The Decision That Starts Every Book, Every Business, and Every Legacy

An Odd Comparison I Am Willing to Defend

My friend Trish gifted me an audio book a few days ago and told me I needed to read it, and I want to be honest with you about my first reaction. The title alone made me raise an eyebrow. That title, Unfu*k Yourself, is not a phrase you expect to hear from a woman who quotes Shakespeare and C.S. Lewis to her friends and clients. Trish knows me well enough to hand it over anyway, and once I started reading Gary John Bishop's book, I understood exactly why she did.

Here is the comparison I want to make, and I am willing to stand behind it even though I may sound strange at first. C.S. Lewis spent his career telling people the truth about themselves in language that cut through their excuses, whether he was writing about faith, grief, or the stories we tell ourselves to avoid harder paths. He believed in the power of words. 

My favorite quote from Lewis is, “You can make anything by writing.” 

Gary John Bishop does the same thing with a much rougher vocabulary. Neither man is interested in coddling you. Both men want you to stop negotiating with your own excuses and start living like the outcome actually matters to you.

I have laughed out loud reading this book, mostly at myself, or more accurately, at my thoughts. Bishop has a way of naming the exact mental gymnastics I go through on any random day, the tricks of the mind I play on myself, expecting the weather to cooperate with my hiking plans, my eighty-year-old cabin’s plumbing to hold up without incident, and the electricity to stay on while lightning and hail pelt my tin roof. 

Um, did I sign some kind of agreement with God, gravity, and my East Tennessee climate? Of course not. 

None of those owe me anything, and neither does the blank page owe an author a mood of inspiration before she is allowed to sit down and write.

I Am Willing.

The first assertion in Bishop's book is simple to say and hard to live:

I am willing, and that willingness cannot wait for the right mood or the right set of circumstances to show up first. 

Willingness means deciding now, whatever mess of a Tuesday you happen to be standing in, before every condition lines up the way you pictured it in your head.

Writers wait for willingness to arrive like a delivery truck, and authors who have finished a book know the truth nobody wants to hear. Willingness does not show up first. You choose it, and then the rest of the process starts responding to that choice. Entrepreneurs know this too, and so does every sad, tired, frustrated, but loving caregiver who gets up one more time in the night. Life does not wait for you to feel willing before it hands you the next hard thing. Your book, your business, and your legacy work the same way.

Your Book Series, Your Business, Your Legacy

Over the next several weeks, I am going to walk through all seven of Bishop's core assertions and connect them to the work I care about most, which is helping writers see their books, their book series, their businesses, and their legacies all the way through to the finish line. If you have an idea that has been sitting in a drawer or a note on your phone for longer than you want to admit, I am writing to YOU.

Willingness is where it starts. You do not need perfect weather, working plumbing, or an uninterrupted power supply. You need to decide, and then you need to act on that decision even when it is inconvenient.

Here’s a basic exercise to help you.

1. Set a timer for 2 minutes. Jot down every excuse you typically make to procrastinate writing. (My bet is that you and I can conjure up some amazingly creative excuses here!)
2. Reset the timer. Jot down every good outcome YOU will experience from writing.
3. Reset the timer. Complete this sentence over and over: 

I am willing to make the time to write because…

Your Next Step

If you are willing to stop waiting and start moving on the book idea or unfinished writing project you have been carrying, a Publishing Pathway Call with one of our Publishing Advisors is the right next step. In fifteen minutes, you can talk through where you are and what moving forward actually looks like for you.

Schedule your Publishing Pathway Call here: https://calendly.com/d/cwzb-ggb-pmx/publishing-pathway-call

Books live forever!

Jody Dyer, Founder and CEO, Crippled Beagle Publishing and Story Mountain Media