How Goal Setting Can Make a Difference in Your Success

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By Books Author Denise Turney

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Desire for success and goal setting are like twins. When the former is paired with vision and powerful emotion, it can serve as an effective motivator. Yet, that doesn’t mean that the path will always feel easy. In fact, if you focus solely on what you want without developing and sticking to a goal setting plan, you might not ever realize your dreams.

Success Roadblocks – About Distractions

There are many reasons why this might happen. To begin, you could encounter distractions. I was thinking about this earlier today while I was walking outdoors. Less than 10 minutes into the relaxing walk, a northern mockingbird started making scratchy chat calls. Since I’d heard these aggressive, territorial birds screeching and making warning calls before, I didn’t think that the chat calls were meant for me.

So, I kept walking. Next thing I knew, the mockingbird swooped toward me. Then, it gave another round of chat calls and started to aim toward me again. This time, I turned with a bag I’d been carrying and prepared to fight back. As I watched the mockingbird glance toward a tree, I knew that it was protecting its young. It didn’t matter than I’d been walking more than 10 yards away from the tree. The bird had perceived me as a threat.

The First 90 Days

Between working to calm the bird and stay out of its path, it dawned on me that I also had to steer clear of oncoming traffic. That’s when I realized how easy it is to get distracted. One small experience, one seemingly tiny event, and you could be focused on something that has absolutely nothing to do with what you really want. It happens quickly. Even more, it happens so easily that it appears to occur absent thought. [When’s the last time you were distracted? What was going on?]

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And that’s just one real life example of how easy it is to get distracted. Decide to pursue your success goals, and you may encounter interference from old internal patterns. As a matter of fact, this may be why the first 90 days of a new initiative can stir up feelings of doubt, fear and overwhelm.

During the first 90 days, your brain has to shift out of old routines, making room for the newness that you want to introduce into your life. An example of this might see you arriving late for crucial 9am meetings simply because your brain is in the habit of starting your day at 11am. You might even convince yourself that you’re not a morning person. What’s really happening is that your routines are interfering with your big dreams.

Becoming Fluid with Goal Setting Success

This is a reason to stay flexible with goal setting success. To achieve a big shift, you’re going to have to be adaptable. This means that you’re flexible in your thinking, your perceptions and your actions.

To help yourself become flexible, start observing your routines. For instance, at this time in your life, do you stay up until early morning, retire to bed and then absolutely refuse to wake and get out of bed until 11am or later the following day?

Also, do you come up with reasons to avoid face-to-face communications? Have you started to feel more comfortable limiting communications to emails and texts messages? If so, this could signal that you have a pattern of keeping people at a distance. Areas that this pattern could turn into a success barrier for include sales, training, leadership and the arts.

Routines and Pattern Distractions

Pay attention to your routines. Left alone, they could become ongoing distractions. They could become like a bird that won’t stop swooping in on you. Before you know it, you could start to focus on steering clear of the bird to the point that you lose sight of your real success goals.

That’s when life may feel like it’s happening to you instead of like you are creating your life experiences. Therefore, practice awareness. Identify patterns, including thought patterns. Watch these repetitive choices. Don’t let them become distractions.

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To change patterns, get up at different times. Take a shower instead of a bath a few days a week or vice versa. Exercise in the morning instead of at night. Move furniture, food items, hygiene products each day. Little changes like these can help get your brain off autopilot, the process that routines hide in.

Goal Setting Using Small Goals

Other ways to stay flexible while you pursue goal setting success, are to break goal planning into small goals. Here’s an example. Let’s say that your desire is to earn six figures a year selling novels that you write.

Instead of trying to sell 25,000 copies of your first published novel within its first month of release, break the aim into little goals. Toward this end, you could create a schedule to write and publish a new novel every three months. Bake in time for a professional, experienced editor to review your manuscripts and offer quality feedback.

Small Goals at Work

Small goals to achieve your desire of earning six figures a year selling novels could include:

  • Designing and copying colorful book marketing flyers
  • Distributing a certain number of flyers a week, locally and nationally
  • Scheduling radio and podcasts interviews
  • Completing and submitting author vendor applications to attend cultural, book and arts festivals that attract thousands of attendees
  • Preparing content to push out via automated social media platforms
  • Developing and mailing postcards that spotlight your books
  • Building and promoting your author website
  • Setting up relationships with book distributors, bookstore buyers and wholesalers

This list could expand considerably. There’s that much that you could do to promote and market your books, if that’s what you want to do. Monitor your results. Pay attention to which actions get you closer to your goal of earning six-figures a year selling novels that you write.

Achieving Success After Success

But, here’s the thing. It’s important to stay flexible, to remain fluid. Why? Like that bird that seemingly swooped in out of nowhere, you may not be aware of every thing that’s coming. Furthermore, to continue achieving success after success, you will have to adjust small goals.

Who knows? Along the way, you might even have to discard goals that you’d been pursuing for years. So, stay open to change. Learn to pivot.

To stay encouraged, read motivational success quotes in the morning and at night before you retire to bed. Additionally, you might find it helpful to put on earphones and listen to recordings of positive affirmations for success. Twice a year, pause and acknowledge your achievements. But don’t stop. After all, success is not final.

Keep going. Stay flexible. Watch patterns and routines that could transform into distractions. Should you get distracted, refocus on your deepest desires, your largest goals. Break those goals down into small goals, if you start to think that your goals are too big for you, and again – keep going.

Why Is Flexibility to Change a Key to Success?

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By Books Author Denise Turney

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Change is everywhere. It’s this world’s constant which begs a question. Is flexibility to change a key to success? After all, being flexible in business, at play and other life areas can keep you free of disillusion, hopelessness and nagging frustration. And this could help your energy stay balanced and flowing.

