Category Archives: Writing Musings

Musings from author Denise Turney on writing, including freelance, marketing, self-help, nonfiction and journal writing. Here you will find book marketing tips as well as advice on places where you can go to sharpen your craft and network with other writers, including novelists. You’ll also find places where you can network with readers, editors, publishers and literary agents.

Why Life Is Filled with Mystery and Suspense

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By Mystery Writer Denise Turney

mystery and suspense light
light showing mystery and suspense

Even illusionists and fortune tellers know that life is filled with mystery and suspense. Fact is, regardless of your background and despite your hopes, wishes and abilities, there’s so much you may never know. In fact, you might spend years feeling, really believing, that you have a solid handle on life, only to discover that you really never did have as much control as you thought you had.

Facing What’s Coming

That realization could come to you in the form of a dream, an unexpected job shift or the transitioning of someone you love. Then, there are economic, nature-related and societal changes that seem all but a mystery, cloaked with anxious suspense. It’s what the world experienced years ago with the outbreak of COVID19. Before COVID19, there was Ebola, AIDS, yellow fever, smallpox and other contagions.

Who saw those viruses and diseases coming? And, who knew that the COVID19 virus would unsettle the world for two years?

These types of mysteries may be why we seek out religious prophecies, magic and astrology. If only we could know everything that was coming. But would simply knowing what was coming next bring the constant peace you’re seeking?

At first thought, it seems as if knowing something is going to happen before it occurs takes the sting out of the change. Yet is that what happens?

As an example, if you knew that you were going to suffer a tragic, though not fatal, fall while mountain climbing, would pain from the fall be less painful? Would knowing about the fall before it occurred change anything?

Uncloaking Mystery and Suspense in Your Life

That may be a reason why life is filled with mystery and suspense. If knowing how every event was going to unfold didn’t change you or how you feel, what’s to be gained if the mystery in this world is taken out?

Another point to consider is that much of what appears to be mysterious seems a secret because it holds details that you may not want to face. I was recently watching the movie, The illusionist. Eisenheim, the illusionist in the movie, appeared to have special powers. So much about what he did was hidden, mysterious.

That cloak was partly removed when he told the inspector how he performed an apple trick. At that point, it became clear that suspense can also derive from lack of knowledge and an unwillingness to pay attention.

Hence, life may be filled with the tension of mystery because you’re far too distracted to pay attention to tiny details that serve as clues to what’s coming in your life or to what’s going to happen around you next. Howbeit, that’s another point – living with distractions.

What’s The Last Unexpected Event You Faced

Other reasons why life seems filled with mystery include not wanting to see the link between what you’re doing right now, what you’re convincing yourself of right now and what shows up next in your life and a desire for irresponsibility. Think about it.

Not being responsible for where you are right now could free you from inner work. In other words, if you’re not responsible for where you are (wherever that is), you certainly couldn’t be held accountable for what comes of your life. Turn away from inspecting minute details and you could convince yourself that events are just happening to you.

Keep at it, and you could become convinced that your life is the one thing that you have no or little control of. But, what if, in your quest to free yourself of details and responsibility, you ventured to a quiet place only to be met with a most unexpected event? That event could be anything from having a vision, having your home destroyed in a fire that has been determined to have been deliberately set (by who, no one knows) to receiving a notice that you have been given an inheritance from someone you never met, etc.

Furthermore, because of this event, you now must solve a real mystery. There’s too much on the line for you to turn away. Instead of turning away, you must get to the bottom of this mystery. Walk away and your life will feel like it’s burdened with suspense.

How Are You a Mystery, a Suspense to Yourself

Look around. Have you faced such an experience, even once? Did you pursue the mystery? If so, what did you discover about yourself? Did you discover that, despite what you faced, in spite of living with so much “unknown” you are more enlightened, loved and empowered than you thought?

Look back at your life and see if there’s a mystery waiting for you to solve, the type of real life mystery that, once your solve the mystery, you gain a key that helps you to unlock before unknown and blessed doors inside of yourself.

Set Your Intention for Success

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By Books Writer Denise Turney

black and white dartboard as intention for success symbol
Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

You need a target to hit. Without a clear goal, you could spend way too much time circling the mountain. It’s not enough to just want something to happen. To gain success, you need to know exactly what you want and why. Get specific.

What Do You Want

For example, do you want to feel the emotion “happiness”, lose weight or be wealthy? At first glance, those goals may sound clear. However, they are broad. As it regards feeling “happiness”, you could want to feel happy all the time. Aim for this and you might not come to know what shortcuts your path to happiness. You also might ignore signs that you’re headed off path as it regards key life areas.

That’s right. Although frustration, anger and sorrow are emotions that don’t feel good, they can serve as great guideposts. Think of it this way. If you were driving your car and hit a guard rail, you’d know that you were in a danger zone. Keep going, and you could suffer damages.

The same applies with emotions. Sadness, frustration or anger could alert you to the fact that you’re not working the job that you really want to work. Or those emotions (especially if they linger) could alert you to the fact that you’re in a relationship, etc. that you don’t want to be in.

Get Clear About Your Intentions

Additionally, as it regards getting specific about what you want, if you want to lose weight, narrow it down. As an example, instead of going broad with “I want to lose weight”, get more specific and develop a goal to “lose 15 pounds within three months.” Regarding the goal to be wealthy, consider narrowing that goal down into something like “I want to pay off both of my credit cards by end of the year, then grow my savings up to $10,000 or more by the end of next year.”

Those are specific “intended” goals. To stay encouraged as you pursue those goals, align rewards to the intentions. Make sure that you set rewards at markers along the way toward the goal fulfillment. For instance, you could reward yourself with a day off (actually take a vacation day) after you pay down a quarter of your credit card debt.

Of course, it would be smart to avoid using credit cards as a way to reward yourself as you work to eliminate debt. Yet, that shouldn’t be a problem, as there are so many things that you could do that don’t call for spending money. There’s fishing, hiking, bike riding, visiting local arts centers, stopping by a museum, checking out a local bookstore, hanging out with family and friends and so much more.

