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Jump-Start: A free guide to help you jump-start your nonfiction book.

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Episode Transcript

Hey there and welcome to Nothing but the Words. I’m your author coach, Candice L Davis.

I hope your week and your writing are going well.

My week has been super busy but it’s going fantastic because I’m still riding on a conference high.

If you’ve ever been to a really great conference you know you come home and you’re filled with ideas and adrenaline and action to take.

It’s not that kind of hype you feel after you listen to a motivational speaker. For me, that tends to fade within a day or two.

It’s motivation yes, but it’s also having a switch flipped in your head because you learned something new or you had a breakthrough of some kind.

I spent the weekend at Confidence Activated, hosted by my coaching client, friend, and now my coach, Rachel Luna.

If you don’t know Rachel, I suggest you follow her on Instagram right now @girlconfident

I may talk more about the event later, but for now I’ll just say this.

If she hosts the event again next year, I will absolutely be there. And I’m telling all the entrepreneurial women I know to do what they have to do to join me there.

And get the VIP ticket!

Rachel Luna delivered for all of us, but especially on the VIP Day. Because it was a much smaller group, she could really pour into us.

It really was a transformational weekend.

I don’t use that word lightly. I believe lives were transformed by the coaching people received, the relationships that were established or nurtured, and by what people learned in those rooms.

The event ended on Sunday, and on Wednesday, I met with my yearlong mastermind group. In this group, I’m a participant, not the coach.

All three people on the call, two of whom have known me for years, pointed out how my confidence seemed to have taken a giant leap since they saw me two weeks earlier.

It wasn’t general confidence but confidence around a specific goal I’d been struggling with recently.

And you know what? They were right. I left Confidence Activated with no doubt that I have the ability to learn whatever I need to learn to accomplish that goal. Over three days, my self-confidence increased.

I want that same self-confidence for you when it comes to writing your book.

Confidence is a sense of faith or truth whether you’ve experienced the thing for years or it’s something completely new. You can have confidence in your partner, confidence in the weather report, or confidence that a red light will eventually turn green. You can be confident in your ability to bake the perfect German chocolate cake because you’ve done it 1000 times.

You have the ability to write a world-class book, but it can often feel like a far-off dream, and when you don’t have quick success with your writing efforts, you can start to feel like it’s impossible for you.

When you develop your self-confidence, you increase your belief in your abilities, including your ability to learn new things.

Here are some ways to boost your writing self-confidence:

Take stock of your gifts, knowledge, and accomplishments.

Remind yourself of what your brain can do and has done. Make 3 lists.

Make a list of the things that come naturally to you, things you seemed to be born good at doing. This will be your shortest list, but it doesn’t matter if you only have a few things on it. None of us get blessed with the full package.

This list will show you if you never learned to do anything else, you were already good at something without even trying.

Make a second list of all the things you’ve learned over your lifetime. You’ll never be able to remember them all because you’ve been learning since before you came into the world.

You learned to talk and walk, unless a mental or physical difference prohibited you from doing so. It’s likely you learned to walk, ride a bike, and swim. (I can’t say I ever really learned to swim, so good for you if you’ve got that one.)

You learned some percentage of what your teachers taught you in school. You’ve learned on the job, and in your free time, and in relationships. No tidbit of knowledge is too small to add to this list.

Stop when you get tired of writing or you have at least 50 things on this list because it really could go on forever. Add to it whenever you think of something new.

Your third and final list: List all the goals you’ve accomplished in your life. Maybe you graduated college or got an advanced degree or two.

Maybe you created a peaceful home for you and your family, or you earned your first $1000 in your business. Maybe you finally ran an eight-minute mile, made a perfect risotto, or traveled to a country you always wanted to visit.

Keep writing until you have at least 50 goals you’ve achieved. If it gets tough to think of more things, get granular with it. You graduated college, but you also got a B in that organic chemistry class you thought you’d fail.

Look at these three lists and really soak in the person semi-captured on the page there. (You’re more than your gifts, knowledge, and achievements, but that’s what we’re looking at now.)

I’m always tickled when we get to the end of a year and my husband and I sit down and review what we’ve achieved in the last 365 days or so.

It boosts my self-confidence and reminds me I can take on new challenges and learn how to do new things.

None of your gifts, your knowledge, or your achievements need to have anything to do with writing.

You’re not making these lists to develop your writing skills.

You’re making these lists to prove to your brain that there’s no reason why you can’t write a book that shakes up the world, or a book that breaks hearts, or a book that restores hope or does whatever you want it to do.

If you’re struggling to develop your self-confidence and trust yourself to write the book you feel called to write, DM me on Instagram @candiceldavis. I can help you shift your thinking, get past the doubts, and get to writing.

That’s all for this week’s episode, my friends. Thanks for listening to Nothing but the Words. I’m your author coach, Candice L Davis, and I’ll see you next time.

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