Oh, I mean harder.

No, wait, easier.

You'll see.

[ https://youtu.be/HhuBm1AVd4c ]

In fact, it might be even more important.

[ https://youtu.be/E-b4h9xE0wo ]

Do your clients want to know more? Do they click, like, or buy?

What makes content "catchy" or sticky or worthy of sharing, acting on, or buying?

Learn more at: Creating Catchy Content.

[ Wanna see that happen as it happened? https://youtu.be/6oHtKVbQmMY ]

W. Somerset Maugham

To create new habits, it’s easiest if we create a ritual or a trigger to know we’re going to get started. 

Every time I walk into the woods: 

1. My mind becomes more clear

2. My ideas grow bolder

3. My fears spill into the ground

4. My dreams soar among the trees

5. The birds tell me what to do next

That’s just a few steps into the woods. 

My dad used to have a piece of chocolate after dinner. He really enjoyed it. In fact, it got to the point where if we didn’t have any chocolate in the house and dinner was over, he would get antsy. 

Dinner meant it was almost chocolate time.

Yep, the “bad” ones are harder to kick than new (good!) ones are to create. 

Still, find the trigger, create a ritual, go a little nutty with it. 

Watch professional athletes and their rituals. Each time that Steph Curry makes a 3-pointer, he taps his chest and points upwards. It’s his ritual or even prayer or thank you for making the shot. 

Yet, we can do the same before something happens. 

I walk into the forest. 

What do you do?

What could you do?

Where might be your “creative space” where you’ll let your ideas arrive without having to go through security or customs? 

Let’s make up a simple one just for example’s sake here. Say you want just a bit of clarity in your life. It could be for anything, short-term decisions such as what to make for dinner all the way to some help with your next career choice. 

Create a daily ritual, a physical symbol, a motion, even a whispered mantra to let you know, “Hey, here we go. It’s about to get real around here.” Then give yourself the time to do the thing. 

It could be as simple and quick as: 

1. Brushing your teeth with your eyes closed and letting the humming brush shake loose your next fabulous idea. Twice a day. Boom. 

2. Taking just two tiny little extra minutes after your shower to sit down, in the bathroom, on the toilet if there’s nowhere else (PRO TIP: close the lid first), and with some deep and slow breathing, shed the dread of your upcoming day and gather the strength to go on the offensive. (Ooh, “shed the dread,” I like that! See, I’m “being creative” here sharing tips on how to let creativity in!)

3. While on a walk, even if it’s a short as around the block or to the mailbox, take out the earbuds, put your phone in your pocket, and just listen. What do you hear? Birds? Cars? Dogs? Filter everything else out and hear what you want to focus on. 

There you have it, 3 extremely non-scientific but possibly powerful triggers to get you started to tap into your deeper knowledge, your quick-witted charm, and a bit of the unknown. 

Relish it. Do it daily. Follow the trigger. 

• Possible: wait for perfection to arrive magically

• Impossible: change yesterday’s trigger

• Repossible: trigger daily clarity 

We're getting stuff done.

How about you? Need some help? Here are 10 days to get you towards clarity: Every Single Day Playbook.

Here's a video version of today's podcast:

[ https://youtu.be/9Zx247b6cdY ]

So, how are you doing on the "anything" stuff?

This was a voicemail I left my mom but hey, it's good for everyone to hear.

How do you treat the person rolling around The Snack Cart? Or in other words, who are you truly?

A mini transformation of 10 days: The Every Single Day Playbook. You can get it here: http://playbook.repossible.com.

[ https://youtu.be/dpsjEMv20_o ]

Not to run a marathon but to jog every day.

Not to lose 10 pounds but to drink a liter more of water every day.

What if practice didn’t make perfect but practice is perfect ?

What if the goal were the daily habit?

Write Every Day for 10 Days

Writing prompts, pretty pictures, directly into your email inbox. It’s just 10 Days! Easy peasy, right? Spoiler alert: it might lead to more days than 10. [https://goo.gl/g89xhz]?

