Preconditioning the Author's Mind for Success

Setting a major goal feels overwhelming at the outset, but there tricks you can use to precondition your mind for success. In this video, bestselling thriller author Dan Padavona reveals an easy trick you can use to ensure your success.

Transcript

The issue with hitting a new level in our writing careers is the next level often seems unachievable and impossible when we're first dreaming of it.

So here's the trick. There was a time when I thought I would be happy if I could buy a few pizzas at the end of the month with my writing money. And then it became, what if I could pay for all of our bills? Then it became, what if I could write for a living and live a very comfortable living?  Now I'm trying to move to a new level: to live my dream life.

That too seems overwhelming, even for somebody who has already achieved a lot of writing success.

Wherever you are in your writing career, set a new goal level for yourself. Make the goal meaningful, not just increasing your earnings by a small amount. 

Be specific about your goal and deadline, then push yourself. This might entail increasing your earnings from a few bucks to paying for all your bills. If you're already at that level, shoot for making a living from your writing, or strive to live your dream life.

To condition yourself to prepare for the journey, go through your life and find examples of times when something seemed impossible, and then you achieved it. It may be something simple, like an athletic event. Maybe you once thought that jogging around the block would be unachievable. And now you run 5K's. 

Or perhaps you didn't think you would ever enjoy reading, and now you're speeding through 60 books a year.

Find little things in your life, whether it be from when you were young or right now, and remember how your journey took place and how silly it seems to look back, never having believed you could do what you are doing now.

Your next goal is just as achievable.

And that's how you condition yourself to move to the next level.