Published monthly, on the 15th of each month
Published and edited by Angela Booth

In this issue:

Editorial: Get out of your comfort zone

Five Ways To Fail Your Way To Success [Article — A. Booth ]

Coming Up On Pro Write: The Art Of The Writing Pitch Workshop

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Editorial: Get out of your comfort zone

It's February already. Are you working on achieving your goals for this year? If you haven’t created MEASURABLE goals for 2005, do it today.

This month's article is about failing your way to success. You must tell yourself that success is a learning process, and that you'll stumble (fail) may times, until you learn how to succeed.

Thought for the day: are you afraid of failure, or could it be that you're afraid of success?

When you achieve your goals your life will change. Most of the time, we aren't that enthused about change. Yes, we'd like success, but it means change. We don’t know how we'll cope.

The answer is: get uncomfortable now. Today. Get out of your comfort zone NOW. Your comfort zone is death.

Apropos success, the first of Bob Parsons' excellent 16 rules for survival is:

<<

Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone. I hear people say, “But I’m concerned about security.” My response to that is simple: “Security is for cadavers.”

>>

Read Bob's rules here:

http://www.bobparsons.com/RoberttheycanteatyouMyrulesforsurvival.html

So this month, make this your mantra: "if I'm comfortable, I'm dead. Anxiety, stress and even failure mean that I'm learning and growing and on the road to success."

Have a great uncomfortable month!

Don't forget to visit Angela Booth's Writing Blog for a daily dose of inspiration and fun:

http://copywriter.typepad.com/copywriter/

All best wishes from

Angela

Copyright © 2005 by Angela Booth. All rights reserved.

Start today to fail your way to success. Start by defining what success means to you.

Write a page. Begin with these words: "To me, success means ____________"

Way One: See success clearly

Remember the old saying: "Everyone wants to get to heaven, but no one wants to die"?

We all want success, but we don’t necessarily want all the accoutrements. Success means:

• more responsibility;
• more hard work;
• more demands from others; and
• a LOT OF CHANGE.

It is worth it? Only you know. If you haven’t written your page of what success means to you, do it now. Unless you know what success means, you're stalled – you don’t know where you're going, so it's impossible to chart a course.

Way Two: You're closest, when you think you're furthest away

Countless writers have said something like: "the day I got my first offer of publication, I'd already quit. I emptied my filing cabinets into garbage bags, and deleted all my writing-related files from my computer. I was done. Then the envelope/ phone call arrived."

Yes. It's true. You're closer than you think. Keep failing. The very indication that you're ready to quit means that you've given it everything you have. When you're ready to quit: pause. You're almost there.

Way Three: Desire success

You've got to stay hungry. How much do you want to succeed? Be honest with yourself. Many people want to write, but they really mean that they would like to live a writer's life. The glamorous version, that is. The version where you sit in a book-lined study, musing, sipping the occasional cocktail. Literary luncheons with your editor.

A writer's life is nothing like that. A writer's life is writing. That's all.

Is that what you want? If you desire success in your chosen field beyond anything else, you will succeed.

Way Four: Keep your own counsel

Shush! Don’t talk about your work. Just do it.

No one can help you learn your way to success except you. If you want advice, ask someone who is doing what you want to do. Don't ask people who can’t help you.

Remember that as much as your friends and relatives love you, they may not be thrilled at your success. It means change, and we all distrust change. They know the you that you are right now. They worry that they may not like the you that you want to be. Is it surprising that they try, often unconsciously, to sabotage you?

Way Five: Expect chaos

The learning process is messy. It's two steps forward and one step back. Expect chaos. Whenever you feel confused, realise that this is great: confusion means that you're out of your comfort zone. It feels uncomfortable, yes, but it's supposed to feel that way. Remember "Way One: See success clearly". Write about what success means to you, and then just take the next step.

You have two brains in one: a left, and right brain. Your right (intuitive) brain, sees patterns and wholes. It will nudge you in the directions in which you need to go to reach your view of success. Trust it. Just take the next step.

You CAN fail your way to success. It's the only way to get there.

Our next Pro Write workshop (first lesson on the site on February 20), is "The Art of the Writing Pitch".

http://www.prowrite.biz/

Writers pitch their projects. Whether you're aiming for a commission to write a magazine article, or an agreement to write a Web site, or a contract to write a book, you need to recognise and begin to develop the art of pitching your writing.

Recognising the need to pitch is paramount. You have to know what the people who buy your work are looking for. Clue: they want (profitable) solutions to their problems.

I've written about pitching in "How to write a proposal to get freelance work".

http://www.digital-e.biz/articles/art_writing8.html

In The Art of the Writing Pitch, we'll cover everything you need to know in order to pitch ALL your writing projects and build your selling average.

Join us. The workshop will be a lot of fun.