If You Are Considering Writing/Publishing a Book, Think It Through - Then Go Ahead And Do It Anyway

Personally, I believe that the experts finally got something right: As difficult and exhausting as writing can be, nothing compares to the challenges and sheer misery of marketing one's self.
Just the huge numbers of electronic avenues make this experience quite daunting. (I run into that word quite often when I discuss trying to sell one's work). And as many of us have come to realize, it's not just the sheer numbers of Internet sites, it's the TIME you need to spend on them to make yourself credible. That's the REAL killer. I'll spend at minimum, an hour agonizing over THIS composition.
Plus, here you are, all excited and duly proud of yourself for having completed something that you devoted weeks, months, even years to and you can't even get your sister to buy one and give it a five star rating. You should be having this HUGE celebration with all your friends. Instead, you're fumbling around like a teenager in the back seat of your old man's Chevy, trying to add some kind of Pin to a Board on a site that you REALLY don't care about. And it's TWO O'CLOCK IN THE DAMN MORNING!
But you've checked your numbers and you're 697,364 in Amazon's Best Seller Rank. So you text and you tweet. You create a fan page. You blog. You Skype. You Pin, and you Tumble. You contact every "friend" you have, and have them contact every friend they have, and every friend they have, and so on down the line. "Yes," they say, "I'll get me a copy of that new book you just published. I'm gonna read it, rate it, and give it a whole passel of stars." Two days later and now you're at 798,621.
And so you text and tweet some more looking for support and ideas. But as much advice as I get; I write. I consider myself a writer. Maybe not a very lucid one, but a writer nonetheless. I have stories inside of me. Having them stay there while I attend to other business only makes them fester and this will ultimately lead to some really bad juju.
By nature I am not a tweeter or a texter, a Pinner, or Tumbler. I don't try to StumbleOnto anything. Don't much care for Skyping, and I secretly hate all of my "friends" on Facebook.
And so here I sit, trying to promote my book on one more probably useless site, and it's now 3 o'clock in the damn morning. I just keep repeating to myself, "I'm a writer, I'm a writer, I'm a writer, I'm a writer, I'm a writer...

High IQ and Society - Which Is More Important, A Book Review

Over the years, I've talked to many high IQ people in the range of 125 to 145. Interestingly enough, most everyone in that IQ range has had the same experience, they have out innovated, and, with unique thoughts and original ideas that their higher IQ counterparts were unable to come up with. Let's go ahead and talk about this, because I have some experience here and some thoughts as I do run a think tank which happens to operate online.

In the October 2013 edition of Psychology Today there was an interesting article titled; "The Smart Gap-How to Deal with Shortfalls in Brainpower," by Dr. Eric Maiseil which stated; "sometimes we get good ideas several steps above our intellectual pay grade." Now then, the writer of that article is also the author of a book which I do recommend;

"Why Smart People Hurt - A Guide for the Bright, the Sensitive, and the Creative," by Dr. Eric Maiseil, Conari Publishers, New York, 2013, 256 page, ISBN: 978-1-57324-626-2.

This book will also shed some light on this topic. Personally, I know a ton of smart people, and they often tell me they don't like social situations because everyone purposefully dummies down, they start talking about dumb stuff, stuff that doesn't matter; the weather, some TV show, some political comment, or even perhaps what Paris Hilton's puppy had for lunch that afternoon after the video went viral online - if that's not enough to drive a smart person bonkers, I don't know what is?

The other suggests that many smart people get bored or have mania events and want to stay on that creative intellectual high, and want to get back to it once off. He calls this "racing brain syndrome" which is a decent phrase if you've ever been there, myself, about three times a day, I can't turn it off, nor do I want too, when I am abuzz in intellectual thought, on the verge of an "ah-ha" moment, the last thing I want is some imbecile to come along and say something stupid about their opinion of the weather - I mean get a life, don't invade mine.

He also explains how it can be rather depressing to live in a non-intellectual society, or area, which I understand, of course, there is always the Internet or you can study humans in their natural habitat, which is also fun to do, it's almost like going to the zoo! Well, that's it for now, but I did enjoy that book and would recommend you get a copy for yourself.

Steps to Enter Your Inner Career Game

How often have you heard that defining your career is an inside job? If so, or even if you have not, ask yourself these questions:

• Are you now looking for work out of desperation?
• Are you more concerned about getting the job just because you have the skills or because the job appeals to you?
• Are you applying for everything and anything you can put your hands on that you think you may qualify for out of "guilt."?
• Are you doing everything that the career gurus say to do (at least the ones you find for free on the internet) to find a job, but feel deep inside that there is something still missing?
• Did you take their advice, get the job, and once you got there ended up wanting to leave after the first week, month... you get the picture.

