Lesson 1: You don't know what you're talking about, until you write it down.
As I started writing, I noticed a gap. Many of my ideas about careers were unfinished products. At first, this was terrifying! Thankfully, the process of writing and rewriting helped. It gave me the opportunity to clarify what the ideas were, why they mattered and why the reader should care.
Adam Grant recently wrote: "Writing isn't what you do after you have an idea. It's how you develop an inkling into an insight."
2) The voices are coming.
On some days, there is a little voice in your head telling you that you are writing something good. On most days, there are voices telling you that you are writing something terrible. These voices can be loud and disruptive!
What helped me get through this? Michael A. Singer's (author of The Untethered Soul) philosophy: you are not the voices, you are the one who hears the voices. This helped me let go of the voices and keep moving forward.
3) Get help.
Writing can be a lonely journey. Thankfully, I've been able to get feedback on some of my ideas from SparkPath's community of practice. I'm also planning on sharing more ideas from the book on LinkedIn. I hope you will feel comfortable poking and probing at the ideas to help me improve them.
Today I'm handing in my first draft to my editor. There are several months of work ahead, but this is a milestone!
(For those who are interested, the working title of my book is: The World Needs You. It's a book about how career advisors are flipping the model of career development through the #challengemindset. Thank you for following the journey!)
#book #author #careers #careeradvisor
