7 Weapons to Conquer the Giant Procrastination Keeping You from Your Book Dream

Have you been guilty of procrastinating on your book project, lately? Like the author, many writers get hung up with wrong thinking about writing and completing their books. They feel like a loser because they have stopped and started countless of times over the years. They fail to realize you actually become a winner the minute you start moving toward your worthwhile goal. Instead they continue procrastinating until they give up. A client confessed she thought writing a book was too hard. Knowledge and know-how can be formed into a weapon that will destroy the power of procrastination. Using the 7 weapons below writers can conquer the giant procrastination and finally realize their book dream.

Weapon #1 Do it Now!

Now is better than later. Remember you become a successful author the minute you start moving toward your worthwhile book goal. I don't know anyone that regrets they wrote a book. But the author has met plenty of people that regret they didn't do it sooner.

Weapon #2 Invest time in designing your passion points "top marketing spots" beforehand!

Spend time on developing the passion points designed to sell more before your book is even completed The passion points are the title, cover, thesis, audience, benefits & features, mini sales letter written as introduction and back cover copy of each book. For example, at least half of the book's success will be on the title you choose.

Weapon #3 Know you don't have to be a degreed expert, great writer or do loads of research.

Write books you are interested in and want to learn more about. As you look for information, talk to experts and write, you become the expert. Find out what questions your readers will want answered. Organize them into categories which become your table of contents and eventually your chapters. Remember there are interested readers who are waiting for your helpful information.

Weapon #4 Realize your message is significant and deserves your attention, love and time.

Consider what your readers need and want. If your book shares something unique, encouraging, useful, entertaining, it is important enough to be written. Think about your gift? God gave you your gift to share with others. Our gift back to God is what we do with it. The loving care you put into your gift (book) the more rewards await you.

Weapon #5 Recognize your book will sell with your marketing efforts

It's true not everyone will want to buy your book. Yet there are plenty of your targeted audiences that will want your entertaining or helpful information. The world awaits your self-help, how-tos, business, or poetry book. When you take the time to touch their emotions with something that benefits them, they will pull out their credit card or cash and pay the price. Top selling non-fiction topics are self- help, mysteries, parent/children, sex and romance. Remember women buy 78% of all trade books.

Weapon #6 Realize the journey doesn't have to be long or difficult.

Invite your friends and family to brainstorm with you as peer editors. Ask for their feedback on the thesis, title and chapters - one at a time. Don't become isolated in your thinking. Opening your writing process up to others will give you a better feel for what your readers may want. Enroll in a writing and/or publishing class to elevate your thinking. Join a critique group to get feedback. Subscribe to newsletters and read articles on book writing to get tips that will help you on your journey to a successful book.

Weapon #7 Acknowledge publishing has changed and doesn't have to be too expensive, too long and too difficult anymore.

Technology has advanced the publishing process into new realms. Traditional publishing has normally taken one to two years. With e- Book and Print on Demand (POD) printing technologies, an author can see their quality looking book in print within a few months or less.

Remember if you get to some parts of the project that's beyond your skill or know-how consider coaching and other professional services that will carry you over anything blocking you from writing, completing and publishing your successful book.

If you have been succumbing to procrastination, take a different strategy use the perspective and 7 weapons above to overcome any giant called procrastination keeping you from fulfilling your book dream.

? Earma Brown, 10-year author, entrepreneur and book coach
eBk: Jumpstart Writing Your Best Book
Helps Writers and Entrepreneurs realize their book dreams
P.O. Box 612, Wylie, Texas 75098
Visit http://www.writetowin.org To receive free ezine iScribe
& mini-course "Jumpstart Writing Your Best Book" mailto:iscribe@writetowin.org
Ph: 877-846-9908

Villa Holiday or Package Holiday

Everybody knows someone who has been on one and an awful lot of people have been on one themselves. Yes we are talking about the age old Package holiday. The safest, most common holiday. Package holidays have been around for years and I am sure everyone will know someone that has went to a travel agent and booked a holiday through them. Is the tide turning though? Have people found a better way to enjoy their holidays costing them a fraction of travel agent prices?