Flexibility to Change Associations

Yet, if you have heard that it’s important to learn how to pivot to experience sustained growth, why might you resist change? To start, you might associate change with loss.

For example, if your early experiences with change caused you to feel as if you’d lost what you value, you might choose not  to be flexible and resist change. This may have occurred with me after my mom transitioned when I was a kid. That certainly was my first early experience with a major change. Not only did it feel like a massive, painful loss, I soon learned that it was a change that I could not reverse.

Reasons You Fight Change

Other reasons why you might not want to get flexible and instead fight change include:

  • Change ushers in a certain amount of uncertainty. When change arrives, you really don’t know how an experience will fully impact you or turn out.
  • People, including family and friends, may perceive you differently. An example of this is when a job layoff occurs and people no longer respect you due to the fact that your work title has changed.
  • Past instances of change may have happened after your peers pressured you into doing something. Dislike the outcome of what you did and you could resist change and also think that it’s better not to form close relationships.
  • Failure and change could be linked in your thinking. A path of freedom from this could be to start to see failure as a learning experience. Because change in this world is always occurring, failure definitely isn’t permanent.
  • Sense of loss of power is another reason why you might resist change. This could happen whether your role in a family, at work, in the community or another environment changes as you age, your children get older, etc.

Change Is Constant

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As Heraclitus shared, “the only constant in life is change”. However, rather than accepting that as truth, look around. See if your experiences prove that change is always happening in this world. For a shortcut, you could start with your appearance. Even when you think nothing is changing about your appearance, one day you’ll look up and see just how much change has been occurring to your body second-by-second, day-by-day.

Furthermore, you might notice how often your judgments and opinions change. Let your judgments and opinions change and your mood could shift as well. In fact, depending on your age and how many new experiences you let enter your life, you might discover that it’s tough to hold onto a judgment, opinion or belief.

So, stay open to being flexible. Also, similar to how you stretch in the mornings to get flexible in your body, step into positive experiences that stretch you. Examples range from being flexible at work by taking on projects with elements that are “new” for you to making friends with caring people you’d rarely bothered to say “hello” to.

Mental Flexibility

Vacationing at a different location, building your own furniture, sewing your clothes for a year and serving as the coordinator for next year’s community book festival are other examples of stretching yourself. Each of these experiences offers an element of “newness”. They may require research, speaking with people who you had before chosen not to communicate with and accessing a set of resources you’d previously overlooked.

Regardless of how “stretch” experiences turnout, you’ll learn. And, you’ll grow if you chose to be flexible. Even more, your fears that are associated with change may diminish or go away. That may invite a bounty of good change into your life.

Mental flexibility clearly comes with rewards. It can be the path to breaking bad habits and patterns that once worked but no longer do. Therefore, look for areas in your life where you could insert change. Practice awareness to spot instances when you’ve invested way too much into a rigid, strict way of thinking, feeling or behaving.

Practice Awareness

By practicing awareness, you can catch yourself planning entire days, weeks and months in advance and then becoming angry when events don’t go the way that you think they should. Also, keep in mind that it could take effort and courage to get flexible. Fortunately, to be flexible does not mean that you‘ve changed. Being flexible doesn’t change your personality and core beliefs.

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Instead, when you adapt as you make a change, you’re simply adjusting your perception of change. You’re also building courage. This is not to say that being flexible in business or other areas will guarantee success. But it will prove that you can adjust to change. Additionally, it will show you that you’re stronger than any change you could experience.

Get flexible, celebrate change and who knows what good might come into your life. Should the rewards not seem to outweigh the risks, start small. You could do this by setting goals. Then, break the attainment of the goals into small, daily actions. Honor each action that you complete. Actually acknowledge the progress that you’re making..

Celebrate Successes

Another step that might prove beneficial is to track your progress on a spreadsheet. That way you can look back at your efforts and your results midway through the year and at the end of the year. Pay attention to the progress that you’re making, even if the forward change seems small to you.

By tracking your efforts and results, you can spot areas that need to be adjusted sooner. Keep going. It may not be long before you witness the good that you’re creating. Let that happen and you might seek out good change, instead of hiding from change. That’s when you could become the driver of the blessed life that you’ve been longing to live.

A Life Filled With Sweet Love Notes

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By Books Author Denise Turney

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Romance is delightful, intoxicating. When enhanced with sweet love poems, romantic cards and sharing, it can mirror your worth back to you. This could be why, at the start of romance, this world can seem nearly perfect. You might believe that you and your lover can get through any challenge as long as you have each other. Admittedly, it’s during these early days that romance can be empowering.

Stay in Awe to Create Sweet Love Notes

But how do you hold onto emotions that flood early romance after you’re two or more years into a relationship? How do you keep romantic relationships as pleasurable as sweet love notes, preventing the relationship from taking on staleness?

A good start is to practice being in awe of everything around you. As an example, you could pay attention to birds fluttering their wings outside your home or on the path that you walk.

Try to hear the sound of water bubbling as it fills your sink or tub. See if you can create a song, using the sound of your washing machine or dryer as background music. Simply let yourself be fascinated and in awe of what’s happening around you.

Establishing Good Habits That Support Sweet Love Notes

As you practice being in awe of your experiences, let that spirit of awe inspire you toward greater appreciation. The more you appreciate what happens to and around you, the more you may appreciate your romantic partner. Then, express your appreciation by surprising your partner with short love notes and romantic cards.

Keep it up. Let sharing sweet love notes with your partner become a habit. When this occurs, your brain may signal you to enter states of appreciation when your lover wakes, smiles, holds your hand or shares a funny joke.

As rewarding as this can be, there may be a more empowering act that you could take to keep your romantic relationship vibrant. And that is to commit to helping your partner to awaken. Make yourself a top priority when it comes to awakening too!

