Jeff Goins's Blog, page 14

Embracing the Discipline to Write Your Book

In all creative projects, there is a time to dream, and then there is a time to do. When it comes to finishing your book, it’s no longer time to dream. It’s time to do.

I recently recorded an audio mini-series to accompany my most popular blog, 10 Ridiculously Simple Steps for Writing a Book. I’ve been sharing those on my podcast, The Portfolio Life. The first episode covered getting started and was aptly titled How to Start Writing Your Book.

Listen to the podcast

The second part of my post covered the actual work of writing a book and I broke it down into three sections. I won’t give you the same information from my original post but instead, expand on the audio content.

Set a total word count
Give yourself weekly deadlines
Get early feedback

“The bulk of the writing happens here, in the messy middle.Tweet thisTweet
Set a total word count

Whether you write for a traditional publisher or yourself as a self-publisher, the same rules of doing the work apply. You need to decide on a container for your art. These restraints will give you clarity and guidance. Mostly, they come in the form of genres and word counts.

You must know your genre to have an idea of what you’re trying to create. Is it fiction or non-fiction? Is it a novel or a short story? What category does it fit in? Ask yourself if you want to publish your work as an e-book, a paperback, or a hardcover.

Answer what the measure for your genre is. I gave you arbitrary word count containers in my original article that give you a standard starting point. Having a rough guide for words isn’t designed to get you bent out of shape. It’s there to help you start with the end in mind and work backward.

For example, let’s say you have a goal of 50,000 words for your book. Let’s also pretend you want it completed in 90 days. Now you know you need 556 words a day, seven days a week to get it done. This will help you set your daily writing goal.

Every week, you need about 3,800-3,900 words per week. Hitting these word goals will give you feedback that lets you know you’re moving in the right direction. I would even suggest aiming for something more significant like 4,000 words so you can cut some out at the end instead of working to fill it in.

Give yourself weekly deadlines

It’s okay to embrace the editing process. Moving words around on the page is progress. I wrote about that in a recent post called Type, Delete, Type. But so is meeting your deadlines.

You can have off days and struggles, but this is the dull, blue-collar way work gets done. Set a deadline and meet them. This is the way to measure yourself. It’s not exciting and requires tremendous discipline.

To continue our bicycle riding analogy, this is where most people crash. This is where they fail. Though the road is set and the finish line is drawn, they take their eyes off the path ahead.

Don’t get in the habit of moving the finish line, or you’ll be pedaling forever. This part is about discipline. 80-90 percent of the book gets done just by you showing up. Commit to your daily word count and weekly deadlines. Just get it done.

“It makes sense that if you want other people to buy your book, you should see if it resonates with others.Tweet thisTweet
Get early feedback

Not everyone agrees with me that getting early feedback is a good idea. But as new writers, our sense of what is good is not very strong. We need input from experienced authors and editors. It makes sense that if you want other people to buy your book, you should see if it resonates with others.

You don’t need to go to the masses, but I would find a trusted, experienced, inner group of professionals who can share feedback with you candidly. My friend and writing coach, Marion Roach Smith, cautions against trusting feedback from anyone who relies on you for food, shelter, or sex. I think that’s good advice.

Completing the first draft

If you meet your deadlines and get early feedback, does that mean your book is ready for prime time? No, but you will have a solid first draft completed if you stick to this writing system. What comes next after that?

Well, I wrote an article on this very subject called The Five Draft Method. I referenced it on the podcast and know it will get your project ready to share with the world.

Do you stick to your deadlines, or do you continuously move the finish? I would love to hear about it in the comments.

How to Start Writing Your Book

10 Ridiculously Simple Steps for Writing a Book is my most popular blog post of all time. Since it resonated with so many people, I wanted to expound on those steps and give you some stories and more material to help you apply them in your own writing.

One of the best ways to deliver more value to you is recording an audio mini-series of that blog post and sharing it on my podcast, The Portfolio Life. It’s something that I’ve really enjoyed doing lately, and I hope you get as much out of it as I do.

Listen to the podcast

Getting Started

The slowest part of the process, the beginning of writing a book, is really challenging. You have to decide on a topic, plan an outline, and create a structure. I liken it to riding a bicycle up a hill because you really have to work to gain any momentum at all. Today’s podcast is going to focus on getting started.

In my original work, I broke the section on starting down into four points:

Decide what the book is about
Set a daily word count goal
Set a time to work on your book every day
Write in the same place every time

Instead of just re-writing what I included with those original points, I’ve only added the expanded portions here for you.

“Good writing is always about something.Tweet thisTweet
Decide what the book is about

When deciding what a book is going to be about, it’s tempting to place the focus on our own experiences. Resist this temptation. As authors, we must have a theme that taps into the foundational need of all human beings to thrive.

A non-fiction book needs to be driven by an argument that solves a universal problem. A work of fiction needs a theme that all humanity can relate to. Examine a handful of best-selling books in your genre and look for the driving force behind them. We have 500 years of publishing history to study and figure out what works.

I use three questions to find the theme in my books:

What is this about?
What is my argument?
What is the problem ailing my intended audience?

I attempt to answer those big questions in one sentence. When it makes sense, I’ll stretch the phrase into a paragraph. Then I’ll create a one-page outline. Pushing forward progressively, I’ll create a table of contents with different chapters. Then I’ll break the sections into a beginning, middle, and end.

This process can take days, weeks, or months. That’s okay, and this is where a lot of your mental energy needs to be spent. This is not stalling. This is not giving into Resistance. This is writing. The more effort you put into figuring out what you want to say and how you want to say it, the easier the actual writing will be later.

