Interview with writer Mo Issa

Writer Mo Issa helps me wrap up the week by chatting about his new personal development book, The Shift: How to Awaken to the Aliveness Within.

Bio:

Mo Issa is an entrepreneur who has started a second career as a writer. He has also finally realized that he is indeed a spiritual being having an earthly experience, and that understanding has changed his life.

Mo awakens every day at six, and he writes for at least an hour. This discipline has made him very productive and alive. This spiritual discipline has resulted in his self-help guide, The Shift; his book of poetry, The Dense Mistiness of the Ordinary; his many blog posts at mo-issa.com; and other publications.

When he isn’t writing, Mo enjoys meditating and running in the rain.

Welcome, Mo. Please tell us about your current release.

I used to feel emotionally and spiritually lost—I felt that within me something was missing and things didn’t feel right. I then started a self-discovery journey that helped me first understand that I was a spiritual being having a human experience. The Shift follows the journey that marked the beginning of how this shift in my thinking changed my life for the better. I discuss how I sought my passion and purpose and how I am using it to impact the lives of people. I believe and hope that this guide will make a change in the lives of others as my experiences transformed mine.

What inspired you to write this book?

The Shift is a book inspired by six crucial things I refer to as gifts; Leo Tolstoy’s Ivan Ilyich, A seminar on Personal Growth, Running and Brené Brown’s landmark TED Talk The Power of Vulnerability, Public Speaking, Getting Published and Giving Back. These were catalysts that I experienced at various points of my life. Sharing my story through these events was the beginning of a transformation that led me to get closer to my soul, shed my ego and seek to be authentic. This book for me is an evidence that there is no adversity in life that can hit me and I will fail to find a silver lining or lesson within it.

What exciting story are you working on next?

During my self-discovery journey I realized that many people were also living listless lives and needed to be aware that they could live fearless authentic lives while following their passion and their purpose. I therefore started an initiative The Authenticity Project for this reason. For my next book I will be sharing stories of people from all walks of life; those who found their passion and fueled it with hard work despite challenges and those who were in other fields and made the conscious effort to shift to where their heart lies. I believe many people need to be inspired to courageously rise and pursue their passion; enabling people to truly light up the world with their skills, creativity and grit.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

My interest in writing emerged almost five years ago when I began writing “Morning Pages” as heralded by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I write part-time as I am entrepreneur and I manage my company. I write for an hour a day, usually after coming home from work in the early evening. This daily hour of writing adds up after a week, and if I add some extra ones on the weekend, I can total 10 hours a week.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I put an unlit cigar in my mouth and rarely light up during my writing. Until the end then I sometimes do actually smoke.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to become a lawyer.

Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Thank you for joining me today, Mo.

Interview with non-fiction writer Wellington Manjengwa

Welcome, Readers. Today's guest is writer Wellington Manjengwa. He's chatting with me about his new non-fiction personal development book, Take a Chance and Win.

During his virtual book tour, Wellington will be awarding an autographed copy of Take a Chance and Win to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too!

Welcome, Wellington. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

I don’t know if you do this as well, but I keep old notebooks in my drawers; some of them go way back. My drawers get really cluttered sometimes because I dump all kinds of papers with notes from books, speeches, workshops, ideas that just crop up, brainstorming etc.

One Sunday in 2008, I needed to do a bit of cleaning, which included my desk and drawers. So I got started throwing stuff away and cleaning up. I was determined to leave the place sparkling clean.

And then I came to my desk, happily throwing away papers, notes, and unwanted clutter, when I came across this diary. A nice, leather-bound diary I had used the previous year, with many inspirational quotes on every page. While thumbing through the diary and reliving the appointments and meetings in it, I noticed one interesting quote; Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life. Failure comes when we shrink from them. I didn’t know who John Maxwell was but his words were immensely profound.

Then I read one of John’s quotes from my old daily planner, which said: “Your thoughts will attract opportunities to you but it is your actions that will put money to that opportunity.”