You Should Be Rewarded

Reward yourself by engaging in activities that you truly love and enjoy. Not only could this encourage you to continue moving forward, it could reinforce the message that you love yourself. And that’s a powerful message to get across to yourself.

After you set clear intentions, think about the reason/s that you want to fulfill the specific goal. Believe it or not, this might be where the rubber meets the road. The why of your aim and your actions might turn out to be your biggest payout.

Check out these whys as it relates to weight loss, wealth and artistic success. See if any of these whys resonate with you.

  • To live with high physical energy and to feel vibrant, hopeful and joyful
  • To enjoy physical strength and top health, opening myself up to more and more fun activities
  • To live debt free for the rest of my physical experience
  • To live debt free and build financial wealth so that I can explore experiences that bring me joy
  • To gain success creating artwork that I love to create, enough success to earn an entire income creating and selling my artwork
  • To make doing what I love, as it regards art and creativity, my life’s work

Create Powerful Whys

Keep going. Create a list of powerful whys. Connect those whys to your goals/intentions. As a note, the more powerful your whys, the easier it may be to map out a clear path or a strategy to achieve your goals and start receiving the rewards that are directly linked to your whys.

This brings up another important point. After you identify specific goals, set reward markers and establish clear whys, you need to outline actions that you are going to take to fulfill your goals. Again, you’ll need to get specific.

Here’s an example of specific steps that you could take to gain wealth. Remember to align this and other goals with one or more powerful whys to stay encouraged and motivated. If you want to gain wealth, consider taking the following actions:

  • Create a line-item budget (add mortgage, rent, utilities, credit card payments, entertainment, etc. to the budget)
  • Identify expenses that you could forego temporarily or permanently. Eliminate these purchases at least temporarily.
  • See which expenses you could substitute for lower costing items. For instance, instead of eating out for lunch, cook enough fresh food over the weekend to easily bring lunch into work.
  • Pay $100 or more extra a month on the credit card with the highest fees and interest rates
  • Complete online consulting or freelance work. Put 60% money earned from this extra work in an interest-bearing savings account. Consider investing the other 40% of this money into regulated low-risk mutual funds.

Go Get What You Really Want

Start taking the actions and see if you don’t begin to feel empowered. Choose goals and whys that are rooted in love. Also, when you break goals down, set powerful whys and intentions as well as reward yourself along the way, you could feel energized enough to tackle two to three goals simultaneously.

That’s not all. You pursuing and fulfilling your goals could inspire other people to go after what they really want. In fact, don’t be surprised if colleagues, relatives and friends start noticing a positive change in you. They also might start to ask you how you changed.

This is a great time to share the power of setting an intention for success, including how setting clear goals, identifying clear whys and outlining action steps offers amazing energy to your pursuit. A strong why, rewards and clear intentions and action steps can fuel you throughout this world’s ups and downs.

Will Peering into the Future Improve Your Life Script or Scare You?

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By Mystery Suspense Books Writer Denise Turney

group of people standing looking at the life script
Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com

If you’re feeling stuck, it might be time to improve your life script. First, just what is a life script and why does it have so much impact? Here’s a general way to look at a life script.

Building Your Life Script

Have you ever felt like you were living between hard boundaries, making it feel impossible to experience great positive shifts, limiting yourself to the same routines? If so, you might be adhering to a script. Beautiful Truth shares that a life script or storytelling is part of how we navigate the world. “Storytelling occurs at our most basic experience of navigating the world. But most of the time, we aren’t even aware of ourselves doing it.”1

Furthermore, “And here is the most exciting part. In realising how prone we are to tell stories, and more importantly – to believe them – we are able to create new ones. And when we change the stories we tell ourselves, we can change the way we see the world and ourselves within it. “1

Generally, by the time you’re seven-years-old, your life script is set. In addition to being made at the unconscious level, this script can play out seemingly to your conscious unawareness. Should this happen, you could be attracted to people who struggle with anger, lack of confidence, workaholism or gambling. But not only would you be attracted to a specific “type” of person, you might not know why you’re attracted to those types of people.

Who’s Part of Your Life Script

Also, as with many unconscious scripts, your life story consists of habits, statements, beliefs, etc. that you saw those around you engaging in, particularly people who you were close to as a child. Without meaning to, you could create a life story that causes you to mirror a parent, uncle, coach, etc. All by itself, this proves that you do have impact.

Not only have other people helped to make your life script, but right now you’re saying, believing and doing things that are helping to make someone else’s “story”. For example, if you curse and bang furniture whenever your laptop is slow and you have to wait for a webpage to load while your manager is waiting for you to send her a file, your niece could learn to react that way when she’s feeling stress and waiting for something, after she becomes a woman.

Fortunately, you can rewrite your life script. Psychology Today shares a story about a young girl who had been bullied while teachers seemed either not to notice or chose not to respond.2 The girl’s mother helped her to step into her power, even calling teachers and those involved herself, refusing to ignore what her daughter had shared with her. Those choices helped to change the girl’s script, also referred to as “story”.

Improve Your Life Story

In the Psychology Today article, it’s shared that, “We are the stories we tell—and we are compelled to create stories to understand ourselves.” Inner Self3 and Bestselfology4 offer suggestions on actions you could take to change your “story” or your life script. (See below link in our “Resources” section.)

Here are a few actions that you could take to improve your story:

  • Accept that your experiences are part of a “story”
  • Accept that you are more powerful than your “story”
  • Watch videos of people struggling, dealing with stress and low confidence who prove that you can improve your life script as you watch the people in the videos listen to a training, read specific books or watch shows that actually open them up to the point where they change their “story”
  • Listen to your inner dialogue. It’s there. Become aware of it and simply listen to what you say throughout the day and night.
  • Acknowledge that you can change your life script.
  • Meditate regularly to quiet your mind. Get in the habit of uncluttering your mind.
  • Pay attention to how you feel and see if your feelings are connected to a script.
  • Try something new every day. This is also a good way to get your brain off autopilot.
  • Give yourself options.

Support to Improve Your Life Script

To improve your life script, you might find it beneficial to work with a licensed, experienced therapist. An experienced, licensed therapist could access your subconscious mind and help you to rewrite your life story.