Start a Blog Challenge

Ready to start writing Every Single Day but you have no website, no nada? Got past those 10 Days and are ready to go further? [https://goo.gl/9FJr98]

Earbuds

I get a lot of requests for my favorite audiobook earbuds. Light, Bluetooth (no tangled cables), and with two means of holding those things in your ears, these are my go-to earbuds I use Every Single Day. Oh, they also have a microphone and work with your phone calls. [https://goo.gl/6N82DP]?

The scale turns around at some point. In the beginning, you have to push. Later, you are pulled.

It’s important to remember where we came from, how far we’ve come along, and where we’re headed.

Now we’re up front, we’re leading the pack, but it’s not a race, it’s an open road and up ahead? The unknown.

— Bradley Charbonneau

Dear Every Single Day listeners. I interrupt this podcast with a message from our sponsor: Spark.

Out of my Every Single Day writing habit many things have been created: books, courses, podcasts, etc. Much of it has been co-created. Many of those co-creations have been with family. Younger family.

I’m now busy with two books with my two nieces (links to the books here: Drama and Escaping the Light).

I’m re-inspired for Spark and wanted to take this opportunity to let you Every Single Day listeners into my world of Spark and the accompanying course, Spark Campfire.

Enjoy the introductory chapter of Spark: Embers.

Oh wait, but if you haven’t created anything…

Yet…

Get out there. In the cold. Put on your jacket. Do your thing.

Every. Single. Day.

Here’s the episode from Spark Campfire.

In case that URL doesn’t come through in your podcast description, here’s the link:

[ https://repossible.teachable.com/courses/spark/lectures/9929805 ]

I’ve transformed my life and I’d like to help you transform yours–but only if you really, really, really want to. ?

There’s just that “if” in there. But you’ve got that, right? We’re in Part 7, if you don’t have it yet, you still have a few chapters to reign it in. But seriously, if you’re here reading Part 7, I’d venture to say that you do really, really, really want to.

Here’s the audio from a few minutes from part of my upcoming course (Spark Campfire) in which I talk about Tony. I recorded the video the day before he died.

I hope he’ll help me by inspiring others to create on a daily basis.

To see the video and learn more about Spark Campfire, you can see the course curriculum (and the “Preview”) here.

Peroration: a long speech characterized by lofty and often pompous language; the concluding part of a speech or discourse, in which the speaker or writer recapitulates the principal points and urges them with greater earnestness and force?

All you need to do is go to this link and get me the best email address where I can send you a code and we’ll be on our way:

esd.passthesourcream.com

Since I don’t want to put a list of free codes right here, you’re going to need to ask me for them. Manually. Then I’ll email a code to you. It’s as manual as that. Yep, we’re going old school. Click the link above.

Let me know what you think!

If you have your code and you came back here to get the link to redeem it, it’s here:

https://authors-direct.com/redeem/

I’m posting this bit of audio (which is a draft of my talk I’m giving this week called “The Power of Asking–and the Fear Behind Why We Don’t Do It“) to one of those times when we silently asked a question (which, ahem, means we weren’t asking it at all) and it was answered.

In the case I’m thinking of, John Muldoon answers my question, “When am I going to start writing and become a writer?” by setting up a daily writing habit for an experimental 30 days. A challenge I accepted (and continue to this day–I’m on day 2,352).

Every Single Day began on November 1, 2012 as a 30-day experiment to get me back into the writing habit.

Because I asked (albeit rather silently), he answered.

What are you holding back from asking?

What do you how often? Why? How’s that working out? I wanna know.

Also, I haven’t had 75 of them. How can we make those up to that date not the same?

Is the same so bad?

How can we make Every Single Year our greatest year yet?

But what about weekly, monthly, and annually?

What about something you only do Every Single Life?

What to do?

I spent many years slogging away and getting nowhere. Then I spent some more years slogging away harder and getting somewhere. Then I spent less energy and less time and got beyond where I thought I could ever go: anywhere.?

Strong emotions such as passion and bliss are indications that you’re connected to Spirit, or ‘inspired,’ if you will. When you’re inspired, you activate dormant forces, and the abundance you seek in any form comes streaming into your life.?

Then they might come back. 

But then they might go away again. 

