The term “author platform” is one that new and aspiring writers are hearing more and more often on their journey to publication. As I make progress towards my own goal of publishing two books in 2013, I’ve been doing a considerable amount of research on the topic. What is an author platform? Why do we need one? I’m learning as I go, and – as promised – I’m sharing that learning with you.

What Is An Author Platform?

Despite what the name suggests, having a platform doesn’t just mean having a base from which to pontificate.  Editor Jane Friedman defines author platform from the perspective of what mainstream publishers want:

“They’re looking for someone with visibility and authority who has proven reach to a target audience.”

She points out that it isn’t about self-promotion, the hard-sell, or being an extrovert who’s willing to annoy people as a means of turning prospects into customers. Instead, it’s a composite thing that ties together your ability to be found by a prospective audience (visibility); the mechanism for getting in touch with them, such as a mailing list (reach); and your own credibility as a writer they should want to read (authority).

I’d add that in this age of social media, there’s another important element to platform – and that’s conversation. We’re a sophisticated bunch these days, and we’ve come to expect that public figures will engage with us directly through social media outlets such as Twitter. Many of us have experienced the thrill of someone famous responding to one of our tweets. Being seen as a human being is a great way to build an audience that trusts your work.

What platform-building isn’t!

The best news for introverted authors is that platform building is less about drawing attention to ourselves just for the sake of it, and more about creating a strong and sustainable conversation-based infrastructure that helps us get our message into the world in a way that’s beneficial both to us and to our readers.

The activities that can go into building an author platform include:

• Writing and distributing good quality work to your target audience through vehicles which you “own” such as your blog, newsletter, podcast, or social media profiles
• Sharing your expertise with others via coaching, consultancy, speaking, video blogs and podcasting
• Increasing your visibility by partnering with others and sharing your writing through their channels (e.g. posting guest articles on someone else’s website)
• Using your existing communications networks (perhaps through your day job) to help spread information about your writing.

Of course, not all of these activities will suit every writer, and that’s another piece of good news: you should build your platform based on your own preferences and priorities, because one of the greatest strengths of a platform is that it’s authentic.

Why Do You Need An Author Platform?

Well, you don’t – unless you want your writing to be read. It has always been the case that people writing for self-publication have needed to build an author platform in order to ensure their work sells once it’s “out there”. If no one knows about it, it can’t sell. Building and using a platform is vital if you don’t have the weight of a traditional publishing house behind you promoting your work.

In fact, even if you do have such weight behind you, in the 21st century it’s likely that you’ll still want to learn about platform-building, because many mainstream publishers will favour those authors who already have a ready-made platform. When Simon & Schuster recently relaunched their website, they included an Author Portal which encourages writers to use blogs and social media to help promote their work.

How I’m Building My Author Platform

My newsletter, my social media profiles, and my other blogs – all prominent across every page of my sites.

The process of deciding how to build your author platform can be a complex one, because it will undoubtedly be influenced by several factors such as your goals, your personal style, and your workload.

In my case, when I decided I was going to write for publication, I weighed a few options:

• What was I building a platform for? Should I create it around my books (I had decided to write two) or around myself as an author?
• How could I build a platform in a way that didn’t take up an inordinate amount of my time?  This was important, because I have a very full-time day job as CEO of a busy charity, in addition to running a part-time coaching practice.
• I didn’t want to start from scratch, and wanted to build on some of the infrastructure I’d already built over the past couple of years to promote my coaching work.
• Since I had quite a bit of writing to do anyway, I wanted to build my platform around activities I could easily do from home – such as writing, and perhaps some intermittent video blogging.

After weighing those options, I decided:

• To build a multi-faceted author platform around myself and my books. Consequently, I re-purposed my coaching site into an author blog (that’s the site you’re on now). I created two mirror sites, one for each book: Vital Vocation and Real Food Revival Plan. I spent a bit of time deciding on a brand for each book/site, trying to make them different enough to be distinctive, but similar enough to each other (and to my author brand) to be consistent. Branding is another important element to consider in building an author platform.
• To set up a social media presence for each book. There’s a Vital Vocation Facebook page and a Vital Vocation Twitter stream; there’s also a Real Food Revival Plan Facebook page and a Real Food Revival Plan Twitter stream. I have a LinkedIn account and also a Pinterest profile connected to my author site, and I have my own Twitter stream too. That might seem like a lot to juggle, but it allows me to target my platform(s) at my niche audiences, and I’ve made life easier for myself by automating what I can through Social Oomph.  I’ve also integrated my blogs and social media presences by using some really useful Twitter widgets and Facebook badges.
• To make the most of my existing mailing list.  I’d already built this for my coaching work, but it had become neglected.  Nonetheless, I recognized the importance of a thriving mailing list for platform-building purposes, so I created two new e-books which I give away free to anyone who signs up, and made sure the sign-up box was prominent across all my sites.
• To hire someone to do the really technical stuff. I’m not a complete newbie when it comes to WordPress blogs, but I discovered when I originally built my coaching site that it’s quite possible to spend more time tinkering with your site (or figuring out why your site isn’t working properly) than doing your actual work. This time round, I’ve hired someone to handle the stuff I can’t (or just don’t want to). Joel Williams of Blog Tech Guy is my blog tech guy and his affordable and effective help enables me to get on with writing.
• To create a writing and platform-building plan. This outlines how much I have to write, about what, and by when; and it also outlines my social media commitments. In short, it’s a plan both for writing my books and for building my author platform.

Some Resources To Help You Build Your Own Author Platform

Perhaps the best tip I can give you is to just get started.  Spend some time thinking about what your platform-building goals are.  Consider how much time you have to spend on this endeavour, and how simple or complex it needs to be.  If you’re working on one writing project for one niche, then you may only need one platform.  If, like me, you’re simultaneously working on several writing projects that aren’t necessarily natural bedfellows, you may need to build a more complex platform with distinct elements within it.   There isn’t a right or wrong here – you’ve got to figure out what’s going to work best for you.

Here’s some more information to help you get started:

• First, a fascinating article from veteran editor Alan Rinzler, in which he discusses the “new” model of the author platform.  Pay attention to what he has to say about the importance of an online presence for every author nowadays, and about the fact that it’s important for a platform to mix personality, authenticity, and expertise. Perhaps his most telling point is that the modern author platform must demonstrate subtlety in marketing. “A cardinal rule of the new author platform is never to actually ask people to buy your book”.
• Corroborating Rinzler’s last point, above, check out Why An Author Platform Built On Spam Is Doomed To Fall, by We Are Not Alone’s Kristen Lamb.
• Here’s ten things to consider in building an author platform by Books & Such’s literary agent Rachelle Gardner.
• Learn exactly how the digital age is affecting the way authors and readers interact in this interview between O’Reilly Media’s Jenn Webb and Cooking for Geek’s Jeff Potter.
• Finally, here’s some useful guidance from Winning Edits on building an author platform that works, thanks to We Grow Media’s Dan Blank.

Now – you pretty much know everything you need to know to begin building an author platform.  So go build it!

The post How To Build Your Author Platform appeared first on Brian Cormack Carr.

Since I announced (to the world and his Uncle) that I’m going to write my first two books by the time I hit 40 in ten months time, I’ve had some interesting responses.  Quite a few have been of the “you’re clearly quite mad” variety – and I’m not going to argue with that – but most have been along the lines of “Hey, I’d like to write a book too but I don’t know where to begin”.

I can’t claim to be an expert on the subject yet, since I’ve only just started myself, but I thought it might be helpful to share some ideas about what helped me get going.  In a word: planning.

So here’s my succinct guide to How To Plan Your First Book:

• Step One – Have something to write about
• Step Two – Define your writing goal(s)
• Step Three – Make a writing plan

1) Have Something To Write About

2) Define Your Writing Goal(s)

3) Make A Writing Plan

How to plan your first book…

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If there any verifiable signs that you’re heading into a mid-life crisis, one of them may well be the decision to write your first two books by the time you’re 40.  When 40 is just ten months away…

Here’s what’s up: I’ve always known it wasn’t a question of if I’d write a book, it was a question of when.  Love writing, always have.  I’ve been writing all my life, and not just shopping lists and job applications.  I used to draw stories on my toy blackboard before I could even write words (as I remember, they were all about an amazing superhero called BAM! and I had to rub each picture out before I could draw the next one, so unfortunately no evidence remains of his short-lived yet incandescent existence).

I even won a couple of short story competitions when I was at school, and I was very briefly a roving reporter for my student newspaper.

When I graduated from University, I was offered a job as a trainee journalist in my home town, but I turned it down in favour of moving to the big city and becoming a filthy capitalist (or, as my job description at the time described it, a “Trainee Retail Manager”).