That’s good work. But what if you peered into your future and saw specifics around one or more events that were headed your way? In other words, what if you visualized an actual event before it occurred? Do you think you would be scared if you knew what was coming in your life?

Furthermore, do you think it’s possible to see the specifics as it regards sights, sounds and maybe even lighting and smells, about events that don’t actually show up in your life for 10 or more years?

Several times I have received details on an upcoming event that was 10 or more away. Based on research on life scripts, not certain if these experiences are related to a script or if a Higher Power preplanned the visionary experiences. Tammy Tilson’s daughter addresses these and other questions in a life changing way in the mystery book, Spiral.

Life Scripts in Spiral

She can’t ignore what she knows. What she knows is connected to other people’s life scripts that do not allow for good endings. Yet, if she doesn’t act, try to change the endings, she won’t be free and she knows it.

Her conscience will play and re-play a tape that could rob her of peace. She’s not willing to let that happen, and so she acts.

This all is worth asking, have the experiences you see already happened? Are you remembering a distant past, simply perceiving it as the present?

And, if so, do you have access to information that will allow you to make better decisions? That would be one way to effectively change your life, to really improve your life script.

Are You Willing to Improve Your Life Script

To know what is coming next and then to make decisions that cause the effect you truly want is a fortune. Should you choose this route, foreknowledge could prove beneficial. Yet, if your life is running, in part, off an internal script that you perceived and put into place when you were as young as seven-years-old, you might have forgotten what you put into place or why.

Is a first step toward improving your life script and opening up to more loving experiences a willingness to become aware of what you are thinking, becoming aware of what you have spent years focusing on? And is an early step toward changing your life a willingness to open up to change?

Resources:

  1. The Stories We Tell Ourselves — The Beautiful Truth
  2. Rewrite Your Script | Psychology Today
  3. How You Can Rewrite the Script of Your Life – InnerSelf.com
  4. What is your life script and are you happy with it? – BestselfologyBestselfology

Living Thanksgiving – Appreciate What’s in Front of You

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By Freelance Writer and Books Author Denise Turney

living thanksgiving cup of aromatic cappuccino with thank you words on foam
Living Thanks Cup – Photo by wewe yang on Pexels.com

Living thanksgiving calls for appreciation. It’s an ongoing process that requires present awareness. When you were a kid, you may have practiced present awareness effortlessly. In fact, a sure blessing linked to a happy, loving childhood is the ability to live in the present.

When you feel safe, loved and wanted, you can become fully involved in what you’re experiencing right now. Gone is the temptation to daydream or to pretend that you are someplace else.

Living Thanksgiving in The Present

Even more, a blessed childhood can keep you from looking to the future. Experience a loving childhood and you might not fall into the habit of convincing yourself that good things are always in the future always “out there” somewhere. That by itself can bring more goodness into your life.

After all, as you enjoy living in the present, you can actually experience the happiness that is associated with appreciation. The more physically present the thing you appreciate is, the stronger the happiness you may feel.

Try it. See how you feel when you fantasize or imagine having an experience that you like, but the experience is always in the future. Then, give yourself an experience that you enjoy right now. Look around your environment and count 5 things that you appreciate about the experience that you’re having right now. Which way feels better?

How Daydreaming and Fantasizing Influence Thankfulness

Daydreaming about a future experience that’s always too far ahead of you to enjoy or entering a loving experience and appreciating it right now? Which feels better right now? Fortunately, you could learn to appreciate what’s happening right now even if yours was a troubled childhood.

Furthermore, as it regards a blessed childhood, this doesn’t mean that you never felt sad or angry as a kid. It means that you didn’t experience trauma, especially ongoing trauma when you were a child. Trauma that’s experienced during childhood could make you want to be someplace else. To read more about childhood trauma, check out this article.

Continuously daydreaming, fantasizing and telling yourself that situations are better than they actually are could be signs that you have unresolved trauma. The good news is that you can deal with trauma and get through it, even it doing so requires the help of a licensed and highly experienced professional who you trust.

Associated Benefits of Living Thanksgiving

Whether yours was a trauma-free or stressful childhood, it can take work to start living in the present. When you consider the blessings associated with living in the present, you might be encouraged to try.

woman surrounded by sunflowers
Photo by Andre Furtado on Pexels.com

Living thanksgiving offers rewards. To start, when you are fully present, you notice more. You actually see colors, people, events that you might otherwise miss. Other benefits include:

  • Strengthening your intuition – the more you become aware of what’s happening right now, the more clues you can pick up about what’s coming. You also might start to notice slight shifts in your inner guidance which could allow you to pick up when something feels right or wrong.
  • Enjoy conversations more deeply – being present can help you to hear what people are saying more fully and more clearly. This, in turn, could lead to a deep appreciation for what’s being shared.
  • Dining may become less of an addictive action – live in the present and you might stop and only eat while you’re dining. This could allow you to taste your food and beverages more thoroughly. Keep it up and you might stop eating and/or drinking to feed an emotion or to avoid an emotion or memory. (According to Psychology Today, trauma can cause your brain to replay the traumatic event.)
  • Improved relationships – Hearing and listening to people better can strengthen interpersonal relationships. You also might pick up when someone is disrespecting you and choose to love yourself and ask the person to hold you in respect as you do them.

Exploring More Thankfulness Advantages

There are more advantages connected to living thanksgiving. It could take a while, but you’d eventually see that everything in this world is temporary. That includes traumas that you’ve experienced, if you experienced trauma. The key is to let the trauma go. Again, you might need help from a licensed and experienced professional you trust.

The more you realize how temporary everything is in this world, the more you might pause and enter living thanksgiving as you observe what’s happening in your life and around you. If you’ve ever seen a loved one transition, you know the power of being thankful for what’s happening now.

Delay living thanksgiving and you could encounter regret. For instance, you might not appreciate a person, a pet or an experience until after the person or pet transitions or the experience has ended. Just think about it. How much joy and peace would you allow into your life if you appreciated what was right in front of you?

If you’re in a challenging situation, look for something to appreciate. But don’t stop there. Also, seek a way out of the situation. Definitely gain lessons from the experience. Don’t leave an experience with empty pockets. Always walk away with a lesson, at the minimum.

