Book Launch at Waterstones

You won’t be surprised that this week has been as busy as ever if not even busier. Next Saturday I get married to my fiancée Julie and the time is flying by! As well as the wedding arrangements, I am moving house and working hard on my business. So you can see that things are a touch busy, but with good time management and a positive mindset things are progressing nicely.

This week I’ve had a nice trip to Buxton to coach my client in the lovely surroundings, I also presented a one hour keynote talk to East Midlands Railways and then had the joy of picking up Julie’s identical twin sister at Manchester airport where she had flown in from Australia. It does something to your brain when you see identical sisters like they are – a few double takes for sure. I noticed that they even cough in the same way.

On Friday I had one of the best days I’ve had for a while. I spoke to the Business 4 Yew networking group near Loughborough and had a fantastic time with them and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Then I had an afternoon meeting with the event manager for Waterstones book store to see if they would consider launching the book I am currently writing.

The book is based on my tried and tested Mental Resilience Workshop which consistently receives very positive feedback and describes in detail all the key techniques I use to help people develop a positive mindset and mental resilience. The manager liked the book idea and felt that I would be good at a launch so he agreed to a full launch of the book with posters and leaflets and a room which will hold 150 people.

He said that they consider 30 people turning up to be a successful launch, but he thought that I would attract more than that. What staggered me the most was that he told me the Nottingham Waterstones is the fourth largest in the country holding over 100,000 different titles at any one time. We agreed to October this year for the launch with the exact date still in discussion.

I have been visualising this for over two years now – every day on my Dream Board. I believe that if you visualise something with emotion over and over again then you increase the chances of it happening. I really do believe that if I didn’t have my Dream Board and wasn’t visualising consistently then I would not be writing my book now. I believe it’s a direct result of my visualisation that I am going to be a published author by October 2015.

This really does amaze me because when took my exams at school English was my weakest subject and I received the lowest grade possible. I haven’t studied English since that time yet now I can touch type about 40 words a minute and I’m writing blogs and now a book. When I sent 3 chapters to my book coach to check I was expecting a long list of things I needed to change with my writing.

When I took the call from her I had a pad and pen ready to write down all the things I needed to adjust in my writing and I waited for possible negative feedback. Most of you who know me will know that I did everything possible to reframe things into a positive but I must admit even with all my positive thinking techniques I still felt a little uncertain.

To my delight she was very pleased with the writing style and content and that there will be very little to change. This was a total shock and to be honest I don’t know why my writing has improved so much from those negative school days. The only thing I can think of is that I have been reading so much in the past few years that I must have picked up writing styles.

I can’t quite believe what is happening – but it is. As a speaker I need a book to gain credibility and I have been told that writing a book will open doors to me that are currently shut. So I keep visualising the launch of my book and the large speaking venues where I am speaking. It is good to dream and if you don’t give up a number of things that you visualise will come to pass.

I have visualised a large room full of people listening to me speak for over two years and this October I have been booked to speak at the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Rotary Club Conference near Liverpool to an audience of 650 people. I see this as the ideal event to sign and sell my book with Julie there by my side as my wife.

So if you doubt that you can do something – think again. It is often just the other side of doubt where your dreams can come true.

This week have a think about the things you would really love to achieve and start visualising yourself having already achieved them – then take action.

Have a really good bank holiday.

Warm regards and keep positive

John