Fast forwarding through several life and career changes, I started this blog in 2009 to promote my then just-launched coaching practice, and quickly found that I enjoyed the blogging every bit as much as the coaching.  Perhaps that shouldn’t have been such a surprise.  I usually get pretty good responses to my writing.  Several blog readers have even contacted me to ask if I have anything published that they could buy. Beleive me, there’s nothing quite like an email that begins “I looked for you on Amazon” to make you want to pull your finger out!

So at least I know I have some kind of audience out there, right…?

Over the past couple of years, the pace and volume of my writing (and hopefully the quality) has increased steadily.  I’ve been writing for this blog, and in other freelance writing gigs with Paleo Diet News, Careershifters, The Coaching Academy Blog, the Guardian’s Voluntary Sector Network, and Squidoo.  I even do an occasional bit of writing in my day job at BVSC, The Centre for Voluntary Action.

Recently, I decided to collate a few of the articles I’d written for those external sites into a single document, just for my own records.  It took a while, and the file was large.  So large, in fact, that I remember pondering at the time “Wow…I’ve written at least the equivalent of a book here,” a thought quickly followed by another: “Hey…why don’t I just write a damn book?”

So that’s what I’m going to do.  

Except…I have too much to say to fit into just one book.  Because of the way things have evolved in the past year or so, I’ve found myself gathering a lot of information, and forming a lot of opinions, in two key areas: firstly, life purpose and career design (the original subjects of my coaching practice and this blog) and latterly, real food, cooking and ancestral health (as a result of my own dietary experimentations and my work with clients – and as one of the original contributors to the Paleo Diet News website).

The solution?  Write two books, one on each topic – which may well be crazy, but should at least be entertaining.

The books are (or will be):

and

Snappy titles, huh?  Well, they’ll do for the working drafts at least.  Click on the images above to find your way to the dedicated website for each, where I’ll be publishing the first drafts of the books, post-by-post, as I write them.  Yes, really: not only am I going to write two books before I’m 40, I’m also going to write them in public and I’m going to give the first drafts away online for free.

Well, if you’re going to have a mid-life crisis, you may as well have one in style.

I want to acknowledge two particular sources of inspiration for this madcap initiative: Nina Amir, whose book How To Blog A Book inspired me to publicly blog the first drafts; and Joanna Penn, whose excellent podcast and website The Creative Penn have helped me to chart out a (hopefully!) workable path to my goal.

I’ll be blogging about my progress – and the lessons learned – here on CormackCarr.com (yeah, like I needed another website to maintain –  although at this stage I’m just thinking “bring it on!”)

I’ll also be sharing information about all of the useful writing and publishing resources I find and use along the way (and probably also about any resources I find to help me get by on 3 hours of sleep a night).  So if you want to set yourself a similarly crazy challenge for your mid-life crisis, look no further…

Wish me luck…and let me know what you think: is this idea cracking, or just crackers?

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Have you ever completed a skills inventory in order to find your dream job? If you’re like most of us, you almost certainly have at some point in your school or working life.  But skills can be learned when we need them, and won’t tell us what we were designed to do. The work I do as a coach assures me that we were all designed to do something – often many things – quite unique to us. If you want to discover your ideal work (I call it a “vital vocation”) you must pay close attention to everything that you love, because that information will lead you directly to your talents. And because you’ll never be happier than when you’re using them, your talents will undoubtedly help you to find your dream job….

Read more over at VITAL VOCATION

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Today marks the end of the London 2012 Olympics.  We’ve had two weeks of feverish excitement, edge-of-the-seat events and noteworthy sportsmanship. We’ve also had no small degree of controversy, with a new report claiming that the powers-that be at the Olympics  may have missed their opportunity to improve the nation’s eating habits.  But could the lessons of London 2012 improve your diet?  In this article I discuss sport, sponsorship and the spin behind fast food and health…

Read more over at REAL FOOD REVIVAL PLAN

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

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“The writer must write,” according to Ernest Hemingway.  Easier said than done for anyone who has ever experienced writer’s block, that painful drying-up of ideas and inspiration.

Or is it?  On a recent holiday to Norway, I visited the Museum of the Norwegian Resistance in Oslo and read the story of a man who wrote against incredible odds.

