Launching the Revolution (#863)

Because I have so much free time

There is a part of me that thinks I’m nuts to be starting what is essentially a third blog a couple of days before I head out to Hawaii for what will be almost a month away from home, some of it with my family and some without. But there’s another, larger part of me that’s really excited about this – a forum to explore all my “philosophies” of happiness and success in the midst of the real world process of releasing my new book out into the world.

I did a similar blog for my first book back in 2006, which I called “Project Bestseller”, and while the content of that blog seems to have disappeared off our servers, I enjoyed writing it and did so faithfully right up until the day”You Can Have What You Want”hit number one on the UK charts.

Although this is my fourth published book, it’s the first time where I haven’t had clear goals for how many copies I wanted the book to sell or how many people I want it to reach. I just kind of want to have fun getting the message out there- that our experience of life is created by thought, not circumstance; that we are a part of a larger unfolding; that there is an energy and intelligence behind life that will work through us to accomplish amazing things if we let it; and that our capacity for new thinking and with it new possibilities for experience is vast and never-ending.

I’m excited about this book as a vehicle for sharing that message, and I’ve been heartened by the way people have responded so far, particularly those I’ve asked for testimonials. In a funny way, it’s made me realize that many of the testimonials people have written for my past books have been as much about supporting me as loving the book. While I’m deeply appreciative of that support, this time around, I haven’t just received “sure, I’ll give you a testimonial” emails. I’ve received unsolicited texts and phone calls raving about it, and had a late night email chat with one of my heroes who asked me if I’d read “The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment” by Thaddeus Golas as my book reminded him so much of it.(I did read it, about twenty five years ago, but I’m looking forward to reading it again to see if I can see the connection.)

The Scottish life coach and author Ali Campbell, a longtime student, apprentice, and friend, asked me yesterday if I didn’t really have “a secret goal for how many copies the book would sell”. I laughed, because I knew exactly what he meant – we self-help authors have a nasty habit of saying “I just want to make a difference to as many people as I can” while secretly spending our days online watching our self-esteem go up and down with our Amazon rankings. But to my delight, this time around I couldn’t find too many insecure thoughts hiding in my psyche.

I’m sure some will pop up, and I’ll do my best to voice them as they do in this blog. But in the meantime, I’m just happy to have a place to share my thoughts and experiences and people who are interested enough to show up and listen. Because I have so much free time :-)