I. Follow the Clues
Tony Robbins asserted: “Success leaves clues.” In other words, if you want to be successful, look to the people who are already successful and imitate them. A similar concept is found in 3 John 1:11 which says, “Do not imitate what is evil but what is good.” Understand, therefore, that imitation is a powerful tool. As a child, I viewed imitation as an irritation. However, all of the successful people I study endorse imitation.
When it comes to book writing, it’s the same concept of imitation that will help you. John Maxwell has over 100 books in print and has sold over 30 million books. Because of this, I looked to the format of one of his books as a formatting guide for formatting my book. I chose the book How Successful People Think. As opposed to reading it for content, I examined the book closely to understand how he put each chapter together. I could not believe the simplicity of the format. Here is a visual:
Ridiculous? Well, ridiculously simple, if you ask me. There were a few exceptions to this formula, but in general, this was the formula of the format. As I began to outline my book, I used this formula for my chapters. For example, here is how chapter A outlined on my book looked:
II. Fuel the Vision
People in the coaching and speaking industry are being exposed to uplifting content all of the time. We attend conferences, listen to podcasts, and, of course, read books. However, one day my life shifted as I was listening to Gary Vee speak at a conference on YouTube. During his speech, he shared his deepest desire for every person at the conference. He wished each person there would never go to another self-help conference for the rest of their lives, that they would never watch another video of his for the rest of their lives and that they would simply put into practice what he teaches. In other words, he was asking them to get out of the stands and onto the field! I decided I would do what he said. I realized I can spend a great deal of time on more books, more podcasts, more conferences, but I would merely be on the input side of insight, with poor excuses for an output. To illustrate, my input was like a firehouse and my output was like the drip of a baby’s bottle. I made a crucial and pivotal decision. I had my designer put together my book cover. Then, I had my print shop make me a nearly blank book. Here it is:
It’s a simple 5 inch by 7 inch journal that looks like a book. (In reality, it was a book because it had nine of my chapters completed on the inside.) I asked my designer to also put the phrase “International Best Selling Author” and “Over 1 Million Copies Sold” to remind me every single day of where I’m going on this writing journey.
In order to make the switch from being a heavy input person and a light output person, I decided this journey would be with me everywhere I went. Instead of a taking a new book with me, I would bring this book. If I was waiting for a meeting to start and would normally read another book, I wrote in this journal instead.
Because this idea fueled me, when friends of mine expressed their ambition to be authors, I went ahead and designed and printed books for them. For fun, there books for visions for them are right here:
Their journals that look like books arrive this Friday from my print shop.
III. Focus Daily with Accountability Every Three or Four Days
How long does it take to write a book? Great question! Let’s imagine the book takes 120 hours of focus. If I focus for an hour a day on the book, then it will take me 120 days to complete. If I focus for two hours a day on the book, then it will take me 60 days to complete the book. Another way of looking at this is the number of words for a book. My book ended up being over 52,000 words which can seem like a lot. In reality, they’re just words. If you counted up the words you use in text messages, social media posts, conversations, and email, then you will see how quickly words add up. This blog post will probably be a little over 1,000 words. I committed to write in my book everyday even if only three sentences. I figured: Three sentences if three sentences closer to the end.
Do you want to know what helped me the most? As the divine timing worked out, I started two new Mastermind Coaching groups focusing explicitly on habit formation. The motto of the groups: Build the habits you want to build and break the habits you want to break. For ten weeks, we discussed habits. Each Mastermind Coaching group, I let the participants know I am both a facilitator of the group and a participant. I’m still on my learning journey too! Consider this divine timing: For ten weeks, I devoted about 40 hours to the study of habits! And one group met on Tuesday mornings and the other group met on Friday mornings. This meant that twice a week, I would have the opportunity to make myself accountable to them. Notice I said that I make myself accountable. Let me note for you: When you want to change or grow bad enough, you will make yourself accountable to others, and nobody will need to hold you accountable.