Set a daily word count goal

I recently started walking more, and the goal I set for myself is 10,000 steps a day. Beginning in the morning, I move more. I add little walks here and there, and when night time rolls around, it’s easy to finish at my target. But on days I haven’t taken a walk, and I need 8,000 steps before bed to reach my goal, it’s a tough night.

Writing a book is done the same way. You don’t set out to write a book. You create a habit of writing. It doesn’t need to be a ton of words. 300-500 words are enough. It isn’t hard, but it does require discipline.

I write at least 500 words a day, and I’ve been doing this for many years. Consistency has been the key to my success. Little drips of effort have led to waves of momentum. Show up every day and frequently do your work.

I believe so firmly in setting goals small enough to be attainable, but challenging enough to build momentum that I’ve created a 31-day challenge called My 500 Words to help you develop this habit. There’s also a Facebook Group where you can encourage and be encouraged by other writers working towards the same goal.

“You don’t have to write a lot, you just need to write often.Tweet thisTweet
Set a time to work on your book every day

Dan Miller, the best-selling author of 48 Days to the Work You Love and other books, makes an appointment with himself and never misses it. He sets aside deliberate writing time in advance that ensures he doesn’t have to think about it.

Consistency makes creativity easier. Strive to be consistent, not creative. Embrace discipline, but give yourself grace. Discipline to do the work when you don’t feel like it. Grace to get back after it after you miss a day. Don’t shame yourself, and don’t give yourself an out.

Honor your writing time like you would any other appointment. If you need to reschedule, do it in advance. If you know you have a birthday party or something else coming up, plan around it. But try to find the time of day you’re most creative and commit to setting it aside for writing.

Make it so it’s just what you do. Writing has to be something that you do. Most professional writers don’t love or hate it, they just do it. Show up at the same time and write for the same amount of time or word numbers.

Write in the same place every time

It doesn’t matter where it is, just make it’s the same place. Whether it’s the kitchen table, a nook or corner, or an office. Write in the same physical location. Make it a special place that lets you know when you enter the sacred, creative space, it serves as a reminder to finish your commitment to yourself.

When I wrote my first book, my kitchen table served as my sacred writing space in the morning. Throughout the rest of the day, it was used by the rest of my family for the usual purpose. But during my writing time, it was set apart for a purpose.

“Consistency makes creativity easier.Tweet thisTweet
Creating a writing system

The hard part of writing is sitting down and starting. Writing the same amount, at the same time, in the same place, will help you. You can wake up without an alarm, and your routine will lead you to your writing. This helps your brain and body know precisely what to do.

This is called a writing system, and it will be uniquely yours to help you succeed. Get all twenty steps of my writing system in a downloadable e-book available here.

What does your writing system look like? I’d love for you to share it with me in the comments.

The Heart to Start Your Creative Journey with David Kadavy

One of the hardest parts of any endeavor is taking the first step. My friend David Kadavy joins us today to talk about having the heart to start your creative journey.

I believe David is an underrated writer and thinker. In an age of instant publication, he puts time, effort and great thought into the content and work he shares with the world. Initially, he found success with his first book, Design for Hackers.

After publishing the book, he soon found himself being flown around the world to consult, coach, and advise. He had always wanted to have a platform, and now he had it. But it didn’t take long for David to realize he had more to create and share, but not on the topic of design.

That realization and how to act upon it was a struggle for him. Two years ago he made a conscious pivot from design work to creative productivity and creative resistance. David’s second book, The Heart to Start, was a way to help himself through that process.

David shares the story of locking himself in his apartment for six months and banging his head against a wall for 12 hours a day just to get 15 minutes of creative flow. He questioned why he couldn’t just drop into that flow quickly and then go about his day. Why did it take so long?

He knew he wanted to do creative work, but he tried to find a better way to do that work while still being happy and having a healthy relationship with his work.

David tells us more about that experience, his transition into the productivity and creative resistance realm along with his journey from growing up in Nebraska to living in Colombia on this edition of The Portfolio Life.

Listen to the podcast

To listen to the show, click the player below (If you’re reading this via email, please click here).

Show highlights

In this episode, David tells us:

How did he get his first book deal?
What Impostor Syndrome experiences did he go through with his second book?
How does he deal with working on many things?
Why there is power in loving and being curious about many things.
What is the strongest fuel towards getting your work out in the world?

“The process is a product.David KadavyTweet thisTweet
On taking creative initiative

Why do professionals worry more about being good enough than amateurs do?
What are the honest and dishonest ways to deal with self-reverence?
Why the more you do something the harder it gets.
How he narrowly escaped living the wrong life for himself.
What makes his creative struggles with The Heart to Start worthwhile?

“The things you struggle with determine your future path.David KadavyTweet thisTweet
The Laws of Art

There is art inside of you. You have something uniquely yours inside of you, and you need to get that out.
Art is self-actualization. Pursuing your art and finding your creative gift is the ultimate form you can achieve.
Your ego fears your art. Ego is in conflict with your true self. This is where resistance comes from. It will fool you into making excuses not to do the hard work of following your art and exposing yourself to feelings of failures and experiences of rejection.

Resources

David Kadavy’s web site


David Kadavy on Twitter


Design for Hackers , by David Kadavy
The Heart to Start , by David Kadavy


David’s toolkit


Love Your Work podcast


Readwise app
Real Artists Don’t Starve
Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes

What are you going to do to start your creative journey after listening to David? Let us know in the comments.

Lies Entrepreneurs Tell Themselves with Casey Graham

I used to think that I had to grow a business as big as possible to be successful. Turns out you don’t have to build a huge company to create the lifestyle you want.