Timeless Sweet Love Notes – Inspire Inner Awakening

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For instance, your partner and you could encourage each other to meditate, notice life’s wonder, try new things, have more fun and laugh more.

Here are more actions that may inspire inner awakening. The first action deals with how you kick off your day. To begin, start your day with thanksgiving. You could raise your hands and simply say, “Thank you for the opportunity to step into new, surprising love-filled experiences.” Other actions include:

  • Sit still for 5 to 15 minutes in the morning and before you go to bed
  • Journal – Write in a daily journal. Also, write when you experience strong emotions like excitement, nervousness, fear or joy. Even more, you could journal about times when you feel love moving between you and your partner.
  • Choose a romantic partner who takes full responsibility for their self. Should this occur, your partner won’t hold you responsible for how they feel, think or behave. Talk about sweet love notes, no more being held responsible for another person.

More Ways to Inspire Inner Awakening as Sweet Love Notes

  • Pick a partner who practices self-love, is not violent verbally, physically, financially, emotionally or mentally. You want to hook up with someone who’s healthy and committed to walking in love, sharing their life with you as if they were giving you sweet love notes.
  • Take relaxing walks with your partner. It’s amazing what being outside does to your energy. It’s a good way to experience awe about what’s happening around you with your lover. That alone could make daily walks romantic gifts.
  • Attend a spiritual retreat with your partner. At night during the retreat, write and share short love poems.
  • Soak in a warm, relaxing bath that has a gently scented aromatherapy foam.
  • Live in the present – looking for things that fill you with awe is an easy way to do this
  • Read romance novels out loud with your partner.

Stay Open

Stay open. Accept that you don’t know everything about your partner. This can help you to receive everyday actions like washing the dishes, caring for the children, cleaning the sink or folding laundry as if you’d just received sweet love notes.

Regarding simple actions that feel like you received sweet love notes, there’s the energy booster, otherwise known was “decluttering”. Yes. Decluttering your living space supports openness. It’s about opening up and letting go.

Instead of buying more clothes, shoes, appliances or electronic gadgets, you could upgrade or exchange products. Considering that money is a leading cause of relationship breakups, de-cluttering comes with benefits. It can free your energy and your finances.

Living a Life Filled with Sweet Love Notes Is an Ongoing Practice

Even more, it may train your brain to spot habits that are cluttering your romantic relationship. As an example, you might notice that you search for a personality trait or habit (chin rubbing, frequent yawning at night, etc.) that your partner engages in that you let irritate you.

The next time this happens, try to find something about the habit that makes you smile or laugh. It might take several tries, but if you really want to, you could do it.

Above all, aim for spiritual awakening. Become more aware of your thoughts and how they are shaping your experiences and emotions. Catch yourself if you enter a spiral of criticizing your lover. The more awakened you are, the easier it is to share sweet love notes.

Awakening or becoming who you truly are, is all about love.

Family Is Everything: Reimagining Fathers and Sons

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By Books Author Denise Turney

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What happens between fathers and sons matters, endures. Family is everything because, to begin, family is the bedrock of your experiences. It might not appear this way when you’re a kid. In fact, the world may feel like it’s your oyster then. You may have confidence to pursue your biggest dreams. After all, you’re not alone. If you’re fortunate, your parents afford you financial, emotional and physical security.

Ongoing Support Between Fathers and Sons

All you have to do is go to school and maybe work a part-time job as a teen. Ongoing support you receive helps you to recover from disappointments. Doesn’t matter if you’re an only child and a son who’s expected to take the helm in less than 15 years. Like Raymond, before you’re out of your teen years, you may have bounced back from tremendous challenges. Come on. Face it. You’ve bounce back and, if you’re like Raymond, you’ve bounced back more than once.

And this could be why my dad told me that “children are resilient” when I was growing up. Back then, I felt angry when my father shared how resilient he thought kids were. Basically, I interpreted him saying that kids are resilient to mean that a child could wipe away any amount of harm, replacing it with fun and laughter, as if no harm had happened to them.

What My Dad Said Was Like Magic

What my dad said was like magic, except that it wasn’t true. In fact, what happens to you during childhood can stick around for a long time. Raymond knows this for sure. His story is part of a father and son novel that is leaving an imprint on readers. If your story is similar to Raymond’s, you may believe that family is everything but wish that it wasn’t.

In Raymond’s case, his father was all that he had. You see, his mother abandoned him when he was two years old. Years would pass before Raymond would become aware of the fact that his father struggled with alcoholism. By then, the damage had been done.

There was no resiliency at work here. But does lack of resilience mean that communication between fathers and sons has been permanently eroded? Additionally, would it even be worth it for these two men, one a generation ahead of the other, to try to resolve their issues and move forward? Would it even be possible to repair such a damaged relationship and advance?

Questions Worth Asking

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These are questions worth thought. Why? As this blog opened with, family is everything. Family is where you learn to perceive your worth, even if what your family teaches you is all wrong. Also, regardless of the pain that you experience at the hands or statements of your relatives, family is still home.

Family is the place you return to off and on. Even if you have hard emotions as it relates to the only “family” that you’ve known, it’s still your family. It’s still your home. For this reason, it’s worth it to do however much work it takes to clear away the debris and to heal inner wounds.

For some, this work may include truly transparent father to son discussions. Work like this can be slow. At times, the work may be grueling. During these “dear father dear son” talks, men may have to face past experiences that they’d rather run away from. A son may hold his father responsible for every failure, disappointment and feelings of being “stuck” that he’s experienced. Although it may not be voiced, a father might view the responsibility of caring for his son as too heavy a burden.

