Inspiration

People who don’t believe in you can’t hold you back if you don’t let them.

Because if I don’t believe in myself then even if others do nothing will work out… and just the opposite, if I do believe in myself – no matter how many people tell me I can’t – I still will do it and succeed.

So now when I get those negative statements I no longer need to prove them wrong. In fact I don’t think I have to prove anything to anyone.

All I have to do is keep believing in myself and keep doing what I think is right for me.

So if you have found your passion and if you have a dream and you have decided to follow them – go for it!

Don’t wait for permission. Don’t ask for acceptance. Don’t listen to what people think. They are not in your shoes – but you are. They don’t have the right to make decisions concerning your life.

Listen to your inner voice instead. Listen to your heart and what it tells you, because it knows you best.

You don’t need other people in order to gain self-confidence – you already have it inside, you simply need to tap into it.

So now, when someone tells I can’t – I smile to myself and think “watch me”, but I don’t rush and climb that tree like I did years back. I do it on my own terms, I take my time and do what I had planned initially and believed it would work out. And I don’t quit until it actually works out

Challenges are good – they keep you motivated and make you push forward.

So follow your passion, keep writing and when you reach where you wanna get send signed copies of your published books to all those, who told you that you couldn’t.

Meanwhile, don’t give up and keep pushing forward!

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Lead Inspired Life

September 15, 2015 by Ani Leave a Comment

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Lead Inspired Life

we are the average of 5 people we spend the most time with.

In this episode I would like to talk about inspiration. We all know how important being inspired is.

Most of us lead dull and ordinary lives, and spend most of our days doing what needs to be done and have no time left to do things that inspire us instead.

Life gets on the way and keeps us away from what we dreamed of. We grow up and get stuck in the routine, responsibilities overload us and with the time we get used to it.

Some people stay in that state forever. Some others manage to break through and get inspired again.

Those who do eventually start inspiring others by their own example…

Looking at people who lead inspired life brings hope and faith. Faith that it is possible and hope that we will be able to do the same…

People, who inspire us are those, who don’t wait for the inspiration to come to their life – they provoke it. Those are the people, who have a dream and are not afraid to do everything that needs to be done to get closer to that dream. Those are the people, who find the courage to face and overcome their fears and who are willing to go through the painful process of growth.

They don’t let procrastination get on their way. They are willing to leave their comfort zone, because they know that success is outside that comfort zone.

And then as a contrast we have the other group of people… unfortunately that group is much bigger. Those are the people, who are ready to let you down, who can always find reasons why your dreams won’t come true and who settle with the mediocre.

Now, let’s recall what Robin Sharma often tells. He says that

Go and download your free guide that will help you FIND THE WRITE MINDSET and Build Your Writing Confidence

So look around. Who are those 5 people? Do they inspire you? Do they bring you down to the reality? Do they encourage your passion or advise to grow up instead?

I personally love being different and don’t like copying what others do. But when I am looking at people who lead inspired life I think it’s worth doing an exception and copy their mindset, lifestyle and excitement.

Writing may be a lonely process, so you will need to get excited about that. You need to be inspired enough to be willing to take action. You have to be inspired enough to initiate changes. You need to be motivated to follow your passion.

If you don’t have those 5 people in your real life, who will help you with that, look for them somewhere else. Read the books that inspire you, listen to podcasts that encourage you, find groups where like-minded people gather, go to meetups.

Find ways to provoke the inspiration in your life. Anything that might work is worth trying.

Meanwhile, what I can offer is this podcast. So if you haven’t done so yet please subscribe to it on iTunes or Stitcher and leave a review for me there.

Keep writing and stay inspired!

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Find the Write Mindset

September 8, 2015 by Ani 2 Comments

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Find the Write Mindset

81% of people say they want to write a book…and only 1% DO.