Surprising Answers

Throughout your journey, focus on appreciating what’s happening now. This means appreciating the people around you now, appreciating a job that you’re in right now and appreciating your dwelling now. To repeat, this doesn’t mean that you don’t seek a better job or dwelling. It means that you find something to be thankful about where you are right now.

Living thanksgiving or appreciating what’s right in front of you can keep you free of a nagging sense that something is always wrong. It can keep you energized and hopeful. Just remember to be honest about what you’re thankful about. For instance, if you don’t like loud music, don’t say that you do. However, if you’re in an area where music is being played loudly, you might be able to appreciate the lyrics.

You might even discover an answer to a question you’ve been mulling in the lyrics. When you practice living thanksgiving, another takeaway is that you could become more aware. It’s no secret that appreciation and awareness are linked. After all, you actually have to practice awareness to spot things to appreciate.

Resources:

  1. 21 Common Reactions to Trauma | Psychology Today

Importance of Imagination in Child Development

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By Freelance Writer and Books Author Denise Turney

mother reading a book to her son at night for imagination in child development
Reading Books to Strengthen Imagination in Child Development – Photo by Mizuno K on Pexels.com

Imagination in child development plays a vital role, influencing a range of outcomes. Even as an adult, you can spot the role ingenuity plays in your life. Coming up with a new way to double your income, design home decorations with dried flowers or implementing a way to build confidence in your children. Each of these developments requires ingenuity.

So Much to Gain – Imagination in Child Development

Take away imagination and with it go creativity, inspiration, innovation and progress. It’s so important that Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “Logic will get you from A to Z. Imagination will get you everywhere.”

Scholars and scientists have studied imagination in child development for years, some leaders thinking that imagination or creativity are naturally given. In fact, Yale Insights shares that, “The idea of humans as uniquely creative animals goes back at least as far as the ancient Greeks.” Others, like Aristotle, were under the impression that imagination or creativity was a gift from the gods.1

Defining Imagination in Children

But just what is imagination?

Merriam-Webster dictionary says that it is, “the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality,” From a creative stance, it is defined as the “ability to confront and deal with a problem.”

Above all, the ability to “confront and deal with a problem” is crucial. If children don’t know how to face and deal with challenges in healthy ways, they could experience inner turmoil. For example, they could feel hopeless and a lack of confidence.

How Imagination in Child Development Proves Critical

Without the ability to confront and deal with problems, children could also give up or resort to fighting to try to resolve a conflict. Here are more ways that imagination in child development proves critical:

  • Language development relies on imagination. Also, the more languages children speak, the stronger their creative thinking may be.2
  • Play is a primary way that children develop friendships and learn to make sense of the world. Critical thinking, social development and physical abilities are discovered and developed during play. Additionally, play helps regulate emotions and mental health. If you’ve ever seen a child become happier, more engaged and more energized after healthy playing, you saw firsthand the impact of play on a child’s development.
  • Creative writing, especially fictional writing, needs strong imagination. Develop Good Habits says that “Creative writing strengthens language arts skills and improves children’s grades in all areas of coursework.It helps them understand and develop good grammar habits, sentence structure, vocabulary, and dialogue.”3
  • Emotional functioning is at work when a child relates to others. Active listening, the ability to actually hear and respect what another person is saying and skills to manage their own feelings are parts of emotional functioning.
  • Artistic expression can surface during play or while reading, an activity that encourages the use of imagination.

At first glance, imagination in child development might appear less important than logical and practical skills. However, logical skills like math, biology and geography don’t touch on as many life components as imagination does.

Ways to Strengthen Child’s Imagination

Yet, simply knowing how important imagination is in child development is not enough. You have to find effective ways to encourage children to exercise their imagination or creativity. Here are several actions you could take to encourage your children to strengthen their imagination:

  • Invest time to actually play with your children. Don’t stop when your children start school. Continue to play with your children as they age. Doing so can strengthen your and your children’s imaginations.
  • Bring in art. Let your children have fun creating pictures and splash drawings, getting their hands colorful in washable paint.
  • Ask your children questions, aiming to get them into problem solving mode. Help them learn to use critical thinking and emotional functioning as they ponder your questions and potential answers.
  • In healthy loving ways, motivate your children to “try again” when they encounter failure. For instance, you could ask your children to list or talk about ways that they could approach a challenge or overcome a failure. Make it fun.
  • Encourage independence and free thinking. This means that you don’t demand that your children see life the way that you do. Who knows? Your children might come up with a way to solve a decades-long problem when they grow up.
  • Travel, allowing your children to explore different cultures, physical landscapes and environments.
  • Dance with your children, celebrating their unique moves and rhythm.
  • Allow your children to help you complete daily tasks like cooking. In fact, if you add toys and your children’s favorite songs to a meal preparation, your children might not only love to cook, they might appreciate finding creative ways to decorate food.

Let Your Child’s Creativity Bloom

Perhaps more importantly, let your children see you using your imagination. You can do this by reading books to your children. And you can let your children see you reading books by yourself that you love. Benefits of reading extend beyond imagination.

Reading aids in learning. The more your children read, the quicker they can pick up details. When you consider the wealth of information inside books, reading is a shortcut to a broader and deeper education, the type of learning that last a lifetime.

Pay attention to what blooms from your child’s imagination. You could be the parent or guardian of a gifted artist. That, or your child could be a medical, scientific or technological innovator.

So, curl up with your children and a good book. Make it a regular, special event. If you make reading books fun, your children might start asking you to read to them. It could become a fun, bonding experience that exercises your children’s imagination and yours.

Resources:

  1. What Is Creativity? | Yale Insights
  2. Bilingual Kids Better at Creative Thinking (medicaldaily.com)
  3. 9 Benefits of Creative Writing to Help Your Children (developgoodhabits.com)

11 Ways Authors Get More from Podcast Interviews

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By Books Author Denise Turney

african american man on computer author podcast interviews with microphone
Photo by Oladimeji Ajegbile on Pexels.com

Authors get more from podcast interviews by being intentional. Research helps a lot too.