Petter Moen, a Jewish insurance salesman, was born in 1901 and by the time of the Second World War was an active member of the Norwegian resistance movement.  He fought the Nazi occupation of Norway with words: by editing one of the resistance movement’s secretly-published newspapers, London Nytt.  In early 1944, several of these papers were discovered and raided by the Nazis, and Moen was arrested along with many others.

He was imprisoned at Møllergata 19, a prison in Oslo.  He spent the first several weeks in solitary confinement, and it’s there that his urge to write triumphed in a most incredible fashion.  Without access to pen or writing paper – indeed, without access to much in the way of light – he made a daily record of his thoughts and feelings by forming individual letters and then words by pricking holes on pieces of toilet paper with a nail.  To ensure they would not be found by his captors, he rolled the pieces of paper up and dropped them into a ventilator shaft beneath his cell.

An extract from Petter Moen’s diary, on display at Norway’s Resistance Museum.

This makeshift diary covers his first seventy-eight days of solitude, revealing an immense mental and emotional struggle against loneliness and despair.  To keep himself sane, he worked long mathematical problems out by hand, meticulously pricking out the tiny letters and symbols as he went. He debated, on paper, the existence or otherwise of a kind God. The final papers go on to document his last few weeks at Møllergata, as he spent time with other starving prisoners and wrote about their preoccupation with food and survival.

The manuscript was found some time after the war in 1949 and was published posthumously.  Petter Moen died in September 1944 whilst being transported in the SS Westfalen which sank after hitting a naval mine.

When we read of Petter Moen, or of Anne Frank, whose writing took place in a very different but perhaps only slightly less pressured environment, what are we to make of their lives and their writing?  Given that many of us struggle to write at the best of times, what lay behind their absolute determination to set down on paper what was in their hearts and minds – and is there anything the rest of us can learn from it?

Perhaps only the following.  Behind the mystery of the impulse to write, and behind the thorny obstacle of writer’s block, lie some simple truths.  Writers must write; they will write what they are impelled to by outer or inner circumstance; and – perhaps – if it’s really meant to be, it will always be possible to find a way.

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As a committed adherent to the paleo diet, I’m pretty confident that all of us – just like our ancestors – are hunter-gatherers at the physiological level. To enjoy good health, high levels of energy, and relative freedom from obesity and degenerative disease, we should all be eating whole, real, unprocessed foods. In other words, the foods we evolved to eat as a species: meat, poultry, eggs, fish, vegetables, fruits and nuts. I’ve written about this extensively on this site and in my work for Paleo Diet News.  All around us, we see the effects of eating non-foods, foods that have come from a factory, rather than a farm: ever-increasing waistlines, and skyrocketing health issues.

However, I’m very aware that any “diet” – no matter how laudable - runs the risk of becoming almost a parody of itself.  Most of my friends and associates know that I follow the paleo diet (although I prefer to say that I just eat real food) and I’m often asked: “so, do you eat anything other than meat?”.  The answer of course, is yes – I eat and enjoy lots of things other than meat.  I love vegetables of all shapes, sizes and colours; I munch happily on nuts and seeds when the urge strikes; and I happen to think that life would be a whole lot bleaker without large helpings of sweet, delicious fruit in the world. It’s taken some time to get those closest to me to see that eating a paleo diet is less about eating meat and more about not eating fake foods -  but I can understand where some of their confusion comes from.  They hear “paleo”, think “caveman” and assume that I regularly don a mammoth-fur loin cloth and go out prowling in the countryside with my flint spear.

Some promoters of the diet don’t necessarily help the situation, because they have very fixed ideas about what it can and should include.  When paleo means “just eat real food”, it’s the most sensible eating plan going.  But I’m continually struck by the way that it can easily be pulled into dogma.  On paleo forums on the internet, in speeches given by paleo commentators, and in real-life conversations, I’ve observed statements like these:

• “Carbs are evil.  They raise insulin and insulin is to be avoided like the plague.”
• “Vegetables are totally unnecessary for human beings.  Just eat meat and you’ll be fine.”
• “Grains and legumes are universally bad for you.  If you eat any at all, ever, you’re compromising your health.”
• “Poultry and fish are inferior to red meat, so if you don’t like red meat you’re going to be malnourished.”
• “If you don’t eat any meat at all, you’re going to be malnourished.”