If your audience is you, you know where you are. 

At least, probably. 

But you know it can still be better. How are you going to improve?

What if the doctor scribbled the prescription and instead of “medication” wrote “meditation”?

I’m just going to bust right through the wall of Part 5: Patience and slip in what I consider the greatest tool that has propelled me further than any other tool–and all other tools combined.

If Perseverance was torture, this is just salt in the wound. Or wounds. Yeah, sorry. ?But if Perseverance was like the time when you were on a long bike ride and at some point, you no longer realized you were still pedaling, then this is going to be fun.

There are so many reasons (aka excuses) we shouldn’t do this.

But we have done, we do, we will do.

“Practice, practice, practice. Oh when oh when am I going to get there?”

This squarely falls into the “Simple But Not Easy” category, but it’s a mindset shift, a slight change of the angle of perception. It’s still doing the same thing, but seeing it in a different light.?

Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect. Practice is Perfect.

To experience the highest levels of meditation, it doesn’t matter what chair you’re sitting in.

It’s OK if the chair isn’t your favorite, if your headphones only work through one ear, and you only have half an hour before you have to wake up the kids.

“Only brush the teeth you want to keep,” says the dentist.

Do you agree with the following statements?

• Only pursue your dream on days when you really feel inspired
• Don’t write when you know it’s going to be crap–wait for inspiration to strike. 
• Only work out when it feels good.

Consistency breeds creativity.

I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature. — John D. Rockefeller

You know the old saying, but it digs deep when you learn what you’re truly hiding from.

You can run, but you can’t hide from:

• Your dreams,
• Your passion,
• Yourself.

Just to play fair, here are things you can easily run and hide from:

• What others want (and/or expect) from you,
• Peer pressure,
• Sticking to a diet (or a plan or regimen etc.),
• Most everything else.

How many decisions do we make on a daily basis? What if we subtracted just one?

But we did it Every Single Day?

That would be 30 fewer decisions per month, 365 fewer per year. Think of the extra time, energy, and focus you will have. Not would have but will have. 

Did you catch that? You just made one decision less.

If you haven’t woken up to this productivity tip, you’re asleep at the wheel. 

(That’s a little productivity humor from a morning person. The rib-tickling comedy will grow on you. Keep reading.)

You can’t force inspiration. But you can force motivation which can lead to inspiration.

You can push or you can be pulled.

I pretty much forced my son into a four-day intensive basketball camp.

“You’ll like it, I promise,” I told him, knowing how much he loves basketball. He is coordinated and has some talent, but he’s not a big believer in practice. Or physical activity.

“It’s vacation; I want to chill.”

“Chill means doing absolutely nothing in front of a screen,” I replied.

“Exactly,” he said with pride that dad understood.

“It’ll be fun. You want to have some fun.”

“I’m not going.”

“You’ll love it.“

“I’ll hate it.”

“You’re going.”

He wasn’t thrilled to say the least. But he succumbed. And after day three, after eight hours on the court just that one day, we couldn’t get him off.

That’s motivation transforming into inspiration.

You do it even when you don’t think it’s helping. You do it when you are pretty certain it’s a complete waste of time. You do it when no one is watching, when no one cares, and you’re not even sure if you still care.

But you do.

So you do it.

I’m coming across more and more ESDers who do what they do Every Single Day because it has become who they are. There are:

1. Writers who write Every Single Day,
2. Business owners who meditate Every Single Day,
3. Athletes who train Every Single Day.

They know they don’t need to do it every day. If they missed a day, they are bothered, but it won’t break them, but they won’t miss two–and they probably even try to make up for the day they missed even though they know it doesn’t really matter.

It’s a choice. You choose to whine or you choose to improve.

Remember the rocket? Scary, right? If you’re concerned that you’re going to head off into the wrong trajectory, just stop that thinking right now. Feel better?

It’s much more important to take action, take a step, make the leap.

Of the sections of this book, Passion is either the easiest or the hardest. 

It’s the easiest if it’s crystal clear what your passion is. It’s also fairly easy if you have no idea: because you can figure it out. 