If you’re an author who started publishing books before the 1990s, podcast interviews might be the last thing you think about when you consider ways to market your books. Admittedly, podcasts weren’t the rave before the 1990s, but can you believe it?

Podcasts go all the way back to the 1980s. Back then, the shows were called audio blogging.

Exploring the Power of Story

Think about it. Doesn’t all great development involve story? If you’re being intentional and working to heal from trauma, you know you have to revisit your trauma story. On the other hand, if you want to fulfill a dream, you do more than see yourself doing what you want.

To strengthen your motivation, you boost the goal by creating a story that’s directly linked to what you want. You see, it’s the story that attracts us. Doesn’t matter if you create and retell the story to yourself or if someone else shares a story with you.

Story is powerful. It digs up deep emotions in the storyteller and the story’s listeners. And it’s this that makes podcast interviews so appealing. So, as an author, when you get a chance to connect with a host and listeners on a podcast, make the most of it.

Linking Interviews and Great Storytelling

To get more from these interviews, share stories that stir deep emotion in the podcast host and listeners. In fact, this may be the single best act that you can take to engage podcast listeners. One way that you could find out that you’ve done this is when a podcast host keeps asking you questions, minutes after your show was scheduled to end.

That or the host might ask you to come back on the show for another interview. For sure, that’s a great end result. But, after you’ve finished the interviews as an author, what can you do to get more from podcast interviews?

As a start, share the link to your podcast interviews at your social media accounts. You could even use a free design tool like Canva, Snappa or a free Adobe to create a unique design that includes the name of the podcast that you interviewed on. Also, add your name, book title and website URL to the design.

11 Ways Authors Get More from Podcast Interviews

positive black woman talking to radio host
Photo by George Milton on Pexels.com

Get creative and tag the design with a catchy slogan that links your books to the podcast name. Feeling good? Create three to five designs. Add a different design to your social media accounts each day. That gives you a minimum of five days with unique ways to share the word about your interviews. Talk about a winner.

Check out these 10 additional ways that book authors can get more from podcast interviews. See how many you may already be doing. Take advantage of these ideas you could use to expand your readership, all by getting more from your author podcast interviews.

  • This first step actually happens before your podcast interviews. Good news is that you can also use this step with radio interviews. And this first step is to spread the word about your interview before the interview occurs. Fortunately, there are many ways that you could do this. For instance, you could call family and friends and ask them to catch the show. Or you can forward a link to the podcast interview to friends and neighbors. Flyers, social media message designs and postcards are other tools that you could use to ask people to listen to your podcast interviews.

More Ways Authors Get More from Podcast Interviews

  • After podcast interviews end, add them to your author website. This shared, it’s a good idea to add a media page to your author website. Use this page to highlight all of the podcast interviews that you do.
  • Talk about podcast interviews you do while you’re at work. If you’re a full-time author, share details of the interviews with people in your community while you’re socializing.
  • Create a media sheet that features your best podcast interviews. To get more from podcast interviews, include this media sheet with ARCs to introduce your books to book clubs, book bloggers and bookstore book buyers.

Podcasts as Virtual Discussion Backgrounds

  • Similar to the media sheet, develop an interview sheet to share with other podcast hosts. This action could help you to get more from podcast interviews in the future. Another reason that this might prove helpful is that hosts will see that you continue to spread the word about podcasts you’ve interviewed on long after the interview ends. That, in turn, demonstrates that they could gain more leverage from interviewing you as you continue to tell others about their shows.
  • Post an image that you designed of the podcast interview on your website background. Furthermore, you could use the design as a social media background. For example, you could use the design on your Facebook author page.
  • Speaking of background designs, use a design tool to develop a Zoom background that spotlights your most recent podcast interviews. Always include your book author website URL on the background designs to get more from podcast interviews.

Share Great Stories to Get More from Podcast Interviews

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  • Write and send a press release that showcases your last interview. There are free press release distribution services around. As a tip, you could try a few of these sites and see what you gain from the press releases.
  • Finally, you can mention the last online interview that you’ve completed on the next upcoming podcast interview that you have. However, don’t talk about past interviews during current podcast interviews for too long. Simply mention the last interview that you did, making sure to tie it to the messaging that you’re covering during your current interview.

As a last tip, actually enjoy author interviews. Have fun. A good podcast host will make this easy. You might even find yourself laughing during the interviews. Also, as was shared at the top of this blog, to get more from podcast interviews, be sure to share great stories. You could even share great stories that highlight parts of your novels.

How New Authors Gain Book Sales

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By Book Author Denise Turney

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Yes. New York Times bestselling books are often written by household name authors. Readers know what to expect from these authors. To readers, there may be less monetary and time risks involved with these titles. But that doesn’t mean that new authors can’t gain book sales. In fact, following are techniques that help new authors gain book sales.

Launching New Books

That’s good news. Unfortunately, simply writing a book, even a beautifully crafted story, isn’t always enough to gain book sales. Furthermore, publishing a book on a major platform like Amazon, Kobo or Barnes and Noble also is no guarantee that new authors will gain book sales, let alone enter the ranks of bestselling books.

Despite the genre, new authors could gain book sales if they publish books in January. To get more sales, the book genre is another factor to consider. For example, romance and self-help books may perform better when they launch in January. Children’s books and cookbooks may do well when published in December, and science fiction does well when published May thru August.

Getting to Top Selling Books

Yet, here’s the thing. During the end-of-year holiday season, authors of bestselling books are marketing and promoting their titles. That puts new authors in competition with household name authors which is why January launches yield results. In addition to launching new books at the start of the year, to move books for sale, new authors can:

  • Design catchy book covers using tools like Canva, Book Brush, Pic Monkey, 99Designs. Consider posting two to three book cover options on social media and asking people to vote on their favorite book cover. Another option is to share three book covers with family and friends and ask them to tell you which image they like best.
  • Also, write an attention-grabbing book description. It’s this overview that may determine whether readers simply flip a book over and put it back down or pick a book up and buy it.
  • In today’s digital book world, it’s important to add the right keywords to book overviews. Why? Keywords are what will help attract readers to new, classic and older books. In fact, keywords will impact search engines, Apple Books, Google Books, audio books and Amazon bestselling books.
  • And here’s another tip. If new authors aren’t gaining book sales, they can update their book description, trying different keywords within the description.

