Welcome back to Alchemy for Authors!
In this solo episode I discuss Integrity and what it means for our writing lives and author careers. Inspired by Martha Beck’s book, The Way Of Integrity: Finding Your Path To Your True Self, I share how being out of alignment with our goals shows up in our lives, the ways we might be lying to ourselves and how this can hold us back from achieving our author dreams.
If you’re ready to level up your mindset and eliminate self-sabotage, this is the episode for you!
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Find the full transcript of this episode below.
Episode 25: Integrity and Your Author Life
Jo: Hello, my lovelies. Welcome back to another episode of Alchemy for Authors. So today’s episode is a little bit different than normal, a little bit shorter, and it’s a solo episode where I wanted to talk about something that’s been on my mind a little bit lately, which is the role of integrity in an author’s life.
The goal of this podcast has always been to help myself and help others live writing lives that we really love, or have those author careers that really align best with who we are as individuals.
And so I wanted to have a look a little bit today about what holds us back from having these author careers and having these writing lives that we really dream about.
And so one of the things that got me thinking about this was a recent experience that I had, where I was supervising a small group of 12 to 13 year olds at a young authors conference. And the conference was something local to the city that I live in where different students from around different schools got to spend an entire day with local children’s authors in writing workshops, where they could hear a little bit about the author’s journey to become an author and have some hands-on experience fine tuning their own writing craft, and just getting really excited about what it means to be an author. And this experience did just that.
I’m not quite sure, I’m never very good at guessing how many people are at events, but I would assume there was probably well over 100 and there was about six different children’s authors.
And I was fortunate enough, being that I was there supervising some of the students, that I was able to sit in on some of the authors too. And it’s not the first opportunity I’ve had to do this. And it’s something that I really love and have always really promoted as getting students and children engaged in the writing process. So it was just a really cool experience for me to have as well. And I always think of these things as professional development in that it doesn’t matter how many times you hear something, sometimes it just takes the same advice, like show don’t tell, to be worded from somebody different that it really starts to sink in.
But while I was at this event, I got to see all these amazing, excited wide eyed, passionate, and talented kids really buzzing about this experience of meeting some of their favorite authors, of learning from the authors, talking about books and hearing excerpts from books and everything like that. And as I was standing there, I was talking to a colleague of mine, just thinking about how these kids before us, we’re really going to be the new generation of authors. They were going to be the ones one day sitting on that very same panel potentially, inspiring and encouraging other children along the author path.
And it got me thinking about my own journey, as I looked around the room of all these really young wonderful writers. I had known since I was really, really young that I wanted to be a writer. But it wasn’t until 2020 that I started to take it seriously. I’d had a few short stories and that published well before then, but it wasn’t until 2020 that I decided to embark on my own indie author career and start writing novels instead of short stories. So it took me a long time from having the dream to actually making it happen.
And my colleague was asking me what were some of the different careers that I’d had on the way to doing what I do now. And just to put a little bit more context to this, in my day job I am a teacher. I do teach intermediate or middle school age children. And I’m really fortunate that in my role, I’m also a literacy leader and that I get to really hone in on writing within the school and encouraging teachers and students to fine tune their writing craft and fine tune what that looks like in the classroom. And so whenever there’s an opportunity, I want to get kids excited about writing by introducing them to local authors, and to consider the experience of writing for a larger audience as well.
But I was talking to my colleague and I was going through just the huge amount of different careers and jobs I’d had prior to teaching. And honestly, I have really done everything. I’ve done all different types of retail, I’ve been a librarian, I’ve been a bookstore manager, I’ve been an interior design consultant, I’ve been a photography assistant, I’ve dabbled in alternative medicines and some more of the woo woo kind of things as well, before I settled on teaching. And I say settled, and I really hate that connotation, but there’s a bit of a story behind that because I was doing all these different jobs and all these different things in leiu of actually writing.
And as I was in the audience, listening to these authors get up and do their writing workshops or talk about themselves to the kids, and they all had a very similar message about having grit and persevering and following your passion and not giving up.
