Six Things to Avoid if You Want Success

Throughout my life, I’ve been lucky enough to hang around million-dollar athletes, history-making attorneys, world-famous musicians, and friends that you never heard of who change people’s lives for the better every day. The common bond between all of these people is the ability to live life to its fullest on their own terms.

While there is no secret to success, I’ve tried to learn from other successful people who have entered my life, even if only for a minute or two. Today, I’m sharing a few of those lessons. The universe offers boundless rewards and only your own thinking and behaviors can determine how much of it you reap. I’m not saying that I’ve perfected all of these, but I have witnessed the result of both positive and negative influences.


As individuals, each of us has a different definition of success. It isn’t necessarily monetary or fame—the process itself may define success. Whatever your goals, here are a few things to avoid that less-successful individuals typically let guide their life. Once we recognize them, we can make changes that will propel our lives to a different place.

How do You Write the Chapters of Your Life?

Are you happy with your life? Do you ever wish that your life were different? Are you where you want to be with your writing, business, love life or just about anything else?

Most of the people that visit this blog are writers or readers. That pretty much sums up the entire population because if you are not doing one or the other or both, you are probably dead. As readers and writers, we are very familiar with novel structure. It's a series of chapters. You start with the introduction of a main character that experiences a transformation through a growth process that may involve mystery, romance, action, heartbreak, death, illness or exploration. The concepts are limitless.

Our lives can be looked at the same way.

Burnout? But the Year Just Started! Five Steps to Being More Productive

We’re firmly entrenched into the New Year—the stress of the holidays is over, we’ve marketed like crazy to get to all those new device owners and the last thing we want to do is look at another social media tweet, blog, post or anything—especially, if you have to generate the content.

Burnout is serious business. It can kill your motivation and even leave you with a negative attitude toward the things that are an integral part of your overall writing/publishing career. So today, here are a few tips to avoid and even attack social media burnout.

Shhhhh, the secret's out ...

I want to let you in on a little insider information. This is one of those things that’s tough to go public about. There are so many ways in which to succeed in this world. I’m not here to tell you about all of those things. I want to let you know about a couple of things that will make a huge difference for you, because it did for me.

The first thing is not new for me. I’ve lived my life this way for the most part, I hope.

Put others first. Pretty simple, huh? No, I mean really do it. It’s way too easy to get caught up in the “me” world. Start doing things to help others without expecting anything in return. As soon as you do that, everything changes. It might not be right away, but it will change. 

It’s particularly tough in the Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn world.

You have to fight to get your word out, to promote yourself. You’re fighting against thousands or millions of others that are doing the same thing. The fight ends when you let go. Help other people. Answer their questions without looking for a “sale.” 

Take it a step further. The next time you’re at a party or some large networking event, notice which people have the biggest crowds around them. Is it the guy with the best stories? The loudest, most talkative person? No, it’s the guy listening. It’s in your human nature to want to talk. Talk about your book, your kids, your product. Don’t be that person. 

Try to go the entire night without talking about yourself. Engage others and listen to what they have to say. You will feel better and have more friends and connections by the end of the event. Go ahead and try it.

The second thing I wanted to share is the tough one. It’s one of those things that is a little embarrassing— admitting that I actually did this and believed in it. I know, if you already do this, you’re a big believer and it’s not a big deal. I guarantee that most people don’t. 

Last March, right before I was published my debut novel, The Card—I created a manifestation board. You know, one of those collage type of things that have a bunch of pictures of what you want to accomplish or acquire. You’ve probably heard about them in books or movies like The Secret.

Well, I did it. I cut out a bunch of pictures and words that related to life and my new writing career. I’ve included a picture of it as proof.

Here’s some of the key points that I included. Some things are going to sound silly to a lot of you, but hey, you have to start somewhere.

Let’s start small. I cut out pictures of things like an iPhone and Kindle. Less than a year ago I did not have those things. Check … Check, like I said, some of these things you’re going to say, “No big deal,” but for me they were. I didn’t have them. 

I was a neophyte with social media, so I included symbols that related to that. Today, while not an expert, I’ve created a nice following. 

I included things that spoke about what I wanted to be like—helping others and giving back. I know that a piece of paper is not going to change me, but looking at this daily reminder keeps it in the forefront of my mind. 

I included the first page of the first chapter of the edited manuscript, red marks and all. I was bold enough to plaster “bestseller” all over the page. Why not? Isn’t that what we want. This month we hit #1 as a Kindle Bestseller.

This board has been sitting in my writing room, has traveled 5,000 miles in the car across the country and now sits on my bookshelf in my new place. It’s become so familiar. I’ve gotten over being embarrassed by it. I don’t care if anyone see’s it. It’s now a part of me. Matter of fact, I think it’s time for a new one! New goals, new dreams.