This was at a time when my life was at crossroads. I was contemplating making a huge career move, which entailed me leaving my country and comfort zone. I had lost money through some speculative investments in the era of hyperinflation in my home country, Zimbabwe. I was running a small business which was my passion but it just wasn’t making enough money to make it reasonable to keep going, in fact I was sustaining it with my salary because it was just not doing well. John’s messages and quotes touched me at the very core and left me questioning every decision I had ever made about my life. I kept saying to myself, this is so painful, why isn’t there some guidance out there to help me make these decisions. I realised my limitations but I had no-one to turn to, no big brother to run to for advice. I was confused about life, I had many questions but no answers. I have always been quite ambitious and hungry for success but at this point I was really afraid. I had a family that depended on me for everything and I needed to make sure that whatever decision I made would enable me to be successful and be able to continue being the provider. There was no room for mistakes. Failure was just not an option. How was I going to make this happen?

EVERYONE IS A RISK TAKER

I have since gone through a long path of self-discovery and self-development that has led me to discover something:

One of the greatest challenges we face in life is DECISION MAKING. As you weigh the options for yourself or your company’s next step, how do you decide which way to turn? Successful outcomes can only be evaluated after the fact. But by the time the results are in, it’s normally too late to take corrective action. Often our decisions involve risk, and our big failures come from failing to manage the risk. Some people consider themselves risk-averse, while others consider themselves risk-takers. This drives their decision making and the strategies they implement to achieve what they want. The cold, hard truth is that everyone is a risk taker, what differs is the size, type, and amount of risk you take. The key element that distinguishes the successful from the unsuccessful is how we manage our risk. To take a risk is not the same as being careless. Many people confuse the two.

SO, WHO STARTED ALL THIS?

My name is Wellington, I was born and raised in one of the most populous townships in Harare, Zimbabwe. Yeah, you’ve heard of that country. Does one million percent inflation ring a bell for you?? At some point we were millionaires and billionaires but could barely afford a loaf of bread. I come from humble beginnings. No silver spoon in my mouth. I get that you don’t know me that well yet. Usually when you have a background like mine, you are not given much of a chance. But I have lived this one truth that has transformed my life forever: The battle for success is an internal battle. Great things always begin from your inside.

That is why I fell in love with learning expert, Jim Kwik’s saying the first time I saw it: “If an egg is broken from outside force, life ends, but if it is broken from inside, life begins.”

Failure to understand this is the reason one can be sitting on a treasure but be treating it like trash.

I have discovered an intensity and passion that has led me through a journey of self-discovery, adventure, conquering doubt, fear, and many limiting beliefs to establish the Well of Inspiration. My team and I work with individuals and companies providing them with information, ideas, and strategies that help to take their lives and businesses to their next level of success.

Please tell us a little bit about your current release.
This book can be taken as a success handbook which focuses on three key decisions in the areas of business, life partners and finances. If these strategies were taken on board, internalized, absorbed and put into practice, they will fundamentally improve your decision making and your chances of success.

What inspired you to write this book?

I simply made more mistakes, said stupid things, and acted before thinking than I care to recall. I took risks in many cases rather carelessly and have had to deal with the consequences of poor decision making and poor risk management in the making of key decisions in my life.

I woke up to the folly of my poor decisions only in my late 20's and realized I could have been so much closer to my life goals had I known how to manage the processes that lead to making important decisions and putting risk management strategies into action to assist in improving my chances of success

Tony Robins once said, “It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

This book takes that philosophy and expands upon it. Grounded in the idea that how you approach decision making and risk management determines success or failure, Take A Chance And Win aims to teach you the tenets of success in all aspects of your life and shows you how to capitalize upon effective risk management for regular decision making.