One of the authors talked about receiving rejection slips for his novel. I think it was seven times or so. And how he never gave up, he just kept trying and trying until it finally got accepted for publication. Other authors reminded the students about how JK Rowling was rejected 12 times for the Harry Potter series. And for Dr. Seuss’s first book, it wasn’t until his 28th submission that he got accepted.
And so there were all the usual inspiring and encouraging conversations around having your writing rejected doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s anything wrong with your story. And to make sure that you really do follow that passion, that you keep going, that you keep showing up, that you never give up. And that it doesn’t matter where you’ve come from, it doesn’t matter your background, none of that really matters when you’re just true to following your dream. So in different ways that same message was reiterated over and over again.
I sat in on one author’s conversation and this author also happened to be a teacher, and he was talking about when he was at school he really struggled academically. His strength was in sports, but he certainly wasn’t a writer. He was barely even a reader. And so it had never crossed his mind that he’d one day be writing stories for middle school students.
And hearing these things from authors, I think is so important, particularly for our children. And that they know that it doesn’t matter if you have dyslexia, you can still write a book. It doesn’t matter if you struggle with writing at school, you can still write. Your voice is still important.
And it’s something that I find being a teacher, that quite often those messages that we give our students and our children are the messages that us as adults actually need to hear all the time too. And so I wanted to share this experience with you because it got me thinking about how for many of us, not all of us, but for many of us, writing or being an author was something that has been with us for a really long time, or even since we were children. And yet for many of us, again, not all of us, but for many of us, it’s not something that we actually took seriously or allowed ourselves the time and the energy to do, until we were much, much older. And it’s amazing to me how many guests I’ve had on the show who have shared that they didn’t actually take their writing seriously until their forties, or pretty close to their forties. Myself being one of them.
And so what is it then that holds us back from living our dream author careers? What is it that holds us back from writing, even when we feel that it’s such a core part of us? And when I was looking over that room of students, I thought, how many of those kids in that hall at that time, were going to be in the same situation. Because right then on that day, they were all inspired and hopeful, and talking to them, they’re like, oh, I’m going to go home and I’m just going to write, and I’ve got this idea and it’s inspired me in this way and oh, we’re going to get together and we’re going to write this book together and we’re going to submit it here. And they were just buzzing with this really amazing, wonderful energy. Anything was possible.
And then I was wondering how long until they lose that.
How long until somebody says, what a waste a time? Or, you can’t make a living as a writer? Or, how long until they get some discouraging remark that might set them back from writing for years? Because, I mean, that is something that I’ve also heard so many times from so many adult authors. How one small comment can stop them from writing or finishing a project that they were once so inspired and encouraged by. How many times do we stop ourselves from doing what we really love because of the opinions of others? Or, because of this just innate understanding of what it means to live in this kind of society, and all that messaging that we seem to be getting all the time that writing is not a real job. That you can’t make an income from writing. How many times do we allow ourselves to be seduced by other things along the way? And how many of those wonderful kiddies in that room are going to have that same experience?
And so this is where the idea of integrity comes in. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this book I read sometime last year, and it’s an amazing book, it’s by Martha Beck. It’s the first one of her books that I’d actually ever read, despite having heard of her in the world of personal development and that for many, many years. And the book was called, The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to your True Self.
And I know when I first thought of the word integrity, I was like, oh, you know, doing the honest thing, you don’t steal from others. You tell the truth. You show integrity towards others. And it was always about something that you show to the world, that you give to the world. And I hadn’t thought of it in the way that Martha Beck tended to talk about it, in showing integrity to ourselves. Being honest to ourselves.
And so I hope you’re following me on this kind of strange tangent that I’m going on, but it does all relate to itself. I promise.
This idea of integrity, of being true to ourselves, has really stuck with me since I read this book. But for some reason, I’ve definitely been thinking a lot more about integrity, and what integrity means in this respect to being an author, to wanting a successful author career, or just a happy writing life.