At the beginning of each Mastermind, I ask each person to share a victory with habit building or habit breaking from the prior week. This helps all of us in the group consider throughout the week the victories we want to share.
By the way, I launch two new Habits Mastermind this Saturday morning and this Sunday night. If you are interested, send me a text at 210-412-5545.
IV. Face Thought Blocks with Breaks of Physical Activity
Like any writer, I faced moments where my mind would go blank and I would not have thoughts to finish a paragraph or section. Instead of turning to empty scrolling, watching shows or watching movies, I fought mental blocks with physical activity. I went running; I lifted weights here at the house. Something about the physical activity unlocked my thoughts for continuing to write.
V. Forge Simplicity into Content
John Maxwell asserted that great communicators do the hard work of making the message simple. No person has done this more effectively than Jesus of Nazareth. In a post back in March on Facebook, I shared this image:
In the course of a fifteen-minute message in Matthew 5-7, there is over 50 images conjured by his choice of words. Mark 6 says that he didn’t say anything without using a parable. While Matthew 5-7 has short, simple illustrations, Matthew 25 has longer stories of illustrations. Because of this, I implemented this concept into my writing. Every point would have an accompanying illustration or story. When I’m outlining a chapter, I use the hashtag symbol (#). If the story is a personal story evoking emotion, I use the hashtag symbol and the money sign symbol next to one another ($#). Back to the outline of my first chapter, I would add greater detail with hashtags if it was an illustration. Here’s the visual:
This meant that for me and my outline, I would use eight illustrations per chapter.
VI. Fortify Attitude
What holds many people back from their goals and dreams? Perfectionism. They think, “If I can’t do it perfectly, why do it at all?” Or “If it’s not excellent, why spend time on it?” One of my inspiring friends, Dr. Daniel Murray, said a phrase that changed my life: “Better done than perfect.” Instead of focusing on perfection, I shifted my focus to completion. Another incredible friend in my circle, Tomas Martinez III, said to me: “Nothing is good the first time.” This helped me to remember that it takes time to get good. As Malcolm Gladwell put it, I need 10,000 hours of practice to attain mastery level skills.
I’m not a great writer right now, but I want to be. Now that my book is with the editors, I joke that if I ever need a dose of humility, all I have to do is go look at all the mistakes of the manuscript! I’m imperfect and I embrace it! The way I see it, I produce the marble slab, and my amazing editor – Cynthia Nagle – and my style writing contributor – Luke Taliaferro – will sculpt my work to elevate it to excellence. (With time, I envision passing off the manuscript to Luke, who refines my work, and then passes the his version of my work to Cynthia for the editing. They are amazing in their gifts.)
VII. Forsake Any Potential Distraction
What are you willing to give up for your dream? What are you not willing to give up for your dream? For me, I was willing to give up Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Gmail, Ymail, and having my phone nearby. What is getting your attention? I once read that it takes 15 minutes to get back on task once you get off task! Every person of excellence makes sacrifices that few other people make. I want to be a person of excellence. I want to see my dreams come true.
To close, I’ll share a story about my journey with alcohol. Three years ago, I became lax in drinking tequila. It became a source of weakness in my life. After talking to friends, mentors, and my wife, I wrestled with the notion of giving up alcohol. I didn’t want to give it up. One day – not under the influence of alcohol – I was connecting with God during our daily time together. While it’s difficult to explain, these two opposite paths were before me. One path: I could continue casually drinking alcohol, but I would only have an average life with average achievements. The other path: I could give up alcohol and I would witness all of my dreams come true. It was my choice to make. Ultimately, I decided to give up alcohol. Since then, I’ve seen dream after dream come true. I launched my speaking and coaching business. I became an author. I delivered my first two-hour workshop across the country. I am in line with my divine design. The passion and energy I feel for each day of work is unbelievable. I read that one exercise of happiness is looking forward to something in your schedule. I look forward to the bulk of every day. This month will be three years without alcohol.
I ask you: What’s blocking you from your goals?
My first book is released on August 5th, 2020. To order your copy, text me at 210-412-5545.
