One thing I´m good at is following through. This became especially apparent to me in that I´m finishing my last week of classes as a school teacher. And when I say this, I mean my last week of classes EVER! That´s right, my coaching business has liberated me from my day job. It´s robust enough to go full time!

Whether it’s your book, a day job, or anything you’re taking through the final steps, as you get around to finishing, you´re working through the hardest part. You’ve felt this. What began as an ecstatic and inspired idea, now moves more slowly as you get to the end.

However, when you're honest and admit that finishing is a different animal then starting, there are simple strategies that can carry you through. Here are three quick tips to make sure you don't fall off the wagon, before you cross the finish line.

Your book could really make an impact and serve the world. Imagine that. Think about the readers you want to reach and the difference you want to make.

Now all you have to do is write it. That´s all.

Forgive the sarcasm, I only mean it playfully. Over and over, people come to me with a great deal of inspiration, but the plan, the structure, the execution… all of that gets a little blurry.

If you have an idea for a book that lights you up inside, trust me, you have everything you need to put it into the world. However, you need to convert it from a vague idea into a real vision with true clarity.

No matter how experienced you are at writing and creating, this still comes up: FEAR. One moment you're excited and inspired, and the next moment you freeze. Your project seems impossible, impractical, or worse, embarrassing! Thus, you fold it up into a paper airplane and launch it for the trash.

As your writing coach, I want to tell you, “Stop right there!”

The stuff that brings up intense fear is usually your gutsiest most glorious material. You just have to work with it a little.

If you make working through fear a habit, the rewards are unbelievable. Your biggest professional and creative breakthroughs will come from working through fear. That’s why I’ve created this 5 step worksheet to help you out. Here we go!

Have you ever been challenged by a glut of emotion that stopped you from writing your book? This could come in a variety of forms, anxiety, sadness, insecurity, or a bomb of self-criticism. And it seems that just on the other side of this emotional wall there is the dream of that book. You just have to get to the other side.

Here’s the thing that most people know intuitively, but not just anybody can explain: When you create something to be put out into the world, it heals you. As a writing coach, this is a pattern I see over and over again. People start to write the book they were meant to write, and then receive all these spiritual breakthroughs. That's where energy work makes all the difference!

Many writers are introverts. We cherish our time alone with our notebooks pondering things: a table alone at a cozy café, solitary hours overlooking a placid lake, time to ourselves with a book. That’s our comfort zone.

As a result, the simple act of getting out of our easy chair, socializing and discovering a couple of running buddies can lead to revolutionary progress.

Personally, I almost hate to be reminded of that. Where do I even find these amazing people? Does this mean I have to walk into a party and introduce myself? Do I have to start asking people to mentor me? Gross.

The first thing you need to do is memorize this mantra: Wherever I am is exactly where I need to be.

These days, a lot of people manifesting all over the place. The results are pretty amazing. Just last month I opened my mind, said a prayer, and wrote 8 things I was ready to receive. These were high hopes that I didn’t even consider probable (due to limiting beliefs) and within 24 hours, 5 of them were at my doorstep. In 2 weeks, all of them and more. Things like money, new relationships and recognition in my career.

Where the heck did that power come from? How did I not know my own talents in sorcery? Why have I wasted so much time underestimating myself?

These are questions we could all ask ourselves.

When I was a 6th grade teacher we read A Wrinkle in Time as a class, and it was so much fun! I was elated to hear it was coming out as a movie, and was in line at the theater the night it came to Bogotá! Fabulous, by the way.

In my 6th grade class, I loved how we could get into these crazy imaginative conversations where everything we call “reality” became a little more flexible. Especially time and space. I would lead them to Cartagena in a guided meditation and call it "tessering."

Now I’m a writing coach and I perform the same bending and wrinkling of reality, especially with time. The number one excuse to procrastinate writing a book is a lack of time. It’s the predominate reason that we pile on top of all the other reasons that we couldn’t possibly become a published author.

Success freaks me out. That's pretty much the definition of an Upper Limit Problem. I make some great progress, even hit a breakthrough, and then comes the whiplash. Oh God what have I done? This is not my comfort zone! Take it all back! The award, the money, the happiness! I'm not used to this!

It sounds funny, but I'm not the only one. Have you ever had a great writing day where you feel really inspired, and then 24 hours later you doubt everything? Is that an upper limit problem?

Yup. You got it.

As a writer, are you developing your intuitive skills? I’m telling you, it’s the best way to increase your creative flow, not to mention it’s a blast.  The structure, aesthetic, not to mention the material itself, all comes from intuitive capacities. Whether you´re writing fiction or nonfiction, all of your creative ideas come through intuition.

When you block that flow it feels like you´re pen has dried up. 

Of course, I love talking about ways to develop your intuition by noticing synchronicity and coming out of the spiritual closet. But this week I want to talk about the biggest block. It’s a simple phrase: “It’s just my imagination.” If you have an idea that’s been nudging you and could quite possibly become a book, that single phrase will shut down your entire internal messaging system.

I´ll never forget the weekend I received my first Julia Cameron book as a gift from my mother. It was the week the United States invaded Iraq, March 20th, 2003.

I remember it so vividly because we had been visiting my Aunt in Minneapolis. At the time she worked for these Irish nuns, The Sisters of St. Joseph, and that weekend they protested in the middle of the St. Patrick´s Day parade with cardboard posters that said, “Wars Stop Parades.”