Father To Son Discussions

This is why it can be scary to be fully transparent and talk openly during a father to son discussion. Not everything that comes up will be beautiful. Yet, these conversations can be beneficial and rewarding. Hopefully, these conversations will dive into the expectations that these two men have of one another.

Expectations play a big role in family love and definitely in the father to son relationship. A study mentioned in Psychology Today points to how father to son expectations can prove too burdensome. The Psychology Today article shares that, “fathers’ rigid expectations can cause low self-esteem and relationship satisfaction in their adult sons.”

Staying in these hard places is not necessary. But, it takes consistent work. Fortunately, many sons and fathers exercise the courage to face this work, to do this good work. As Psych Alive states, “Most men will have a strong pull toward salvaging something of a relationship with “the old man.” We may still have a desire to address the damage,and try to have a more personal relationship with our fathers.”

Healing Wounded Relationships

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Psych Alive goes on to share that, “If we decide to tackle this wounded relationship in therapy, we will invariably encounter an array of painful childhood memories. We will experience waves of disappointment, rage, and grief at the loss of what we never had with our fathers. By bravely revealing and working through this boiling cauldron of emotion we may come to a meaningful resolution.”

If this is your first time looking at the father to son relationship, make no assumptions. Each father to son relationship is different. Howbeit, what may be common among the father son relationship is the list of needs that a son may have of his father.

Common Father to Son Needs

Below are common needs that sons may have of their fathers as shared by All Pro Dad:

  • Sons need to know that their fathers love their mothers (remembering that all fathers are also sons)
  • It’s important for sons to see their fathers rebound from failures (this may help free sons of the fear of failing – after all, failures are tremendous teachers)
  • Appreciation from a son for how his father is present when they are together may be unable to be fully measured or expressed
  • Forever love, regardless of what a son does or says
  • Affirmation that he is valued, worthy and good just as he is at his core
  • Leadership is another need that sons have of their fathers. Sons benefit from watching their fathers exhibit effective, loving leadership skills.

Father Son Places of Safety

Since we’re all connected, it’s important for each of us to do what it takes to be strong. The wounded father to son relationship has to heal and strengthen to where both fathers and sons know that they are empowered simply because they are alive. A good first step may be for fathers and sons to examine their expectations of themselves and of one another.

Substituting hard expectations with the expectation of being loved, accepted and supported is a good start. Simply feeling safe to share thoughts and ideas is also empowering. Fathers and sons — everyone — needs this safety.

Healing Support for Overcoming a Sad Childhood

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By Books Author Denise Turney

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You’re not alone if you suffered through a sad childhood. Even if you grew up as an only child, a journey that can prove hard while living with unforgiving parents, you’re not alone. Tragically, millions of adults are seeking healing support for overcoming a sad childhood. Although it may not provide sufficient solace, it can be comforting to know that you are not alone. Furthermore, it may prove empowering to know that you can start overcoming childhood programming and live a good life.

Acknowledge What Happened To You

A first step is to acknowledge that your home-based early childhood curriculum was wrong. Concerning home-based early childhood curriculum, this refers to what you were told about yourself when you were a child. Other elements that it encompasses include responses that you received when you felt that you succeeded and responses that you received when you felt that you messed up or failed. Each of these elements contributes to early childhood programming.

Although it might feel good to hear that it’s easy to become someone who overcame poor childhood programming, overcoming a sad childhood can take decades. The key is to get started. Fortunately, tools exist that can help you get to the core of the problem and start overcoming bad childhood programming today.

Techniques For A Better Life

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For example, there’s the Morty Lefkoe Technique. Many of the shorter techniques are free and can be practiced in the privacy of your home. Other techniques may require the experienced support of a professional familiar with the Morty Lefkoe Technique. The UNPL Center also offers techniques for overcoming errors in childhood programming. Then, there are licensed clinical psychotherapists who can help you start overcoming a sad childhood and get on the path to living a good life.

But, first do your homework and check out techniques and professionals that you’re thinking about working with. You want to have a good, trustworthy connection with a mentor, clinician or therapist. Consider avoiding people you feel intimated by, afraid of or in awe of. After all, we all (including therapists and clinicians) are working our way through this world. If you’re afraid of a therapist or intimidated by a clinician, it could be a sign that something is amiss.

Facing The Past To Experience A Better Now

More steps that you can take are to acknowledge what you are feeling. Also, acknowledge what happened to you. Here are a few ways that might make the process easier:

  • Write in a journal. This is long hand writing, the type of writing kids used to do in elementary and middle school. Keep your journal in a private place if you’re not ready for someone to read your private thoughts.
  • Type how you’re feeling about experiences that are similar to painful and happy childhood experiences. Do this for a year and notice how you’ve progressed (even when you thought that you weren’t advancing).
  • Enjoy a nature walk outdoors in a safe place. While you’re walking, talk out loud about your experiences and how you have started overcoming those experiences. Do this in a safe place so you’re not overheard. Or, you could simply keep the volume in your voice down.
  • Join a support group that includes people who’ve experienced similar childhood traumas and stress like you did. Share at your own pace. Don’t feel forced to share more than you feel comfortable sharing. In fact, during the first few support group sessions, you might not say much at all. Just be open to sharing.

Getting Your Perceived Needs Met

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Additional keys to overcoming a sad childhood are to honor your feelings and your perceived needs. For instance, you may have had one or more absent parents. This situation could have left you to fend for yourself as a child and/or found you responsible for taking care of not only yourself but one or more siblings.

Should this be the case, you might believe that you don’t deserve to be heard, paid attention to or cared for. Instead, you might think it’s your life responsibility to always take care of someone else. Acknowledge that you feel you don’t deserve to have your needs met. Then, identify the needs that you do feel you have and start taking steps to meet those needs.

