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Blogs by Sheri K Hoff
Keys to Living Joyfully the Back Story 9/18/2008 7:05:09 AM
This is the backstory to Keys to Living Joyfully. I envisioned writing a book for nearly twenty years. As I approached my 4oth birthday, I realized that I needed to move forward with my goal, so I quit my full time job and took a part time teaching position at a college so I could focus on building my life coaching practice and write my dream book. In the past, I started several books—which were mostly romance novels and I would stall out after the first few chapters.
Throughout my life, I was always interested in why some people were very successful and other people with the same or more potential were not successful. I read hundreds of books on leadership, motivation, and inspiration. I also experienced tragedy in my family at a young age which left me dealing with post traumatic stress disorder for years afterwards. Though I tried very hard to create a successful, normal life-I had recurring problems with depression. I experienced remarkable positive change over the last four years in my life and felt very deeply in my heart that I wanted to reach out to other people who were trying to find happiness. I write from a Christian faith perspective, however, I also, encompass some of the concepts of positive thinking and the law of attraction. Though I am working on my PhD and writing scholarly academic works, I wanted to write a synthesis of everything that helped me get better and truly experience joy—and I wanted it to be simple, workable, and easy to read. So I set aside my academic writing skills and wrote from the heart. From the time I started writing seriously for the book, Keys to Living Joyfully: I finished in five weeks. I decided to self-publish through createspace in order to have my book available quickly. I hired a graphic designer to create a beautiful cover and found the perfect person, Michele Caron, creator of mylifecoach.com to write the Foreword. From start to finish, the whole process took five and a half months. I have accomplished one of my life dreams and am still in awe when I wake up each morning.
I have some thoughts for future authors. I learned that writing is the easy part. I also learned so much about publishing—I actually did the book formatting myself (I will never do that again). It turned out great—but next time I will pay someone to do the formatting. For future books, I will do more promoting prior to the publication date and take preorders. I learned to create blogs. The most important piece of learning for me is that the most successful promoting occurs when I am giving something of value that is separate from just promoting my book. For example—information, tips, etc. I make sure to reach out to my clients and readers regularly with thoughts and inspirations through my blog and weekly inspiration tips. I do this because I know that habits are hard to change and reinforcement is needed to really experience progress. Though I do have a book that I offer—my true passion is inspiring people daily. If I feel like I inspired one person in a day—my day is a wonderful success.
My book, Keys to Living Joyfully, is geared towards anyone who is too busy, gives of themselves tirelessly, and often forgets about their own needs. It is for those who have struggled with sadness and felt that this sadness has eclipsed their potential. It is also geared toward people who feel that true joy is just barely out of reach. It is about faith, thoughts, and actions. I want people to feel loved and worthy as they read.
My wish is for people to have truly inspired, joy filled days.
