I recently downloaded the free e-book The Zero-Hour Workweek by Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind. The title is a play off of The 4-Hour Workweek, the popular book by Tim Ferriss. The e-book is pretty inspiring, but when you get right down to it it’s a guide on how to start a blog on...
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Did you ever think it’s not the economy, of the toughness of the industry, or just plain bad luck that’s keeping you from flourishing as a freelance writer — but your own limiting beliefs? Many aspiring freelancers are wonderful writers with salable ideas, but they can’t break out of the writing-for-cheap (or worse, writing-for-free)...
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Don’t miss our next free teleclass for writers! Date: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 8:30-9:30 pm ET (Note that this is East Coast time; please check for the correct time in your time zone. Also note that this is PM, not AM!) Topic: 5 Tips for Finding Story Ideas That Sell with Diana Burrell....
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I’m reading a book by Lama Surya Das about Buddhist values, and there’s a lot of talk about the beginner’s mind. I also learned about this concept when I studied shorin ryu karate. The beginner’s mind is an attitude of openness and the belief that there’s always more to learn. I think the beginner’s...
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I was taking a look at a book called The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back by James Waldroop and Timothy Butler, and one of the habits stood out to me: “Never feeling good enough.” This is what holds students in my e-course back from reaching for their dream magazines (until I...
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In a guest post on the Zen Habits blog, Albert from UrbanMonk.net describes the 5% trick: My favorite tool at this stage is the 5% statement, created by Nathaniel Branden, who is widely considered to be the father of the self-esteem movement. It works by allowing you to take steps in small increments. Trying...
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For a couple of days at the beginning of last week, I felt completely unmotivated: more blob than human. One part of me wanted to market, work on my assignments, and generally be active and productive. But another, stronger, part of me wanted to lie on the couch and surf the Internet all week....
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Today’s blog post is by Monica Bhide, who teaches Introduction to Food Writing, which starts on March 2. A year ago, I started a vision board. You have heard of these things, right? A board where you post your goals, your dreams, your hopes. You put the board up where you can see it...
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“Acting as if” is a personal development trick where you imagine how someone who’s in a position you aspire to would act, and then do those things yourself. For example, say you want to be a best-selling author. What would she do? Chances are she would set aside a certain amount of time to...
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Let’s face it — freelance writing is scary. When checks don’t come in, you feel like you’re on the brink of economic collapse on a personal level. When you need to call an editor, your mind floods with images of the editor slamming down the phone in your ear (but not before telling you...
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