More Ways To Become An Overcomer

There are even more keys to overcoming a sad childhood. Here are some of those other keys:

  • Write down your achievements – This may sound easy, but if you’ve been in the habit of degrading yourself, it may take patience to make this a habit. Keep in mind that this is not about bragging or boasting. Plus, you’ll be writing these achievements for your eyes only. It’s a way to start letting you recognize just how much good you bring to the universe.
  • Set clear boundaries – Free yourself from thinking that it’s your job to take care of other adults, fulfill every request that’s made of you or ensure every project turns out right.
  • Talk to yourself with love – Make daily affirmations for success a part of your day. But don’t just repeat daily affirmations for success, slowly say daily affirmations for success and give yourself time to soak in the words. Truly allow yourself to feel and believe what you’re saying.
  • Keep it going – Throughout the day, continue to talk to yourself in loving ways.
  • Practice patience – Be patient with yourself. Loving yourself may be a new venture for you. Give yourself time to adjust and keep adding more steps and actions to this wonderful life of “you loving you”.

Prove That You Love Yourself

Also, engage in three or more activities that you love each day. In other words, if you say that you love yourself – prove it! Prove that you love yourself by being patient, kind, generous, compassionate and gracious with yourself.

This is an ongoing process. In fact, it’s part of a journey that could go on for decades. However, you should see advancements, good results. And, should you experience setbacks, continue to be patient and loving with yourself. Part of this includes only allowing people who love and genuinely care for you into your inner circle. After all, the way that you allow others to talk to you and treat you is a sign of how you talk to and treat yourself.

Rooting for you, as I’m on this path too. Keep going as Raymond does in Love Pour Over Me. In reference to books, you could add happiness self improvement books to your collection. Another step that you could take is to start working with a self reflection planner. Track your progress. Celebrate your successes!

11 Ways Authors Get More from Podcast Interviews

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By Books Author Denise Turney

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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

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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.

11 Great Things to Love About The 1980s

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By Books Author Denise Turney

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There are so many things to love about the 1980s. It’s a sweet time gone by, but just what is it about the past that makes life seem simpler? Ask your parents to revisit the past and they might wind the conversation down with a statement like, “Life was so much better back then.” Well, of course, it would seem that way.

Challenges, uncertainties and setbacks from that time have been watered down or erased by the mind. Only the most rewarding, joyous, loving and sweetest memories pop up when you revisit the past.

Money, Retirement, Rents and More

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Do that and any time period could seem like the best time in history. The one decade when that just might be different is the 1980s. Vibe during the 1980s was more laid back. And, children actually played outside in the 1980s. There wasn’t a fear of children feeling inadequate because they didn’t have as many followers or likes as their peers. Should a fight break out, those fights often involved no more than fists – not that fighting is ever good.

But, parents didn’t have to worry that their kids might be shot at school the way that school shootings have become more common today. Even more, the 1980s were a time when you could work toward a pension. Put in 30 years with the same company and you could retire with a pension, potentially living comfortably off your pension and a small part-time job. Or – depending on what you earned over your career, the pension could afford you a comfortable retirement all by itself.

According to CNN Money, “The percentage of workers in the private sector whose only retirement account is a defined benefit pension plan is now 4%, down from 60% in the early 1980s.” That was a good path to a happy retirement. Of course, people living in the 1980s may not have realized how good things were.

News, Music and Videos

For example, rent was lower in the 1980s. Check out what Apartment List shares about 1980s rent. Median rent during the 1980s — and this rent is adjusted to 2014 dollars – was below $700 a month. That’s median rent across the United States. Some parts of the United States saw rents that were below $500 a month. Add in the “real” possibility of a pension and the 1980s might start looking even better.

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CNN was just launching (it started June 1, 1980), so people hadn’t yet become addicted to watching the news day and night. Cable television played a whole lot of music videos. Back then, it wasn’t enough for a song to have solid lyrics and a great sound, artists had to tell a visual story with their songs. And it’s this that brings us to the list of 11 great things to love about the 1980s. Ready? Let’s go!

  • Music – Whitney Houston, Cyndi Lauper, New Kids On The Block, Prince, New Edition, Run DMC, Madonna, Guns N Roses, Fleetwood Mac, Alanis Morissette and U2 are just a few of the many artists who produced great work during the 1980s. Music was fun, putting out hits like “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, “I Want To Dance With Somebody”, “I’ve Had The Time Of My Life”, “Let’s Groove” and “Walking On Sunshine”.

Great Things To Love About The 1980s

  • Working Out – Who doesn’t remember those gym memberships? Looking back, it seems like large public gyms took off during the 1980s. You could get a monthly gym membership for less than $20. Fitness instructors taught dance and aerobics. Remember? Jane Fonda came out with hit aerobics videos. And, who can forget those leotards, headbands and thick roll-down socks.
  • Ice Cream Truck – The 1980s were a time to start saying “so long” to the ice cream truck. Not sure if this is a great thing, but if you loved running out to the ice cream truck, the 1980s may have been your last chance to enjoy this neighborhood treat.
  • Mobile Entertainment – Okay. Admittedly, this equipment is not as robust and easy to carry in your pocket as – say – an iPhone or even an iPad. But, mobile equipment from the 1980s was a start to what you can enjoy today. Rewind the clock, and you’d have boom boxes for music, hand-held cassette players, video recorders and DVD machines. Blockbuster was the joint back then.
  • Waterbeds – At its top end, the waterbed market comprised 20% of the mattress market. People who owned a waterbed often talked about how comfortable and relaxing the beds were. There was just that one downside. Every now and then, a waterbed would burst, spilling water all over the floor.

