BE DO HAVE...Are You Working The Plan Backwards?

The weekend of May 19th and 20th,  I'll be participating in the Canton Arts Festival, hosting a booth and selling my books.  I've been invited to participate before but it is only this year that I've felt I had enough of a product to justify it.  Now that I have three books that I've authored I am ready to take it on. I hope you will come out and see me and Wyatt.  I'll be sharing the booth with Kathy Brunner whose recent book, Finding Your Fire: How To Get Fired Up Not Burned Out,  will be reviewed on this blog next week.  It's a great read!  In addition, Lacey the therapy dog in real life will be joining us for part of the time.  Lacey is a love and a recent addition to Wyatt's friends.  Come out and meet her in person before you read about her in Wyatt's next book--Wyatt Goes To Kindergarten.  


It's really an exciting time and I'm not sure that almost three years ago when I decided to BE an author instead of a someday-author or a wanna-be-author or a wish-I-was-one-author, I had any idea I'd be able to accomplish so much.  I look back on the journey and while it's been a ton of work it has been exhilarating.  It has also taken a total shift in my mindset, my perspective to accomplish it, so if you are reading this and thinking, "Well it worked for you, but I'd never be able to accomplish something like that," please read on because I stood solidly in your shoes for years.

One of the most common statements I have heard from others as I am out talking about writing my books or establishing my blog or developing a business as a trainer, is “I have a story that I want to write but I just haven’t got the time.” Or, “I’d like to start my own business but I have a full-time day job now.” There are a lot of reasons that people give for not getting around to fulfilling their dream. Sometimes it’s because they have a family and it just keeps them too busy. Sometimes it’s because they have a full-time job and when they retire they’ll get around to it. Sometimes it’s because they don’t have the financial resources and someday when they make more money, inherit some money or their ship otherwise comes sailing in... well, they’ll do it then. Do  you believe those excuses? Do you make them yourself?  I did. I've made them all.  Probably the main excuse I made was that I just didn't know how to do it and if someone would just show me, well then I'd be right on it.  Of course no one ever did because I never asked.  All of these statements are just excuses and not because the person making them is lazy or unmotivated.  They are excuses because you are putting the cart before the horse.

Successful people understand that to be successful you must: BE. DO. HAVE. Unsuccessful people believe that the order is: HAVE. DO. BE. Unsuccessful people wait to HAVE the time or HAVE the resources or HAVE the right contacts. Successful people know that in order to be successful you must first change your mindset and BE what it is you want to be.  When I made the decision to be an author,  I started by writing in my journal everyday, "I am an author who is publishing and selling books."  The more I wrote it, the more I believed it, the more I talked about it, the more I searched for ways to make it happen, the more I spent time writing.  Rather than waiting to have what I needed to accomplish my dream, I began by believing and acting like I was the dream.   No matter whether you want to be an author, or a musician or a CEO of your own company, you must first be what it is that you want to be not wait for the dream to appear fully realized.   Recognize that your excuses are just that. If your goal is to write a book and you believe you don’t have time, ask yourself how many books you wrote before you had children... before you found your first full time job... during your last vacation time, etc. Creating the life you want to have first involves visioning it, developing goals and then taking action on them. BE the person God meant you to be. DO the necessary steps and then expect that you will HAVE the success you envisioned. Don’t wait to HAVE the time, the relationships, the resources or you will never move forward because you are working the plan backwards.

What about you?  Are you BEING who you want to be now?  Or are you waiting to HAVE the time, resources etc?  How's that plan working for you?

So Much More

Image via Wikipedia I am a tightwad by nature.  I don't say this with pride, just a statement of fact.  Sometimes this is a useful attribute.  For instance, in the economic downturn, I have not had to change my lifestyle much.

Sometimes this is not a useful attribute.  Sometimes I am stingy in giving.  The reason that my mission statement includes generosity as  a goal is because this is a challenge for me and when I review my mission statement on a daily basis, I remind myself of this goal.  I push myself to find ways to be generous, not just with money but also with time, with talents, resources and encouragement.

In the process of promoting my book, Wyatt the Wonder Dog Learns About Good Manners, I was reminded of the law of generosity which states that to receive you must give.  One evening this week I was quite discouraged about not meeting my goal for the week of copies sold.  I found myself becoming very focused on the cost of publishing the book, the cost of buying my author's copies to sell  and the number of books that I would need to sell just to recoup that cost.  Publishing a children's book with color pictures is not cheap!  Finally, I decided that I would quit focusing on the cost of the book because it was causing my perspective to become skewed.  I didn't publish the book to make money.  I published the book to encourage children to be better problem solvers.  Once I made this decision, my whole world changed.  While at a choir production at church, I ran into an old friend.  She asked about the book and I told her it was now published and I gave her a copy.  After the show was over, someone from her table at the show, came up to me and told me that she was so impressed with my book that she wanted to buy three copies and share it with the principal at their school.  How exciting!  What a great example of how when we change our perspective and focus on others, our world is suddenly filled with the abundance that God has planned for us all along.  Lesson learned.

Amaziah said..., "But what shall we do about the hundred talents that I have given to the army of Israel?"  The man of God answered, "The Lord is able to give you much more than this."
-2 Chronicles 25:9