My guest today on The Portfolio Life, was instrumental in helping me discover this life-altering truth. Casey Graham has always been an entrepreneur. At age seven, he landed a customer who paid him seven dollars a week to pull weeds. At age 13, he cut grass for a man who taught him to play the guitar and invest in mutual funds.

Listen to the podcast

To listen to the show, click the player below (If you’re reading this via email, please click here).

In college, Casey started a business to load out sorority girls’ furniture, hold it for the summer, and load them back when the new semester started. Not only did he find lots of willing dads to pay him for his service (and save their backs), but he also found himself a wife.

After college, he became a pastor and started a church in Atlanta. Over the next five years, Casey got married, had kids, and left the church to start a financial education business for churches. He jumped in his truck, strapped in his curriculum, and knocked on church doors to sell them his guide. They said no.

People at conferences said yes, and his sales grew by word of mouth. Casey was successful, but learned he didn’t want to spend his nights and weekends away from his family teaching people about money. That led him to explore businesses that didn’t require his physical presence; ones that created residual income.

“Don’t build something you don’t want to run!Casey GrahamTweet thisTweet

Within 90 days of switching to a bookkeeping company, he had 45 clients paying $500 a month for his services. Casey brought in a business partner who took the company from $80,000 in the bank to $80,000 in debt. Forced to take drastic measures, he fired everyone, outsourced the work, and then sold the company.

Next, Casey started The Rocket Company. This experience taught him what running a company was all about and how different efforts work together in an organized structure. Within this success, Casey started gleaning emotional stability from his company’s performance, his team’s respect, and his reputation as a businessman.

He sold Rocket and made a lot of money. But he lost the external things that made him happy: his community, his sense of purpose, his identity, and his structure of time. During his time of greatest financial success, he felt most empty.

“We don’t need more opportunity, we need to capitalize on the opportunities we already have.Casey GrahamTweet thisTweet

Feeling lost, Casey searched for emerging business trends and settled on an uncomplicated business that helped other companies make money: Gravy Payment Recovery. That’s what he’s doing now, and he’s finally living the life he wants with a healthy relationship between work, family, and identity.

Show highlights

How did he almost lose his life to save a business?
How not having a schedule is crippling.
What advice would he give to himself as a teenager and young adult?

How the first 100 days determine customer satisfaction

Customers expect competent, reliable, and responsive service.
Surprise and personalization solidifies the relationship.
Create a unique customer experience and people will share it with the world.

How to determine the right business for yourself

Slow down, be alone, and figure out what you want.
Don’t know what to do? Make a list of things you know you don’t want to do.
Have rhythm and make intentional decisions.

Resources

Casey Graham’s web site
The 7-Figure CEO podcast
Casey Graham on Twitter
Gravy company web site
Special offer from Gravy
Tribe Conference
Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes

Have you made a list of things you know you don’t want to do? Let me know in the comments.

Type Delete Type: What Writers Do (or “Why I’m Editing My Life”)

I’m currently working on a book project, which explains why I found myself binge-watching videos on Instagram the other day.

In my senseless searching, I stumbled across a video of an author speaking to a group of writers, where she admits, to her own chagrin, that she just spent the day editing her introduction for the tenth time instead of writing.

She said, “I spent three hours moving words around on a page, thinking I was writing. But I wasn’t writing. I wasn’t adding a word to my word count. I was hiding.”

The audience applauded.

This both inspired and troubled me. It inspired me because I had literally just done this that day: editing and re-editing the introduction to a new book I’m writing with a friend. And I wondered now if I had just wasted my time.

And it troubled me because it seems shortsighted. Part of writing is not writing. Of course, you can’t complete a book if you never get past a few hundred words on a page. But at the same time, so much of writing is not just creation. It’s curation. All good writing is rewriting, they say.

Type. Delete. Type. This is what we writers do. And it cannot be ignored, avoided, or accelerated. You put the words on the page, rearrange them, remove some of them, add more words, and at some point get something that looks complete.

It’s never really finished, of course. That’s the beauty and tragedy of it all. You can always tinker and play with it, and many do just that.

F. Scott Fitzgerald always carried around a copy of The Great Gatsby with him wherever he went, because he was never fully satisfied with it, making constant notes and corrections to it until the end of his life.

Fitzgerald was continually chasing the ideal of his art and never finding it. Maybe, in a way, we all are.

So let’s talk about that.

In addition to this blog post, I also recorded a podcast to expand on the idea of what writers really do. You can listen to it below.

Listen to the podcast

Why Grady Tripp couldn’t stop writing (or when writing isn’t writing)

Recently, I watched a movie about writers called Wonder Boys. In it, the main character Grady Tripp’s first novel was a big hit, and now he is struggling to finish his next book. Years past deadline, he is constantly under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and everyone thinks he’s blocked.

Turns out, Grady is not blocked at all. He’s written well over 2,000 pages, pages about horse genealogies and dental records and who knows what else. When a student calls him out for not making any choices, he gets defensive.

But then (spoiler alert) in an interesting turn of events, he loses the manuscript. It flies out the window and goes straight into the river. Afterward, someone asks what the book was about, and Grady says, “I don’t know.”

“If you don’t know what the story was about, then why were you writing it?”

“Because,” he admits, “I couldn’t stop.”

Writing is not just about meeting a word count. It is about saying something. Just because you’re typing doesn’t mean you’re communicating. And just because you’re deleting doesn’t mean you aren’t making progress.