More Great Things To Love About The 1980s

  • Hairstyles – Can you think of a time when there were more popular hairstyles? There was the fade, jheri curl (don’t miss that one), mullet, cornrows, buzz cut, mohawk and big curls. You could do nearly anything with your hair and look cool. In fact, it was almost as if nothing was off limits as long as you were authentic and rocked a style that highlighted your personality.
  • Movies – Gotta start with Al Pacino in Scarface. Didn’t you catch that movie back in the 1980s? The first Batman came out in the 1980s. Stand By Me, Dead Poets Society, The Color Purple, Rain Man, The Untouchables, Flash Dance and Fatal Attraction are a few other hit movies from the great 1980s. What were your favorite movies from the 1980s? Some of these movies are classics today.
  • Games – Let’s just start with Pac-Man. I knew people who spent their entire check playing this game. You could walk to a community recreation center or an arcade and play one electronic game after the next. Later, there was Rubik’s Cube, Tetris, Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede, Zelda, Star Wars, Donkey Kong and Super Mario.

So Many Great Things To Love About The 1980s

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  • Cabbage Patch Dolls – Couldn’t leave this one out. I worked at a retail store in the 1980s and couldn’t believe how people actually fought over Cabbage Patch dolls. They were immensely popular. People collected the dolls. Kids loved to play with them, and then, just-like-that, it’s as if they went away. But they were so popular during the 1980s.
  • Family Meals – Back then, families at delicious homecooked meals around the kitchen table.
  • Books – You didn’t think I was going to leave this one off, did you? I was less than 10 years away from publishing my first novel – Portia – in the 1980s. Popular 1980s books included The Joy Luck Club, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Color Purple, Beloved, Patriot Games, The House On Mango Street, Lonesome Dove, The Bonfire Of The Vanities, Matilda, Sister Outsider and This Boy’s Life.

What are your favorite things about the 1980s? Or is that a time that is so far back to you, it’s hard for you to think of anything that was cool then? Fortunately, the great music, movies and books are still around.

Speaking of books, Love Pour Over Me is a book that takes place during the great 1980s. You’ll get the music, movies, intrigue and fun from the 1980s while reading this romantic suspense novel. Treat yourself! The 1980s was such a great time!

13 Reasons Why You Don’t Want to Give Up

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Fiction Books Author Denise Turney

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Are you at a life intersection, on the verge of major life changes? You know. It’s one of those not-meant-to-be-comfortable places where you absolutely know that you can’t stay where you are. Sounds simple. The rub is, you also don’t know where you’re going next. If you’re especially lucky, you don’t even know what to do right now. The fact that you’re about to enter the wonderful unknown is just one of 13 reasons why you don’t want to give up.

Navigating Life Changes – Reasons Why You Don’t Want to Give Up

It’s like existing in an invisible space, a place where nothing feels right. This could be why it’s so tempting to march in-step, run away from hard times enroute to rewarding life changes. But you know that won’t work.

In fact, keep doing what you’ve long done and you might afford yourself a feeling of safety. Yet, that safe feeling will only last so much longer. Examples of this include continuing to work a job you know (not think, not wonder – but know) isn’t working for you anymore. Or you might stay in a relationship that’s been bankrupt on love and honesty for years.

Because you’re more than a body, staying stuck will eventually put you in conflict. Your inner and outer selves will clash-clash-clash. Doesn’t matter how much you meditate. It’s hard to reach the center of peace this way.

Genesis of Dreams

As a matter of fact, that type of conflict hurts after awhile — hurts every single day. As easy as it may be to see how this could happen with relationships, work, your health or finances, there’s a critical focal area where you might miss the cost of standing at an intersection for far too long.

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That critical area is the genesis of your deepest dreams. This dream may have nothing to do with your parents’ or partner’s expectations of you. For instance, if you want to be a biologist, it’s not because your father taught biology for more than 30 years at a renowned university. To continue, it’s not because you’re motivation is to mimic your father because you believe that it’s a shortcut to earning your dad’s approval.

Reflect back on your earlier experiences. Did the dream that you carry reveal itself while you were a kid? Or did you have an adult experience that made it clear to you what you’re in this earth to do?

Reflect on Your Deepest Desire

The fact that it was revealed to me that I was a writer when I was 10 years old has served as great motivation during hard times when my books weren’t selling like I wanted. Even more, the way that my gift was revealed to me has seen me through heartbreaking life changes, like hard good-byes and scary career shifts.

So, as you consider 13 reasons why you don’t want to give up on your dreams, reflect on why you started to pursue your dream in the first place. For once, don’t think about the missteps, the frustrations, failures and hard learned lessons.

Reasons Not To Give Up

Instead, invest 15 minutes in thinking about why you started pursuing your dream. Your answer is the first reason why you don’t want to give up. Here are more reasons why you don’t want to toss in the towel:

  • Remember why you started (see above)
  • Your true self knows that you can do it! The part of you that’s connected to all that is in truth already knows just what you should do right now. Quiet your mind and seek that guidance. It’s always there, making it a key reason why you should never give up.
  • Believe it or not, you’re waiting to experience the fulfillment of your dream. Can’t you feel the longing?
  • Dreams impact more than the dreamer. You may be amazed at how many people your dream fulfillment touches.
  • Someone is watching you. Yes, you. As tough as that might be to believe, there are people watching how you respond to what occurs. They’re watching how you recover from setbacks. And they’re watching how you treat yourself and others during hard times. If you use determination and persistence, including strong determination, you might inspire another person who’s at a crossroads to keep pushing forward.
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More Reasons Not To Give Up

  • Strong determination can lob you over the toughest challenges.
  • Success is waiting for you and you know it.
  • Shifts in mindfulness, rest, diet, lifestyle and exercise could offer the types of motivation to get you through periods of success drought, frustration and fear.
  • Fulfilling the next dream could propel you toward your larger destiny.
  • Doing what you came here to do is empowering.
  • Nothing can stop you once you make up your mind to succeed.
  • Fear is a four-letter word that represents powerful illusions – things that aren’t real.
  • It’s time you showed yourself that you really are the creation of the most powerful force alive.

