Discipline

Today I was reading a blog that was talking about how the internet revolution has allowed many opportunities to work from home, while at the same time required the need for more discipline.

That got me thinkings.

I am so glad I graduated from college 10 years ago [actually, 10 years ago next month] long before email, cell phones and txt had taken over. Email was just starting as a regular means of communication and the internet was not quite mainstream.

I was extremely disciplined and focused.

I have seen with the advent of the internet culture so many opportunities for my kids to learn and grow. They are able to email their grandparents in Florida or see places I grew up [via google earth]. But with the internet, comes the need for discipline.

The same is true with writers.

We have the opportunity to make our work so much more authentic [via online research], so much less expensive [using email rather than snail mail] and more widely known [blogs, E-zines]. However, in this chaos it is not the loudest that thrives...but the most genuine.

We have become very good at tuning out ads, but yet we still focus on them when we seek to market our own writing. We need to stop and discipline ourselves. Don't look for the easiest way to advertise [easy does not mean effective] and instead, we need to take advantage of this wonderful internet revolution to look around at what some others are using to get their message out.

I read 3 books this week [in genres I don't normally read] and I learned a great deal about writing and effectively selling. It was like a piece to the puzzle that I'd been trying to figure out suddenly slid in to place with a "click". If I hadn't taken the time to research it there is no way I would have seen it. I had to try something different. I did something I normally wouldn't do.

So look at what you're currently doing. Assess the success of each part of your writing life. How are you learning, what are you reading, what is the market doing?

Let these changes influence the way you do your writing and marketing.

Of course, I'm not advocating jumping at every little whim that comes along, but rather be DISCIPLINED to take not of what others are doing that works. There will come a time when what you're doing isn't as successful as it was before. During those times you need to have ideas in mind to implement.

It is a successful writer who works in the moment, but plans for tomorrow.

Are you successful?

I have to go, I have Coaching to do. Your Coach for the Journey, Tiffany Colter