“Writing is not just about meeting a word count. It is about saying something.Tweet thisTweet
Why everything must die before it can be reborn

When you feel stuck, the worst thing you can do is stop. The second worst thing you can do is keep going in the wrong direction. This is true in writing, and this is true in life. Editing is as much a part of the writing process as composition.

Making something is not just about adding a new piece to the larger whole. Sometimes, it’s about taking something away. And we’re not just talking about writing anymore, are we?

Lately, I’ve been reconsidering some of my most deeply-held beliefs. As one friend put it, “I’m taking some dusty ideas off the shelf, re-examining them, and deciding if I want to put them back on the shelf.”

For a while, I felt bad about this until a psychotherapist/priest friend of mine explained that all healthy spiritual and emotional journeys follow a simple process of deconstruction and reconstruction. Here’s he describes it:

Thesis: First you believe something.
Antithesis: Then you believe the opposite of that something.
Synthesis: Then you find a way to reconcile the something with its seeming contradiction.

(Side note: Rob Bell has a pretty interesting podcast on this concept here.)

It is in a paradox that truth is found and often deepened. We sometimes have to destroy what we’ve built to create something better.

Everything is always ending, and everything is always beginning. That was made clear to me the other weekend when I had a friend die, another friend announced he was getting divorced, and another friend decided to leave his job and strike out on his own. All in a weekend.

Endings and beginnings. That’s life. And that’s writing.

The trick, it seems, is not to keep doing what you’re doing. It’s to edit. To ask why you’re doing it in the first place. I’m currently doing this with my life and my business, and my writing—and it’s scary as hell. But it also feels right. Because I know some things can’t be born until other things die.

Creation is always an act of resurrection.

“What better way to spend a life than in pursuit of the true, the good, and the beautiful?Tweet thisTweet
How’s the writing going?

So when someone asks you, “How’s the writing going?” and you’ve deleted more words than you’ve typed today, don’t feel bad.

Sometimes, finishing is overrated (don’t tell my friend Jon I said that).

When you find yourself working on that book and the word count doesn’t measure up to the goal, understand you are probably more on track than you realize. You are doing the work. Type. Delete. Type. Remember?

Don’t just measure what you’ve done but also what you’re doing. They both matter. The secret to doing good work is not just about crossing finish lines. It’s about running good races.

Some races we finish, and some we only begin. But most of us got into this work not to amass a bunch of medals but for the joy of the run. Almost every great writer dies with an incomplete manuscript, and maybe this is as it should be. They died doing what they loved—not finishing, but creating.

Plus, you never know what might happen to those abandoned and incomplete works. I always loved that Tolkien story “Leaf By Niggle” in which an artist spends his entire life working on a single painting of a tree and never finishes it.

Then in the afterlife, he discovers not only the tree but a whole forest and a garden for him to tend. What he began in one life, he was able to complete in another. And what he could only imagine in one life became a reality in another.

Maybe that’s how it works. We chase the ideal, and all our vain efforts to make something measure up are just that—vain. Vain but beautiful and even more important: worthwhile.

What better way to spend a life than in pursuit of the true, the good, and the beautiful? That’s how I’m trying to spend mine, anyway.

Oh, and those Fitzgerald edits I mentioned, the mere tinkerings of an obsessive perfectionist? Well, after the author’s death, that old, marked-up copy of Gatsby was discovered. And the edits he made ended up in future versions of the book. So you just never know what comes from a work you start but never quite finish.

Are you re-considering any of your most deeply held beliefs? Share them with me in the comments.

Chasing Dreams and Finding Truth: Interview with Tim Grahl

Last year, I saw Tom Petty in concert shortly before he passed away. All night I waited for him to play a song with a killer guitar riff- Running Down a Dream.

Running Down a Dream is also the title of my friend Tim Grahl’s latest book. A highly sought after book launch guru, Tim has had five books on the New York Times bestseller list at the same time. He has also helped thousands of authors through his Book Launch site and The Story Grid podcast that he co-hosts with Shawn Coyne.

In a blaze of glory twelve years ago, Tim Grahl quit his day job and went to work for himself full time. Having taught himself internet marketing and web development, he used the form emails from Charlie Hoen’s book Recession Proof Graduate to pitch authors on how to improve their websites and help them market themselves online.

His concept was simple: find a way to practically help people and do it for free, with the agreement that they will look at a proposal to hire you if the techniques worked. His first solo launch with Dan Pink’s book To Sell is Human debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list. In the face of this success, Tim felt no joy, only the pressure to repeat his success.

When his second book launch debuted at #2, the authors he helped were ecstatic, but Tim felt like a failure again. Though he had escaped the cubicle nation and was living the dream he thought he wanted, it was the wrong dream. Still, he continued to work, helping authors launch their books and even successfully releasing his own book- Your First 1,000 Copies.

Tim leveraged a successful online course launch into some free time where he didn’t need to work to pay the bills. He used that time to explore writing fiction and volunteered to help Shawn Coyne with his online platform for The Story Grid. That relationship blossomed into a podcast with over 120 episodes and into Tim’s own work of fiction due out in 2019.

None of the success he experienced in his shadow career as book marketer was enough to fix him. Today on The Portfolio Life, Tim talks about his new book, what he’s learned chasing down a dream and realizing it’s not the right dream, and discovering his inner truth.

Listen to the podcast

To listen to the show, click the player below (If you’re reading this via email, please click here).

Show highlights

In this episode, Tim Grahl shares his journey and the secrets to his early success:

If you want important people’s attention, you need to help them with something.
When he makes a plan, Tim is a ruthless marketer. But when he implements it, he does so with generosity and love.
When learning something new, you can make all the mistakes yourself, or you can learn from someone who knows what they’re doing and save years of life.