They were so determined, so brave. The school bands, and giant balloons and candy throwers all had to walk around them. It was an uncomfortable moment. Although they were not arrested, they had to be escorted away by the police. I watched on the sidelines and wanted so badly to have that kind of courage.

Congratulations! You’re reading a blog post on rejection! That must mean that you’re up to something, a launch, a risk, a goal, a contest or something new that could possibly fail.

Plenty of people spend their lives avoiding rejection and end up avoiding growth. That’s why I say, Congratulations! Let’s talk about rejection.

It’s been said a million times that successful people aren’t afraid of rejection, or at least they know how to deal with it. Does this mean they have a really high tolerance for pain? Not necessarily. They may just have a perspective on rejection that makes it a lot less painful.

I know that was my experience.

In my experience as a writer there are certain touchstones that carry you from the first page of writing a book, to the last.  For me, one of these has always been exploring etymologies. When I begin to write a story, I pick a few important words that capture the essence of what I’m writing and then I look up the etymologies. I continually go back to them. They become my magic words, the abracadabra of the project

Actually, when I was leaving home to go to college one of my graduation presents was a beautiful red dictionary, and I remember sitting on my dorm room floor, and just getting lost in the labyrinth of the meaning behind the meaning behind the meaning of words as you go back through the centuries. It’s like discovering the secrets of things people say every day, but they don’t know what they really mean.

Classically, people think of writing as a solitary activity. If you want to be a successful author you have to sit in alone in a room, like a monk and think.

That, my friend, will drive you crazy.

One of the most important factors to writing success is finding a "running buddy," someone you check in with, share ideas and frustrations as you advance upon the journey. It makes the whole experience more pleasurable and productive.

Sometimes people don´t follow their creative inklings because it "serves no productive purpose." Creativity can be thought of as frivolous, childish and even selfish. This could not be further from the truth.

That which arises in your imagination does so for an essential reason. We know people would go clinically insane without night dreams, and I would say that the same is true for daydreams. Without dreams and fantasies, what's the point? Without reaching for something higher, the whole game falls a part.

There's a point at which being practical simply becomes absurd. Did we really become human merely to eat, sleep and survive? No, we are human to express ourselves, create beauty, reflect on life and connect with one another. Obviously that higher level of human existence is what makes surviving worth while. 

Lately I'm so excited that my book, The Meaning Method: Transform Writer's Block into Creative Epiphanies is available for pre-order! I have such fond memories of the moment I got the first inkling. I still remember the taste of the mountain air as I walked to catch the bus to work. I had a question in my head:

"What are the five steps you'd give someone if they asked you how to write a book?"

Suddenly, five chapters flashed into my mind with such force that I couldn't wait to arrive at the bus stop bench to write them down.

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is, “How do I find my voice?” As a coach, it’s been wonderful and paradoxical to help people find something that is impossible to lose. But I will say, it gets blocked off all the time.  We get hypnotized away from our own voice. We pretend we aren’t ourselves. Myself included.

It reminds me of a Rumi quote that I just love, “You wander from room to room searching for the diamond necklace that is already around your neck.” Rumi makes this process sound obvious, but it’s easier said than done. It’s okay to spend time wandering, in fact it’s usually an amazing journey of discovery.

After we get that first spark of inspiration, the next major block rears it’s terrible fangs. Those malicious protests cascade in, “It’s already been done before,” “I’ll never do it as well as that person did,” and my personal favorite, “Everybody wants to write a book.”

If your inner voice ever tells you, “Everybody wants to write a book,” you know it’s your critic because obviously we can find a use for more than one book in this world.

Perhaps someone has written a book on your topic or genre, in fact, I’m sure they have, but your true vision and contribution are in the detail. You will really start to distinguish yourself when you go deeper and sketch things out. This is an exciting step!

We can waste a lot of time waiting for inspiration, hiding behind indecision, and unable to get started. Some people say inspiration is mysterious, it comes and goes, and you can’t tell what it’s going to do.  As a coach, I find that’s not true. A simple conversation can get my writers sparked again. Plus, you don’t have to talk to me to do this. You can do it for yourself.

Usually all we need to do is move back into that playful and excited creative mind. When we take ourselves less seriously our juiciest work comes out. As Albert Einstein says, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”

That’s why, during the next three weeks, I want to experiment with the chakras. You may never have tried playing with your chakras, maybe you’ve never even heard of them. Don’t worry, that will only make it more fun.

Lately, I believe the best thing to happen for writers is an exciting spiritual practice such as energy work, meditation, manifesting, and visualization. After all, when we pick up our manuscript, we're really doing soul work. Therefore a steady spiritual practice can keep us inspired and excited with a steady productive output. 

However, it occurred to me that all these "woo woo" spiritual practices don't exactly take me out of the crazy category when I sat down for Christmas dinner with my extended mid-western family. 

This new year, I plunged into my blog with fresh excitement. I opened a new document, took a deep breath, and immediately froze. Nothing whatsoever came to mind.

Has this ever happened to you?

The stream of consciousness went a bit like this: "New Year, new page! Yay! Wait a second, that's a blank page. Blank page?! I have no idea what to write, I don't even know where to start, what am I going to do? Brain fog, brain fog, brain fog...

Then it was my mom, actually, who came up with this brilliant method that will continue to inspire me for all the years to come.