We were born to dream, AND we were born to bring those dreams to life. 

This month, a big dream of mine is becoming a reality: My first full-sized book is launching. I couldn’t be more excited to see this dream be realized. I embarked on this journey three years and nine months ago, and it is a bit surreal to think that the finish line is here!  

With the final launch plans nearing completion, I found myself in a very reflective place. As I often do, I created a sacred pause to dive into the messages and feelings that were welling up in me. Thoughts about how I had become more confident, how I shed old limiting beliefs, and how I courageously lived outside my comfort zone to bring my vision to life. All these insights brought a sense of warmth to my heart. 

I realized these were all signs of the love I have for myself.

Then, I broadened my reflection. I pondered the entire journey of three-plus years. I remembered the moments of what felt like white-knuckle writing in the early weeks of my journey when I knew I had to show up at my next meeting with two chapters written. I also remembered the moment the draft was done, and I felt such a huge sense of both relief and fear – relief that I completed the book and simultaneous fear of all the next steps ahead of me. Then there were the moments of trust where I put the book down to work on another project. In these moments, I sensed that the book – or maybe it was me – needed some maturing time.

Reflecting on my achievement revealed key insights.

This reflection time provided rich nuggets of wisdom and insight about all the elements that supported me in achieving my big dream of launching a book. Much like growing a plant (which I write about in my book), there are a variety of elements that all worked together to support the growth and fruition of my book. Several of these key elements are what I’d like to share with you today. My hope is that you find this information helpful and hope-filled as you take your next steps to turn YOUR dream into reality. 

There is power in having clear intentions

My clear intention provided a solid foundation

My intention was very clear right from the start – to publish a book about Radiant Achievement. This simple and straightforward intention created a solid foundation for my dream to blossom. To further activate my intention, I put this on a note card I carried with me, on a Post-it at my desk, and as a top-level project in my planner. I always had my intention in front of me in some way. These on-going reminders helped me to really solidify that my intention WOULD come to life. There was no doubt in my mind, it was just a matter of when.

My expanded vision brought more energy and emotion

An interesting thing happened two years ago related to my intentions, including my book intention. In October 2019, I opened up to a bigger vision for my book. While attending an event with Dr. Joe Dispenza, I learned that when I clarify my intentions and connect them with elevated emotions related to that intention, I am supercharging my manifestation process. This was a new concept for me, but I was very intrigued.

He taught that when I write out my intention, include several bullet points of what that intention looks like – elements that help paint the full picture of my intention. I noticed, related to my book, that I only stated “publish a book on Radiant Achievement.” There were no other elements!  So, I opened myself up to looking into this dream and exploring what else would I love to create related to the publishing of the book. I wrote a new note card that also included that the book was going to be a New York Times best seller, that it would win several awards, that I had a great team supporting the launch, an effective marketing plan, and that the final edits would flow with grace and ease. Wow – this really felt amazing when I connected to it energetically.  

For several months I took this expanded view into my morning meditation practice. In seeing this intention manifest, I felt limitless, accomplished, proud, and blissful. Experiencing these feelings created a wonderful energized buzz as I started my daily book tasks. It definitely helped me create momentum AND draw to me the people I needed to complete the writing, editing, and publishing of my book. Although not all elements have manifested as of yet, I remain committed to achieve the full vision of my book intention in its perfect time.   

Three WHYs created a strong connection to my dream

Working hand in hand with the intention I created was a deep connection to my WHY for the book. Like many of my goals, there were multiple layers to my why. Perhaps that’s what made my why so strong – it was multi-threaded.  Each one of my reasons helped reinforce and support the other.

Why number one

My first and most important WHY was that I had an inner knowing that at some point I would write a book. I don’t know exactly where it came from, but I’ve come to trust and honor these callings. When I began the plan to create a signature program around my Radiant Achievement workshop I was connected to this from a business perspective, but it didn’t feel right energetically. It seemed off.  When I checked in about writing a book instead, I received a full body yes! My inner knowing was the first level of WHY.

Why number two

The second WHY relates to my desire to help thousands of women (tens of thousands). Knowing that I can reach more people with my book was another key reason for writing Radiant Achievement. It was a means to achieve my bigger purpose of helping a lot of women. When wavering at times in moving forward, I heard the voice inside my head that said, “Think of the women who are waiting for your message. These women need to hear your story and your work is the answer to their struggles and questions.” Connecting to this message reenergized me every time to take that next step toward publishing. It reinforced that when I approach my work from a place of service, it is often a lot easier to continue to move forward.

Why number three

Lastly, it’s a well shared “secret” in the entrepreneurial world that publishing a book will give you credibility and help open doors for speaking and media. I felt the power of this and was open to having a tool like my book get me on stages, on podcasts and in the media. In a noisy world, I felt the power of having my unique contribution that would help me stand out from the rest. This WHY definitely kept me energized to continue moving forward.

All three of my WHYs supported me in maintaining momentum (even if just one small step) and to get back on track when I took those extended pauses. 

I balanced the long-term view with short-term focus

I much prefer short-term projects. I always have been this way. Projects over six months require a different type of energy to maintain momentum and focus. Yes, having my whys helped a lot. Having my intention was extremely helpful, too. Both of these were more focused on the long view.  I also needed something that connected me to a short view, which is where I personally found the most enjoyment. 