So Martha Beck describes integrity as being in harmony with ourselves. She says it’s the key to really living a meaningful and joyful life. And what I want for all of us who are listening to this podcast who obviously have that light inside us that we want to contribute through our words, through a form of writing, to society, to our world, I want us to do this in a way that is joyful. If writing’s your passion, I want you to enjoy it. I want you to love it. I think we’re. So much more impactful in the world when we’re doing something that lights us up, that we love.
But as I think many of you listening to this have noticed, and I myself have experienced, the author life, the writing life, isn’t always easy. So I’ve been thinking about what the role of integrity has in helping us to bring more ease into our writing lives.
So one of the ways that I think about this, is if we reflect upon how many times we’ve pushed writing aside. Despite having that passion, despite having that desire, how many times have we pushed it aside? More often than not, I believe it’s because of fear. We’re scared that we might fail. Or we’re scared that we might actually succeed. There might be success actually tagged on to what we’re writing.
Either or can bring such a slew of insecurities. That sometimes it might feel safer to not write at all. Even when we know inside us that it’s the path for us, how many times have we allowed ourselves to get off course? I mean, I have. I listed a whole range of different jobs or careers that I had embarked on throughout my life, that was really an avoidance because I just didn’t believe that I could make a living from writing. So why bother? And yet I never gave up on the dream. It was always the, well, one day I’m going to write a novel one day, one day.
But I think even then part of me knew that that one day wasn’t going to be any time soon. It took a really big catalyst to change my mindset around that, and to make one day the present day.
For so many of us we want to be accepted by people we love and the people around us, and society as a whole. We want to do the responsible thing. We want that responsible job. We’re people pleasers and so we’ll actually, whether we mean to, or not push aside our own passions so that we can feel that we’re meeting the expectations of those around us.
And I remember this really clearly when I was coming up to the end of finishing a Bachelor of Arts. I’d started a few different university degrees over my life, and not completed them, and so it wasn’t until my early thirties, when I came back to New Zealand from living in Canada for several years, that I decided to finish up a BA in History and English. The English had a specialization in Creative Writing, so it was primarily creative writing. And I absolutely loved the degree. I excelled in both the History and the Creative Writing and the English, and had my professors encouraging me to continue on into a Master’s, a PhD and everything like that.
But one of the reasons that I’d gone back to finish my BA was so that I could get a teaching degree. And the reason I wanted to get a teaching degree, was because I believed that teaching was a viable career. It was something I could do that would bring in a consistent income. That they’d always be teaching work. So it was a sensible thing to do. And for somebody as multi-passionate as me, it also meant that I could have lots of variety in the day job as well, which teaching definitely brings, and is probably the reason that I’ve stayed in this career much longer than any other career I’ve ever tried.
But as I was finishing up that BA that I absolutely loved and would have given anything, or thought I would have given anything, to have continued to go on to my Master’s and PhD, and I didn’t even really care at that time, whether it was the History route or the Creative Writing because I knew writing was going to be in the background, regardless of whether I completed a degree in History or not. But there was this innate sense of sadness that had come over me in knowing that the next year I would be embarking on my Teaching degree. And the sadness was that I believed by doing so I’d be somehow giving up on my dreams to write.
Through my BA with a specialization in Creative Writing, I’d started to get a little bit of attention towards my writing by other published authors. I was starting to get recognition, and my ego was definitely been stoked, and I was starting to believe in myself that maybe I could write. But the Teaching degree ahead of me was going to be really intensive, and I just didn’t know that I’d have the time or the energy. Because, being a bit of a perfectionist, I felt like I needed to put all my time and energy into the new focus so that I could be successful in this new career.
And the truth of it was that getting a Teaching degree was going to put me out into the workforce much faster than if I was going to continue on with a Master’s or a PhD in either English or History.
And at this time, my lovely husband, wasn’t my husband at the time, but my partner, he’d been the primary bread winner for quite a while. I’d had part-time jobs, but it really didn’t make too much of a dent in our outgoings at the time. And so I owed it to him too, to just get on with it, get my teaching degree, get into the workforce with a solid career plan and go from there. Writing, in my mind, would have been a frivolous thing to have spent my energy on.