It’s the hardest if you think you know, but you’re doubting. 

Either way, it is terribly important. Vitally important.

You often hear the heart-torturing stories of someone who has come back from the depths of hell to rise up and go above and beyond where they started.

Yeah, you won’t have those anymore.

In keeping with the Casual Conversation style of this book, I’m going to occasionally let you in on some of the behind the scenes workings of the machine.

If you don’t water the plants until tomorrow, they’ll survive. 

If you don’t feed the dog until the weekend, he’ll probably live. He’ll even wag his tail and love you next week (if he survived the weekend of course). 

If you don’t take a stab at giving your dream a chance, if you keep putting it off until things are just right, until this project is completed and that task is taken care of … if you talk about your dream with friends as if you’re going to start any day now, but never do … if you go into long conversations with strangers on airplanes about your thoroughly researched plans for your dream future but you get off the plane and never speak of it … if you think that “someday” will come … if you wish and want and plead and pray, but take no action … if you keep it all bottled up inside and never let it out … if you think someone will come along one day and ask if you’re ready to begin day one of your dream … if you’re waiting … if you’re pretending … if you’re living the life you know is not the truest version of you … if you don’t take the first step, if you don’t give your dream a chance, at least a peek outside of its tightly-closed prison cell … if you don’t start.

I see this book as a conversation. A relaxed, usually calm conversation between you and me. Between the me of the past, present, and future and the you of the past, present, and future. Yeah, that’s going to be six people. We might want to set up a conference call.

Basically, I want people to realize the secret, the power of this. — Bradley Charbonneau

As I re-listen to this, there’s so much good and value coming out of Jeff Haws. I hope you enjoy the episode. 

If it were easy to write a book, everybody would write a damn book. — Jeff Haws

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination. — Tommy Lasorda

Do you believe that your dream, your passion, your goal, your whatever-you-want-to-call it, is possible or impossible? 

I no longer see possible and impossible as black and white, yes or no, zeros and ones. There is a third path. A method, a mindset, that finds another way around impossible and yet slides by the possible. It’s not necessarily better or worse, smarter, better, but it’s from another perspective, from a new perspective.

What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.? where we start from. — T. S. Eliot

I wanted to number this part of the book Part 0. But the book formatting software wouldn’t let me. That’s because zero doesn’t exist for most people. It hasn’t really started yet. Nothing begins with Day Zero. There is Day One and then the rest. But it’s true, Day Zero doesn’t actually exist. Day Zero is an idea, a thought, a potential.

Give someone who has faith in you a placebo and call it a hair growing pill, anti-nausea pill or whatever, and you will be amazed at how many respond to your therapy. — Bernie Siegel

There were two pills on the original cover of this book.

I’m a big believer in the power of the placebo, which is the power of the mind. My point with the pills on the cover is to make it seem like I have a “prescription” for change where I’m going to give you a magic pill and your dreams will come true.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Normally at the beginning of a book, there’s a prologue. Nope, not here. “Precaution” is much more appropriate.

Procrastination is going to have to wait until Part 2. (That’s a little word humor there. It’s OK, you’ll get used to it.)

And if you’d known Bradley back in 2012, like I did, you wouldn’t believe it either. If you’d asked me back then, I’d say there probably wasn’t going to be a real live book. Certainly not a sixth book. Not one like this.

Ach, all that reading? What, 192 pages? Overrated. Get the dog, head outside, put in your earbuds, and let me take you from Day Zero to Day One. It’s quite a journey, but don’t worry, I know where to go. Ready?

I spent 20+ years on this book. Then the last year writing it. It’s one of those “blood, sweat, and tears” books that pulls together the wisdom of many failures and finally success.

My goal is to save you from some of the many, many failures and get to the successes faster.

The book is available on Amazon, but I’ve decided to release the audiobook version as a podcast because I’m such an avid podcast listener and I want to give back to the community.

Also, I’ve received such fabulous feedback from the book that I just want it to land in the hands–or ears–of more and more people in hopes that my journey might help theirs.

I hope you enjoy “Every Single Day.” I’ll post a new chapter every week.

Here we go. Ready?