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Do This When You Visit a New Place

ender-vatan-2_wSj_4osX0-unsplash Pandemic life has taught many of us to appreciate moments in life that might otherwise pass us by. I've been trying to pause and take note of how I feel at the end of the day, often as I walk in the park or one of my nearby neighborhoods.

With that in mind, here's a tip inspired by The Art of Stopping Time, a book by Pedram Shojai: whenever you visit a place that's new to you, consider the sense that you might never be there again.

Just imagine: this might be it! Your only opportunity in one lifetime to visit this particular place. How might this make you feel?

What, you say you aren't traveling much now? That's okay.

This "new place" could be anywhere: a part of the woods you've never seen on your next nature hike, for example, or even a street in your neighborhood you've never driven before. The point is to create awareness and appreciation.

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New! A Reading Group Guide to The Money Tree

Link: --> Download the Money Tree Reading Group Guide

In addition to the Third Way group that I’m starting, a lot of people have asked for materials to facilitate conversations around The Money Tree.

I’m glad they did! We now have a free reading group guide that you can access for book clubs, friends and family, or just your own reflections. If you’re reading the book with a group (or if you’d like to!), this might help.

Spoiler warning: if you haven’t finished the book yet, you might want to hold off before looking at this document.

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The New York Times Reviews The Money Tree (and actually says good things)

Link: New York Times on The Money Tree

When I heard that the New York Times was reviewing my new book, I was simultaneously excited and worried. I was excited because, well, it’s the New York Times! And despite several of my previous books selling well, they never really paid much attention to me.

But I was also worried because the Times is not always kind to authors. In fact, many of their book reviews consist largely of 600-word critiques on why a particular book is terrible. I’ve even known authors who have stopped writing for months or years because of a bad review.

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How to Write a Novel

First up, thank you so much for your support of THE MONEY TREE! Despite the numerous challenges of current events, the book is getting out to lots of people.

Now that it's out, a number of readers have asked me to explain more about a big change I made. Specifically, my new book is unlike any of my six others: it’s fiction. I created an imaginary world of characters, and did my best to bring them to life.

It started partly because I wanted to do something new. The more I thought about it, the more nervous I felt ... which of course is often a good sign. A sense of nervousness and even feeling a little afraid can be helpful in showing you what you need to do next.

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Big News: The Money Tree Is Out Today!!

Buy Now: Amazon | BN | Audible | Apple Books | Indie Bookstores

Greetings, friends and readers!

A very quick note to say ... my new book The Money Tree is out today! 💰🌳

My new book is all about Finding the Fortune in Your Own Backyard. I hope it will help people who are navigating difficult financial times, especially anyone with debt or those who are struggling during this time of chaos and turmoil.

The-Money-Tree-Book-cover-indoors

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Coming April 7, 2020 – THE MONEY TREE: Finding the Fortune in Your Own Backyard

Big news today! I wrote a new book! It's called THE MONEY TREE, and it comes out April 7th. 💰🌳⁠

I'm very excited to share this sneak peek of my first *full-length story* that will be published in the U.S. and Canada in April. Yes, it's fiction! Something I've never done before, but I got inspired and started outlining and ended up making something that I really like.⁠

The subtitle is "A Story About Finding the Fortune in Your Own Backyard." We decided to be as literal as possible with the cover. 😀

The Money Tree_front cover

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Find Your Creative Calling: The Long-Awaited Book from Chase Jarvis

9231310911_aa5bd45c35_z Link: The Long-Awaited Book from Chase Jarvis

Life isn’t about “finding” fulfillment and success—it’s about creating it. You don’t discover your life purpose without trying a lot of different things.

But how can you be more creative? How can you cultivate a daily practice of creativity?

The answers to these questions can be found in a new book, Creative Calling. It’s out now and available wherever books are sold, including Amazon of course, but also your local bookseller. (I love to support local stores.)

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Making Money From More Than One Paycheck Can Help You Follow Your Dreams

36793093064_e8ac576920_z This year I’ve been focused almost entirely on helping people take action. Side Hustle School, my daily podcast, shines a spotlight on people who are creating freedom and security for themselves (and making more money, too).

In my new book, SIDE HUSTLE, you’ll get a 27-day plan to go from idea to income. It’s meant to be as straightforward as possible: follow this plan and you will have something to show for it within a month.

A few people have asked: why is everything so practical? What happened to “follow your dreams”?

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Why Ideas Are Not Enough (Or: How to Sell Out Like Iron Maiden)

Link: Perennial Seller

"What if I'm not good at making ideas happen? I just like to have ideas!"

Ever since I started Side Hustle School on January 1, I've heard this question a surprising number of times. And believe me, I know it would be nice if you could just have ideas and then someone else does things.

That's not how it works for most of us, though—even those who are successful writers, entrepreneurs, or artists of all kinds. Ideas gain value not through brainstorming but through the getting-it-done phase that all good work needs.

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How to be Everything: A guide for those who (still) don’t know what they want to be when they grow up


"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

It's a familiar question we're all eventually asked as kids. While seemingly harmless, the question has unintended consequences. It can make you feel like you need to choose one job, one passion, one thing to be about.

Guess what? You don’t.

Having a lot of different interests, projects and curiosities doesn't make you a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none." Your endless curiosity doesn't mean you are broken or flaky. What you are is a multipotentialite: someone with many interests and creative pursuits. And as Emilie Wapnick would say, that may actually be your biggest strength.

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Can You Master “People Skills” By Reading a Book?

Have you ever wished that you could decode people? Do you want a formula for charisma? Do you want to know exactly what to say to your boss, your date or your networking partner? You need to know how people work.

As a human behavior investigator, Vanessa Van Edwards believes that people skills should never be considered "optional." Over the past decade, she's studied the hidden forces that drive our behavior patterns in her lab, the Science of People, and she's developed shortcuts, formulas, and blueprints for getting along with absolutely anyone you may encounter.

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Improve the Right Kind of Skills (They Probably Aren’t What You Think)

Lesson: Improving “soft skills” can increase your value no matter what kind of career you have.

Hard skills are things you learned through technical or academic training: how to make architectural drawings with certain software, how to properly administer medication as a nurse, and so on.

Soft skills are just as important—if not more—but aren’t usually taught in school. To be more effective (and to become more valuable), spend time improving your soft skills in writing, negotiation, conflict management, and follow-up.

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Get the “Born for This” Audiobook FREE with Your Audible 30-Day Trial

Link: Free “Born for This” Audiobook with Audible Trial

Hey, everyone!

I had an amazing time on the road over the past couple of months, speaking to audiences almost every night (I don’t take many breaks...) about how to find the work you were meant to do.

Personally I love print books, and I also read some Kindle titles on my iPad—but I also know that there’s a large group of people who enjoy listening to books. With that in mind, we recently released the audio version of Born for This. It clocks in at just over 8 hours, long enough to enjoy on a flight to Europe.

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Why I Like Giving the Same Talk 30 Times in a Row

26079465894_f2c0f36718_z Whenever I give a talk for the first time, I’m very nervous. Like a lot of internal struggles, I don’t think the goal is to pretend the nervousness doesn’t exist. It’s a talk, also known as public speaking, also known as the #1 fear for a majority of the population. If you’re not nervous at all, you're probably not treating it with the attention it deserves.

If it’s a new talk or a one-off, something that I prepared entirely for a specific experience and won’t repeat again, I spend at least several hours beforehand thinking about it. Behind the stage, or in the nearby stairwell, or around the block outside the venue, I’ll pace and look at my notes and think through what I’m going to say over and over.

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