Villa Holidays is now becoming the main way to book a holiday. For the first time since villa holidays came on the scene more holidaymakers are booking their holiday direct with the owner or through a website that offer villa holidays than with a Travel Agent.

Let us have a look at the Pros and Cons of both types of holidays. Firstly the Package Holiday. Most people know this as the safest way to book a holiday because travel agents are ABTA approved and feel more secure booking holidays through a travel agent. You do have the added gusrentee that if anything is wrong with the holiday you have some governing body to complain to and for that peace of mind you pay a premium for this. Travel Agents charge customers per person for their holidays. On the other hand if you were to book a villa holiday then you don't have the guarentee of the governing body, you deal directly with the person that owns the property therefore you cut out the middle man. Instead of paying a per person price for your holiday you pay for the villa or apartment as a whole no matter how many people are travelling. Let's say for example you were wanting to go on holiday to Spain. A travel agent could easily charge about ?300 per person for an apartment in Cosat Blanca, if 4 people are going on that holiday that would cost ?1200 and that is including flights. Okay now lets look at the pricing for a similar apartment in Costa Blanca. 2 weeks at the height of the season in July or August would cost ?550 but that is for the apartment, that is ?137.5 per person, just for the accommodation. The days of the internet are upon us and even flight companies are offering cheap flights to their customers. An average price of a flight to the Costa Blanca is about ?59 so the total price of the holiday booked direct with the villa owner is ?196.50 now the total cost of the holiday for 4 people is ?786 saving you ?414 that is over ?100 per person.

Now I hear you cry but you have no guarentees! If you follow a few simple steps you can have the guarentees in writing. We spoke with Peter Hartley the Managing Director of Last Minute Villa Holiday who said " Villa Holidays are a boom at the moment, people are wanting to go on holiday and have more money to spend when they are on holiday. You can save a lot of money by booking a villa or apartment rather than booking with a travel agent but I would advise on following these simple guidelines to make sure you have the guarentees you are looking for. Firstly always speak to the villa owner by telephone,it is better than just talking by email, Before you phone make sure you have a list of questions written down that you want answered. If you do not feel comfortable with the answers then you do not book the villa or apartment. Always make sure you get emailed confirmation of the reservation of the villa or apartment before you send a deposit or the full payment. If you are still feeling unsure about booking with a certain villa owner contact the website you found it on and speak to them directly. Our Company LastMinuteVillaHoliday.co.uk always ensure that our customers are happy before they book the accommodation. We can put them in touch with the villa owner directly or if they would rather deal with a company we would make the booking for them. In Summary if they follow these simple rules then they are assured a great holiday."

So is it a Villa Holiday or a Package Holiday this year. I would always go for the one that saved me the most money and allowed me more money to spend on Holiday.

Peter Hartley
Managing Director Last Minute Villa Holiday
info@lastminutevillaholiday.co.uk
http://www.lastminutevillaholiday.co.uk

The Abundant Life!

Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. -ROMANS 6:11

My friend Randy had given up trying to live the Christian life. He said, "I have tried, but have failed so many times. Nothing seems to work for me." After listening to his account of his many failures and defeats, I began to explain the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Randy interrupted: "I know all about the Holy Spirit. I've read everything I can find, and nothing works for me."

My thoughts turned to Romans 6. I asked him, "Randy, are you sure you're a Christian?"

"Yes," he answered. "I'm sure."

"How do you know?"

"By faith," he responded, then cited Ephesians 2:8?9. "Scripture promises, 'For by grace you have been saved through faith-and this not from yourselves, it's a gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.' I know I'm saved."

"Why," I asked him, "do you trust God for your salvation, but not for His other promises concerning your rights as a child of God?" I read from Romans 6 and reminded Randy that every believer has access to the mighty supernatural power of the risen Christ. The same Holy Spirit who inspired Ephesians 2:8?9 also inspired Romans 6. By faith we can claim that sin no longer controls us, and we can live in the power of the resurrection as the Word promises.

That day, God touched Randy's life. His spiritual eyes were opened, and he began, by faith, to live in accordance with his God-given heri-tage, to be "salt and light." As lighthouses for the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to do no less.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: You cannot live an abundant Christian life by yourself, but you can trust Jesus to live His supernatural resurrected life in and through you by faith through the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

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Cold Calling Pressure Reduction

Who likes cold calling?