“It’s not about running the dream down, but the joy of running down the dream.Tim GrahlTweet thisTweet
How Tim got Shawn Coyne to teach him fiction

Tim asked for 30 minutes of Shawn’s time and received a 45 minute answer to his first question.
They both agreed to walk away after ten podcast episodes if they both didn’t like the results of the show.
Tim offered to do all the work for the podcast in exchange for Shawn’s time.

“The dream is not being successful, the dream is becoming who I am meant to be.Tim GrahlTweet thisTweet
Writing Running Down a Dream

Tim wanted to write the how-to guide to Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art.
The initial feedback to his first draft was not good from me or Shawn Coyne.
He ended up sharing a practical guide to overcoming Resistance inside a story of the devastating and hard things that happen when you chase your dream.

Resources

Running Down a Dream, by Tim Grahl
Book Launch
Your First 1,000 Copies,  by Tim Grahl
The Story Grid
Black Irish Books
Tribe Conference
Recession Proof Graduate, by Charlie Hoen
To Sell is Human, by Dan Pink
The War of Art , by Steven Pressfield
Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes

What dream are you running down? Let us know in the comments.

What to Do When You Feel Like a Fake (and Why a Shadow Career is Necessary)

Recently, a friend asked if I ever felt like a fake writing about writing instead of, you know, just writing. I’ve been asked this question lots of times before. No one has asked it more than me.

It’s a good question, one we all must ask ourselves at some point: Am I doing what I’m meant to do, or am I settling? At some point in your work, you will wonder if you are living up to your potential or merely doing the safe thing.

And believe it or not, this an excellent place to be. It tells you that something is wrong. And what you do next is very important.

In addition to this blog post, I also recorded a podcast to expand on the idea of what to do when you feel like a fake. You can listen to it below (or just read the article, if you prefer).

Listen to the podcast

You have a true self (listen to it)

To begin, if you feel like a fake, then that assumes there is a true version of you, some identity that sits deep at your core. I believe that. One of my favorite writers and thinkers is an old Trappist monk named Thomas Merton, and one of Merton’s most well-known ideas is the concept of the false self. Here’s how he writes about it:

Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.

He argues that the greatest sin a person can commit is to not be true to themselves. Parker Palmer makes a similar distinction between your “soul” (who you really are) and your “role” (what society expects of you).  He says that it is better for a person to be whole than it is to be good.

I resonate with that. My greatest miseries in life were not caused by failure. They were caused by success. When I was successful at the wrong thing, when I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t—that’s when I was most miserable.

The same, it seems, can be said for some of history’s greatest authors and artists. Eventually, they realized the roles they were playing were not the ones they were meant to play. Or perhaps, they simply outgrew them.

At any rate, the point for you and me is that when we feel like a fake, we need to listen to that voice. It’s telling us something is out of alignment, and we must take action to correct it. Otherwise, we might just go through life, living out of our false self, thinking it’s the real thing.

Every great career starts with a shadow

Steven Pressfield has a name for this phenomenon of finding yourself doing something that is close to your calling but not quite it. He calls it a “shadow career.” 

The basic idea is that all of us have a true vocation in life, but most of us settle for something less—a “shadow” of the true thing. Almost every great writer and artist, at some point, had a shadow career, something they were good at that paid the bills but wasn’t their true calling. For example:

Ernest Hemingway was a war correspondent.
Elizabeth Gilbert was a travel writer for magazines.
Tim Grahl was a marketer of other people’s books.

This is how the work begins. You get a sense that something is missing. So you leave the familiar in search of something else. You chase your calling and find something that looks a lot like it. It’s not exactly what you thought but close enough. Yes, this is how the work begins, but it is not how it ends. These are all good things, but they are shadows of a truer thing.

And the goal of our work is to never settle. As soon as we find ourselves in the shadows, we must move on.

There’s a lot more riding on this than you know. If you don’t move on, you may be depriving the world of your greatest gift.

Hemingway eventually moved on from journalism to change the way we read stories in the English language.

Gilbert did the same and inspired millions of people with her books and famous Ted Talk (which is one of my favorites).

And Tim Grahl just completed his masterpiece (which I highly recommend).

We cannot take these voices lightly, the voices that whisper to us of who we really are and what we’re meant to do. Who knows what’s really at stake?

Shadow careers are necessary

So here’s the thing that no one ever seems to say about shadow careers:

They’re necessary.

Shadow careers are not a distraction from the work you’re meant to do. They are the first iteration of that work.

“Shadow careers are not a distraction from the work you’re meant to do.Tweet thisTweet

Most of us, at some point, have a moment when what we’re doing feels like posing, like we’re faking it. And at this point, we’re tempted to believe we’re a fraud. But that’s actually an important step in the creative process. This moment is meant to tell you something.

We all feel like a fake at some point. This means we’re being honest about our work. It means we don’t want to settle for a shadow and whether we realize it or not, we’re headed toward the true thing.

This idea goes beyond faking it till you make it and comes down to you recognizing the truth about yourself. The way you get to your best work is by pushing through those feelings of inadequacy, while listening to the inner voice that calls you out when you are being fake. As you go, you will discard what is false and keep what is true.

Before you can see the light, you first have to see the shadow.

Don’t stay stuck in the shadows

So, you find something that looks like the light that you were chasing. You set up shop, camp out on this thing you call your calling. You experience some success and maybe even earn yourself a nice little status. And if you’re not careful, you can assume that this shadow career is the destination.

