My Necessary Daily Habit

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

 

While I've written about many aspects of the writing life in these articles, I'm going to give one today that is deeply personal and I haven't discussed yet is critical for life. One of my first actions every day is to plop my bathroom scale on the floor, stand on it and check my weight. During the early days of the pandemic, my number continued to climb. In fact, I had to go to a larger pants size and even some days squeezed into those pants.

 

A month or so ago, my wife and I decided to make changes in our eating. We got a new book about the South Beach diet and changed many of our eating habits. My daily weight number began to drop. A few days ago I got into my smaller pants so it is working. I'm not totally where I want to be for weight but I'm headed in the right direction. In the last 25 years, Christine has watched me go through this process at least four times. It is a daily decision to stay the course.

 

To be honest, I love to eat anything sweet and many other foods not on my current eating plans. Several weeks ago I saw my doctor and my blood pressure was elevated. He suggested I go on some blood pressure medicine and did not even mention about my increased weight. I have not taken the medicine and instead began to work on reducing my weight. I return to the doctor again next month to see what has happened with my intention to eat different foods and less salt and sodium.

 

Change is hard and I'm going against the genetics in my family. One of my relatives in the 1800s was over 300 pounds and it took several men to lift him in a chair for his baptism. Yes this story is a part of my printed family history. The men in my family have always been known as “big” which is code for overweight. The change is a moment by moment choice. I've also learned my weight has little to do with exercise (and movement is also important) and everything to do with what I eat.

 

Less weight affects my energy level and many other factors in my writing life. I expect my family doctor will be surprised next month when I see him. I hope you can see that accountability is important. Go through this process with someone else supporting your commitment to change. It will lengthen your life and your time on the planet to do more writing work.

 

This article tells about a personal choice I've made with my weight. What personal choices are you making? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Tweetable:

It's an unusual but necessary daily habit for this prolific editor and author. The change has been hard but possible. Get the details here. (ClickToTweet)

Get 10 Publishing Myths for only $10 +FREE shipping + over $200 of free bonuses.

Several Ideas to Face the Daily Challenge

I've been in a reflective mood and maybe it comes from passing another birthday this coming week. As I grow older, I begin to understand why the Bible calls that our days are fleeting. Each of us have the same 24 hours in each day. The key detail is how we use this time. 

As I think about the challenges of each day, I understand several facts:

1. Everyone has interruptions. Yesterday I spent several hours at the Apple Store because my wife's iPhone 5C was having screen problems.  At the store, we upgraded her phone to an iPhone 7 Plus and it took several hours that I was not planning on spending. These types of unexpected situations are part of our life. Yet do you wisely use the time which you do have available to you?

2. Not everything gets done. Yes on the surface I may look like I get a lot done. I do tweet almost 14 times a day with great content. Also I have over 100 new followers a day on Twitter. Yet the bulk of my day is spent as an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, talking with authors, emailing authors and others about their books.  Despite the things I accomplish in a day, I know and understand that not every email is answered. Not every phone call gets made or returned.  As an editor, I work hard at customer service, answering key concerns and returning calls—but there is still more to do.

I have magazine articles to write and books to finish and websites to update. If I paused to make a list, it would be endless and to be honest I'm assuming that you have a lengthy list of things to do as well which and while you chip away at it, everything does not get done.We have to live with this fact.

3. Use the right tools to have the best results. Through trial and error, I've learned to use different tools on my phone, different computer programs and other ways to cut down on time and get things done. For example, when I travel, I continue to write on my AlphaSmart 3000 which I purchased years ago on Ebay for about $30. The AlphaSmart is not connected to the Internet, runs on batteries and holds large volumes of information with a full size keyboard. This tool is not right for every writer but it is one that I've used repeatedly to get my writing done.

Are you experimenting with different tools and programs to see if they help you get more done in a shorter amount of time?

4. Balance is important. Every one of us need to have a certain level of balance in our daily lives. Have you listed your key goals and priorities? Just the act of writing these goals can be a great first step. Then have you broken those goals into small steps that you can accomplish? 

