Books I want to Write, Joe GirardHave you thought of writing a book?  Me too!

I have a bunch of ideas on what to write, but let’s talk about what needs to happen to make it a reality. If you have been thinking about writing your own book, then today is about you as well.

Today, as my 90 day blogging challenge is drawing to a close (Day 88 of 90), I was wondering what to write for my post and I found a post by Chris Brogan called 100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write.

In Chris’s post, he had the title I was looking for which is why I chose today’s topic.

Something I have been sitting on for a while is the writing of a book. I think now is the time. But why has it taken so long? Or why will it still take time?

If you have been thinking about writing a book, the best time to do it was yesterday. the second best time is today. Let’s get to work! Today.

Cool Update Nov 2017: Gael over at Authority Hacker send me an email asking if I would also link to her post and once I read it, I thought YOU BETCHA! Check out her post: 13 Creative Ways To Come Up With Blog Post Ideas So You Never Wonder What To Blog About Next! I love when people add value and I know you will get tons of value from her post as well.

Not only is their content structured in an awesome way, but the content is crazy good. I am actually going to dive in and put her stuff to the test! Thanks Gael!

Fear of failure

LIke everyone, I am prone to our two fundamental emotions as humans; FEAR and DESIRE. And fear is typically the number one driver in why we make decisions. If you remember my 4-part series on why we make decisions based on emotions, I talked about our reptilian brain (fight or flight).

We are always looking to survive. That is hard-wired in our brain. Another thing special about us is that we are social creatures. Combine these two ideas and you see that we need to be accepted to be social, and failure may mean lack of acceptance, right?

One of the biggest skills you can learn in your personal mastery discipline is that of reflection. Observation is a fundamental skill in anything you do. Understanding where your fear comes from is a wonderful first step to overcoming it.

It’s easier NOT to do it

How many people tell you all the important things they want to do or the big ideas they have? Some grandiose plans for the future. But when push comes to shove, are they actually doing the work to get there?

I find it is always so much easier to tell people your plans and never have to show what you’ve done, right?  Well, the only person you hurt is yourself.

It takes hard work and planning to get big projects accomplished.  Will you be one of the rare people who actually do what you say? I am publicly proclaiming that I will write and publish a book on Kindle within the next two months. Heck, by the end of June. You heard it here.

Now I just have to plan.

I may not really want to

But wait! What if I don’t really want to do it? What if I don’t want what I want? My friend Rick Hoogendoorn always talks about this, especially in his first book, “What’s Stopping You?” He describes the phenomenon of what he calls the “gas and brake” where we say we want to do something, while at the same time we also don’t want to do it.

That ties into the fear of failure, or our feelings of inadequacies, or perhaps, the fact that we may ACTUALLY not want to do what we say. Take some time and reflect on your goals and ask if they are really YOUR goals or some tasks  you manufactured because you think you are supposed to.

I have been wrestling with it myself and have realized that I DO actually want to write books. So I will!

It may actually be easier than you think

Does writing a “book” seem like a massive undertaking? Well maybe it doesn’t have to be! Maybe you can write a smaller book? Around 20 to 50 pages to start.

Most people don’t even fully read the larger 400 page books. Especially on Kindle. We like to break down ideas into easily digestible pieces, so what is actually stopping you from writing about 10,000 words and formatting it in a way that makes sense and gets your readers excited? Perhaps instead of a 400 page book, you could write FOUR 100 page books in a series?

What if you just wrote about a topic you have decent knowledge in and created a 50 page guide? Maybe keep it simple and in about four or five chapters and just broke the ideas out in a blog format.  An intro, four chapters, and a conclusion. How quickly could you write that?

So what should I write about?

In my blog, I know have quite a bit of material to choose from that I could build upon. My categories as you can see at the top are:

  1. Achiever Mindset
  2. Business Strategy
  3. Leadership
  4. Marketing
  5. Personal Development
  6. Sales

I have a few ideas in mind and over the next 90 days will be putting out some info products.  What do you think of these titles?

These are just some of the titles I am wrestling with and have a ton of information to make them work. I would love to hear your feedback on what you would like to see. I will be tracking my progress as well so I can provide you woith details on how I do!

Leave your comments below or drop me a line at joe@changegrowachieve.com. If you have other ideas in mind, let me know! I will be doing giveaways as well, so stay tuned.

Joe Girard
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    5 replies to "Books I Want to Write: Suggestions?"

    • Didier Vincent

      Joe, seeing you go through this 90 day challenge has really opened my eyes. When you started this blogging quest, I also challenged myself to consistently read your post everyday. I knew that I would only need a few minutes a day to fully focus on what you are saying and teaching.

      To be honest, it was very hard to put time aside each day in my busy life to really absorb all of the amazing information.

      Similar to what you said, “Not perfect and finished is better than perfect and never finished”, I find it essential that I do not focus all of my energy into understanding one specific post, but instead to take a little form all 90 post and grow gradually through this process.

      I still need to go back and re-read some older post that I have missed, but as long as I read the 90th post, my challenge such as your’s will be finished and on to another.

      • Joe Girard

        You got it man! Thanks for the comment. I think often we struggle with the feeling of “not good enough” if we don’t do 100% of what we said we would do. For this blog series, I know I made a ton of mistakes and did not fully get everything done. I did, however, get each post out. I think we have to always keep in mind to celebrate the small victories. The fact that you even made the mental switch to read ONE post, let alone ALL of them, shows that you have a thirst for knowledge.

        I like to keep this quote in mind “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” – Bill Gates

        The secret is all of the LITTLE things you do over the long term, not just getting as much done as possible today. Do a little each day – 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc and you will get that long term success.

        One of the inspirations for the daily writing habit was from Jerry Seinfeld. He said that to be an effective joke writer (or any writer), you have to do it every day. Even for a few minutes. Most people think it comes from CRANKING out a ton of work in the moment.

        Keep me posted on what else I can send your way, brother and I will get you the content that will help you out! ANd keep rocking all the stuff you guys have been doing!

    • […] success. Forget about trying to be perfect and just go out and try some stuff. As I talked about yesterday, I am going to write a book. And I will see how it […]

    • Anna Knight

      Dear Joe ,it was good to read all your posts today.As i did find time to go to library and sit quietly and go through your details posted.i have to keep on writing to get my goals reached, but first i have to answer all your questions you asked me in the email.Getting there slowly. Not very computer or digitally expert.Send your letter to my IT expert daughter .Surprised, she answered positively about you and all your blogs ,writing and videos. I am so happy that I am on the right track.Thanks Joe, a million times .i will be writing soon to you again by email.Just let me swallow all that I have read,will read understand. Find the motivation.Started writing my Blog ,but something stopped me from writing further.By reading your” 20 tips to Create a Powerful personal Brand”— Has given me hope .loved your Mum’s guidance. My mum was just like her thoughts. how great is that.I love it. Love you too. You are like my son.

      • Joe Girard

        Glad to hear about you getting some focus, Anna. Keep working on things one day at a time. Even just five minutes is all you need. I look forward to seeing how you progress. Keep me posted.

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