Download Your Free Guide – FIND THE WRITE MINDSET & GET PUBLISHED: The 5 Steps To Build Your Writing Confidence

The thing is many talk about how to write a book, how to self-publish it and how to do book marketing but very few talk about how to actually get emotionally prepared to become a writer. I am talking about the write mindset here…

There are many emotional barriers that newbie writers have in the very beginning and unless they overcome those they will not get to the stage of writing a book, let alone publishing and marketing it.

As I already mentioned in one of the previous episodes

I strongly believe that although the 80-% come up with logical and objective excuses for not writing their books, in reality the reasons for not writing are mindset related.

When people say that they don’t have time to write or that they can’t write well… the real reasons are much deeper.

I think many of us used different credible excuses but in the reality we did not write the book because we were afraid and we were not ready.

To be honest, I think all those who have not written a book yet think they are not ready. And I think absolutely all writers go through the same emotional journey in the very beginning. So believe me, even the most well known authors have been in your shoes before.

We all think that our writing is not good enough. We are not yet ready to open up and share our writings and we are afraid of being judged. And that’s normal. All published writers have been there. I even think that even after reaching success, even after getting acknowledgement and status many writers still think that their writing is not good enough.

There are different emotional barriers that stand between the newbie writer and his dream of seeing his name on a book cover. On the other hand the sad fact is that the only way to find readers is overcoming those barriers and actually publishing.

Writer’s doubts are what we all experience and need to overcome to become authors. And sometimes those doubts are so strong that overcoming them alone is very hard. Sometimes you do need support and encouragement.

So last week I decided to address that issue and create something that will help you out in case you are one of those writers, who is just starting.

I created a guide called FIND THE WRITE MINDSET & GET PUBLISHED : The 5 Steps To Build Your Writing Confidence.

I wrote that guide to help you get over the mental blocks to publishing your first book. I tried to explain there How To Become A Writer and what it takes to become a writer, so you know in advance and get prepared.

You will also find out about The step most writers never take..although it is often the easiest one. And you’ll also learn What To Do With Your First Draft.

I truly hope that this guide will help you with the emotional aspects I mentioned in this episode.

So if you’d like to get my guide and build your writing confidence I am giving it out for free at www.anialexander.com/mindset

I will truly appreciate if you could share the link with everyone who you think will need it and help us change the statistics and have more than 1% of people writing their books.

So get your free guide now.

Meanwhile let’s write and create amazing pieces that others will enjoy reading.

Don’t miss the opportunity to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

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Writer’s Struggles

July 10, 2015 by Ani 2 Comments

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Writer’s Struggles

Writers, who go through the painful process of growth are vulnerable.

Today I decided to be completely honest and share my struggles with you. And the reason for this is not to ask for pity or anything. I simply thought that some of you might have been going through the same thing and we could possibly figure out how to overcome some of those struggles.

So, periodically I am getting writer’s doubts and I start questioning myself if I can really write? If what I write is good enough? If I have any potential at all? And if my writing is worth anything.

These doubts became really strong recently. The reason is – I have enrolled in Writer’s Bootcamp and starting from the 1st of this month we are writing up different exercises… Then we read, provide feedback, critique…

The ultimate goal of the course – or at least how I see it – is to learn writing well, to make sure that your quality is high and that you learn the craft. But it’s a painful process. I guess any growth is…

It’s painful because in the beginning you start realizing where you stand now. And now… having objectively evaluated where I am, I am not happy about that. So now the doubts are no longer about if I am good or not… because I already know that I’m not… at least yet. The doubt now is about the future… it’s about whether I will be able to master the craft and ensure the quality I’d like my writing to have.

I think the bootcamp was just a catalyst. We usually have writer’s doubt coming back to us when we don’t see results… and when we don’t see result we lose the motivation to carry on. And I guess when we lose motivation that’s when we have to push harder… otherwise we may end up sliding down the spiral… and coming back up will be harder than pushing a bit more from where we are now…

So every time I get into the stage when things don’t grow and I don’t see results I get disappointed. Right now, looking at what I’ve done so far I realize that things haven’t moved much… my podcast has not grown from what it was few months ago, I have not finished my book and I have abandoned my fiction…

And what’s the hardest to admit is that it’s completely my fault. I should have worked harder, I should have written more and I should have put aside my humbleness and promoted more what I’ve already done…

So today I spend some time and went back to my reviews. I read the reviews you guys left for my podcast and I went to Amazon and read the reviews that were left for my fiction books. Usually it helps me get on track and reminds me that there are some people who need what I do and that my time and efforts are not wasted.