As I think about the big picture of my own life, I have a number of things which are a key part of my day. I need Time for Faith (reading the Bible and prayer each day). I need Time for Family (the connection to my wife and children—even if they are grown children). I need Time for Work. I also need Time for Health ( and I build exercise into almost every day). I need Time for Relaxation (yes some of you may find it hard to believe but I go to movies, I read for fun and I watch television). Finally I make Time for Friends. Admittedly some of my days are out of balance but it's part of the way I'm wired and working to attempt to have some level of balance in my life and work.

These are my ideas to help you face the daily challenges of life. Are they helpful? I hope so. Do you have other ideas? Tell me in the comments below. 

Tweetable:

Get Some Ideas to Face the Daily Challenges called Life. (ClickToTweet)
 

My Plans for The New Year

As we begin a New Year, many people are making resolutions, setting goals and plans for the year ahead. I'm right there with you and in this article, I'm going to layout some of my personal plans. I hope you will find some insights and inspiration for your own writing life. Instead of resolutions or goals, I have six areas with actions in each area to highlight.

1. Take Responsibility for My Own Success.

I've mentioned this aspect a number of times in these articles. Over the holidays a long-time publishing friend sent me a letter addressed to marketers. This author has written a number of books with traditional publishers. His concern is one I've heard many times from writers (and I've voiced myself in the past). The publisher has marketing departments and why aren't they marketing. He's a writer and he does not want to be turned into a marketer. He doesn't want to blog or tweet or Facebook or _____ to market his book. He wants to be left to his writing craft. The letter is laced with frustration. I hear it—yet it is not reality of today's book market.

Here's a dose of reality according to my friend Penny Sansevieri, currently there are at least 4,500 books published every day. As an author, how are you going to break through that noise and actually sell books (succeed)? It will not happen trying to pass the responsibility to someone else (like a marketing department). It happens by taking responsbility for your own success (the first principle of the bestselling The Success Principles from Jack Canfield). I've mentioned Canfield and Victor Hansen's Rule of Five. You may not commit to five actions but what can you do and do it consistently? I'm committed to consistently working at my own success.

2. Re-commit to being a good communicator and writer.

As an editor and writer, I work in the communication business. Even on the holiday with my publisher “closed,” I've been answering a few emails and writing my authors and others. It's a chronic problem throughout the industry: silence. I'm again committed to solid customer service. Yes it takes effort but is well worth it in my view and helps me stand out in a crowded market.

3. Continue my own spiritual development.

While I've rarely written about it in this blog, you can tell from my list of published books and the type of books that I write, I'm a Christian. (Read here for the story of my life change). For many years, I've been reading through the Bible (cover to cover). I select different versions and tools for this reading but I've made another commitment to read through the Bible again during the coming year. These few moments each day feed into my spiritual development and life.

4. Continue my own personal growth.

I often write about different books or online courses or audios or other ways that I'm developing as a writer and communicator. This week I purchased a simple cord to connect my iPhone to the audio system in my car. I download the free audio book through Overdrive and can play the book over my car speakers. I'm constantly learning something new and applying it to my daily life. I hope you will do the same.

5. Continue working on my own health.

Each of us have a finite number of days on the earth and as a writer and editor, I spent a great deal of time sitting (not moving). For over a year, I ignored exercise and my weight showed it. In the last few months, I've recommitted to working on my health (good eating but also consistent exercise). It's not easy and consumes time from other things but is a priority for me (and hopefully for you).

6. Continued commitment to helping others (including you).

As we close out 2015 and begin 2016, I have the continued commitment to teach others what I'm learning about the publishing world. It's been the focus of The Writing Life for years and also my free teleseminars, my personal teaching at conferences, my books and other ways I'm helping like through my tweets. This commitment will continue. In the last couple of days, I reworked and updated my Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. Now this resource is ready to help you and others in the days ahead.

I hope these plans have encouraged you to take action in your writing life. The days ahead will be bright and full of hope. Here's to an exciting New Year.

Make Resolutions You Can Keep

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? If you are like me, you have goals, dreams and plans for the New Year. I encourage you to write down these resolutions or plans or goals. You want to make them specific actions so you can hold yourself (or your partner can hold you) accountable to carry them out.

Over 15 years ago in 11 days I wrote a diet book by Carole Lewis called First Place. I took such a crazy writing deadline because the publisher was determined to have the book inside the bookstores for January. If you look at bestseller lists, often in January there will be several diet books about losing weight. In our overweight society, many people resolve to lose some pounds in the New Year. They begin with such great resolve and commitment.