Of course, there’s a kernel of truth in each of these statements.  Excess carbs and over-processed carbs are never a good thing.  Meat – especially organ meat – is vastly more nutrient dense, and contains nutrients more easily assimilable for human beings than those found in plant matter.  Grains – particularly those containing gluten - can cause intestinal grief for many, if not most, people, and they’re not the nutritional powerhouses some vegan pundits would claim.

But if we were to believe the above statements without questioning them, we’d struggle to be able to fathom why:

• Some people are able to eat large amounts of carbs without becoming obese or ill.
• Many people genuinely love vegetables, and would find mealtimes a whole lot more boring without them.
• Some people – especially those who eat a varied diet including good-quality animal produce – can eat large quantities of grains and legumes and still do just fine.
• Some people just don’t like red meat, yet manage to maintain their health by eating the meat they do like.
• Many vegetarians do very well, even in the long-term (particularly if they include some animal produce in their diet).

I’ve been acutely aware of these dichotomies for quite a while now – my coaching and writing approach is founded on the notion that my clients and readers are the experts in their own lives, and I see a great deal of variety in what “works” for different people - and so it was with great interest that I read Dr. John Briffa’s book The True You Diet.

It’s not a new book – he’s had a couple out since then, both of which I’ve reviewed for Paleo Diet News here and here – but it’s one that fits nicely into his generally paleo-friendly food philosophy.  In it, he’s unequivocal that the best diet for all human beings is a diet based around the foods we evolved to eat.

What’s particularly interesting, though, is that he allows that there are differentials between individuals in terms of what their taste and personal physiology will guide them towards as the optimum diet for them.  In brief, he notes that we’re all either “hunters“, “gatherers“, or “hunter-gatherers“.

Here’s what he says about the food preferences of each.  Does any of this sound familiar to you?

‘Hunters’ generally like fat and can even crave it…(they) generally find that fatty foods are sustaining and effective for satisfying their appetites.  They usually like and do well on dark, fatty meats such as beef, lamb, duck, venison, and the leg meat of chicken and turkey.  The relatively rapid metabolism of the ‘hunter’ will tend to burn carbohydrates very rapidly…(they) tend not to feel sustained by carbohydrate-rich foods such as fruits, vegetarian/vegan food or grain-based meals.  ‘Hunters’ can find themselves craving sweet foods such as biscuits or chocolate…once they start eating sweet foods, they can find it difficult to stop.

‘Gatherers’ tend to be drawn to foods relatively low in fat, including fruits, vegetables, beans and lentils.   To a ‘gatherer’, eating these plant-based foods is a bit like putting small pieces of wood in a gently burning fire.  These foods will tend to energize ‘gatherers’ more than heavier, fattier foods.  ‘Gatherers’ tend not to need to eat between meals, but if they do they will often find fresh fruit will satisfy them.

The characteristics of the typical ‘hunter-gatherer’ fall in between those of the ‘hunters’ and the ‘gatherers’.

He goes on to provide information about some other possible differences – in terms of temperature preferences, sleep patterns, general moods, and body shapes and sizes.

So, is there something to it?  Here are some of my immediate observations:

• I can definitely see that different people – including me and people I know – can be categorized in this way
• I was impressed at how ’consistent’ the differentials were – in other words, in my experience, the characteristics across all categories – mood, body shape, food preferences etc, do indeed seem to be grouped in the way described (although of course some degree of generalisation is always going to be inherent in such categorisation)
• My own experience is that I’m a ‘hunter’ who tried for a long time to be a ‘gatherer’ (by attempting to follow a low fat, often vegetarian, sometimes vegan diet) and found it a constant struggle which didn’t produce great results
• I can see that it helps to explain why it is that – even though most paleo adherents will swear blind that a diet high in fruit, grains, and legumes is sub-optimal – some people do genuinely seem to do well when large quantities of these foods comprise at least part of their diet

The book includes a questionnaire which can help the reader determine into which category they fall. It’s nothing complicated, and simply asks questions about eating preferences, meal patterns, which foods are most satisfying, etc.  It’s not dissimilar to some of the “metabolic typing” questionnaires I’ve seen, and of course, the principle – that there is a degree of nutritional individuality to our metabolisms – is the same.

Will everyone like this approach?  Of course not.  If you’re a committed vegan, you’re likely to find the notion of some people being ‘hunters’ objectionable.  If you’re the kind of paleo enthusiast who gets very suspicious of anyone who doesn’t like bacon, you’ll possibly find the idea of a ‘gatherer’ risible.  But for many - including those of us who are committed to eating the real foods that evolution designed us to eat, but who are well aware that we’re not all cut from the same cloth – this is a very welcome, balanced, and useful read.