That made me think that maybe writer’s doubt grows when there is lack of encouragement around.

They need an extra hug and a positive affirmation.

Meanwhile, let’s chin up, pull ourselves together and work harder.

Also – consider signing up for the Self-Publishing Success Summit, which is the best online summit on the topic with amazing line-up. On that summit 37 World-Changing Authors & Entrepreneurs Reveal How to Write, Market & Publish Your First Book AND Use It To Get To 6 Figures

You can get your FREE access to the Self-Publishing Success Summit here.

Write 2B Read Closed Facebook Group

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About Inspiration and Experiences

June 5, 2015 by Ani Leave a Comment

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About Inspiration and Experiences

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

Guess what? Write 2B Read podcast is almost 1 years old and its birthday is on July 1st. I thought about how to celebrate that milestone and yes it deserves a celebration because I have super unstable personality and for me a year is quite long… So I thought what to do and realized that this podcast would not stay alive until now if not you – my listeners. And it became completely clear to me that whatever I decide to do should be done with you. That is why I came up with the idea of having a live Q&A hangout with anyone who would like to join me to celebrate together our podcast’s birthday.

I thought that it would be nice to finally get together and have fun. Besides I have never done videos before and most of you have only heard my voice, so this will be the first time I’ll quit my comfort zone and get on live video for you. You will be able to ask me anything you’d like to know and I will do my best to answer… but guess what? I don’t know everything so if there will be questions, which I don’t know how to answer I will either cover those in the upcoming podcasts or get a guest who knows about the topic ok? And maybe… I will also get a surprise guest for you. In any case I think it will be fun and I’d love to have you there.

Simply click here and register to the hangout. I will do the rest 🙂

If for some reason you will not be able to make it live – don’t worry. Make sure you register and I will send you the recording.

Today I will have a solo piece and I’ll share with you my thoughts about inspiration and experiences.

We all had periods when we were not inspired enough. When we opened our computer screen and stared at it with no clue what to write about, or how to start what we thought about writing … as a result we got irritated, it made things worse and it is very probable that we gave up, shut the screen and left the desk… It has happened to me many times. And it does not feel good at all.

So where one should look for inspiration? Is it something that comes to you whenever it wants? Is that unexplainable muse controlling when and how you write? I don’t want to believe in that because as soon as I do I will feel as if nothing is under my control and I am not a writer but rather inspiration’s tool which it uses to express its thought…

Thinking back I realize that one can draw inspiration almost from everything. Life itself is a great source of inspiration. And I know what you might think – compared to all those books with amazing life stories yours might not be so interesting or so inspiring… and that might be true… but there are still ways even in that case. My life has never been dull to be honest and I’ve always been through different stuff which could eventually make a good story but I have not yet gained the courage to write about my life yet… at least not the way it should be written. But I have written about other people’s lives instead. My both novels Highball and Dreamdown were written based o true life stories, which later were modified into fiction. So yes, if at this point for some reason you don’t think that your life could be source of inspiration for your stories turn to other people’s lives. You don’t know people, who’s lives inspire you? Cool – pay attention to the content shared on social media, see what stories are in there and get interesting life stories from there. Or simply get out of the house, go to a coffee shop and while you breath in the aroma and enjoy every sip – watch people. Watch them and come up with their life stories – who are they? Why are they here now? Where they will go after they finish their coffee? Who do they love? Why do they look sad or tired? What dreams do they have?

There is Benjamin Franklin quote which says

Buy experiences not things.

I’d like to talk about the second half here – about doing something worth writing. I know that what I’ll say now may not be something you’d like to hear because we live in materialistic world and many prefer things… BUT my advice to you will be