Most salespeople don't like cold calling, and do as little of it as possible. There are a number of reasons why most of us don't like it. One reason is the way we view cold calling. People who don't like cold calling view each call as do or die. They think of cold calling as a war in which they have to win most of the battles in order to win the war. A sales rep good at cold calling is considered a sales god. A sales rep who is poor at cold calling is a sniveling wimp.

The reality about cold calling is much different. You don't have to win all nor even most of the battles to win the war. Cold calling is the reconnaissance before any battle begins. Cold calling is not where the sale happens. Cold calling is simply advertising done by sales reps.

Yes, I said that you are doing advertising when you are cold calling.

Cold calling is a means of identifying potential prospects for your sales efforts. And the purpose of advertising is to identify or attract potential prospects - in other words to generate leads.

Think of cold calling this way. Every time you make a cold call, it is as if you grabbed your prospect by the shirt, shoved a billboard ad for your product in their face, and said "Do you want to buy this?"

Obviously, real cold calling is more involved than pressing their nose up to your ad. Specifically, cold calling should be mostly about asking questions rather than a sales pitch monologue.

Just like a newspaper ad or a billboard, all you are trying to do when cold calling is to get someone's attention. And if they don't want or need what you are offering right now, that's OK.

With your new view of cold calling as advertising in mind, you should focus your cold calling goals a little differently. One of the surest ways to get frustrated in sales (and an ulcer) is to take responsibility for things that are beyond your control as a sales rep. You really cannot control whether the person you are cold calling needs or wants your product.

What you can control is how many cold calls you make, and the quality of your techniques while cold calling.

Set your cold calling targets and define your success criteria around the number of calls or dials that you will make. Judge the quality of your calls by how well you stick to a cold calling formula that you have defined in advance.

If your cold calling goal is set as "To Make $300,000 in Sales Next Month", you are just setting yourself up. This kind of cold calling goal might be useful if you are a tele*sales* person responsible for actually closing business by phone. But in professional business-to-business selling, cold calling is too far removed from the actual close to directly influence such a goal.

Instead, you can backwards plan how many cold calling "advertisements" you need to run in order to make $300,000 in sales next month. Use your own or other sales reps activity numbers to figure out how many sales will result *on average* if you make 1000 dials when cold calling. Then you can determine the time period needed to make 1000 dials worth of cold calling advertisements in order to make your sales goals.

Look at cold calling as one-to-one advertising and focus on the number of dials you have to make and you'll find cold calling a lot easier to do.

? 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown's sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/

Rise of the Creative Class

The fast changing dynamics of the world economy is forcing organizations to fundamentally rethink the manner in which they have been communicating with their constituent communities and decision-makers. It is constantly being proven that conventional communication approaches that are designed to raise public awareness may often have the opposite effects of those intended. This is because they fail to take into account the public's profound resistance to the traditional communication stimuli.

Therefore, organizations are placing more emphasis on developing two-way and more open-ended methods of communication in their public advocacy strategies. This is in preference to the more traditional top-down methods based on elements of audience manipulation or persuasion. Attitudinal, behavioral and social changes are long-term processes. Research into modern communication methods indicate that it is imprudent to regard attitudinal change merely as a shift along a continuum, as it inevitably involves a reordering of individuals' cognitive structures.

To effect, then, any significant alterations in attitudes and values, or to explicitly form them, requires the identification of both cognitive and affective objectives and the examination and exposure of beliefs and prejudices. This cannot be achieved through the mere imparting of information. This implies that the following years will only reinforce the need for innovative approaches, for creativity and agility and communication agencies will be forced to restructure their strategies. Only those agencies that can keep pace with this transformation will succeed in this unforgiving world.

Quite a few agencies in India have shifted from their existing framework and are now focusing on niche areas of operation. It is becoming evident that increasing competition and the pressure to redesign strategies will force the agencies to identify and specify their particular areas of competence more clearly.

It does not come as a surprise, then, that some very prominent companies are revisiting the strategies presented by their communication partners. The clients' increasing preference for fast-footed, nimble and proactive agencies has shown dramatic change in their approach to communications.

