle and I just needed a way out.

Ironically, once I took the pressure off the most amazing partnership opportunities started just showing up at my doorstep with no effort what-so-ever. In fact, I get partnership requests almost everyday now that I have to turn down!

So I’m kind of against this ‘2015 is going to be awesome’ BS. I think those sorts of resolutions can create pressure and shame. Why not just make right now awesome?

I talk to people on the phone about their books every day. Do you know what I tell about half of them?
• Drop the idea of writing a book.
• Stop planning to write a book.
• Stop wanting to be an author.
• Either do it. Or don’t. But don’t live in that space of wanting.
That’s what I was doing with my partnership thing. I kept WANTING to be an expert at partnerships. I kept planning how it was going to go. I kept putting together programs to attract partners and learning about affiliate software and partnership deal structures. I kept talking about partnership pay-outs and how the commissions would work. All that wanting and planning – all it did was push my goal further away from me.

2015 doesn’t have to be awesome because it’s 2015. You can just choose to start being awesome now.

You don’t have to plan to write your book in 2015. Just write your book or don’t. But give yourself permission to get out of that wanting space which only creates more wanting.

What is it Yoda says? Do or not do. There is no try.

I’m pretty sure he had that right.
Fuck 2015.
Calendars are arbitrary.
Be awesome right now.

P.S. I’ve actually had a spot open up for my Three Days to Done program where you write your entire book over 3 days with me in San Diego Feb. 2 – 4. Let me know if you want in. The books will be published March 10, 2015.