Focusing on success quotes, positive quotes and components of the self determination theory could fuel your forward motion. Yet, reading encouraging quotes might not be enough to get you through hard times. Alongside these resources, you might need to regularly reflect on why you started pursuing your dream in the first place.

As iffy as it may sound, you also might have to alter your diet to energize your body and keep your brain sharp. After all, the greatest dreams may not manifest if you don’t have the energy to take the right physical actions.

Mastering Life Intersections

Certainly, you’ve heard it before. Birds of a feather flock together. Another way of saying this is be careful who you keep company with. Pay attention to who you allow into your inner circle. After all, the people closest to you will influence your thoughts, your beliefs.

People in your inner circle could also use their influence over you to entice you to trade your dreams for money. Another thing that could happen is someone close to you may fuel you with the belief that you’ve reached the top or gone as far as you can go.

Let this happen and you could find yourself at another intersection. You could find yourself facing hard times as you face the choice of following your inner guide that mapped out your dream or following anything else.

Here’s to trusting that you never reach this intersection again. Use strong determination, daily motivation and reflection to keep advancing in the right direction. Somewhere inside yourself are the exact steps to take. Tap in. Right inside of yourself you already know what to do. You already know which way to go.

How to Adjust to Change with Grace and Goodness

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By Books Author Denise Turney

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Don’t you think it’s time to adjust to change with grace? After all, looking at approaching change through the lens of goodness could prepare you for real success.

Albert Einstein is quoted as sharing, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” This world will give you lots of practice at adjusting to change, whether or not you cause the shift. Change is certain. If you pause and consider it, you’ll see that change happens all the time in this world. But here’s the thing. You’re experiencing change even if your body’s eyes can’t see it. Those pimples, wrinkles, expanding chests, grey hairs and achy joints that reveal themselves during adulthood don’t just show up.

Adjust To These Changes

Akin to a seed germinating underground, changes occur while it seems like nothing is shifting. You don’t have to be obsessed about your physical appearance to be shaken when your hair grays, you spot pimples on your face, you gain weight, your voice deepens or your skin starts to sag. Even absent bodily obsession, you’ll have to adjust to these changes.

And, it might not always be easy. As a first step, consider how you felt, thought and behaved before you knew that change was happening. Did you experience fear? Were you struggling with hopelessness, anger or stress? Or were you going about your days as if nothing new was up?

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Raising this point to show that change may not be what shakes you. After all, if you don’t get upset while the seed is germinating (in the process of creating great change), could it really be the revelation (actually becoming aware of the change that was taking place below the surface) that spins you into fear, excitement, depression, anger or hopefulness?

Spot the Humor in Change

So, consider what may really be causing upset that you experience. To adjust to change, also accept what has occurred. This applies whether you’re experiencing change due to an organizational realignment at work, a home move, becoming a parent, getting married or aging. Encourage yourself with the truth that you can adapt to the change.

As Harvard Business Review shares, also spot the humor in the shift. Specifically, “Trying to find a funny moment during an otherwise unfunny situation can be a fantastic way to create the levity needed to see a vexing problem from a new perspective.” Even more, sometimes looking for humor in the change helps others to feel better about the change too.

Seek Good Solutions

Next, seek solutions. For example, you might set aside time to review what caused the change if the change produced negative results. Following that, you could start writing down actions that you could take to avoid experiencing or causing a similar outcome again.

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Of course, the same applies if the change is good and you want to repeat it. What you don’t want to do is focus tirelessly on emotions that you experienced after you noticed the change. In fact, Harvard Business Review shares that, “research shows that actively and repeatedly broadcasting negative emotions hinders our natural adaptation processes.”

On the other hand, don’t dismiss emotions. Talk about what you’re feeling. Just don’t stop there. Map out specific actions that you will take to enjoy experiences that you truly want. These are experiences that cause you to feel peace, loved and joy.

What You Can Do

And, take account of what you can do. Spending too much time being upset that someone else hasn’t changed or being upset about an organizational, family, community or cultural shift could cause you to feel stuck. It could also take your sight off of the most important factor, the most vital key, in your environment – YOU. Leo Tolstoy said it well when he said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” 

To adjust to change with grace and goodness, accept that any type of change could create stress. This happens, in part, because change can shift your perception of who or what you are? Depending on the change, it could also shift what you had long believed that you were capable of.

There are also times when change shifts what you had long believed that you wanted to do with your life. In those instances, change can feel like a loss. It could feel like you have to start over, building anew. This raises another way to adjust to change with grace and goodness.

Build and Strengthen Confidence

Build and strengthen your confidence. You can do this by practicing daily self-love techniques. Make it a daily practice to do what it takes to prove that you do, in fact, love yourself. As mentioned in the book, Awaken Blessings of Inner Love: Shortcuts to Self-Love and Success In A Busy World, proving that you love yourself (only you can do this), is a great confidence booster.

Confidence works like a good energy. It fuels your efforts to do what it takes to move toward good change. While you’re adapting to change, keep anchors in your life. Anchors are activities that you do each day. Examples of anchors include meditating in the morning, going for a walk outside during midday and reading a good book in the evening.

Psychology Today shares, “The more change that is happening, the more important it is to stick to your regular schedule—as much as possible. Having some things that stay the same, like walking the dog every morning at 8 am, gives us an anchor.”