Another interesting aspect of these changes has been the recent phenomenon of hiring prominent marketing professionals by agencies of all sizes even the mid-sized ones. The need to reorient communication strategies to the clients' business goals has fuelled such shifts. Soumitro Mukherji, an MBA from XLRI with over 18 years marketing and sales experience in giants like Asian Paints, HLL, Sony Entertainment Television, Pepsi and Airtel recently took over as COO of Blue Lotus Communications Consultancy, a mid-sized agency with capitalized billings of approximately Rs. 10 Crores. His move is demonstrative of the changing face of the mid-sized agency which is gearing up to meet the clients' imperative today. However, since the older agencies are too deeply rooted in traditional thinking, this trend is being witnessed in a mid-sized set up. The time has come that agencies look at the clients' brand from a marketing perspective and the migration of marketing professionals to agencies is definitely a sign of evolution in the communications industry. There are clear indications that creativity & results will drive the entire communications industry in the ensuing years.

N. Chandramouli is the CEO of Blue Lotus Communications Consultancy, a leading public relations agency in India. An engineer MBA with over 16 years of multi-functional experience, Chandramouli firmly believes in knowledge being a core driver for communications.

Play the Ball, Not the Man!

As parents and teachers, sometimes we want to praise, at other times we need to rebuke. Either way, how do we put our point across with maximum effectiveness?

Adults entrusted with the character training of children have few weapons in their armory as powerful as praise. Just how powerful, we all know from our own experience.

If we don't use this tool as much as we should, it's probably because we haven't trained ourselves to recognize opportunities to do so. It's a skill that must be learned, like any other.

But a weapon that's not controlled is, of course, an instrument of destruction.

Praise is not something to be administered haphazardly. On the contrary, it has to be perfectly targeted. And the most effective praise is specific, appropriate and objective.It is targeted not to the personality of the recipient, but rather to his or her achievements.

Global praise such as "You're a wonderful girl," may give a child the impression that her inherent worth is dependent on her actions. Again, if she senses that she does not deserve excessive praise, she may reject it out of hand.

On the other hand, if the praise truly matches the deed, the recipient will, of his own accord, draw the appropriate inferences. (Incidentally, although we're talking about children, these principles apply with anyone.)

If your son comes home from school with an outstanding poem he has written, it won't be helpful to exclaim: "Tommy, you're the world's best poet!"

But perhaps you can tell him: "Your imagery is so vivid that it's as if I can see the scene you're describing before my eyes!" He'll then conclude: "I can write poetry well."

Now - if all this is true when we are dispensing praise, how much more does it apply when it falls to our lot to rebuke someone!

Do you play football? The object of the game, irrespective of which variety you are playing, is basically to get the ball to the far end of the field. I'm no sportsman, but I remember that when we played Rugby as schoolboys, it was legitimate to grab a player of the opposing team and cause him to fall, in order to wrest the ball from his possession.

Occasionally, an overzealous classmate would forget that this "tackling" was a means to an end, and not an end in itself! He would be duly reprimanded with the words: "Play the ball, and not the man!"

Let's end with another true-life incident cited by Ginott in one of his books.

Seven year-old Sammy is sitting at the table, playing with a plastic cup.

"Don't play with that cup! You're always dropping things," chides Mom.

Sammy promptly drops the cap. It shatters into many pieces.

"Look, I told you so! You're so clumsy. Why are you so stupid?"

"You're stupid, too! Didn't you break Daddy's razor last week?"

"You're cheeky too! How dare you call your Mother stupid!"

"You called me stupid first!"

Mom grabs hold of her little boy to give him a good whacking. Sammy resists. In the ensuing struggle, Mom cuts her hand against some glass.

The sight of blood unnerves little Sammy, and he runs away in panic. It's late in the evening by the time he's found.

That night, no one in Sammy's household sleeps well.

Too bad that Mom had not merely said:

"Sammy, you dropped the cup. We can't afford to buy new cups all the time. Here's a broom and dustpan to mop it up."

Now what about YOU?

When you praise and when you reprimand, and communicate with others in all sorts of ways - do you play the ball...or the man?