As I write these words in late December, the fitness center in my community has been empty—except for my consistently using it. Over the last few days close to the holidays, I worked out alone in a room full of equipment. In January, I expect someone will always be working out with me. Then the first week of February will arrive and the crowds will slack off because people’s resolve begins to lessen.

To become a proactive author, I want to suggest several resolutions or goals that you can keep throughout the months ahead. I encourage you to use these ideas to create your own goals. Make sure you make each one specific, measurable and action oriented.

1. Plan to consistently talk with others about your books or products. As the author, you should take the primary responsibility to market and tell other people about your books. There are dozens of tools and ways to do it. Your method should be a way that serves other people (helps them) and doesn’t pound them with “buy me” messages. The “buy me” message is a turn off and the service to others is an attraction. Can you take your book and create a teleseminar or take chapters from your book and turn them into magazine articles or blog posts? For example, I have my Book Proposals That Sell, which has over 100 five star reviews on Amazon and continues to help people. I have a free teleseminar on proposal creation but also an online step-by-step course on proposal creation. I’m teaching about proposals in a free workshop on January 7^th but also teaching about proposals at the Florida Christian Writers Conference in late February. Notice the multiple ways I’m still talking with people about the same product and serving them. How can you create such an effort for your book?

2. Resolve to Persevere. Are you trying to publish something which is getting rejected? You are in good company. Just check out this article from bestselling novelist James Scott Bell called Rejecting Rejection. Possibly you have not made the right connection to get your work published. Are you consistently submitting your work? Often when I ask writers about this detail, I find they haven’t been consistently working on getting their book pitch to the right editor at the right time and the right place. I don’t believe that I’m a great writer. I work hard at improving my storytelling and writing—yet I am persistent and preserve. I’m determined to a fault. Nurture this quality in your own life in the weeks and months ahead.

3. Resolve to take better care of yourself. Over the last few years, I’ve worked hard at getting more consistent sleep, taking a daily multiple vitamins and a commitment to regular exercise. Also I attempt to watch my weight and eating patterns to be in balance. Am I perfect? No, but I continue to consistently work at these elements and build regular patterns into my life. For several years I taught consistently at a writers’ conference and until I made this commitment to myself, I didn’t know this facility had an exercise room. The last time I used the room every single day of the event. It is a goal that I’m determined to keep. Your goal will be different for your lifestyle and situation but do consider this area of your life.

4. Resolve to learn a new skill then practice it repeatedly. Maybe you want to develop your storytelling skills. Then I suggest you look at different conferences and plan a way to get to listen to an instructor. I’m going to be all over the U.S in 2013 and here’s where I keep my schedule. Or maybe you can learn from a how-to book or take an online training. I use all of these methods to keep growing in my abilities and skills. 

I’m expecting great things will happen in the coming months. How about you? Are you setting goals and moving in this direction? Take action today.

Health Insurance For Writers

If you are a freelance writer, where do you get your health insurance? It's a challenging question and there are nearly 47 million Americans or 16 percent of the population without health insurance in 2005 (the latest government data on this question).

Many people have a spouse that works a "day job" and that is their method to get insurance. My family wasn't in that situation so we had to pay for our own individual policy.

For years I've looked at different writer's groups and in particular watching for the health insurance benefit. I never found it--until the American Society of Journalists and Authors launched a nationwide health insurance benefit.

For more than 10 years, I've been a member of the ASJA. It's different from most other writer's organizations. For the majority of them, if you are living and breathing and will pay their dues, then you can join the group. It's different with the ASJA. You have to qualify for membership. There are many people who qualify for membership yet they have never considered joining--but I believe this nationwide health insurance benefit will be a draw to many people.

If you read this entry in the Writing Life and decide to join the ASJA for their many benefits (including health insurance), please do me a favor a add my name to spot on the membership application where it asks for a "referring member." Why? Because I will get 10% off my next year's dues and it's something that I've never had happen in my years in ASJA--even though I'm certain I've brought people into the organization. You can be the first one.

I want to celebrate this great new benefit for writers: a group health insurance policy.