The Future is Here

The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our
work and find in it our pleasure.
– Francoise de Motteville

In Issue #218

The Future is Here
by Monica Day

At this year’s AWAI bootcamp, Krista and I had this very strange moment of realizing that the future plans we discussed while sitting at the very same table last year were coming to pass.

We had discussed wanting to be publishers rather than freelance copywriters by this year. To cut back on our projects and clients and instead spend our time developing our own publications and products.

As we sat there and looked at the opportunities on our plate, we realized that the intention we spoke to one another last year had come to fruition. What made it strange was that I didn’t feel ready to have done the thing I already did!

Does that make any sense at all? Let me explain.

I often experience life as one long preparation for some future moment. I’m a forward thinker – and I feel lucky when I say that many of these plans and dreams have become my reality. Like becoming a six-figure copywriter … having my two children … and being self-employed for the last six years.

But sometimes, I feel resistance. In this case, it was much easier for me to see myself as a freelance copywriter, and to take on other people’s projects, than to see myself as a publisher. After all, I had spent years working in sales, and also had a background as a writer. Copywriting was such a natural fit for me, it felt like breathing.

This next step also feels natural – like something I was always meant to do. But it is more responsibility, more work, more learning and growing, more of a risk during uncertain times – than anything else I’ve ever done.

Hardest of all, it requires much, much more self-discipline and motivation. There isn’t even a client breathing down my neck or a deadline to meet!

There is nothing more than my own desire to be the thing I have said I am.

You remember how it was when you were little? You were going to be an astronaut one week, President of the United States the next week, and a police officer the next. Your ideas of who you could be were grandiose – and because you were a kid, everyone around you thought it was cute and encouraged you.

As we get older, though, doubts creep in. Somehow, our vision of who we can be gets smaller as we get bigger.

I offer this only as something to notice. Purely for the purposes of resisting the pull to stay small and leave your dreams on the shelf.

So, back to that moment at the table with Krista …

It dawned on me that I was no longer TRYING to become a publisher and develop my own products … I was actually doing it!

The future had shown up in the form of the present. And I had to admit to myself that there was only one thing holding me back: it was me!

Since bootcamp, I feel much more aligned. My days feel more focused, the tasks ahead of me are clear and distinct, and the learning curve ahead of me feels substantial…but reasonable. All it took was my own willingness to acknowledge that the future was at hand. That I was no longer becoming a publisher … I am one. Now, it’s time to act like one, make money like one, and feel like one.

What are you trying to be in 2009? And what idea of yourself needs to change for you to actually become the person you are trying to be?

More important – is it possible that you too, like me, already are that which you are seeking to become? It’s an important distinction. Making the shift in your head usually means your time, your tasks and your cash flow will follow.

Resource Referral: See You in Austin in February?

My next big step is to make sure I am in Austin this February for AWAI’s Web Copywriting Intensive. In fact, I’ll be the Roving Reporter for the big event – and will not only be sucking up every morsel of information for myself, but of course, sharing it with both CP and AWAI readers as well.

But if you are serious about making it this year – either as a copywriter, or in any kind of online business venture, you should do more than read my reports. You should join me there. (Um, yes, I’ll be in every cheap music dive and pub crawling, too – and could use a posse for that as well!)

But the line-up of people here is amazing. I know many of them personally – and respect them immensely professionally.

Best of all, AWAI is offering a discount of the fee to attend for a very limited time.

I know it’s the holidays, times are tough, blah, blah, blah. I feel the crunch of all that too. But I also know this is the best thing I can do to become the person I already am!

(I also realized at bootcamp that 2009 is my 7th year in this business … and I am under the gun to make my Seven Figures in Seven Years so I can make an honest man out of my mentor, Michael Masterson – who included me in this book of the same title! I am looking to this Intensive to put me over the edge and on my way! Please join me!)

Quick Technology Tip: Resistance is Inevitable

OK, it’s here. The Lenovo ThinkPad x300. I am writing you on it. Next to me on the table, my new Blackberry. At home still in its package … the Zune (think iPod for PC).

I finally have all the toys – the whole upgrade I’d been resisting. And guess what?

I’m still resisting!!!

Getting a new computer is not unlike taking on a new lover. There are the compatibility issues, getting it set up with your preferences, dedicating the time to making the relationship meaningful.

Sigh.

Don’t expect an upgrade – in technology or life – to come easy. Expect to go through a roller coaster of emotions – from wanting it, working for it, even resisting it. And ultimately, for it to re-shape your idea of who you are.

Let yourself go slow – take it one keystroke at a time – until you have the whole combination working together in a relationship that unleashes your creativity.