Azriel Winnett is creator of Hodu.com - Your Communication Skills Portal. This popular free website helps you improve your communication and relationship skills in your business or professional life, in the family unit and on the social scene. New articles added almost daily.

Meditation, Self-Acceptance & the Muse

Meditation presents an interesting paradox. It requires humility and acceptance, and yet it results in self-empowerment and increased confidence.

Low self-esteem, which affects and can cripple many creative artists, leads us to believe that we're not worth much, and therefore our ideas (our songs) probably aren't either. This low self-esteem is a distant cousin to humility. Humility involves accepting ourselves for who we are, which includes our limitations.

So, our goal is to humbly seek answers from within (meditation) and from above (prayer). Even more important is to accept the answers we receive. Accepting them, even if we don't like, or are surprised by what we hear, can enrich our lives with peace and contentment. The answers may also hold lots of wonderful ideas for our creative endeavors.

Artists sometimes have the experience of music, words, or other ideas, coming to them from "out of nowhere". Where is this "nowhere" and how can we go in there after all of those great ideas??

How do we get from the point of damaging low self-esteem (giving a microphone and stage to our inner critics and then beating ourselves over the head about what we're hearing), to genuine humility, meditation, self-acceptance and creative bounty?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Practice gratitude ? When you're so busy being grateful for all the things you have (your health, your mobility, a few bucks in your pocket, food & shelter, friends & family) and that you're good at (face it, there's only a small percentage of the population with musical gifts and even less who are doing anything with them!), your inner critic won't stand a chance! A great practice (which even Oprah Winfrey is known to promote) is a daily list of things you're grateful for.

2. Meditation - There are countless books, tapes, videos and classes that teach people how to meditate. Here are some basic tips and I encourage you to explore further.

a. Ask a question ? If you're busy struggling to figure something out (how those two lines are going to go together, what chord structure to use for the bridge, or how you're going to make rent this month), try letting go of the struggle and simply letting the question of what to do "hang out" for a while. Ask it, and then sit quietly and see what answers pop into your head. You can also try writing it on a piece of paper and putting it under your pillow.

b. Toning ? Toning is a way to use your singing voice to achieve extraordinary calm, connection to spirit, connection to others and physical relaxation. Take a deep breath, filling your diaphragm and then your lungs. On exhalation, choose a vowel, pitch and volume that feel comfortable and effortless, and sing a steady tone until you're ready to take a new breath. For more ideas on using music as a tool of spiritual connection and creativity, I highly recommend the book Essential Musical Intelligence by Dr. Louise Montello.

c. Rest your gaze ? Find something that you find soothing to look at. Some people use a landscape picture, a burning candle, a spot on the wall, a flower-it really can be anything. Focus on the object and gaze at it deeply, letting thoughts come and go and staying present in the moment.

d. Journal ? Write your question at the top of a piece of paper, or on your computer, and answer the question in a stream of consciousness style.

e. Walking Meditation ? Pose your question to yourself at the beginning of your walk. While outdoors, become very present in the moment and notice the things around you. When thoughts and answers flow in to your mind, notice them and then bring your attention back to everything you're seeing.

f. More Meditation Tips - If you find yourself analyzing or "figuring things out" during the meditation process, gently let go of that and ask the question again. Don't judge any of your ideas or answers-simply collect them.

3. Prayer ? prayer allows us to humbly acknowledge that there is a life force bigger than ourselves. Many of the artists I spoke to for my book, "The Creativity Interviews" (http://www.genuinecoaching.com/creativity-interviews.html), spoke of being a channel for something bigger-that their creative works were simply a communication from spirit, and that their job was simply to express it. That IS a humbling thought!

I hope this article will help you to find inspiration, while letting go of the struggle to find it. I also hope that writing a gratitude list, at least once, will help you to connect with your gifts, strengths and abundance.

This article was originally published on the Muses Muse Songwriter's Resource website (October 2004) http://www.musesmuse.com.

(c) Copyright 2005, Genuine Coaching Services.

Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues. To receive her free monthly newsletter, "Everyday Artist", subscribe at http://www.genuinecoaching.com/artist-newsletter.html