When I was 32, I got dumped by my boyfriend (whom I totally thought I was going to marry), realized I needed to quit my job, and started an intense, year-long yoga teacher training program.
I was ass over teakettle, as the saying goes—I really didn’t know which end was up. For the first two months, the only reason I wanted to get out of bed in the mornings was to smoke a cigarette. True story.
The thing that saved me was the commitment I made to myself when I signed up for the teacher training. I didn’t have to spend much time thinking, wondering, or freaking out about what I was going to do with my life. I only had to show up to class. Once I was there, I knew what to do—listen, practice, do the work, repeat.
Over the course of that year, I got a very clear glimpse of what I wanted to do next. Funnily enough, it wasn’t teaching yoga classes, like I had initially envisioned. Even though it made no logical sense, the thing my yoga teacher training made impeccably clear was this:
I wanted to write.
Blog posts. Magazine articles. Books. I saw how one led to the other, and I thank God I had the structure and the accountability of that training program to sit with the vision long enough for it to become real in my mind.
Because when you trust the vision, the how falls into place and the next step magically appears. Always. (Click to Tweet!)
As the teacher training was ending, I made the switch to a part-time job that afforded me the time to launch MsMindbody.com and start pitching magazine editors. I started getting bylines and newsletter subscribers. I built up enough of an audience that a publisher wanted to publish my book.
Thirteen years later, I’ve written for dozens of national magazines and written two books of my own and two for others—one of which was a New York Times bestseller. (And my husband and I just celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary—boo ya!)
Now, your vision may be something that does not involve writing or books in the least—the principle still holds true: Stay stubbornly committed to your ultimate vision and then trust that the opportunities that present themselves or the ideas you have about what to do now are the right ones.
Meaning, you don’t have to worry about how you’re going to do something. When you’re committed to a bigger vision, the hows take care of themselves.
Any action or decision you make will give you feedback, and that feedback will help you make the next step. You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get going.
If your vision does include writing a book, I’ve got a next step that can help you chart your course and take the steps you need to take to make that dream a reality, as well as give you the type of accountability, structure and support that that yoga teacher training gave me.
My Write Your Book Like a Boss e-course is designed specifically to cover the brass tacks of how to get a book written and out in to the world AND the mindset side of the equation—getting comfortable with putting yourself ‘out there,’ owning your point of view and creating new opportunities for yourself.
Here’s what one of the students in the last session had to say about it:
“I met Kate by chance at a conference in Toronto a few years ago. On reflection, I know that our paths didn’t really cross ‘by chance’ at all.
Kate came into my life at a time when I was starting a surreal journey. I am fortunate to be one of ‘The Mars 100’—a group of 100 people from around the world who have made it to the final round of astronaut selection in the Mars One mission. Imagine the potential for a book! Exactly.
What a stroke of luck that Kate was offering her class at the same time I was deciding to make that book idea real. I so looked forward to the calls and gained important insights from the information Kate shared. I also learned a lot from the other members in the group who shared their own lessons learned.
Kate has been in the trenches of the writing and publishing business. She’s written books. She knows what she’s talking about. If your gut has been telling you to write a book, my advice to you is this: Stop ignoring it. Work with Kate, and she will guide you along the path.” – Karen Cumming, Journalist, Educator, Mars 100 Candidate, Burlington, Ontario
The best way to figure out if the class is a good fit for you is for us to hop on the phone for 10 minutes, so I can hear about your idea, give you some feedback, and answer any questions you might have. If that interests you, send me an email to kate[at]msmindbody.com and say, “Can we talk?”
Because I’m on vacation this week (that’s a photo from our trip to the beach yesterday—Mohegan Bluffs on Block Island), I’m extending registration through the end of July so there’s plenty of time to talk to everyone who’s interested.