If you are buying into the song and dance that "the economy" has something to do with why you may still find pieces missing in the work you are doing, no worries. There is no mistake that you are reading this now.
This is not an article about how to find your spiritual path. However, this is an article that will not sugar coat the fact that finding your true career direction - the one that represents who you are as a person and will make you happy, requires going inside for the answers first. By that I mean allowing yourself to dream the big dream and connect with the part of you that wants to have it all... and defines precisely what that is.
So you may ask yourself (or me), "yes, but what does this have to do with reality." My answer? Everything. Here's why: If we are perpetually using the "economy" or some other reason why we are not finding career passion or finding a job at all and blaming others - our boss, our co-workers, our spouses, significant others, etc., too old, not enough education, yes but... , guess what happens? Correct - we go back to square one. By defining our dream work from an inner perspective, we are literally creating enormous possibilities that would never have materialized had we not.
Make that shift to knowing our career passions with no doubts and doors begin to open and opportunities abound.
However, I must confess that not everyone is ready in his or her life cycle to make this shift. It can bring up a host of feelings such as regret, guilt, resistance and even anger at even having to look within for the answers. Some even give up and go back to the same old same old. My question to you is, are you ready?
My friend, Michael, is a great example. I love him dearly. Yet, he is struggling with returning to a job in the career he is "comfortable" with and, leaving the exact job that has created more grief and disharmony than anyone should have to deal with in a lifetime. If he returns to this career, he can be assured of experiencing the same challenges and perhaps reaching a breaking point that could have physical repercussions. We are now working together on a way for him to take the time to do the inner work that will allow joy to come back into his life by creating opportunities for him to do what he is truly meant to do. It is not surprising that he has Career ADD. How much he is willing to accept, let go and redefine is up to him.
Here are a few examples of steps you can take to get the inner ball rolling:

• Relax and decide that you are going to take the time to discover now what you have spent perhaps a lifetime eluding - Career Happiness.
• Make a list of EVERYTHING in your past jobs that you did not like or that you were resistant to.
• Include in this list every task, skill, type of people or specific people and why you think you did not resonate with them, working environment (down to the type of chair you sat in), product you were selling or involved with through your work, industry you were in, etc. that made you feel bad.
• Now take that list and decide what the opposite of each item is for you - in other words what is your PREFERENCE to what you have listed (not necessarily the literal opposite.) You must be completely honest or this will not work.

Congratulations! You have begun your inner journey to career happiness. This will be vital information to use in developing a career direction. Explore more blog posts on this site for inspiration or contact me directly at to schedule your complimentary session and let's explore your inner game.
To your joyful livelihood.

Shell Mendelson, MS, is a Career Counselor and ADD/ADHD Career Coach. Shell was mentored and trained directly by Richard Bolles, Master Career Counselor and author of What Color Is Your Parachute and has been listed as a resource for the past 20 years in the annual Parachute edition. Shell has helped hundreds of clients manage their Career ADD and find a career direction that fits them like a glove. She is recognized as a Career ADD Expert. Her mission and purpose is to guide her clients to joyful livelihood, which helps manage symptoms and impacts all aspects of life far beyond career.

Book Review - 'What You're Really Meant To Do'

The book - 'What You're Really Meant To Do - A Road Map For Reaching Your Unique Potential' written by Robert Steven Kaplan is simply great because it is simple to read & absorb without any complex models.

The book is conceptually divided into three parts.

The first part of the book is about 'Know Thyself First'. It provides the tools & tips to understand your own strengths & talents better by analyzing your own life and aspirations. Robert Kaplan doesn't go into any complex psychological models. The book suggests writing your own life story and doing personal introspection where you can find all the answers.

The second part is about 'Connecting with the Right Opportunities'. It is about how to align what you learn about yourself in order to carve out a path in alignment with your own best strengths for a fulfilling life.

The last third part is about 'Going the Extra Mile' in order to achieve the excellence in what you do - The Good versus Great.

It is probably a common knowledge that all these concepts in one way or the other have been written extensively in hundreds of books. Most of the things may not be new for those who have read many other good self help and inspirational books. But what matters is how well it is written, which appeals to your heart, mind & soul.

The simplicity of this book in narrating as well as unfolding the complex life's knots is done in a superb way.

I always feel that these books do play a great role in reinforcing and helping you to take a pause and re-inspect your life - where you are, who you are and where you want to reach or have already reached.

I do believe that no book on earth can actually change the things for you. It is only 'Us' who can change things for us or we may even choose to remain the same even after reading number of such books. There is a famous saying that 'you can take the horse to the pond, but you cannot force him to drink water'.

So these books also play the same role. They take us to that pond of knowledge and understanding, but it is up to us to apply it if we really want it for us.

The book is an interesting read and has a very simple flow with very simple real life stories to narrate. 200 + pages book goes straight to your heart and stays there for quite sometime. I guess I finished this book in almost in a continuous flow and didn't want to put it down.



The learning out of it is very straight forward, meaningful and useful. But it will matter how much you take care to apply the suggested tips & tools in your personal & professional life.

From time to time, I like to take stock of my life's direction and always want to take some corrective measures if I feel I don't connect well with what I do. So it has been a good useful book for me, and I really treasure its learning and hope it should do the same for all others who read it too.

About The Author

I have been with corporate sector for more than 20 years now. I have served in Banking, Quality, Process Management, HR, IT, Marketing, Advertising, PR and CRM. I have obtained diverse exposure mostly in Middle East (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Egypt) and now in Lahore, Pakistan.

Besides, I love the concept & model of E-Business and I believe it has lots of potential for individuals, Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as well as large corporate sector to take full benefit from.