Feeling Stuck – When It’s No Longer Worth It

Posted on November 4, 2018 by admin

By Avery Baxter

picture of man in rain

Picture by David Lally at Wikimedia Commons

Feeling stuck is terrible. When you are feeling stuck, it seems as if nothing that you think, do or meditate on makes any difference. If your struggle is relational, you might pray that a colleague respect you and stop speaking to you in a condescending tone. You might even treat the colleague to lunch, schedule time to engage in one-on-ones with the colleague or ask the colleague to let you know if there is something that you could do or say to improve the relationship.

No to slow positive change

And yet, nothing happens. At best, your colleague treats you like a part of the team for a few hours, maybe even one to two days. Then, it’s back to normal. Speaking with human resources and your supervisor only backfire, as HR and your supervisor merely schedule a meeting with your colleague and share key points that you told them about the situation.

Depending on your situation, the problem could escalate in ways that you never imagined. In this case, the only change would be an unwanted change. Before long, you could start feeling stuck and like nothing that you do is worth it.

That’s just one example.

As an entrepreneur, you could feel stuck for a myriad of reasons. Slow to now sales is a leading reason why you might be feeling stuck. If you reach this point, get still on the inside. Check with your higher self and see if you still believe that it’s worth it to go after what you’ve potentially spent years seeking.

Feeling stuck could signal impending change

After all, feeling stuck could be a sign that it’s time to change course. It could be a sign that it’s time to focus on something different. Also, the feeling stuck experience could derive from the fact that a part of you wants to advance while another part of you wants to retreat.

One thing is certain, feeling stuck does not mean that things will never change. What it could mean is that:

  • You are going to have to relinquish an old way of thinking
  • Leaving a job, relationship, town, etc. is a must (even if you’re terrified to let it go)
  • What you have been doing has run its course
  • Old patterns are being broken up (again, it could really be time to let go of past thought and behavior patterns)

If you continue to struggle, consider working with a life coach or a therapist. Working with a therapist doesn’t mean that you are mentally imbalanced. It could mean that there are blind spots of thinking or behaving that you’re missing.

The sooner you see these blind spots and take action on them, the sooner you could start to move forward or advance. Here are some more decisions and actions that could help you to stop feeling stuck:

  • Eat more natural foods and drink more fresh water
  • Sleep eight to nine hours at night
  • Turn off the television or radio and close the blinds at night to enjoy deeper sleep
  • Write in a journal (This could help you to honor your feelings. Journaling can also help you to spot patterns.)
  • Read positive books that are written by people who were once feeling stuck but who advanced
  • Exercise outdoors for at least one consecutive hour a day (jumping in and out of your car to go shopping doesn’t count)
  • Reduce or eliminate the amount of time that you spend with toxic, gossipy, back biting and manipulative people
  • Speak three to five positive things about yourself in the morning and again at night (do this even if a part of your mind tries to talk you out of doing this)
  • Say “I love you” to yourself when you wake and when you go to bed

List challenges that you have already overcome (You know you can succeed! You’ve already done it before!)


Believe in your higher self. Refuse to get comfortable with feeling stuck. It feels bad for a reason. You deserve to feel good. Make peace and joy your goals. Try different, positive actions and thoughts to free yourself from feeling stuck, so you can move forward. But, again, be open to change, including letting toxic relationships go (even if a part of you thinks that those toxic relationships are keeping you safe somehow).

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Feeling Stuck – When It’s No Longer Worth It

Book Selling Strategies That Work

Posted on September 16, 2018 by admin

By Charles Dundley

sell more booksBook selling requires focus, persistence, passion and the right book selling strategies. Identifying and building relationships with your book reader audience is key to each effective strategy. So, how do you identify the right book readers?

Here are two key book selling strategies

Begin by considering the novel or nonfiction book that you wrote. What are the two to three central themes that your book focuses on? Those themes might range from romance to small town mystery to 17th century Indigenous history to Negro League sports baseball icons.


There are people who would spend time and money to learn more about life events and subjects that they feel happy, excited, satisfied or entertained discovering more about. In some cases, book readers, particularly in the nonfiction realm, are easy to find.

You could find these readers by searching through hobby directories, professional memberships, meet ups, topic specific clubs and subject based festivals. Let’s say that your book theme is wood cutting. Colleges that confer wood cutting certificates and diplomas, LinkedIn wood cutting discussion groups and wood cutting meet ups are good places find your right readers.

Building book reader relationships

Identifying your book’s readers is strategy number one. It’s a step that some authors overlook, especially writers who try to convince themselves that their book is for everyone. Building relationships with these readers is the second of several book selling strategies.

