Most people are passive observers to their own lives. They accept the choices that life hands to them. They assume what they see other people doing is what they should be doing also. They go along with the crowd, never rock the boat, and never achieve their dreams.

On the other hand, successful writers know that life is not a multiple-choice test. If they don’t like the options in front of them, they create new ones.

How do we do this? We do this by taking advantage of all the amazing opportunities we have today as writers. There is an almost unlimited number of opportunities for you to get your work in front of readers and make a good living while doing it. In fact, we just finished a series on making money as a writer. I encourage you to go back and listen to it if you want a few tangible ways to start making income with your skills.

Is it hard to strike out on your own pathway while everyone around you is conforming to social norms? While everyone else is doing what other people expect? While everyone else is not writing books or putting in the work to build their own writing business?

Of course, it’s challenging. Nobody said this would be easy. But if you are going to make something happen, this is not the time to be passive. This is not the time to limit your options. The world is a giant buffet of opportunity. Will you take advantage of it?

Question: Are you ready to start making the most of your opportunities and create your own success as a writer?

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I thought it would be fun to consider five specific things each of us can be thankful for today.

1. The opportunities you have today. There are more opportunities for writers than ever before. You have access to virtually everyone on the planet with an internet connection. You can self-publish or go with traditional or hybrid publishing. You can blog, podcast, create videos, and more. The opportunities are endless.
2. The people in your life who support your writing. Sometimes, we are so focused on our goals that we forget about the people who make our writing possible. Think about the family, friends, and colleagues who have supported you and helped you along the way.
3. The incredible tools at your disposal. Think about how much harder it was fifty or a hundred years ago to connect with people and simply get your writing done. Today you don’t even have to type… you can use voice-to-text! We don’t realize how good we have it.
4. The amazing stories all around us. This is the golden age of storytelling, when there are so many great books, movies, streaming shows, and other formats of stories being told. There is unlimited inspiration all around you.
5. The access you have to so much learning. Never before in the history of the world have you been able to learn in so many ways, in so many places, from so many people. It’s an embarrassment of riches. Whatever you want to learn, someone is teaching it somewhere.

These are just a few of the things we can be grateful for as writers. I hope you will take a few moments today as you gather around the dinner table to acknowledge that we indeed live in an incredible time.

Question: Which of the five items above are you most thankful for?

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Opportunities are wonderful! You can write for more outlets or reach more readers with your own writing. With this expanded influence and connection also comes the need the limit your activities to the few things that produce the most results.

It’s hard to run a YouTube channel, host a podcast, write books, maintain a blog or newsletter, speak at conferences, and do all the other things you see influencers doing… unless it’s your full-time job and you have a staff. You need to pick and choose what to focus on.

The best filter is to focus on those activities that you enjoy, and that you will do consistently. You can grow a platform and writing career in many different ways. But as you grow in your career, you will have more options, and you will need to prune the ones that don’t serve your vision and direction.

As they say, you can be whatever you want, but you can’t be everything. Focus on just a few activities that will get you the biggest results in your writing life.

Pruning is not easy. At times it can be downright painful. But after you have prepared the soil of your mind, and planted and watered the seeds, you must cut back all the dead weight so the growth process can continue.

Question: Are there some activities in your life you should prune so you can focus on the bigger priorities?

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Let’s talk about one of the more uncomfortable truths of the author life. It has nothing to do with books, but it has everything to do with how others perceive you. And therefore, that means it has everything to do with your social standing and how much others want to be around you.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: people judge you by the company you keep. If you spend time with positive, successful, generous people, you will be perceived the same way. You will borrow their influence and others will want to be around you because other people’s goodwill and positivity will be transferred to you. Of course, you can destroy this borrowed goodwill by being a jerk, but if you keep good company, it will greatly help your success.

The opposite is also true. If you spend time with negative people who complain, aren’t growing, and tear others down, you will be perceived the same way as well. You can do lots of good things yourself, but we are judged by the company we keep. As they say, bad company corrupts good character.