Every artist has to pay the bills. That’s called being a grown-up. But there comes the point when you are no longer trying just to survive. You’re doing the work and making a living. It’s not exactly your dream, but it’s close enough.

And now, you find yourself hesitant to try something new. The stakes are higher, and you have more to risk losing. So, you hide behind success, behind a role, and your soul begins to scream.

This is how you know you are hiding: you’re afraid to risk losing the shadow. That’s a dangerous place to be because at this point you don’t need the shadow. It needs you more than you need it. Your true self is calling out, and your false self is trying to keep it quiet.

Now, you need to take the next step into the light, and that can difficult. After all, we are not very good at recognizing the illusions we have about ourselves. It takes guts to step out of the shadows when the shadows are safe. That is why you must do it.

“If you feel like a fake, then there’s a good chance you’re not one.Tweet thisTweet

We all feel like impostors at some point. But the cliche advice that you should “join the crowd” (which I admit I’ve said before) will not satisfy your inner longing to be your true self. You’re going to have to do that work of becoming who you’re really meant to be on your own. Because only you can decide when you’re living true to yourself and merely posing.

The good news is this: If you feel like a fake, then there’s a good chance you’re not one. Because the poseurs don’t ask such deep and dark questions. They’re too busy taking selfies.

Most professionals I know, conversely, are wracked with self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy. They’re obsessed with making the work what it’s supposed to be and often feel like broken vessels for delivering something so pure.

Many of history’s most celebrated artists had day jobs, at least for a while. They used the commercial work to pay for the important work. But there also came a time when they realized that the day job or the shadow career was no longer serving their vision of what they wanted to create.

What once was an onramp was now a roadblock, and they had to keep moving.

If you’re doing the dance, you’re doing it right

So when my friend asked if I ever struggled with writing about writing instead of just writing, I admitted I did. This is also something I am working on. Most days, I feel riddled with self-doubt, fearing my best work will never get made. And because I have this voice, I can’t quiet inside of me, saying, “There’s more,” I try to listen to it.

I suppose that’s all we can do. I mean, we can ignore that voice. We can live inside a shadow and tell ourselves that we’re okay. But in the late hours of the night or early morning when the applause and accolades have faded, we will know the truth.

We are always chasing an idea of what should be while dealing with what is. And that’s life. The trick, I think, is to remember the end and not stay stuck in the means. “We don’t make movies to make money,” Walt Disney once told a critic. “We make money to make more movies.”

“One for them, one for me,” I heard one actor say to another. Do a blockbuster to feed your family, then an art film to feed your soul. Both are important. Both necessary. Even Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in six weeks to pay off his debts. It was a commercial project that became something more in the process. So you just never know.

This is the dance. Art and commerce. Shadow career and calling. It’s always a struggle, still a tension. We move towards the light, realizing every movement brings with it new shadows.

My advice to any writer struggling with feeling like a fake is, “Keep going.”

Keep making things.

Keep paying bills.

And every time you feel yourself posing, stop and ask yourself if this is really you. Then listen to that voice.

“My advice to any writer struggling with feeling like a fake is to keep going.Tweet thisTweet

Say no to that project you never felt right about accepting. Use your shadow career to fund the next move in your calling. Do not settle for a shadow when the light is calling. And when the bills start to pile up, you can worry about the money again.

That’s fine. That’s healthy. We all have to do this dance between the different worlds we inhabit—what Lewis Hyde calls the “market economy” and the “gift economy.” We are members of them both, and each abides by very different rules.

Who knows. Maybe something beautiful will emerge from such tension. Indeed, perhaps that’s the only way great art ever gets made. The light is always casting shadows. Your job is to keep moving in the direction of the real thing, even if you aren’t quite sure what it is.

Resources

Here are some resources on this for further reading:

New Seeds of Contemplation , by Thomas Merton
Turning Pro , by Steven Pressfield
Running Down a Dream , by Tim Grahl
A Hidden Wholeness , by Parker J. Palmer
Why Your Work Never Feels Good Enough
Real Artists Don’t Starve

What’s your shadow career? Is it helping you move forward or are you stuck? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

What to Do When You Feel Like a Fake

Recently, a friend asked if I ever felt like a fake writing about writing instead of, you know, just writing. I’ve been asked this question lots of times before. No one has asked it more than me.

It’s a good question, one we all must ask ourselves at some point: Am I doing what I’m meant to do, or am I settling? At some point in your work, you will wonder if you are living up to your potential or merely doing the safe thing.

And believe it or not, this an excellent place to be. It tells you that something is wrong. And what you do next is very important. In addition to this blog post, I also recorded a podcast to expand on the idea of what to do when you feel like a fake.

Listen to the podcast

You have a true self (listen to it)

To begin, if you feel like a fake, then that assumes there is a true version of you, some identity that sits deep at your core. I believe that.

One of my favorite writers and thinkers is an old Trappist monk named Thomas Merton, and one of Merton’s most well-known ideas is the concept of the false self. Here’s how he writes about it:

Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.

He argues that the greatest sin a person can commit is to not be true to themselves. Parker Palmer makes a similar distinction between your “soul” (who you really are) and your “role” (what society expects of you).  He says that it is better for a person to be whole than it is to be good.

I resonate with that. My greatest miseries in life were not caused by failure. They were caused by success. When I was successful at the wrong thing, when I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t—that’s when I was most miserable.

The same, it seems, can be said for some of history’s greatest authors and artists. Eventually, they realized the roles they were playing were not the ones they were meant to play. Or perhaps, they simply outgrew them.