Here are easy ways to build book reader relationships. As with any rewarding relationship, it takes time and genuine interest in other people to implement this second book selling strategy effectively.

  • Attend festivals, lectures and meet ups that highlight central themes in your book. For example, if you mystery novels, you could attend mystery theater lectures or historic mystery tours. Don’t just attend these events. Ask people questions. Introduce yourself and start conversations.
  • Leave bookmarks that include your author website URL with each and every person that you meet.
  • Follow people who follow you on social media, people who list passions for themes that you write about on their social media profiles
  • Comment directly to people who posts feedback on your YouTube, Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter and other accounts
  • Set aside 15 or more minutes a day to check on social media accounts
  • Schedule automatic social media posts (don’t make potential book buyers wait long stretches before they hear from you)
  • Teach courses at community colleges that focus on themes that you write about. Include your book titles in your bio that accompanies the course synopsis
  • Encourage friends and relatives to purchase copies of your books

 

More book selling strategies

More book selling strategies require you to get out from behind your computer. As you implement each strategy, make building relationships (not selling books) the priority. These additional book selling strategies include:

  • Subscribe to Help a Reporter Out (HARO), subscription based news outlets and media outlets (like radio station newsletters)
  • Email reporters, interviewers and journalists when they seek guests who are knowledgeable about topics that your book focuses on
  • Complete at least two book selling strategies a day
  • Write on a new book every day, every week at the very least. Writing new material is a strong motivator to keep marketing and selling books
  • Schedule and show up for two radio interviews a week
  • Add a blog to your author website
  • Create a website for your most recent book, a website that is separate from your author website
  • Add effective meta tags to your author website and blog
  • Start a video channel and publish a new video once or twice a week
  • Build an author central page at Amazon.com
  • Giveaway free copies of your books to media, entertainment and book club influencers


    Don’t overlook the fact that the best way to build courage to meet the right book readers and build rewarding relationships with these people is to right your best book. Do this every time that you sit down to write. When you know how valuable your book is, it becomes easier to share the book with others.
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Book Selling Strategies That Work

Turn Your Home Into a Smart School Learning Zone

Posted on August 5, 2018 by admin

By Charles Dundley

school learning at home

By Dinaabc at Wikimedia Commons

It might be time to turn your home into a learning zone. As some educators have discovered, an effective way to sharpen student academic performance is to keep learning going. Because your child may spend more time at home than at any other single location, second to a classroom teacher, there may be no one with as much influence on your child’s academic success than you.

Historically traditional school schedules might stall learning

You are the one who could keep your child from going months without reading, writing or sharpening their artistic skills. One of your greatest aids in this pursuit is your home. Additionally, you might not be alone in your work.


Schools in Western and Southern states have started to require students to attend classes year round. Instead of the previously three month summer vacation, students receive two to three week reprieves from school. Shorter breaks from the classroom could enhance student learning.

After all, the longer children go without challenging themselves academically, the more children might forget what they learned during the final months of school. This unfortunate back step is what pushes teachers to spend the first one to two months of the new school year reviewing old lesson material.

Eliminate long learning breaks at home

Steps that you could take to close this learning gap are relatively inexpensive. If you’re a book lover, it might be free to implement some of these steps:

  • Add one to two bookcases to your child’s bedroom. Fill the bookcases with empowering, entertaining and education books.
  • Other places to stock bookcases with great books at home are your finished basement, family room and den.
  • Visit the library with your child. Get your children a library card. Letting them check out and return books by scheduled due dates could not only help your children to learn, it could also teach your children how to be responsible.
  • At least two or more times a month, stop by a local bookstore. Smaller bookstores might offer classes that teach children art skills. Other bookstores might bring in children’s book authors.
  • Read to your children before they go to bed at night. Enrich your voice with inflection and enthusiasm. Strong readings could inspire a lifelong passion for books and reading in your children.
  • Perform science and arts projects with your kids during summer months and other times when your child has a two week or longer school break.
  • Let older children grocery shop, so they can put their math skills to practical use.

Turning your home into a smart learning zone could produce lasting results
Ensuring that your children finish their homework isn’t the only action that you could take to support your child’s academic journey. You could positively influence your child’s academic success by turning your home into a smart learning zone.

A good way to strengthen the influence that upgraded home designs have on your child’s learning is to pursue ongoing learning for yourself. Let your child see you reading. Take your child with you on visits to museums, libraries, bookstores and science and arts centers.