--> Excerpt from Take a Chance and Win:

It is said that before success in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat and perhaps some failure. Temporary defeat is part of the learning curve because you cannot foresee every obstacle and sometimes circumstances may blindside you. As long one keeps the main thing and stays focused, they always come out wiser and more strategic. They will be able to rise again, reassert themselves and go at their dreams again—this time a little bit wise.

However, there are some sad scenarios of failure. Sadly, such moments of failure can spell the end of many people’s dreams. They bring them to the end of the road.

You see, the world is full of people who are staging a comeback because they have made serious mistakes, met obstacles, and succumbed to them or got beaten down by fear. Most importantly, a lot of the comeback stories in today’s world are the stories of those who have made bad decisions along the way or have taken risks without the proper strategies to manage the risk and maximise the upside of their decisions.

Sometimes all it takes is the ability to seek expert counsel when you hit a snag, or when you are not sure about something. Speaking to an expert like a lawyer, a religious leader, a business advisor, a life coach can be the difference between making a catastrophic mistake and rising to the top and realising your dreams.

What exciting story are you working on next?I’m currently working on a blog post titled. From Bachelor to Master.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I never really thought of myself as a writer but I realized in 2014 that I could express myself better in writing that in word.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I don’t write full time. I work in the financial services sector in Risk Management. I just wake up early everyday and write for an hour consistently and it works for me.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I’m kind of a stumbler when it comes to writing. I stumbled into it

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be an accountant

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?Each one of us is a decision maker. We make decisions every day, about what to wear, where to go, what to do, what to listen to, the list goes on. Simplistic as it may seem, it is true that each of us is a decision maker in all facets of our lives. I would like to introduce you to something that you also are...even though it may not be so obvious. YOU ARE A RISK TAKER. Ok, so someone has told you before that you are not a risk taker and so on, but the reality is that you take risks every day; in fact, in every decision that you make at any given time, you are doing any of these four things: ACCEPTING A RISK, AVOIDING A RISK, TRANSFERRING A RISK, MITIGATING A RISK. My contention in this book is that as the world continues to change and innovations keep transforming lives and ushering in new opportunities, it is imperative that champions in the making, millionaires, and billionaires in the making also adapt to the changes and accept that in making decisions, it is smarter to avoid pitfalls while pursuing success, and that this is an important part of every success story together with the ability to rise after falling on your face.

Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Amazon

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Special excerpt from Become You by Toneka R. Etienne, Ph.D.

I’m wrapping up this week with a special excerpt from the self-help book, Become You, by Toneka R. Etienne, Ph.D.

During her virtual book tour, Toneka will be awarding a signed copy of Become You to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

A little bit about the author:

Toneka R. Etienne, Ph.D., is a Psychologist, wife, mother, Huffington Post contributor, and creator at www.tonekaetienne.com. Toneka is a self-love advocate encouraging women to balance their daily lives with the ambition to continually pursue their dreams. Her calling is to fully support women as they call soulful purpose and intention into their life and business connected to their deepest and most authentic selves. When she’s not holding sacred space for women’s transformation, Toneka can be found doing her favorite things: spending time with her husband and two daughters, traveling, reading, connecting with like-minded visionaries, and looking for divine inspiration.

A little bit about Become You:

Ready to create lasting transformation in your life? Become You reveals a practical lifestyle blueprint for the modern day woman. Begin your deep dive transformation by turning an honest, but loving mirror on your belief systems, habits, and spiritual life. This book will help you create a balanced lifestyle so that you can passionately pursue your goals and dreams without losing yourself in the process.

Excerpt from Become You:

Procrastination

Procrastinating is the art of actively postponing or delaying something. And it’s just another one of the obstacles that can potentially stand in the way of living the life of your dreams. But did you know there are different kinds of procrastinators? See if you fit into one of the following categories.

