I’ve always been big on journaling. I kept a journal most of my life, especially during my teen years. But lately my journaling has gone from something I do once in a while to something I do on the daily, most days twice a day. As a writer you already know how powerful the written word can be. We use our words to change people’s lives, get them thinking and understanding things in new ways, and to entertain them and conjure up memories, emotions and connection. So why not use our words to powerfully create our own realities? This was a question posed to me by my mentor a few months ago, and I took it to heart and started writing my intentions every single day in my journal. I even did a video recently sharing all about my journaling practice. But like anything else, journaling and doing mindset work shifts and grows as you do. So what I was doing when I made that video and what I’m doing today are slightly different. Essentially I’m still doing the exact same thing—writing the intentions I have for my writing life and my life in general. Except now I’m breaking it down into three sections that help me to be even more specific and to see faster progress. Now when I write my reality I write it in this order:

Big-picture vision/goals—I write out my intentions for my big-picture: the kind of homes I want to own, the car I want to drive, the writing dreams I want to achieve, the impact I want to make on the writing world. For example, I write things like, I own a bungalow by the beach in Southern California, I drive a 2-door blue Jeep Wrangler, I am a New York Times Bestselling Author, I am the go-to alignment, kick-ass motivation and success mindset coach for emerging authors and authorpreneurs.
Thirty-Day Goals—these are the goals that I have for the next 30 days. This will be much more specific than the big-picture goals and will include things like what I want to achieve in the next 30 days, any projects I want to work on and/or finish, anything I want to buy, etc. So, for example, I’ll write things like, June 2016 is my biggest book sales month of the year so far. I sell 1,000+ books in June 2016. My new eBook, The Pro Writer Mindset, is written and finished and it’s freaking awesome and when I launch the book on June 14 it hits #1 in its category on Amazon.
What I believe (or want to believe, if I don’t already)—this is where I’ll write out the “rules” I want to live my life by. They’re not rules like typical rules, but more what I want to make true for me and the things I want to believe into truth. So, for example, I’ll write things like, Selling books is easy. I am abundant and unlimited. The Universe has my back.

Doing a break down like this each time makes it easier for me to stay focused on the big-picture, while also using the power of intention to create my day-to-day life (which is why I now do the 30-day goals along with the big-picture stuff). As I’ve started doing my journaling like this, I’ve had incredible things start to happen. So far for the month of May I’ve sold 523 books (and there’s still all of today left)!!! And while I did just put a new book out there that has been a huge hit (Align Your Writing Habits to Success), I know a lot of this has come directly from the intention-setting I’m committed to doing every day, because it’s helping cement the mindset I need in order to think like and act like the author who sells that many books each month. I’m using the power of my thoughts and intentions to create a reality where I sell hundreds of books every month (and more). I’m creating a reality where I make a great living from my books and my writing. Because that’s the reality I want to live in. Writing your reality is a simple, but extremely powerful exercise that I highly recommend you get into practice with. And you don’t have to do it as a journaling exercise. You can do it however works best for you. Some people like to meditate or pray, others like to visualize or do affirmations. Doesn’t matter which vehicle you choose, so long as you’re doing some kind of intention-setting on a daily basis. You create your reality. You are in control. And the sooner you see that, the sooner you can take advantage of the tools available to you to help you take control: your beliefs, your thoughts and your actions.

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Want to surround yourself with a community of like-minded emerging authors and authorpreneurs who are all taking control of their writing destinies by writing their realities and taking actions that move them forward on their writing goals every single day? Check out the Bestselling Author Mastermind, a kick-ass motivation and success mindset group.

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