And so looking back, there are pros and cons to my decision to continue on to do teaching. In the end, it’s a career that I’ve at times really not enjoyed it all, and at other times, absolutely adored. And I’m definitely in that high right now where I’m really, really enjoying it this year. And it has certainly cut into my writing time. But it is also afforded me so many opportunities to find true my craft and to be able to afford things like professional editing and cover design and do all the things that I really love to do. And it was the dark times in my teaching career that actually spurred me on to write my novels in the first place. So I certainly don’t regret the path that I’ve taken.
But I do remember that moment where I felt like I was out of integrity and giving up on something that I felt was so right for me, when I was making that decision to not continue with my more academic career in English and History, and embarking instead on teaching.
I think it’s Steven Pressfield that talks about it as being a shadow career, where you know what you really want to do with your life, but for whatever reason it’s not practical, it’s not going to earn the money, or you’ve got a million excuses why you can’t. And so therefore you find a career that’s close, kind of. That almost you can trick yourself into believing it’ll allow you to do what you’re really passionate about. But in all honesty, it just doesn’t quite tick that box.
And I really, I had a lot of those, I mean, I worked in a bookstore for a long time. I managed a bookstore. That’s close to the book world. That’s close to having a writing career, I guess, not really. Not at all. But it was close at that time. And then I was a librarian, same kind of thing. Teaching as well. Teaching’s cool because it means I can teach my students to write and to love writing and doing all that, and I really enjoy that aspect. And I definitely feel that it’s part of my calling. But it’s not the physical act of writing that I’d always hoped for.
So I’ve been thinking about how so many of us are not really in integrity with who we are. We’re not really in alignment with what we feel our soul is calling for us to do. And in Martha Beck’s book, The Way of Integrity, she talks about how being out of integrity can show itself in our lives. And it can be something as simple as just being moody for no good reason or feeling frustrated or just feeling even physically unwell. Maybe getting sick more often, catching every little cold or flu or everything that’s going around. Or just feeling generally under the weather.
Maybe we’re catching it in our actions of what we’re doing and our downtime, whether we find ourselves addicted to scrolling through social media or binge eating or doing things that we innately know might not be the best for us, but we’re doing them anyway. They’re all suggestions that we’re out of alignment with who we are as a person and what we should be doing.
And so I think about that concept quite a lot when my mood shifts for no good reason, or I find myself a little more impatient than normal, or frustrated than normal. And I think about how am I out of integrity with myself? How am I out of alignment with who I really am? Where have I been lying to myself? And I think this is a really good question for us to ask as authors, as writers, or just as people in general. Where are we lying to ourselves? Where are we being dishonest? Because even those little things, those little things that we lie about, impact upon us energetically.
So, yeah, this is going a little bit woo woo, and I hope you can kind of stay with this, but if our aim is to really create writing careers and author careers that we love, then we need to be able to match our energy to that.
And so questions that I ask myself, and you might want to consider to, if you’re struggling with this, or if you’re struggling with anything like writer’s block, or resistance towards writing, or resistance towards marketing, or fear about putting your book out there, or embarking on your writing career? Is there places in your life where you’ve been lying to yourself? And we’re not necessarily talking big lies here. They can be little things.
I found that when I chose to do teaching at the time that I did, I was really out of alignment. It wasn’t really what I wanted to do. It was what I believed I had to do. What was expected of me. What would make my future husband happy. What word pay the bills. And it certainly did that. But it wasn’t really fully in alignment with how I was feeling at the time. And was probably a big reason why I really struggled getting that degree. I got every bug there was during it. My mindset and mental health really struggled. I did really well. But it was a real push. It was lots of hard work.
Some of the ways that we lie to ourselves with our writing, that can impact upon our writing, and our writing lives, is by saying things like: I’m going to write, and then not doing it. When we’re constantly changing or having to push back deadlines because we’re not meeting those deadlines. When we say we want to be consistent and we say we want a successful author career but we’re really inconsistent. We’re inconsistent with the marketing, or our newsletters, or our writing, or our social media.