Has everything happened that I included on the board? Not yet, I’m still waiting to be optioned for a movie and of course, the video game—but, there is no time limit in the universe. 

So give it a try. Let me know how it works for you. Get silly, dream big.

Turning Pro in 2012

As the year winds down, every blogger, media outlet, television show, and radio program looks back at the past year and reminisces about the best and worst of 2011. If they are not doing that, they are hammering you with Resolutions. I’m here to wish you a Happy New Year and avoid doing those things.

With the sun setting on 2011, many of you have achieved the success that you’ve been wishing and working toward, and for others, you may not be where you want to be, yet. 

What makes the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t? Is it talent? Effort? Knowledge? Marketing? While these things play a role, I’ll offer my two cents on what makes the difference. 

Your mind and thoughts … 

It’s that simple. Get out of your own way and put success in your head.

This blog post is not for everyone, because many of you believe that you are there. I wasn’t. Exactly one year ago, I had never published a book, created a cover, formatted the interior, or even wrote, THE END. Sure I had been working on my debut novel and I knew that someday I would finish. But, someday never came. 

Then, I read a blog post from Larry Brooks at www.storyfix.com. If you haven’t stumbled across Larry yet, he is one of the best out there. In his post, he sidetracked from his usual story engineering and six core principles for writing success and hit me with something that burned into my core.

I formed a sort of mantra with it and posted it on my computer. I read it every morning. I read it every time I found my wheels spinning. I read it after spending ten straight hours with final revisions. I read it after "working" my real job all day with no time to write. I believe it was the most important change that put me on the fast track to success. I’ll share it with you now.   

This year I will officially turn pro as a storyteller.

I will establish a schedule. I will set goals. I will solicit feedback. I will study. I will become a scholar of my genre.

I will render myself fluent in the language of my craft.

I am writing for an audience. For money. For my career. Acceptance of that awareness changes everything.

Larry Brooks, Storyfix.com

It’s that simple. Believe it. Post it. Say it, everyday. Start everyday with this affirmation, then come back next year and share with me your success. It will happen. It has to happen. The universe works that way.

Happy New Year!

Goal Setting in Writing

One of my hopes with this blog is keep everyone abreast of what is going on in the evolution of Van Stone, but more importantly, I want to share with everyone the journey. By sharing the process, maybe someone out in the blogosphere will be motivated to do the same. 

I’m hard at work on the sequel to The Card. It’s exciting to be back into the world of Van Stone and his friends. Even though I’m chomping at the bit every day to see where Van’s adventure takes me, I still have to deal with the real world. This is one of the most difficult things for any writer, or someone who wants to write, to overcome. There are always more important things to do every day, rather than fulfill my selfish need to write. 

In the beginning, it was difficult to justify spending a couple of hours a day, toying with my hobby, when I probably should have been working my “real job.” My passion for writing won out, and the result was The Card.

Now, I’m back in the creative mode and dealing with the same issues. “How could that be?” you ask? Shouldn’t it be easier to just sit down and write?   The short answer is, the writing is easy, life around it sometimes isn’t.

For someone just beginning the path to writing, or for someone like me who’s published a first novel, the process starts the same: 

Write SOMETHING each day.

It doesn’t matter how much, it doesn’t matter about what, or it doesn’t matter if you will ever use the material. Get your characters doing something and eventually they will take over and lead you in the right direction. Now I’m not suggesting “pantsing” which is the method of writing stuff and see where it leads. I’m talking about working within the framework of your story planning. We’ll talk more about this later. It is only a matter of time before the story takes off and you are in the zone.

When you start cranking, it is important to adjust your goals. In the beginning, writing something may have been a worthy goal, but now the stakes have changed. You are in the zone. 

Set a word goal to achieve daily. I always used 2,000 words. It would take about two hours to hit that mark. I wouldn’t revise during that time. I would just let the words flow out of my head like water out of a fire hydrant. There will be plenty of time later to make revisions.

Does it matter if you hit your goal each day? Of course not, some days I would only get to about 1,200 words in the two hour period. The next day I might crank out 2,000 words. If on most days you are hitting your goal, then you will be well on your way to completing your novel.

You need to decide what a good goal is, whether it’s 500, 1,000, 1,500 words or more is up to you. Make it attainable. Decide realistically how much time you can invest in writing and use that as a gauge. 

Finally, write it down. Once you write down your goal, it becomes more than an idea, but a real goal, a goal that you can accomplish daily. There is a good feeling about achieving your goal, and knowing when it is okay to stop writing for the day. 

You can summarize your writing goal process like this:

1. Write something every day

2. Set a word goal to hit daily

3. Make it achievable

4. Write it down!

5. Make adjustments, and repeat.

Good luck!