1. Thrill-seeker - These are usually your last minute, “get it done” kind of people. They wait until the last minute to complete an important task or project and attribute their procrastination to their “zone of genius.” I am very guilty of embodying this one right here. I spent the majority of graduate school being a thrill-seeker. I would wait until the weekend before a huge paper was due and spend the next day and a half writing around the clock to get it done. This form of procrastination always caused me a great deal of self-inflicted stress, and after finishing an assignment, I’d always promise myself I wasn’t going to do it again.

2. The Avoider - This person usually procrastinates by avoiding the task and usually does so out of either fear of success or fear of failure. This one crept up for me as I was writing this book. So many times while thinking about this book, I thought, “No one wants to hear what you have to say.” I also thought about how the success of this book could change my life, which brought up some fears that I didn’t realize I had.

3. The Indecisive - This person can’t and won’t make a decision. Unfortunately, even with her lack of action, she still won’t take responsibility for her outcomes. Very rarely does this type of procrastinator believe she has any responsibility for her life, and she presents herself as a victim in most situations.

So how can you combat procrastination?

Break it down. You can get really overwhelmed by a complex task or project. Sometimes you may have a project you want to tackle, but once you start to think about all the pieces of the puzzle, it gets all too daunting.

At that point, you can either turn into the avoider or the indecisive.

So instead of looking at the project as this huge mountain of a task, break it down in steps.

That was one of the things that helped me to complete my dissertation. I focused on one chapter at a time and didn’t allow myself to even think about steps 2 through 100!

Here’s another great tip if you’re still stuck: start at either the beginning or the end and fill in the pieces along the way. I almost never know exactly how something I write is going to turn out. I start with just one section, and it develops from there. You just have to trust the process and take it one step at a time.

Reward yourself. As I stated before, I can be the thrillseeker type of procrastinator, since I get so emotionally charged up about the things I have to do. So to add some spice to the mix, I put myself on a reward system to get things done. I give myself a deadline to complete something, and if I do it on schedule, I treat myself to something that I know I’ll enjoy. I started with very simple rewards, like an extra scoop of ice cream or a new necklace. I realized that when I procrastinated, this dark cloud remained over me, and I couldn’t enjoy my leisure time. So I started to reward myself with things like more family time, an afternoon at the park with my girls, or a date night with my husband.

I’ve mentioned breaking down your tasks. You don’t have to complete the huge task to reward yourself. Instead, implement little rewards along the way. While writing this book, I would give myself short tasks to complete a section, knowing that if I did so, the weekend time I spent with my family would be that much more rewarding and pleasurable since I’d knocked something off my list.

Reframe. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in your emotions and fears that you forget why you started on this journey in the first place. To reframe is to connect back to your why. it’s your reminder of what’s most important. When you connect to the driving force behind your journey, allow that force to propel you forward in spite of the temptation of procrastination.

Disconnect. Eliminate all possible distractions to create your work environment. Turn off the cell phone and television. Create a clean work space—whatever you need to do to help you focus and get to work. When I go into serious creation mode, I have to completely remove myself from any familiar environments. While finishing my dissertation, I spent two and a half days locked in a hotel room. I wrote, ate, slept, repeat. And it worked for me, I completed two of my five chapters. And for this book, I took the same approach. For three days, I focused all my attention on this book, in a hotel room, with tiny rewards along the way. I rewarded myself with a brownie one night, a hot tub party with my husband and daughters in the hotel another night, and a new bathing suit the last

night.

Links:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Amazon

  

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Interview with writers Peter Taylor and Jeremy Szteiter

Today we welcome Peter Taylor to talk about his collaboration with Jeremy Szteiter and their resulting book Taking Yourself Seriously: Processes of Research and Engagement.


Bios:
Jeremy Szteiter is a 2009 graduate of the Critical and Creative Thinking program and now serves as the Program's Assistant Coordinator. His work has centered around community-based and adult education and has involved managing, developing, and teaching programs to lifelong learners, with an emphasis on a learning process that involves the teaching of others what has been learned and supporting the growth of individuals to become teachers of what they know.