When we’re doing things that we feel that we should do as authors, but we really, really don’t like. That can be a form of being out of alignment with yourself. Of lying to yourself. Of not trusting yourself.
I found recently that one of my things, and I’ve talked about this in other episodes, I can really struggle with feeling like I don’t have enough time to write. And then I found myself allowing myself to be taken advantage of and their area. Where somebody doesn’t show for an appointment or an interview or something like that, and I’m waiting around and waiting around and getting more and more kind of pissed off about it, but not doing anything about it? When that happens I’m not honoring my own time. I’m squandering it, I’m giving it away and I’m showing that it’s actually not as important. Somebody can take advantage of my time. And so if I’m saying on one hand that time’s so important and I want time to write, but I’m allowing people to take advantage of it, then there’s a real misalignment there. And so I’m starting to get a little bit better at this. If somebody is late, I give them a set period of time, maybe 10 minutes, and then I’ll send them a message and say, I’m sorry you weren’t able to make our meeting, we’ll have to reschedule it another time. And I get on with my day. And it’s amazing how something so small was actually so empowering. It saves me from sitting there all resentful and getting mad and angry, but also shows that my time is important. And not just to the person who’s been a bit late or stood me up, but also to myself. I’m saying that I am important, and I deserve better.
Honoring your commitments and your passions and your voice by just actually writing when you say that you want to be a writer, it is so important for keeping yourself, not only physically and mentally healthy, but your soul healthy.
So how many times do we break promises to ourselves? And then we misplace the resentment. We get frustrated, angry, or anxious. We get tired or run down. We start to feel really low. But it’s because we’ve broken those promises to ourselves. We’ve said we’re going to come home from the day job and we’re going to sit down and we’re going to write. But we don’t. We check social media or we check in with a friend. Or we do this and we do that. Now, sometimes life just happens. And that’s okay. Sometimes life will just distract us as an emergency pops up, or a family dilemma comes up. And that can happen. That’s okay. But we do also need to be able to set boundaries. And if we say that we’re going to do something, follow through with it as well.
Martha Beck talks about how our true nature is really serious about keeping us aligned with our truth, keeping us on track, on our path. And so, if we go off that then the way that it gets us back on track is through suffering of some description.
So, if you’ve been struggling in some area of your writing life, then I really do encourage you, think about where you’re off track. Think about where you’ve been dishonest with yourself. It goes back to something that a lot of time management gurus say, and that if something is really important to you, you’ll find the time, you’ll make the time, you’ll do it. And there’s truth in that. So maybe we’re lying to ourselves about how important writing really is to us, if we’re not getting it done.
Think about also whose permission are you looking for to really excel at your craft, to have the career that you want, to really embrace writing in the way that you want to? Who’s permission do you feel that you need? Are you waiting for somebody to tell you that you’re allowed to write your book? Are you waiting for somebody to say go for it, do that thing? Are you waiting for accolades before it’s even fully been written?
That’s really just wasted time and energy, my friend. Like we have to be our own best and biggest cheerleaders with this. We have to be the ones that make this writing life happen.
If we’re going to constantly let ourselves down, then we’re going to find that we can no longer trust ourselves. We’re going to diminish our own confidence in our abilities. We’re telling the universe that, you know what we don’t, we don’t deserve this amazing writing career. If we can’t even commit to ourselves, how can we commit to something so much bigger than ourselves? And if we can’t trust ourselves, how can others trust us as well?
I think sometimes we put ourselves into a state of powerlessness. We give away our energy because we’re trying to do all the things, particularly as indie authors, without getting serious about those things that really best align for us.
A few episodes back, I had the wonderful Becca Syme on the show, and she was just amazing in talking about that, there’s no one way to have your dream author life. There’s no one way that will work for all authors to have a successful career. There’s lots of gurus out there who are sprouting you must do this and you must do that and you must do this. You must all be on TikTok. You must all have Facebook groups. You must all be using Facebook ads. No, you must all be using Amazon ads. You must be spending this many hours a day. You must be writing every day. There are so many “You Must”‘s. But it really doesn’t work that way. We are all individuals. We all have different strengths. And as Becca Syme talks about, the Gallup Strengths Finder is an excellent thing if you’re interested in finding out in depth what your strengths are and how you can utilize those. But they really isn’t one way. We’re all very, very different and we all bring different passions and skills and talents to this writing life.