At any rate, the point for you and me is that when we feel like a fake, we need to listen to that voice. It’s telling us something is out of alignment, and we must take action to correct it. Otherwise, we might just go through life, living out of our false self, thinking it’s the real thing. And it’s not.

There’s a lot more riding on this than you know. Hemingway moved on from journalism, though at various times in his life returned to it, to change the way we read stories in the English language. Gilbert did the same and inspired millions of people with her books and famous Ted Talk (which is one of my favorites). And Tim Grahl just completed his masterpiece (which I highly recommend).

So we cannot take these voices lightly, these voices that whisper to us in the dark of who we really are and what we’re meant to do. Who knows what’s really at stake.

Shadow careers are necessary

Steven Pressfield has a name for this phenomenon of finding yourself doing something that is close to your calling but not quite it it. He calls it a “shadow career.”

The basic idea is that all of us have a true calling in life, but most of us at some point settle for something less—a “shadow” of the true thing, as it were.

Almost every great writer and artist, at some point, had a shadow career, something they were good at that paid the bills but wasn’t their true calling.

For example:

Ernest Hemingway was a war correspondent.
Elizabeth Gilbert was a travel writer for magazines.
Tim Grahl was a marketer of other people’s books.

This is how the work begins. You get a sense that something is missing. So you leave the familiar in search of something else. You chase your calling and find something that looks a lot like it. It’s not exactly what you thought but close enough.

This is how the work begins, but it is not how it ends. These are all good things, but they are also shadows or a truer thing.

So here’s the thing that no one ever seems to say about shadow careers: they’re necessary. Shadow careers are not a distraction from the work you’re meant to do. They are the first iteration of that work.

“Shadow careers are not a distraction from the work you’re meant to do.Tweet thisTweet

Most of us, at some point, had a moment when what we were doing felt like posing, and we were tempted to believe we were a fraud. And that’s an important step in process. It goes beyond faking it till you make it and comes down to you recognizing the truth about yourself.

The way you get to your best work is by pushing through those feelings of inadequacy, while listening to the inner voice that calls you out when you are being fake. And as you go, you discard what is false and keep what is true.

Before you can see the light, you first have to see the shadow.

Don’t stay stuck in the shadows

So, you find something that looks like the light that you were chasing. You set up shop, camp out on this thing you call your calling. You experience some success and maybe even earn yourself a nice little status. And if you’re not careful, you can assume that this shadow career is the destination.

Every artist has to pay the bills. That’s called being a grown-up. But there comes the point when you are no longer trying just to survive. You’re doing the work and making a living. It’s not exactly your dream, but it’s close enough.

And now, you find yourself hesitant to try something new. The stakes are higher, and you have more to risk losing. So, you hide behind success, behind a role, and your soul begins to scream.

This is how you know you are hiding: you’re afraid to risk losing the shadow. That’s a dangerous place to be because at this point you don’t need the shadow. It needs you more than you need it. Your true self is calling out, and your false self is trying to keep it quiet.

Now, you need to take the next step into the light, and that can difficult. After all, we are not very good at recognizing the illusions we have about ourselves. It takes guts to step out of the shadows when the shadows are safe. That is why you must do it.

“If you feel like a fake, then there’s a good chance you’re not one.Tweet thisTweet

We all feel like impostors at some point. But the cliche advice that you should “join the crowd” (which I admit I’ve said before) will not satisfy your inner longing to be your true self. You’re going to have to do that work of becoming who you’re really meant to be on your own. Because only you can decide when you’re living true to yourself and merely posing.

The good news is this: If you feel like a fake, then there’s a good chance you’re not one. Because the poseurs don’t ask such deep and dark questions. They’re too busy taking selfies.

Most professionals I know, conversely, are wracked with self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy. They’re obsessed with making the work what it’s supposed to be and often feel like broken vessels for delivering something so pure.

Many of history’s most celebrated artists had day jobs, at least for a while. They used the commercial work to pay for the important work. But there also came a time when they realized that the day job or the shadow career was no longer serving their vision of what they wanted to create. What once was an onramp was now a roadblock. And they had to keep moving.

If you’re doing the dance, you’re doing it right

So when my friend asked if I ever struggled with writing about writing instead of just writing, I admitted I did. This is also something I am working on. Most days, I feel riddled with self-doubt, fearing my best work will never get made. And because I have this voice, I can’t quiet inside of me, saying, “There’s more,” I try to listen to it.

I suppose that’s all we can do. I mean, we can ignore that voice. We can live inside a shadow and tell ourselves that we’re okay. But in the late hours of the night or early morning when the applause and accolades have faded, we will know the truth.

We are always chasing an idea of what should be while dealing with what is. And that’s life. The trick, I think, is to remember the end and not stay stuck in the means. “We don’t make movies to make money,” Walt Disney once told a critic. “We make money to make more movies.”

“One for them, one for me,” I heard one actor say to another. Do a blockbuster to feed your family, then an art film to feed your soul. Both are important. Both necessary. Even Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in six weeks to pay off his debts. It was a commercial project that became something more in the process. So you just never know.

This is the dance. Art and commerce. Shadow career and calling. It’s always a struggle, still a tension. We move towards the light, realizing every movement brings with it new shadows. My advice to any writer struggling with feeling like a fake is to keep going. Keep making things. Keep paying bills. And every time you feel yourself posing, stop and ask yourself if this is really you. Then listen to that voice.

“My advice to any writer struggling with feeling like a fake is to keep going.Tweet thisTweet

Say no to that project you never felt right about accepting. Use your shadow career to fund the next move in your calling. Do not settle for a shadow when the light is calling. And when the bills start to pile up, you can worry about the money again.