More Ways for New Authors to Achieve Top Selling Books Status

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Here are more ways for new authors to gain book sales. The first choice sounds easy. Yet, there are still authors who don’t have an official website.

  • Therefore, it’s important that new authors have an official website. When developing a website, consider using the author name as part of the website URL. It may not be a good idea to use a book title as part of a website URL if a new author plans to write more books.
  • To polish the story, let an experienced book editor look at the book. New authors and established authors are so close to their stories, it can be hard to spot mistakes in the writing. Even more, authors may overlook parts of a story that should be carved out. Another thing authors can miss that can hurt sales is an area of a story that could be stronger with dialogue or scene change.
  • Back to the official author website. Don’t just create a book author website. To get traction, add a blog to the author website. Add a new blog article that has relevant key phrases at least once a week. Here’s another tip. Website content management systems like WordPress allow authors to add a link to their book’s Amazon sales page.
  • Depending on the budget, new authors should consider trying paid ads. But watch the budget to avoid getting dreamy and overspending with minimal results.

Even More Ways for New Authors to Gain Book Sales

Places to test books for sale ads include Book Bub, Bargain Booksy, Cush City, AALBC, Facebook and Amazon sponsored ads. Here’s another tip as it regards ads. Run two ads to test which images and ad copy pull in more book sales.

  • Also, review book marketing analytics. This could keep new authors from entering states of magical thinking. After all, magical thinking can cause new authors to think that their new title will soon be among the Amazon bestselling books and New York Times bestselling books just because they wrote the book.
  • Create, publish and market book trailers.
  • New authors can also create their own Vimeo or YouTube Channel, offering writing and marketing tips.
  • Notwithstanding, the fact is selling enough books to see a title among the top selling books takes work. Which is why book marketing analytics aren’t always fun to review. But they offer insight into the types of book marketing techniques that are working and the techniques and strategies that need to be changed or stopped.

Pathway to Book Sales Online and Offline

Even more, podcast interviews, offline radio interviews and television interviews are effective ways for new authors to gain book sales. Other ways for new authors to gain book sales are to design and mail post cards using tools like Canva or VistaPrint. Thanks to the Internet, these postcards can be in print or digital.

Other options to announce books for sale include posting flyers on college and university bulletin boards. As a safeguard, authors should ensure they get approval from school administrators to post the flyers. And creating book newsletters is another way for new authors to gain book sales.

Definitely encourage family and friends to spread the word about the new books. This is not the time for authors to be shy. This raises another point. If new authors are assertive, there are a myriad of actions they can take to promote and market their books.

Keep the Momentum Going

For example, new authors can attend book festivals and cultural events that attract their book’s audience. Teaching college writing courses is another way to pull in more book sales. Additionally, there are book tours, book reviews and book swag to share with attendees at major events.

In closing, as the Internet and the world continue to change, new authors can develop innovative book marketing strategies. They can also take advantage of marketing apps and social media book marketing tools. To continue growing book sales, authors have to keep releasing new books. And, they have to keep introducing their new books and their backlist to book buyers and book readers.

What You Do Matters – Achieve Success with Integrity

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By African American Books Writer Denise Turney

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Achieve success with integrity and enjoy a good night’s sleep. Living with integrity also keeps you in high regard. Yet, operating with integrity won’t always gain you a fast track to success. Why? It’s easier to take shortcuts, especially when you feel like you’re in a tight spot.

Facing Integrity Temptations

In fact, if you’ve ever cheated on a test, you’ve experienced how easy it can be to operate on the other side of integrity. Also, some ways you may have sidestepped integrity include speeding through a red light or lying about not making a mistake on a work project. Your heart and intentions may have been good. But risks associated with operating with integrity in these instances may have seemed too high.

And, that’s the rub. There are times when you may find yourself facing hard choices. During these instances, it may seem easier and more advantageous to forego integrity. Doing so could yield short term benefits. However, over the long term, not operating with integrity could cost you.

For example, if you don’t operate with integrity in business, you could face lawsuits and employee turnover. Of course, your brand reputation could also be permanently damaged. Yet, the same voice inside your head that tempted you to take the shortcuts, may also convince you that you won’t pay for your poor choices.

Achieve Success with Integrity in the Arts

In fact, that voice may exclaim that you won’t get caught. You’ll never be found out. Television shows like American Greed and Luther have pulled in good ratings as viewers watch one person after another who thought he’d never be found out – get caught.

And, as it regards television, the arts is a prime area where the temptation to sidestep operating with integrity can be a problem. Years ago, an aspiring actress might unwillingly shortcut her way onto a major film through a powerful studio executive. Fortunately, that may be changing.

Examples Missing Integrity

But there are hidden ways to sidestep integrity and ethics in the arts and business. And these hidden actions could derail your career. Among examples of not operating with integrity and ethics in the arts and business, there’s:

  • Asserting that you graduated from a college or university you only attended for one semester
  • Paying for book reviews to be posted at books sites when you know the people posting the reviews haven’t read your books
  • Posting negative comments and negative reviews on competitor products, websites and social media accounts in the hopes of boosting your product rankings
  • Stating that you love a product that you haven’t used once

Writing headlines that confuse readers about the topic of an article in order to drive website traffic is another way to sidestep integrity. It’s almost as if you’re competing in a sport and are willing to do anything to win. Yet, if you’ve ever been on the short end of the lack of integrity, you know how painful the experience can be.

Get Clear About What You Want

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Also, if you’ve signed a bad contract, you know what it feels like to get burned by someone who sidestepped integrity. So, how can you achieve success with integrity in a world where taking unethical shortcuts is, at times, praised?

To begin, get clear about what you truly want. For example, as your primary goal, do you want to write a compelling novel with engaging characters that share universal truths? Or, do you want to sell 100,000 copies of a book in a record number of days?