You can buy The True You Diet in the Your Primal Life UK and US stores.

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In my experience, when clients searching for a new job get stuck – as in, can’t find suitable jobs to apply for, or repeatedly being rejected from those they do apply for – one reason looms especially large: an unstrategic job-hunt.  I also find that one of the least effective ways of looking for work (but still one of the most popular) is routinely employed by these clients at the expense of other more fruitful methods.

I’m talking about using the internet to search for vacancies and apply for jobs.

Let me be clear up front: I’m not saying don’t try to find a job with the internet.  It has several good things going for it: 24-hour access to information (including information that may not be readily available elsewhere); wide geographical coverage; the potential for a high level of interactivity (such as facilities for searching current job databases); and an ever-increasing number of ways to connect with others who may be able to assist you in your search.

However, it also has significant limits: employers will post some, but by no means all of their vacancies online; searching it for appropriate jobs can be tricky (unless you happen to hit upon the right combination of words to put into the search engines, such as the exact job title); and in the increasing internet “noise” that’s out there, it’s entirely possible that your electronic communications to employers will get lost in the shuffle.

Consequently, it should only ever form part of your job-hunt strategy.  As John Lees, one of the UK’s leading career-search authorities and author of Career Reboot, says: “You are more likely to land a job through a face-to-face conversation, even a random one, than spending all week at your PC”.

How, then, should you incorporate the internet into your job-hunt in a way that’s most effective?  Here are some pointers as to what the internet is to the savvy job-hunter:

1: “The 10% solution”

According to Richard Nelson Bolles, author of the world’s best-selling career-search manual What Color Is Your Parachute?, statistics show that 10 out of 100 job-hunters who use the internet of their primary (or only) job-search method will find a new job as a direct result.  Those aren’t great odds.  Therefore, he proposes “it deserves 10% of every job-hunter’s time…but not more than that.  Unless you like beating your head against a brick wall.”  In other words, you must make a point of ensuring that 90% of your job-hunting time is spent doing something other than staring at your computer screen!

2: A place to do research

You can find out a fair amount about what’s available in your field simply by doing some online research.  Try Googling fields of work, job-titles, companies, cities, geographical areas, salaries, and so on, in order to garner yourself some useful information about what’s available, and about what might make your own applications stand out from the crowd.

3: A place to network with others

One of the most effective ways to find new work is on the basis of personal contact with those who have the power to hire you.  By using social media cleverly, you can build links with such people, or with others who can supply you with useful information, suggestions and referrals (or even put you in touch with the hirers and firers).  As well as the well-known Facebook and Twitter, check out LinkedIn , which is a dedicated social media site for professionals of every stripe.  It’s also worth finding out if your chosen specialist work area has a discussion board or online community associated with it.

4: A place to seek out career-search support

Many of the readers of my blog and newsletter found their way to my website (and my services) after searching for job-hunting support online.  The internet can help you with finding a professional coach, give you access to thousands of articles on the subject of finding your ideal work, and even serve as a gateway to a range of skills-testing services.  I believe avidly that happiness at work means taking account of your talents before your skills, but there is no doubt that for job-hunters who really have no clue as to which next step to take, a skills inventory can result in some helpful suggestions.  Amongst the most respected are those based on the Holland Code personality typing system, since this pays particular attention to some of the major factors which we most often consider important when choosing a career (such as the types of people we want to work with, and the kind of environment we want to work in).  A relatively inexpensive – and quite useful – test is the Career Key.

5: A place where you can promote yourself

Increasingly, individuals are posting their CVs online – sometimes hosted by another site, and sometimes on their own website.  This can be a useful tactic, and gives you something to point a prospective employer towards (online resumes are also fairly easy to update).  It’s quite easy to set up an inexpensive – or even free – website these days.  Consider a blogging site, such as WordPress or Blogger to start with.  For information on online CVs, see Jobstar Central.  It’s worth bearing in mind that many employers will now routinely “Google” a prospective new employee.  If there is any material about you online which you’d rather they didn’t see – such as photographs of you on Facebook in a compromising position – you might want to ensure that these are visible only to a select few viewers!