This may not be fair, but it’s the way that social relationships work. We are always looking for ways to gauge whether someone is a potential threat, and one of the ways we do this is by seeing who they spend time with. One of the fastest shortcuts to success is by spending time with people who others like to be around. As a result, they will also be open to spending time with you and giving you opportunities. This can greatly help your writing and business opportunities.

Daily Question: Take a good look at the people you spend the most time with. Are they helping to improve your reputation and social standing?

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Perhaps we take it a little too far. When have you ever heard of someone actually being damaged by being curious? There has been far more damage done to writers and artists by a lack of curiosity than by curiosity itself.

If you are feeling lost or uninspired, curiosity won’t hurt you. In fact, it is the very thing you need for a creative resurrection.

See a play. Watch a movie. Take a drive. Call an old friend. Do some journaling. Read a book. Visit someplace new. Do something, anything, to get out of that rut. Curiosity will bring you back to life.

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Everything in life is a choice.

You can choose when to write. You can choose what to write. You can choose to pursue a literary agent and sign a contract with a traditional publisher. You can choose to self-publish.

You can choose to be exclusive to one publishing platform. You can publish on all of them. You can do marketing yourself. Or you can hire someone to help you market. Or you can choose to do no marketing at all.

You can write fiction or nonfiction. You can write essays or academic work. You could write a book a year or a book a decade. Or no books at all and instead focus on shorter content.

None of it is right or wrong. It is all up to you. This freedom can be paralyzing because there are limitless choices. But instead, look at it as freedom. Freedom to do it your way. Freedom to express yourself and run your business the way you want. Freedom to make this as big or small as you want.

It’s up to you. It’s all your choice. We live in a beautiful time where anything is possible. Writers a hundred years ago would have done anything to get the opportunities we have.

There are many ways to build a platform or business as an author. But if there is one thing you must do, it is taking action instead of feeling paralyzed by all the choices.

The post It’s Your Choice appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

As you continue to grow in your writing skills, your connections, and your influence, you will have more and more opportunities. This is both a good and bad thing.

Obviously, opportunities are wonderful! You can write for more outlets or reach more readers with your own writing. With this expanded influence and connection also comes the need the limit your activities to the few things that produce the most results.

It’s hard to run a YouTube channel, host a podcast, write books, maintain a blog or newsletter, speak at conferences, and do all the other things you see influencers doing… unless it’s your full-time job and you have a staff. You’re going to have to pick and choose what to focus on.

The best filter is to focus on those activities that you enjoy, and that you will do consistently. You can grow a platform and writing career many different ways. But as you grow in your career, you will have more options, and you will need to prune the ones that don’t serve your vision and direction.

As they say, you can be whatever you want, but you can’t be everything. Focus on just a few activities that will get you the biggest results in your writing life.

Pruning is not easy. At times, it can be downright painful. But after you have prepared the soil of your mind, and planted and watered the seeds, you must cut back all the dead weight so the growth process can continue.

The post Pruning: Eliminate A Few Activities appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

In the Hero’s Journey storytelling template, we begin with the main character. He or she exists in what is called the “ordinary world.”

The ordinary world is Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, Dorothy in Kansas, Frodo in the Shire, Michael Corleone before he gets wrapped up in the family business, and a thousand other examples from movies, literature, and comics.

The ordinary world is a place where the hero is comfortable. They are not fulfilled but they feel safe. Then comes a “call to adventure” where some situation suddenly pulls them out of their comfortable existence and calls them on a journey where they will become the hero they are meant to be.

You know about all the opportunities to be an amazing writer. You have skill. You have resources. You have some connections. You have been called to join the adventure.

But will you break out of the ordinary world? Are you going to keep doing the same things over and over and expecting different results? Are you going to embrace your identity as a writer and do the work required to make it happen?

Are you going to break out of your comfortable, ordinary world and join the adventure?

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You don’t have to wait to get planted in a different garden. You don’t need to wait for someone else to pour into you. You can bloom right where you’re planted by investing in yourself and taking advantage of all the resources and opportunities right at your fingertips.

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