Operating with Integrity

Your primary goal may impact whether or not you achieve success with integrity. So, get clear about what you most want. Other ways to achieve success with integrity are to:

  • Set clear boundaries for how you will operate in business and in the arts. Companies do this by developing policies.
  • Stick with telling the truth. In fact, setting a boundary of truth can prevent you from engaging in behavior that you’ll later be tempted to lie about to avoid penalty.
  • Talk through grey areas with trustworthy partners, family or friends.
  • Accept reality. Avoid stepping into the world of illusion and convincing yourself that doing wrong will, somehow, pay off.
  • Put yourself on the other end of the deal. For example, how would you feel or think if someone undercut you on a film, book or business contract?

Also, think long term. Consider what would happen should something you say or do not only be discovered, but gain local, regional or national exposure. After all, you’re building a reputation. Whether you want to or not, you are building your personal brand which is strengthened when you achieve success with integrity.

Achieve Success with Integrity – How Do You Want to be Perceived

Do you want to be known as someone’s who transparent and honest? Or do you want to spend long hours and years building a remarkable career only to watch that same career disintegrate because choices you made years ago caught up to you?

This raises another point. To achieve success with integrity, put your best effort into your work. In other words, respect your audience. Respect your customers. Approach them as the intelligent people that they are. For example, if you’re a novelist, avoid writing “down” to book readers.

As you get in the habit of operating with integrity, honest business decisions may become habit. You also might reduce the number of times you rationalize poor choices. Instead, you may simply accept that you made a mistake and focus on avoiding making the same mistake again.

Living with Integrity Takes Courage

This is why to achieve success with integrity you must have courage. It takes courage to stick with integrity and stay on a path that, although rewarding, may increase the time it takes you to hit success goals, like sales and revenue targets. And it takes courage to pass up an entertainment or business deal that would require you to lie, break a law or be unethical.

Over the long term, operating with integrity gifts you with a clear conscience. You can sleep good at night. And, you won’t have to live in fear that unethical deals you made will be exposed. In fact, you might enjoy a rewarding career absent regret.

Ways to Tap into More Creativity as an Artist and Employee

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By Books Writer Denise Turney

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Tap into more creativity and enjoy success. Creativity isn’t just for painters, novelists, architects, dancers, songwriters and musicians. In fact, to excel at work, relationships and in the arts, you need to be creative. After all, it’s creativity that’s the spark of innovation. If you’re starting a business, creativity will advantage you while you’re developing creative logo designs. It will also aid you while you’re looking for new ways to connect with new hires, dissatisfied customers and loyal supporters.

Make Time For Creativity

Advantages aside, it doesn’t always seem easy to tap into more creativity. Tight deadlines, family demands and social responsibilities can do more than chew up time. These tasks prove exhausting, threats to stillness and mindfulness. And, it’s stillness and mindfulness that can let creativity flow. Hence, a first step to tapping into more creativity is to watch how you map out your day.

If you’re serious about allowing creativity to flow, leave time open to simply sit and relax. That, or you can try walking in nature, floating in a swimming pool or meditating. Relaxing and practicing mindfulness help whether you want to tap into more creativity to create beautiful paintings, a business plan, music, a riveting novel or another tool to place in your art box.

Easy Ways To Become More Creative

Another effective way to tap into creativity is to engage in a hobby. For example, crafting a stage play may assist you with mastering workplace writing. Adding delicious color to an adult coloring book could open space in your mind for innovative ideas related to a work project to surface. Here are more ways to tap into greater creativity:

  • Write in a journal in the morning or before going to bed at night
  • Take an advanced English writing course if you’re seeking ways to sharpen your business or artistic writing
  • Enroll in an online music or arts class. For example, you could learn to play the guitar. Or you could take an online cooking class.
  • Sing a song while you shower or enjoy a bubble bath.
  • Meditate using a lava lamp or while using an online slow moving visual. For instance, you could meditate while looking at a circular online abstract painting that moves.
  • Pursue creative ideas when they surface, especially if the ideas don’t require a significant time or financial investment. Should creative ideas require a significant investment, consider researching the ideas before you act on them.
  • Enter a creative arts contest. Doing so could get you exposure. It could also increase your confidence in your creative abilities.

Additional Easy Ways to Become More Creative

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Check out these additional ways to tap into more creativity. Each of these actions is fairly easy to implement:

  • Join a creative discussion group. Participating in a creative group is an effective way to stay on track. It’s also a good way to generate more creative ideas. Successful businesses use this method to surface ideas for new business designs, products and services.
  • Exercise, especially outdoors in nature. Moving in nature has a remarkable way of generating creative ideas. Make sure you explore the outdoors in safe areas.
  • Drink plenty of fresh water and treat your body to a healthy diet of green, leafy vegetables and fruit. The healthier you are, the better you may feel. This alone can find you tapping into more creativity.
  • Do something creative every day. This could include doing something as simple as writing a relative or a friend a letter.
  • Revisit creative artwork or creative business designs you have already produced. It could prove to be the fuel needed to spur more creativity.
  • Enjoy other creative works, artwork produced by other people. See if it doesn’t inspire you.

Tap Into The Right Creative Ideas

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As with any goal, setting the right priorities is important. Because stress can block creativity, leaving time for mindfulness is key when it comes to creative artwork like developing an abstract painting and even creative logo design ideas for business. So, you’re going to have to map out your day so you have time to relax.

Then, when creative ideas surface, write the ideas down. That, or you can start developing the creative ideas straightaway. After a while, you may learn to quickly distinguish quality creative ideas from ideas that you may never develop. It’s this mental sharpness that can prevent you from spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on ideas that never work.

Respect Your Bank Account

This raises another key point. Just as lack of time can block the flow of creativity, so too can financial debt. And here’s an interesting pattern. You gain an artwork or creative business idea. Then, you start seeking out partners, creative artists and creative agencies to help bring your idea to life. Sounds simple. But, depending on the deals you cut with these people, you could dig a hole for yourself.

Creative agencies may promise excellent results at cost. Should these professionals deliver, your next move may be to share the creative work. This is when you might start working with marketing agencies. As good as it feels to imagine future success, marketing agencies aren’t cheap.

Should it take months, perhaps years, for your creative artwork, beautiful paintings or workplace creative designs to yield strong results, you could be thousands of dollars in the hole before your idea generates a growing income. So, while developing creative ideas, be smart. Respect your bank account.