That’s fine. That’s healthy. We all have to do this dance between the different worlds we inhabit—what Lewis Hyde calls the “market economy” and the “gift economy.” We are members of them both, and each abides by very different rules.

Who knows. Maybe something beautiful will emerge from such tension. Indeed, perhaps that’s the only way great art ever gets made. The light is always casting shadows. Your job is to keep moving in the direction of the real thing, even if you aren’t quite sure what it is.

Resources

New Seeds of Contemplation , by Thomas Merton
The War of Art , by Steven Pressfield
Turning Pro , by Steven Pressfield
Gates of Fire , by Steven Pressfield
Running Down a Dream , by Tim Grahl
A Hidden Wholeness , by Parker J. Palmer
Real Artists Don’t Starve , by Jeff Goins
Tribe Conference

What’s your shadow career? Is it helping you move forward or are you stuck? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Making a Successful Living as a Musician: Jon McLaughlin

How do you make a living as a musician? Is it true that there’s no money in music anymore? Can I make money off my art today? Join me as I sit down with one of my favorite musicians and explore these questions.

Jon McLaughlin is arguably the best piano player I have ever seen perform live. In fact, my wife and I had one of his songs played at our wedding. So I when I had the chance to sit down with him and talk music, it was a no-brainer.

Growing up in a musical family, Jon grew up playing classical piano. One day after church, the four year-old boy sat down at the piano and started playing around. To his parents’ surprise, they soon realized he was playing the melody to Amazing Grace!

After that, he began taking piano lessons. Jon was great at playing by ear but terrible at reading music, which led to a love/hate relationship with the piano that led to him eventually putting down the instrument for a few years. By the end of high school, however, he was back into music and heading to college to continue his education.

After college, he signed a record deal with Island DefJam Records, started touring, and launched a career that eventually led to pop star Sara Bareilles singing one of his songs. Today, Jon makes a living as a full-time musician.

On this episode of The Portfolio Life, we talk with Jon about why he doesn’t listen to his music once it’s recorded, how he got so good at playing piano when he doesn’t love practicing, and what it takes to succeed as a musician.

Listen to the podcast

To listen to the show, click the player below (If you’re reading this via email, please click here).

Show highlights

In this episode, Jon tells us:

What role his parents played in his decision to make it as a musician.
Why talent is a double-edged sword.
How he reached out to Sara Bareilles.
Why he and his family moved to Nashville.

“You’ve got to shake things up every now and again.Jon McLaughlinTweet thisTweet
On being a parent and a musician

Who is his hero and why?
How does he want to parent his own kids?
Were the arts a big part of his home life as a kid?
Is there such a thing as a natural-born talent?
How does his own parents’ recognition of his talent influence his own parenting now?

“Good creative things come out of tough times.Jon McLaughlinTweet thisTweet
Making music his career

What would’ve happened if his parents hadn’t supported his musical interest?
How being surrounded by music and musicians influenced his career trajectory.
Was there ever a point when he thought he would have to get a real job?
What was the conversation like when his label dropped him?
What choices have helped him sustain his career as a musician?

Resources

Jon McLaughlin’s web site
Jon McLaughlin on Twitter
Jon McLaughlin on YouTube
Jon’s Red and Green album
Jon’s Forever If Ever album 
Real Artists Don’t Starve
Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes

How have your early influences impacted your artistic career? Let us know in the comments.

How to Sustain an Artistic Career for 25 Years: Interview with Mike Herrera

Every artist should aspire to a long career. So what does it really take to sustain a creative career for over 25 years?

Joining us to share his story and wisdom is Mike Herrera, the lead singer of punk band MxPx. Mike is also a podcaster, bass player, and songwriter who has completed multiple solo music projects and collaborations.

Mike was recently on tour in Nashville with MxPx for their 25th anniversary. He met up with me to talk about how the band began, why they tour the way they do, and how he’s sustained a career in music for over two decades.

MxPx started in 1992 and played their first show in Mike’s parents’ backyard to as many people as they could invite. The conventional business practice for bands at the time was to hitch their smaller act to a bigger act in hopes of getting more fans.

It’s the route that countless bands have historically used, but it’s not the way the world works anymore, and it wasn’t the best strategy for MxPx. Instead of going on long tours that cover many cities, now they book a few shows in a city one weekend and hop to another town for a few shows on another weekend.

After 25 years, they’ve concluded they need business strategies and band strategies that work for their personal lives, too. Mike has also stopped looking at the market and started paying attention to the fans who buy their music and attend their shows. Focusing on serving their audience had made all the difference in their success.

Mike tells us how all this happened, why he chose punk music, shares a tip he has for any musician or artist trying to create a long-term career for themselves today on The Portfolio Life.

Listen to the podcast

To listen to the show, click the player below (If you’re reading this via email, please click here).

Show highlights

In this episode, Mike explains:

How MxPx turned their weaknesses into strengths
Why they started selling and communicating directly to their fans
What their turning point was as a band

“It has to be the right people seeing you.Mike HerreraTweet thisTweet
The importance of authenticity

Why did MxPx record their first album twice?
How did authenticity play a part in their growth and achievements?
Did fame and ego ever become a problem?

“Focus on the people you see in front of you, and everything else takes care of itself.Mike HerreraTweet thisTweet
Reflections from 25 years in music

Why everything MxPx does now is about ownership
What the worst decision of his musical career was
What, if anything, he would change from his past

Resources

Mike Herrera’s web site
Mike Herrera on Twitter
The Mike Herrera Hour
Real Artists Don’t Starve
Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes

What did you learn from Mike about career longevity as an artist? Let us know in the comments.