The short view was found in my monthly and weekly planning (yes, I did say planning!). I had created for myself a solid practice of reviewing my book project at the beginning of the month and then again each week.  From these planning sessions, I was able to chunk down the tasks to manageable bite-sized pieces that were a lot easier to plan into blocks of work time. In my planning sessions, I allowed for time to sit and listen to my intuition for guidance, too.  I knew that I was being supported by the universe to bring this book to life and that to receive support I needed to pause and listen. On a frequent basis, I was guided to an action that I had not thought of!

This balance between the short view and long view helped keep me moving forward to launch with more grace and ease. It also helped me reset if I had gotten off track or if I diverted my attention to a different project for a while. My starts and stops over the past few years had an impact on the launch date (pushing it out on multiple occasions), but it never caused me to give up on my dream. Having a routine of both the short and long views helped me to keep things in perspective and acknowledge what was needed to continue to make progress.

I asked for and received different types of support

Support was not only necessary for me but also critical to my success in bringing this book to life. From the time I started my book, I hired a book writing expert to guide and support me. I knew there were a lot of ways to get support and having someone work with me one-on-one fit my needs at the time. A part of me felt that after this initial contracted work I’d be ready to take what I learned and run with the rest of the project on my own. Anything could be researched with Google!  Or so that was my initial thoughts.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that there were many options, many paths and a lot of steps ahead of me to get this book further developed, edited, laid out for publishing, publisher selected, marketed and more. My head began to spin a bit until I committed to take things one step at a time with whatever expert guidance or accountability that I needed.

In the course of the entire project, I worked with a book consultant, my coach, two editors, a publisher, cover designer, and book marketing expert. On top of that, my mastermind group was instrumental in supporting my journey, even if it was just me committing out loud to them my next steps.  All these people were a critical and necessary part of my journey to bring my book to the world. It made the journey more fun, it saved me time, and I believe it ultimately helped create a better product. I am so grateful that I opened myself up to get support and that I listened to my intuition for what I needed in each phase of the journey. I so appreciate the contribution and support each person provided.

Radiant Achievement kept me flowing forward with grace and ease

As much as I enjoy seeing my words published, I will freely admit I had to overcome a big fear of my writing not being good enough. 

Who am I to think I can be an award-winning author? 

It was something that popped in my head often as I was developing my various drafts. Fortunately, I recognized this pattern when it popped up and recommitted to fully engaging and using my Powers of Radiant Achievement.

The Power of Self Worth helped me early on

The Powers of Radiant Achievement came into play every step of the way of my book journey. In the early days there was a lot of discomfort as I mentioned above regarding my worthiness to write and to become a published author. Engaging my Power of Authentic Self-Worth, I realized that if my calling was genuine (which it was), then there was no reason to doubt my ability to write. I eventually shifted out of this self-doubt.

The Powers of Radiant Achievement kept me grounded

Despite doing something totally new, unfamiliar and uncomfortable (which created a lot of inner uneasiness), I was able to ground and focus myself by engaging my Inner Powers. Taking things one step at a time, I trusted that I would find answers to my questions. Breaks became a frequent antidote when I felt myself getting in my head. I let my intuition help guide me and I did A LOT of celebrating along the way. There were many moments of synchronicity when I’d receive a piece of information or insight that helped me take a next step toward publishing.

Grace, ease, joy and flow were part of my final stage of publishing

One of the biggest examples of grace, ease, joy and flow was during the final stage of the publishing process. I had previously set a publish date at least two other times. Those dates came and went for a variety of reasons.  I never was hard on myself for it. Each time I missed my deadline, I learned something more about me or about the project that would help me next time. But now, this last time, things were different. I had taken some key steps with my publisher and THIS TIME things were moving forward to a very specific date that had been announced and committed to.

There was a part of me that began to go into my head and start to worry about all the possible “what ifs.” I sensed a remnant of the old me pop up and catching myself, I paused to ask what I needed. Getting clarity around my uncertainty, I realized that two other projects needed to go on hold so I could fully focus on the book. Then, instead of worrying about what could go wrong, I recommitted every day that the project would successfully launch on May 19th.

With four final tasks to accomplish, I kept myself grounded, centered and in a positive energy that each one would flow easily to the next. I listened each day for inner guidance on what was needed to assure the launch date of May 19th was a go. This daily process helped me see and address items on the schedule in a timely fashion.

Then, one sunny day, I received an email that all sign-offs were complete and that my book would soon be published!  The May 19th launch was a firm GO.  Woo hoo!  I felt happy, energized and so proud of myself for making it HERE.  

Turning your dreams into reality

I’d like to wrap things up by bringing it back to you.  What dreams, desires or callings are you working to make a reality? Where is your self-talk supporting you to move forward? Where is it holding you back in self-doubt? What level of commitment have you made to yourself to achieve this goal?  I encourage you to apply any of the elements presented here that resonate with you. And there is always an open invitation to connect with me for a chat about your project!  One of my biggest joys is seeing you TURNING DREAMS INTO REALITY.