Be Smart With Creative Ideas

As tempting as it may feel, don’t over spend to develop or market creative ideas. Also, read through creative contracts. Thoroughly review these contracts. After all, you don’t want to sell away your work or sign a contract that marries you to an agency for years. If you’re an employee, also be smart about turning creative ideas over to your employer.

Being smart adds so much to your creative ideas. Getting your novels copyrighted, filing for new product patents and trade marking creative logo designs are ways to be smart with your creativity. Another way is to maintain full control of your artwork and creative business designs. This way, you can reuse the designs in various formats without needing to ask permission.

Faith for Overcoming Tough Times

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By Books Author Denise Turney

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If navigating this world was only easy. What a wonder it would be if life in this world was always smooth, never bumpy, not once requiring unshakable faith. Actually, when you’re a kid, life can feel like a cool ride if your parents are loving, responsible and have strong child development skills. Then, years pass, and you get what you’ve been begging for. You get to grow up and become an adult. That’s when you need faith for overcoming tough times.

Set Yourself Up for a Good Life

Brace yourself, my friend. You may have just entered the space where you’ll have the types of experiences that grow into the case for faith. As you prepare to navigate these experiences, make smart decisions. A doctor once told me that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. For example, give yourself a solid chance to live in peace by choosing zero to low student loan debt. Also, get a wealth of experiences beneath your feet before you decide to marry or become a parent.

Travel. Explore. Live carefree and unhinged.

And pursue what calls your heart. For instance, if you’re passionate about painting, busy yourself working with a myriad of colors, inks and canvases. Love writing? Start penning your best novel. Don’t worry. You may have lots of time to get better as a writer, sharing remarkable stories with the world.

Overcoming Tough Times

My prayer is that you never have a hiccup along the way. But the world being what it is, that may be unlikely. In fact, if yours was a challenging or abusive childhood, you’ve already hit bumps, maybe even faced your share of mountains. One more setback, and you could consider tossing in the towel. Or you might ponder simply surviving, just getting from one day to the next.

Yet, if there’s a bit of kick in you, this choice could turn into regret. That’s why you’re encouraged to exercise faith. After all, overcoming tough times calls for fearless faith. To stir up your faith while overcoming tough times, remember why you started on your life’s path. Remember why you started painting. Or remember why you went into ministry, sales, medicine, science or education.

As hard as it may seem, see yourself doing what you love. Also, see yourself enjoying, actually enjoying, being successful while you’re doing what you love. Keep at it. You’ll see that ongoing life success really is the case for faith. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1 shares that, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (New International Version)

About Loving Life

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You may have also seen this shared as, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (New King James Version). Beyond Bible study on faith, there are the words and experiences of motivational speakers and instructors.

Motivational speakers and instructors teach that inner vision produces what we see out in the world. When experiences that you want keep showing up in your outer world, this is easy to digest. In fact, you might celebrate these seemingly “easy” successes.

During these times, blessed faith doesn’t seem necessary. But, this is when seeming ease could make a future challenge that much harder. If you don’t practice daily awareness, you could start to believe that your successes are magical events. You could miss the link between your thoughts, beliefs and faith and what you see in your outer world.

Faith Building Tips

Then, when hard times show up, you may feel incapable of facing them. Therefore, to strengthen your thoughts into fearless faith while overcoming tough times:

  • See yourself living a rewarding life, enjoying your passions. Do this every day.
  • Practice awareness. Pay attention to your thought world and notice the link between your inner thoughts and the images your thoughts show you in the seemingly “outer” world.
  • Surround yourself with people who are living the life that you’re passionate about. Watching others achieve their goals, especially goals similar to yours, can pump up your unshakable faith.
  • Watch programs that support your passions, programs that strengthen fearless faith in you.
  • Listen to deep meditation tapes that inspire, motivate and encourage faith love hope.
  • Recognize inner guidance when it surfaces. And follow guidance from your Higher Self.

Also, take action that leads you closer to your goals. If you get into the habit of taking wise daily action, you can gain a momentum that could propel you through unimaginably tough times. This has happened to me at least twice. And, when I say unimaginably tough times, I’m talking gut wrenching struggles.

Strengthened Faith for Overcoming Tough Times

Here are more ways to strengthen fearless faith while overcoming tough times. Remember, it’s this type of faith that may become blessed faith, a belief in good that doesn’t call for years of struggle and suffering:

  • Each day, engage in at least three activities that you enjoy. For example, you could take a scented bubble bath every night, sip on your favorite herbal tea in the morning and take a relaxing midday walk.
  • Love reading books? Curl up with your favorite books two to three nights a week. Not only will you be entertained, but books that you read may offer insight into your current struggles. Additionally, books that you read, including fiction, might hold an answer to a question you’ve been pondering.
  • Dance in the morning, if only for 30 to 60 seconds. Do this even if you’re struggling to find a reason to get out of bed.
  • Spend time with loving family and friends. For instance, you could commit to visiting and calling family and friends once a week. Keep this commitment to avoid isolating yourself and feeling like it’s you against the entire world.
  • Continue to build good, loving relationships. Little beats good, trustworthy, loving friends when it comes to overcoming tough times.
  • Be patient with yourself. Even if you’ve lived with fearless faith before, it can take weeks, months or years to reach a blessed faith state. Once in a blessed faith state, trusting the Creator to help you see while in the light may become natural.

Getting to a Good Life

In other words, take care of yourself. Be kind to yourself. It may not be what you want to hear. But, you may have lots of chances to practice fearless faith. That’s another reason why it’s wise to start paying attention to the link between your inner thoughts (inner images) and the external thoughts (outer images that you see in the world). Also, take full responsibility for your life. This can help you to feel empowered, even if you’re facing hard experiences.

One last tip. Read stories of people who faced and overcame seemingly impossible challenges. Stay motivated, encouraged and inspired. See yourself enjoying what you want to experience. In fact, see and feel it as if it’s happening right now. Despite how hard things may appear, see yourself enjoying a good life. Practice fearless faith until you achieve a blessed faith state.