Peter Taylor: I am a Professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where I direct the Critical and Creative Thinking Graduate Program. This program aims to provide its mid-career or career-changing students with "knowledge, tools, experience, and support so they can become constructive, reflective agents of change in education, work, social movements, science, and creative arts."

The path to this position began in environmental and social activism in Australia which led to studies and research in ecology and agriculture. I moved to the United States to undertake doctoral studies in ecology, with a minor focus in what is now called science and technology studies (STS). Subsequently, I combined scientific investigations with interpretive inquiries from the different disciplines that make up STS, my goal being to make STS perspectives relevant to life and environmental students and scientists. Critical thinking and critical pedagogy/reflective practice became central to my intellectual and professional project as I encouraged students and researchers to contrast the paths taken in science, society, education with other paths that might be taken, and to foster their acting upon the insights gained. Bringing critical analysis of science to bear on the practice and applications of science has not been well developed or supported institutionally, and so I continue to contribute actively to new collaborations, programs, and other activities, new directions for existing programs, and collegial interactions across disciplines. My aspiration is to foster education that supports people to become resilient and reorganize their lives, communities, and economies in response to social, environmental changes. The book reflects more the critical pedagogy/reflective practice side of myself than the scientist.

Welcome, Peter. Please tell us about this new book.

The book started 25 years ago!  About 4 years ago Jeremy, my co-author who was then a student, started to help me convert my course handouts and associated wikipages into a book format. A break from teaching last fall gave me a chance to produce a publishable manuscript and move through the steps to self-publishing.

What inspired you to write this book?

Let’s ask: “What inspired me to teach in ways that ended up reflected in the book?” I think that creativity comes not out of individual inspiration, but from borrowing and connecting. The more items in your tool box—the more themes, heuristics (rules of thumb), and open questions you are working with—the more likely you are to make a new connection and see how things could be otherwise, that is, to be creative.  Yet, in order to build up a set of tools that works for you, it is necessary to experiment, take risks, and reflect on the outcomes. Such "reflective practice" is like a journey into unfamiliar or unknown areas—it involves risk, opens up questions, creates more experiences than can be integrated at first sight, requires support, and yields personal change. What has driven me to keep journeying in this way is hard to pin down.

What exciting story are you working on next?

A book that addresses issues that have been overlooked in the more than a century of heated nature-nurture (genes vs. environment) debates.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I began to write seriously when in graduate school in the USA in the early 1980s. 

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like?  If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I need to make space away from my cluttered desktop and all the tasks that come across the internet. I also need to (re)commit myself to writing and make time each day away from the “urgent” that eclipses the important. This works for a few months and then gets drowned by the challenges of supporting students in their life changes and running an unusual program in a public university in times of economic recession…

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

Not really a quirk, but I have 30+ years of 8.5 x 11 notebooks in which I have a dialogue with what I am listening to (in talks), what I am reading, and what I am hoping for.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

An astronomer.  (Growing up in the country under the Southern hemisphere skies led me to ask the Big Questions about how it all got there and what came before.)

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

This is the first publication of a new press, The Pumping Station. Established in 2011, this small publishing company was named after a 1980s discussion and dining group in Somerville and Cambridge (MA). The group was named in turn after an old Pumping Station on the Charles River in Waltham with a gesture to a quote by Henry Moore about one of his sculptures: “it had great drama with its big heart like a great pumping station.”

Any net revenue from book sales is directed towards future books and subsidies for participants in Workshops, especially Open Space Workshops on Scientific and Social Change, which run in ways that parallel the original Pumping Station discussion group. 

Peter, thank you for telling us so much about your book...and the additional information - that's a cool story for how the publishing house was named, and being a New Englander, it really jumps out at me.

Readers, you can find reviews and other interviews through Peter and Jeremy's tour schedule. Feel free to stop by the other blogs and say hello. Leave a comment and your email address here for a chance to win a PDF copy of Taking Yourself Seriously: Processes of Research and Engagement.