What My Life Coach Did For My Writing Life

If you had told me a year ago that I’d be working with a life coach to work toward living my dream life, I would have probably rolled my eyes, turned on my favorite sitcom and said “my life is just fine thank you.”

After all, I had just published my first novel, Somewhat Close to Normal, and I was booking the very first book tour events that I would have for 2014. Make that, my first book tour events ever. Considering that I had accomplished something that many people only dream of, let me know that I wasn’t doing so bad(ly) after all.

Then 2014 really swung into gear and I found myself facing obstacles I never dreamed of and nursing failures that I couldn’t get over. I mean I kept trying, after all, I always keep trying, but I couldn’t understand where I had gone wrong. Why wasn’t I living my dream life? I had done everything right so far.

Turns out I was wrong about most things. I was trying, but I wasn’t trying hard enough. And I wasn’t doing everything right. Truthfully, I was overwhelmed trying to get my book into bookstores. I was getting more emails than I could handle from people who said they could help me be better. I was flying all over the country for various events, and I was starting to write my second novel, and prepping my third novel. It was just too much to work on. My writing life was improving because I was writing faster and producing more content than I thought I was capable of, but it all seemed unsustainable. I was gearing up to crash and burn.

But I didn’t. As it turns out, my failures weren’t really failures. They were successes because I had learned so much and become very competent at tasks I had never tried before. I had hands-on experience from being in the trenches, virtually alone, with everything to lose. I spent all of 2014 learning what not to do as a writer and an author. It made me a much better thinker, writer, planner, and strategist. As my life coach taught me, I’ve got this.

With the help of my life coach, I found out that all this time, even though I was unsure of myself, that I was working toward my future success. I’m finally ready for success, and I’m not afraid of it.

What did you learn in 2014 about writing? How has it impacted your future writing plans?