And so if there’s things that we’re doing that just aren’t working maybe it’s because they’re out of alignment for us. With who you are.
Becca talks about QTP a lot in her books. Question the premise. That’s asking, is this true? Is this true for me? Byron Katie whom I’ve talked about on the show, talks about this a lot too, in what she calls the “Work”. We ask ourselves, is this true? Do we absolutely know this is true?
Is it true that the only way to make an income as an author is to write 12 books a year? Is that absolutely true? No, it absolutely isn’t, despite what a lot of people might spout on about. That’s not true. There are people making incredible livings with much less books out than that a year. What works for some isn’t necessarily going to work for all.
So think about where your resistance is. Think about where you’re not succeeding and then think about why. Are you not being honest with yourself? Are you doing the thing that deep down inside actually feels wrong for you? Have you been throwing all your energy, for example, into TikTok because you’ve heard that that’s a great way to get more readers and to sell more books? Only to find that you come at it with so much resistance and you really don’t enjoy it and it’s not filling you up. And then you’re wondering why it’s really just not helping your sales at all. Maybe that’s just not your way. Maybe that’s not the way that’s going to work for you. And you’ll know it. Because if there’s huge resistance, if something’s feeling off so badly for you, then that means you’re lying to yourself about it.
And, I would caution you against the idea that, oh, maybe I just need to work harder at it. I personally don’t believe that the things that we’re supposed to be doing with life, our passions and that, are supposed to be hard. They’re going to be difficult at times. Things aren’t going to necessarily come easy. And there will be times where we have to work hard, but overall, it’s not hard. When we’re in alignment things seem to happen naturally. You’ll know it when you’re in alignment with your book, and the words are just flowing and there’s something just almost magical about it or other worldly even. It’s a great feeling to have. It means that you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.
We can bring more ease into our author lives, I really do believe that, if we’re being honest with ourselves, if we’re checking and if we’re making sure that we’re staying in integrity. If we’re stepping away from people pleasing. If we stay away from those self-imposed judgments that were put on ourselves that we say have come from society. Just because people out there in the world say that you can’t make a living as a writer, doesn’t mean it’s true. There’s plenty of evidence out there to prove otherwise. Just because some naysayers might say that writing’s not important. Being an artist, a creative that’s not important. You need to be a brain surgeon or you need to be a doctor or police person or somebody else who’s contributing more to society. That’s not how this works. For starters, we’re all here on earth to contribute in some way. Regardless of what your purpose your calling is, it is exactly that: it is a purpose. It has a purpose. There is a reason that you are here. There is a reason that you’ve been given your gift and there is a reason that you’ve been called in any way to actually do that thing.
You never know just what impact your words are going to have on another. How they might, in small ways or big ways, change a person’s life. Change a person’s trajectory. How it might inspire them to write their own book, or to follow their own passion. That’s not really for us to figure out. The impact that we are going to have on the world through following our passion it’s really none of our business. That’s not for us. What’s meant for us is to do that thing, it’s to follow our passion, it’s to make the most of the skills and the talents that we have, it’s to ensure that as much as possible we have been honest to ourselves as we embark on our path. That we recognize when we’re just making excuses out of fear. We may lying to ourselves. When we say that writing is the most important thing to me, but then we avoid it at all costs.
What are we scared of? What are we avoiding? Whose voice are we hearing in our head that might be holding us back for fear of upsetting somebody?
Steven Pressfield, in his book The War of Art, talks about how our job in this life is not to shape ourselves and to some ideal that we imagine we ought to be. But to find out who we already are and then become it.