Shift Away from Trying to Figure Things Out

Writing in a journal can also help you to adapt to change. Why? While writing, you can increase neural activity in your brain. It’s also important to get enough exercise, drink plenty of fresh water and eat a healthy, balanced diet.

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Also, take breaks and set times when you free yourself from worrying or trying to figure things out. For instance, you could tell yourself that you won’t try to figure out how you’re going to complete a rush project after 6pm each day. Top it off by telling yourself that you won’t focus on the project one entire day during the weekend.

Should you start to drift into worrying about the project, remind yourself of your promise and stop. Instead, focus on three things that you are thankful for. Write someone an appreciation note. Call a friend. Play with a pet. There are boundless things that you can do in place of worrying.

Adjust to Change with Grace and Goodness

As you adjust to change with grace and goodness, it may also help to read life changing quotes about change. See if these resonate with you.

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” -Maya Angelou and “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” -Jimmy Dean. Finally, consider, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new” -Socrates

Talking About Inner Blocks – Are You Afraid of Failing?

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By Books Author Denise Turney

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Inner blocks make it hard to advance. Low expectations are inner blocks that can be hard to get through. If you’re feeling stuck, it might be time to ask yourself this simple question – Are you afraid of failing?

If you’re afraid of failing, you’re not alone. After all, failure doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t matter how confident, hopeful or positive you are. Failure comes with a hard, gut punch that can make you feel like you’ll be stuck in an unwanted experience forever.

Are You Afraid of Failing – Hiding Won’t Help

Another element about failure is how it can find you thinking that, just because you slipped up once, you’ll get tripped up again and again. This is how failure can seem powerful. Yet, the key isn’t to run from failure. In fact, if you hide or run from failure you might:

  • Convince yourself that an unchallenging, listless life is what you came to this earth to experience (And I’m betting that you know better than to believe that’s the truth.)
  • Turn down offers to take on higher levels of work (For instance, you might turn down the chance to get promoted into a people management role at work or you might turn down the opportunity to lead a social or community organization.)
  • Criticize others, accusing them of not supporting you enough, if you do accept greater responsibility and fear that you’ll fail (In this case, it’s as if you want someone to map out what you need to do. Or you might want someone to coddle you so that, if events don’t turn out good, you can blame the other person.)
  • Jam your schedule with “busy work” so you’ll have a ready excuse as to why you can’t accept a new challenge.
  • Paralyze yourself with fear or dread and make it painfully hard to make good choices and advance. Furthermore, this could cause you to stay stuck in unrewarding jobs, financial situations and relationships.

No Fun Living The Safe Life

As with other safe life choices, running from failure might feel comforting. But, if you keep it up, you could find yourself slipping into boredom. You could find it difficult to feel engaged with life. So, what can you do?

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How can you start to move beyond a fear of failure? To begin, admit that you are believing you have failed. Admit that you are feeling as if you dropped the ball. These feelings may come in the form of embarrassment, irritability, agitation, shyness or anger. For me, when I think that I’ve failed or that I am failing, I tend to experience feelings of agitation, fear and anger. If I don’t start overcoming failure, I can struggle to sleep. On top of that, I might replay a recent area where I think I failed over and over in my mind. Talk about irritating.

After admitting that you think and feel as if you’ve failed, accept that success is not final, and that failure is not fatal. Consider this. Your greatest achievements are experiences that came and went. For example, you might have been an academic, creative or athletic standout in high school. Fast forward 20 years and you might be struggling to drop 15 pounds and get back in shape.

Failure Is Not Permanent

That or you might not have continued to learn or engage in creative arts. Whether you noticed it or not, you lived out the fact that success is not final failure is not fatal. It also helps to realize that failing forward could find you enter the very experiences that you’ve dreamed about for years.

In other words, changing the way that you perceive failure could help reduce your fear of failing. You might discover that failing is a part of trying new things and learning. Here are more actions that you could take to start overcoming failure beliefs.

  • Revisit a time when you took a huge leap forward after you learned lessons that popped up during a perceived failure.
  • Break at least three routines each day. For instance, you could brush your teeth at the kitchen sink, eat breakfast on the back porch or take a shower in your guest bedroom.
  • Raise your hand to work on a new project. Be willing to learn, make mistakes and grow.
  • Speak with someone new once a week. A simple “Hello” could help strengthen your confidence and make you more open to failing forward.

Face What You’re Feeling

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  • Approach a large project in parts rather than looking at it as one huge “thing to do”. This way, you could see mistakes as recoverable and not as definitive or lasting.
  • Enjoy being outside in nature. Give yourself time to unwind and not worry about new, challenging situations that appear in your life.
  • Talk about your fears around failing and taking on new challenges with a trusted friend.
  • Pray and trust the Creator for inner vision to see that you are greater than anything you could face.

The sooner you start dealing with a fear of failing, the better. After all, being afraid of failing can take a strong swing at your self-esteem. A dipping self-esteem could cause you to think that you don’t deserve good relationships, to keep trying to advance or to realize or dreams.

Look around and you may spot people who’ve fallen into this trap. They live inside the shell of routine to the point that they appear to be living the same day over and over. Take this route and you could feel like you’ve only lived 10 original days over the course of two years.

That’s not what you want.

Dream Big and Soar

So, start identifying the emotions and beliefs that you associate with trying and learning, also known as “failing”. Remember how you tried, failed and learned when you were a kid. In fact, some of your biggest lessons came to you while you were growing up.

Revisit the courage that the child in you is so familiar with. After all, it was through trying, failing and learning that you started to walk then run. Had you not seen the joy in trying, failing and learning, you wouldn’t have learned to read, play fun games, create art pieces and so much more.

Don’t live stuck in routine and fear. Dream big and dare to fail. However, don’t seek to fail. Instead, seek to learn and grow.