6: A place to search for vacancies

I’ve left this till last, because I want to re-emphasise that simply searching for vacancies on the internet is not a good tactic.  Let me repeat: employers will post some, but by no means all of their vacancies online (and many employers won’t post any).  If you’re relying on this as your “jobs digest”, you’re excluding yourself from a whole range of options.  Nonetheless, it’s worth knowing where to look online for advertised vacancies.  If you’re in the US, this selection of job boards is a good place to start.  If in the UK, take a look at Monster, here.

TAKE ACTION: For more information on how to create success in your job search, download my free ebook The Top 10 Best & Worst Ways To Find A New Job

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I love fear.  Not because I’m a masochist, but because I recognise it for what it is: an important messenger.  Fear is good, but you wouldn’t think it, to read the statements that frequent the self-help literature and lifestyle magazines:

“Feel the fear and do it anyway!” (Oh really? Even if the fear that tells you not to drive too fast round a hairpin bend?).
“The only thing to be afraid of is fear itself!” (Tell that to someone who’s being chased by an angry lion.)
“Fight your fears!” (What, even the ones that send you into such a panic that you’re physically incapacitated?)

Such headlines trumpet their opinions confidently: fear is to be got rid of, got round, ignored.  In short, fear is a bad thing and is to be avoided.  That is, if you want to have any hope of being happy and having a halfway decent life…

Give me a break!  No one goes through life achieving anything of significance without experiencing fear – and that’s exactly as it should be, because fear is one of our greatest allies.  So I say: “let’s hear it for fear!”

Here’s why you should never fight your fears.

Fear is one of the key feelings which make up your emotional compass.  Happiness, anger, pain, and sadness (which is emotional pain) are the others.  Virtually every other emotion you can conceive of (such as guilt, joy, and embarrassment) either represents varying degrees of those key feelings, or is a combination of two or more of them. For example, joy is an extreme form of happiness, and pain (in the form of emotional discomfort) and happiness (in the form of emotional pleasure) can combine to create embarrassment.

With the exception of times when you’re suffering from extremes of emotion – and even then, only with great care and professional guidance if necessary - you should never fight, shut down, ignore, or disrespect your feelings. They are what guide you through life; to the things you like, and away from the things you don’t.  Your emotional compass is an essential part of your primal life toolkit, and for it to work for you, you need to be in touch with the full range of your feelings, including fear.

One reason it’s important to trust your feelings is because sometimes they’re all you’ve got to guide you, especially when you know where you want to go and you’re struggling against society’s received wisdom, peer pressure, or criticism.  Fear can propel you away from circumstances that aren’t right for you, even when they seem idyllic to others, and it’s often the experience of a specific fear – such as getting stuck in a job or relationship that’s diminishing you - that brings you to the point of following your dreams. But fear can help you in more subtle ways, too.

To find out what those ways are, it’s important to realise that fear comes in two forms: rational fear, and irrational fear.  Let’s take a quick look at each.

Rational fear:

A man jumps out at you in a dark alleyway, brandishing a big knife.  “Give me all your money, or I’ll kill you!” he snarls. In a moment like this, you’ll experience an intense form of rational fear.  Your heart rate will increase, adrenalin will flood through your bloodstream, your muscles will tense in preparation, and you’ll be ready either to fight your attacker, defend yourself, or run away.  In short, you’ll be experiencing the same fight-or-flight response that’s programmed into our DNA and which kept our ancestors safe from sabre-toothed tigers (the fact that you’re sitting here now, reading this, proves that your ancestors were adept at avoiding danger at least long enough to reproduce).  The fear you experience is entirely rational; you are in a dangerous situation, and could get hurt, or even be killed.  You don’t need to think about it.  Your body, wonderful survival apparatus that it is, instantly responds by creating the sensation of intense fear in order to move you away from danger.

Irrational fear:

You’ve been asked to be best man at a friend’s wedding.  As part of your duties, you’ll be expected to give a speech.  The very thought fills you with dread.  On the day, you stand up in front of the assembled wedding guests, your hands damp with sweat, your mouth painfully dry, your mind a blank.  It takes all your effort of will to keep your hands from shaking as you hold your papers in front of you, and begin, voice quavering.  You’re experiencing irrational fear.  Nothing really bad is going to happen to you – there’s no threat to your life – but all the same, you are frightened.  It’s important to note that irrational fear is not unreal fear.  It’s real all right; just ask anyone who’s ever suffered from a panic attack.

