Mindset is Critical - Writing Affirmations

Welcome to Writing Week on Author Audience.

Welcome to the Author Audience show. The podcast that helps you reach more people with your message, create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Welcome back to another edition of Writing Week. This is a special week on my podcast where I'm talking all about my free seven day nonfiction writing challenge that you can find@writingweek.com now today is an extra special day. It's all about mindset.

And to be very honest, right before I started recording this podcast I just had something overwhelm me that just in my spirit. You know, those of you that are Christ followers know that sometimes you just get promptings or you can just sense something in your spirit. And I really have a sense that this is going to be a powerful episode for you. And the reason that I have a feeling about that or a thought about that is I know there are a lot of authors that struggle with mindset and struggle with not feeling good enough or with self doubt. Something I hear over and over from new authors especially is who's going to read my book? Who will want to buy my book? What if I put all this time and energy into my book and no one reads it or no one buys it?

And then there are those thoughts that I know every single one of us have at some point where we don't feel good enough or we feel like who am I to try to do this? Believe me, I have had those moments and I share in the members area of Writing Week a link to a replay where I talk about self sabotage. And I'm very real and very raw with some of my own struggles with it. But I'm excited for you today because there can be victory over these thoughts and over the mindset that's stopping you from being the light, from shining in a way that God has intended you to shine. In the Bible, John 10:10 says the thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have and enjoy life, have it in its abundance to the full till it overflows. This is from the amplified version. I just thought I would share from that. But when you look up the meaning of the word destroy in the original Greek language, like if you look on blueletterbible.org or another source for that, it actually means render useless.

Have you ever felt that you've gotten into a funk with your thoughts? You've gotten into a funk with not feeling good enough or feeling that overwhelming self doubt or self sabotage and feeling stuck?

If you have and You're a Christ follower. It could be a spiritual battle. It could be that the enemy is trying to stop you from moving forward, that the enemy is trying to stop you from sharing what God has given you to share. Can you hear the passion in my voice? I actually have tears in my eyes right now because I know that. I know that. I know that God has a plan for your life, and it's to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a Future. That's Jeremiah 29:11. And I know that that future and that hope encompasses the gifts he's given you. And so I would love nothing more than to see you get unstuck in your writing. And so mindset has a lot to do with it. So my husband C.J. and I, we came together and I knew that I wanted to provide an amazing resource for you. I knew that.

What I've done in my life spiritually is I've written out the lies that I believe from the enemy, and then I write out God's truth from Scripture. And there have been seasons in my life where I'm literally walking. I was walking around with note cards of the truths that I wrote out from Scripture. Well, this is a similar concept, except it might be that you've had what I like to call stinkin thinkin' or, you know, some of those negative thoughts regarding your writing. And it's time to change that into something positive, into something that is God's truth. And so I have. My husband and I came together and he helped me. We wrote 72 affirmations for writers. Now, this list may grow over time. You know, if you're listening to this later and you sign up for writingweek.com, you may find there's more than 72. But right now there's 72 affirmations. We've created and written 45 general affirmations. And then we have a separate PDF just for 27 affirmations based on scriptures. So if you're a Christ follower, there will be actual scriptures in there that are reworded for writers. So let me give you a few examples from the PDFs we created. Here's a few examples from the general affirmations for writers. My time invested in writing is productive time. Sometimes we may have that thought that, oh, I'm wasting my time. I'm not getting anything done. But when we have these affirmations, we say, my time invested in writing is productive. We're setting up the stage. Stage to have a productive writing session. Here's another one. With confidence in my message, I know my target reader will benefit from my book. Here's another one I enjoy finishing what I start.

Writing is one of the ways I show love to others by sharing my knowledge, insights and wisdom. My story matters, so you get the idea. There are all these affirmations and what I recommend in Writing Week is that you actually read through the list that we've created for you. Because I know sometimes I've done this before for my own personal growth and I know it's hard to just sit there and come up with them on your own. But what I recommend you do is that you go through all of these and then you find the ones that really resonate with you and you're like, yes, like this one really resonates with me. I write in order to share my powerful message that resonates with me. So you can just go through and read all of them and find the ones that really resonate with you. And I recommend you write them out on note cards, on post it notes somewhere where you'll see them all the time and actually read them out loud. There is power in saying these out loud. And then we have another PDF that's just Scriptures reworded for writers. So here's an example. As I write, I set my sights on heaven, not on earth. This allows God to receive glory. Colossians 3:1:2 My weakness is an opportunity for God's power to shine. 2 Corinthians 2:12 9 through Christ, God supplies all my writing needs.

In times where I have trouble writing, God is always there for me as my refuge and strength. Psalm 46:1 so you get the idea. What we've done is we've taken scriptures and basically reworded them. You can use these as affirmations, as prayers, as you know, whatever works best for you. But once you're in writingweek.com in the members area on day five, you will be able to download these PDFs and I really truly believe with all my being that this is critical to your success. Being able to overcome that stinking thinking, those negative thoughts, the same self doubt, the self sabotage I truly believe can take you from stuck to success, can take you to the next step. And so I am so excited to hear.

What affirmations you choose, what affirmations resonate with you. So make sure to share those in the comments and I will look forward to seeing them.

I also wanted to share another scripture today. It comes from Romans 12:2. Those of you that know the Bible well will Be familiar with this verse. This is from the New Living translation and it says, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Did you catch that?

Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing. Perfect. I love that promise. It's a promise from God that he is able to transform us. No matter where you're at right now, no matter what you're going through, no matter how much you're struggling, God is able to transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. And I really believe that when we take that step, step towards God.

He just takes a thousand steps towards us. And so when we begin to put these affirmations into our minds, we begin to repeat them. We begin to believe them. God is able to transform us into a new person and use us in ways we never thought possible. So thank you so much for joining me on this special edition. I want to close today's episode by introducing you to James. He is just having amazing success in writing week and I want to share his success with you.

James Forshe here to tell you about the success I had during your writing chat a week challenge. I just want to say thank you. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to focus my mind in a way that I can accomplish more writing, which is my dream. Before this week I was fumbling around with my writing. This week helped me to focus, to take time every day to to write something, whether it was 15 minutes or two hours. It helped me to write. That is what it's all about. It was like I was on an adventure. I was headed towards my goal. This week I accomplished 7,000 words. It felt great. I haven't actually done that much writing in short story segments every day ever. And I just want to thank you, Shelly, for this opportunity. I want to encourage anyone listening to this. Give this gift to yourself. This is a great way to help focus your mind and get some writing done. My website is hugadream.com hu g a d r e a m dot com my name is James Forshe. The title of my book Cracking the Faith Code. The truth about leadership and how faith can help you lead a successful life. Thank you and God bless you.

So come over to writingweek.com join us and make sure that you download all all the resources that I've provided for you. On day five is where you'll find the PDFs for the affirmations I mentioned today. I'm so thankful for each one of you and it is my hope and my prayer that this podcast is helping you move one step closer to reaching more people with your message and allowing your God given gifts to shine. Thank you again for joining me on this special episode for Writing Week and I'll see you next time.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her Six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.