My hope is that everybody listening to this podcast, listening to these episodes gets inspired about their creative writing life. It gets inspired about the possibilities open to them. That understands that when we work on our craft, when we work on those things that really light us up inside, it can impact upon all areas of our life. And from there, it really does just stream out. There’s a real ripple effect. We end up being the role models for others around us. In a strange way we almost give them permission to follow their own callings.
And if you’re somebody that has children or works with children, then this is especially important that we’re doing this. That we’re showing them that living a life that you’re passionate about is not only possible, but it’s important to do so. Not to be seduced by paths that might look easier or more respectable. But to really trust in the innate gifts that we’ve been given. To trust that we really do have a purpose here on earth, that our life has meaning. To trust in ourselves. And the only way we can really do that is to be honest with ourselves. To stay in integrity and to drop all those little lies that may actually be holding us back, so that we can really embrace who we’re meant to be.
So like had warned at the beginning of this episode, this conversation today is a little bit different than what you might expect for a podcast on writing and the author life. But I really do feel it is so important to really reflect on these things and think about these things and how they impact upon us doing what we love.
And so I hope from this episode that you go away, keeping in mind that idea of integrity, and the idea of being honest with yourself, and reflecting upon how you might lie to yourself and how you can change that. How you can show yourself that ultimate respect by being honest.
Martha Beck talked about one of the easiest and hardest ways of doing this really is just to set a challenge for yourself. A no lie challenge. Even just start small for three days. See if you can get by for three days without lying to yourself. And it’s amazing. So many of us think we’re the most honest people, but it’s amazing how many times we actually lie to ourselves, in big and subtle ways. Every time we do that thing that we don’t really want to do. Or we say yes to something where there’s this instant sense of resistance and annoyance that we did. That’s showing some misalignment. So maybe it’s up to us to be a little bit more courageous in paying attention to how we feel. And to make changes so that we are being honest to ourselves in all ways.
I’m really excited to hear your thoughts about this episode, and your thoughts about honesty within your writing life and where maybe you have not been honest with yourself. Because I think, even though our paths are so very, very different, there are a lot of similarities as well. Many of us authors really do struggle with the same things, that fear, the procrastination, the writers block, the resistance towards different aspects of our profession. And so reflection upon where that resistance is coming up for you, could be key to supercharging your author life. Maybe it comes down to delegating those things or ignoring them completely altogether. Maybe it’s something that you don’t need to include in your business plan for your writing. We don’t need to do all the things, regardless of what anybody tells you. Some things are going to work better for us than others. Experimentation is key, and it’s great and do that. But then follow that intuition of yours, follow that gut instinct, and really stick with those things that feel good. That feel in alignment with who you are and what you hope to achieve. And then ditch the rest of it. You’ll find that it will make this whole process of creating this amazing life for yourself so much easier when you do that.
Now next week, I have an amazing author interview that I think you’re really going to enjoy. And it’s with a woman who actually didn’t start her writing career until I think her seventies. It’s one of those really cool episodes that just reminds us it’s never too late. It’s never too late to really start to go after your passion, to go after those things that light you up. So make sure you tune in next week for a wonderful new episode.
And I really do hope that you’re getting a lot out of this podcast, that you’re enjoying it, that you’re enjoying the solo episodes and the author interviews, and that it’s inspiring you in some ways. And it’s really helping you create this amazing writing life for yourself or helping you just really enjoy the journey that you’re on. If you are, it would absolutely mean the world to me if you could leave a review, a star rating or a quick one or two sentences on whatever platform you listen to this on. That would just be so amazing to me and so meaningful.
And if you haven’t already, I do encourage you to join my Alchemy for Authors newsletter. And you can do that by going to www.subscribepage.com/manifestationforauthors.
And when you do that, you’ll be able to download a free PDF on other tips and tricks for supercharging your author career using the law of attraction. So that’s really fun. A lot of the things that I’ve talked about on various episodes before.
All right, my lovelies, I am wishing you such a fantastic week ahead where you’re fully in alignment with all of your amazing writing dreams, and you have a productive and inspired writing week ahead of you.
So until next time, happy writing.