Authors, Prepare a Meta Tool Box for Coaching Yourself
1 of 28 big ideas from the world of coaching to grow your author business
The first in a 28-part series on 28 big ideas from coaching for authors to coach themselves, adapted from my book, The Coach Within.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
— Abraham Lincoln
“We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.”
— Marshal McLuhan
When working with a coach, a client has one of the best tools possible for making desired changes and expanding their life…the coach! When we coach ourselves, however, we can skip straight to the other powerful tools of coaching. Before we dive into those coaching concepts, I want to introduce some meta tools you’ll need to support your work with the ideas and techniques presented in this 28-part series.
These four devices will help you implement the rest of the self-coaching tools to follow. One or all of these modes will be the ways you explore the concepts, make them your own, come to understand the principles more deeply, and apply new practices to your craft, author goals, and author business.
Silent Stillness
This refers to any formal or informal meditation or relaxation technique (or collection of techniques) of your choice. Sit, lie down, assume the lotus position…as you wish.
At times you may want to employ a passive or receptive style in which you wait for inspiration around a topic. For example, try this version out the next time you’re experiencing writer’s block or get stuck on revising a marketing approach.
At other times, being in silence and stillness may allow your mind to shut out other distractions, freeing you to properly address a concern through active deliberation and reflection. Once calm and centered, active reflection, for example, might be in order for thinking through a sticky customer situation or finding the right opening for your new book talk.
Walking
Walking — easy, practical, healthful — is a terrific way to sort things out. Get your blood flowing and your limbs moving rhythmically and the flow of ideas and answers is often not far behind. As with silent stillness, sometimes a passive approach is best. Just walk with no purpose, for enjoyment, to clear the head, and see what comes up. Or, bring an agenda to your walk, and let the motion support some active dreaming and planning.
Try walking on more of your errands and using the time to and from for working through a business or writing problem. I have often used walks to write emails in my head, walk through the steps of an upcoming event and see if there’s anything I may have forgotten about, or decide the top points of a sales pitch I’ll make when I’m back in the office.
Writing
Ok, authors, here’s one we can all know and love. Writing. By using writing as a meta tool, you’ll be harnessing the powerful way that writing organizes and frees one’s thinking. Figure something out by writing it out. Tap your inner world for direction (this is a more exploratory, receptive approach), or create as you go (this is a more active use of writing). Brainstorm with pen in hand to generate possibilities. Brainstorming is almost the no-brainer way to solve any author business conundrum you’re facing (see #8 in The Enduring Productivity Hacks from 30+ Years of Self-Employment).
Practice
Practice means just doing it. It’s finding real-world ways in your daily life to test out a coaching concept. One you’ve tried it, do a little review. How did it go? How did it feel? What will you do differently next time? Where else can you rehearse this technique? When can you use it next?
It might help to think of this as “Pause and Practice.” When faced with a situation that you suspect requires a different approach than your usual go-to, pause. In that pause, choose a coaching tool to wield. And, to counter some common author tendencies that can interfere with business activities, wield the practice of practice to normalize done over perfect and courage over confidence. Just do it.
Coaching Yourself in Action
Think through how these four tools do work or could work in your life, and prime yourself to begin using them to support yourself and your author goals.
⎕ Silent Stillness. Take note of which silent and still methods you currently use to access your internal resources. Which do you like best? Which is most effective for you? Which ones might you want to try? Select the one you will use first.
⎕ Walking. Consider the regular intervals of walking that are already part of your day. If none exist, think about where you can insert them…before or after work, dinner? While doing errands? At lunchtime? Imagine pausing before your next walk, making a point in advance to use that time to consider a coaching concept, flesh out ideas for your next book promotion, make decisions about your author business, imagine ideal scenarios for the coming year as an author, etc. You will be using some of your walks this way as you go through the material in this book (and perhaps from now on), so ready yourself for this new habit.
⎕ Writing. Decide where you will collect the writing exercises that are coming up — computer or paper? If paper, designate or purchase a dedicated notebook or journal. If computer, create the folder where you will store the documents you create. While note taking on the computer may be quicker, more integrated with your daily activities, and allow better for future searches, cutting, copying, and pasting, many find the slower pace of writing by hand more conducive to organized thinking and get an extra satisfaction of creating a personalized journal in one’s own script. Your choice.
⎕ Practice. Think of the areas of your author business where you may want to focus your practice and attention as you proceed. Practice reaching out? Practice inquiring about booksignings and events? Practice testing out marketing messages? Reflect on the bounty of themes, roles, concerns, projects, and goals currently present in your awareness and fighting for your attention. You may decide to practice each concept introduced in a different arena or you may want to target one or two areas for the duration. Brainstorm a list to get the ideas flowing and to perhaps uncover the issues that most need consideration for your author goals.
Plan Ahead for 2025
All my coaching pacakges for authors will be 10% off through 11/30/2024 in anticipation of price increases in January. (Sessions can be used in 2024 and 2025.) Learn more.
In January, my new Substack Profitable Author Life subscription and community will begin for those who are committed to building an income-generating sustainable author business they love of any size. And I hope you'll strongly consider joining us.
The subscription will actively address 6 of the 7 steps of my Profitable Author framework. (Step #4, The doing of 5 things a day every day to promote your books and author business is up to you.)
It will come with a guarantee that if after two months you haven't made back the cost of the subscription that you can request a free 30-minute phone call with me to get you on track.
It will come with an additional guarantee that if you engage with the material, participate in the group, and do the basic work on behalf of your books and author business and don't at least 10x back the cost of your subscription in a year's time, you can request a full refund of the subscription cost. (I happen to think it wouldn't take much for the industrious to 100x or 500x your investment.)
It will be a group for those who:
are committed to making a profit on their author activities;
know it is possible to have the author life they desire but may not be sure how;
will actively participate, learn, and test new ideas;
want the group coaching, business education, mindset support, and networking that this vibrant group will offer; and
are ready to dive in.
Finally, among other things, it will feature a new weekly roundup, for subscribers only, of new things on my publishing and book marketing radar. That is, when I learn something new or see something new out in the book world, I will pass it on to you so you can benefit from it also.