Imagine having a dream for more than ten years and wondering what it might look like when its finally birthed. That give you a taste for the journey I have been on as I took late-night notes, scribbled ideas and recorded the occasional brain spasms of driving or showering thoughts.
For a long time, a number of creative thoughts from books to songs and even movie scripts have been bubbling away. This year some focus and a decision needed to be made. In Easter I took a few days off work around the holiday work to start preparation for writing a book. One of the best things I did in advance was to go through Michael Hyatt’s Get Published course. This helped me realise that understanding your audience was as much, if not more important, than writing the book. With this thinking in mind I started to refine my book focus around the key areas I felt the topic had to be directed.
In the average airport bookstore, there are generally two types of self-development books that I have noticed.
The hero storybooks will tell the tale of an individual someone surviving against all odds to be “a better person”. They are inspirational and yet too far removed from most of the ‘rest of us’. Whether the poor kid turned billionaire entrepreneur, the celebrity of sport, music or film, or the overcomer that has survived a personal tragedy, they all seemed out of reach.
For the other second category, we find the formula digests. Dissolving a three score and ten life into a twelve-step program, they seem to sell gold lace on a shoestring to the $14.99 buyer. Better than ‘hey presto’, the formula book indicates life can be driven by a process that apparently that fits all.
As I was only too aware that my own life hadn’t followed either of those two pathways, it was clear that probably my neighbour, friends and family’s didn’t either. From here I wanted to see a book written for the everyman. Something that applies to real-life every day. The hero story says you will have one big event and you can come through it as the conqueror of the dragon. The formula book will say you can face a moment in life where you now understand the makeup of the universe and start following the formula only to live happily ever after.
Which brings us to a podcast called Reset42. In this weekly program, I hope we can meet real people who have been able to reset, their way, in their time. Sometimes it will be the story of courage, other times a wakeup call on why life has been passing them by, and more often than not a realignment of dreams and purpose that brings an individual back to their true north.
For the first seven weeks, I will walk you through some triggers I identified in my week’s book preparation. It may not be the end of that discovery but its a start. Then we move into the first of our interviews with my guests. We also have created a Facebook page and group where I hope you will receive some inspiration for your own journey.