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Turn Your Home Into a Smart School Learning Zone

Book Sales Require Consistent Efforts

Posted on July 5, 2018 by admin

By Eartha Marks

books on loveBook sales demand passion, focus and consistent effort. It’s simply not enough to write a book, even an amazing page turner. If you plan on yielding ongoing book sales, you need to apply consistent effort. This means that you must commit a certain amount of time to book marketing.

Consistent book sales demands consistent book marketing

It’s also advantageous to schedule specific days of the week that you will write books and market books that you have already written and published. Don’t create a mental schedule. It’s too easy to lie to yourself, it’s far too easy to deceive yourself about what you’re really getting done with this mental approach.


Your book marketing efforts are going to force you to narrow your book marketing platforms and your target audience. You simply cannot effectively market your books on every social media sites. You also may not be able to take advantage of every print book marketing opportunity.

For example, you may not be able to distribute 5,000 book marks, postcards and catalogs to potential book buyers. You also might not be able to develop and distribute newsletters, press releases, blog posts and one-pagers each month for two years and longer.

Zone in on your book marketing target audience to gain more book sales

Narrow the range of your book marketing focus and you may have more success finding and engaging your book target audience. As part of a narrow book marketing strategy, you might:

• Schedule automated social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Google Plus 8 to 10 times a week. Study the results that you gain from social media book marketing posts. Evidence that surfaces during the study can reveal the best days and times to post certain content like pictures, videos and quotes.
• Conduct one to two radio interviews a week. if you work a full-time job to supplement money that you earn from book sales, open up to conducting radio interviews on a Saturday or maybe even a Friday evening and a Saturday morning.
• Develop and distribute a newsletter that spotlights your books once a month. One way to save time with a newsletter is to schedule feature interviews with literary influencers like editors, other book writers, book marketers and book club presidents.
• Buy car magnets that highlight you book covers. Actually use these book car magnets.
• Write and publish one blog posts or website article that centers around topics featured in your books.
• Write a book review column for a local, national or international newspaper or magazine. Include your name, book website and book titles in your byline.

The above is by no means all inclusive. But, you can see how many action steps are involved in consistent book marketing. Stick with an action plan for at least a year. Monitor the results of your book marketing efforts.


You’ll have to adjust your consistent book marketing efforts as you continue to spread the word about your books. Rather than to simply change what you’re doing, you want to make the right book marketing adjustments, the type of marketing that yields more and more book sales.

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Book Sales Require Consistent Efforts

5 Things That Can Make You Love Coming Home

Posted on June 3, 2018 by admin

house photoGive yourself these five reasons to love coming home before you buy your next house. There are only five elements to look for in your next home which makes this task sound easy. But, here’s the thing. Realtors generally won’t be able to help you with these five elements. Only you will fully know when you’ve found the house that allows to check each of these items off of your house hunting list.

All it takes is these five to love coming home

Yet, it’s also a fact that to truly appreciate your house, you need to enjoy the floor plan or layout, space, decor, material and interior and exterior amenities. But, this may not be enough to make you love coming home. In fact, to truly love coming home, you need strong positive emotion connections to your house.


Choose the wrong house and you might not develop strong positive feelings for the residence even if you live at the property for a decade or longer. Strong positive emotions are what keep couples in a renovated house on popular television shows even when they are presented with a beautiful new house that meets all of their family’s lifestyle needs.

But, how do you get to those enduring emotions at home? What are the five elements that make you love coming home? Here they are:

  • Balanced emotions – Even if you spend eight or less hours a day at home, you should feel emotionally balanced at home. This means that you should feel relaxed, less stressed, more hopeful and even cared for while at home.
  • Pursuing passions – A good house is designed to make it easier for you to pursue your passions. For example, if you’re a painter, you might do well with a house that has an outdoor area that you could turn into a studio.
  • Connectivity – Everyone in your family should feel like she or he is part of a uniquely connected unit. Although an open floor plan helps with this, so too does the energy in a house.
  • Air flow – Good air flow is a must. Gain good air flow and you could live free of mold, rust and dampness.
  • Dependability – The structure of the house that you buy should be dependable. The house should hold up during storms, a settling period or renovations.

Get the joy at home that belongs to you

You wouldn’t be alone if you felt confused as to why you don’t love your new house. Confusion around the dissatisfaction that you feel about your house can swell if you spent weeks searching for a new home. It only worsens if you spent so much on a house that you’re now in financial debt. Yet, it doesn’t have to be this way.


It is ultimately up to you to decide what makes you love coming home. That’s because no one knows you like you do. So, the next time that you go house hunting, pause and consider what you value most. Think about what deeply matters to you. Ask yourself if the house you’re seriously considering buying has the important five elements.

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5 Things That Can Make You Love Coming Home