Why does it happen this way?  Simply because, the part of your brain that controls fear is very powerful, but it’s also very primitive;  it can’t tell the difference between the sort of physical  danger that would genuinely threaten your safety, and emotional pain.  Whether it’s trying to keep you safe from a knife-wielding maniac, or perceiving that you’re doing something unknown, and potentially dangerous, it responds with the same fight-or-flight reaction.

Your job then, isn’t to get rid of fear, but to understand it, because it has a message for you, and it’s always trying to keep you safe.

In the case of rational fear, it can be carrying a very simple message: “you’re in big trouble, get the hell out of here!”   But in the case of irrational fear, you probably have to go digging underneath it, because the chances are the fear is masking another feeling.  In the example I gave above, you’re unlikely to come to any lasting harm, but – if the speech goes badly – you could very well feel like a fool.  Your fear is trying to keep you safe from an uncomfortable emotion that it perceives as being dangerous to your sense of yourself.  It’s no accident that we often hear people talking of “dying of embarrassment”.  Whether it’s your physical body that’s in danger, or your emotional coherence, fear rises up like a lion to warn you away from risk.

Fear of this type can also be a mask for feelings other than embarrassment.  You might be frightened of succeeding because it’ll make you feel guilty about spending time away from the people you love; you might be scared to receive praise because it’ll make you feel sad about other people in your life who aren’t happy with their lot; you might even be experiencing a fear of happiness – usually because you’re suffering from the erroneous belief that if you get too happy, fate will strike you a blow just to take you down a peg or two.

There’s a very good chance that you won’t consciously realise that any of these things are happening, because the fear masks the other feelings.  That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to any feelings of anxiety you’re having, so you can find out what they’re trying to tell you.

And here’s the funny thing.  Once you identify the feeling that your fear is trying to keep you away from, and deal with it, the fear starts to melt, like an icicle in the sun.  That doesn’t mean it’ll go away entirely – although sometimes it will – but it should at least diminish to a level that allows you to think more clearly about what you should do next.

How do you “deal with” your feelings?  That depends on you, the circumstances, and the level of intensity of the feelings.  Sometimes you just need to let yourself feel them; sometimes you need to question the assumptions that lie beneath them; and sometimes you need to express them, so they can move through you and disperse.  If they’re particularly powerful and scary, you might need support from a counsellor or therapist as you work your way through them.

It’s a journey worth taking.  Once you’ve done it, you’re left with a choice: to keep going in the direction you were going; or to decide the fear was genuinely warning you away from something that was wrong for you, and to take the opportunity of charting a new course.

Either way, you’ve done something far more empowering than fighting your fear.  By really listening to your fear – whether rational and a real signal of danger, or irrational and a mask for something else – you’ve taken a powerful emotional compass reading that’ll enable you to set your sails in a way that moves you forward along the only path that ever matters in life: your own.

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© Brian Cormack Carr, 2010*

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Eástre by Jacques Reich (1909), depicting Ostara – a goddess of Germanic paganism, the namesake of the festival Easter. She brings opportunity for renewal and rebirth.

Are you waiting until you’ve changed your circumstances, your job, your weight, your appearance, or your financial situation, before you begin building a life you love?

Many of us do exactly that, but we don’t have to.  You have everything you need, right here, right now, to be the most important thing you can possibly be in this life – yourself.  Rebirth can happen in the present moment, and what better time to remind ourselves of this than Easter?

If you do need anything extra, it’s simply know-how about discovering what you want, lots of support to get you there, and practical information on overcoming any barriers you might face on the way.  That’s what my work is all about.

Find out more about discovering who you really are in my previous blog post here.

BONUS:

Here are two short videos for you to enjoy, on the subject of being – and loving – who you are.

The first is a promotional clip from Nick Vujicic, a young man who has, in his own words, “no arms, no legs, no worries.”  You can find out more about Nick here.

In the second video, Byron Katie guides a woman through the four questions and turnaround of the remarkable process she calls ‘The Work’, on the thought “I need to know why people love me.” Watch as the woman finds what she loves about herself.  You can find out more about The Work of Byron Katie at her website here.

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My mission in life is to help YOU do what you were designed for. Don’t forget to sign up for my free Lifecrafting Newsletter for more information (you’ll also get a free copy of my e-book ‘How To Find Your Purpose in Life’). And if you’d like to find your ideal job, check out my online career-creation programme Vital Vocation – 12 sessions of virtual coaching from me for just $20!
Twitter: @cormackcarr

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