I love listening to the likes of Jim Rohn and Les Brown and Tony Robbins; and reading books by John Maxwell and Daymond John and Jon Acuff. Their motivation pumps me up and puts things back in perspective. Their tips and tricks and reminders give me things to focus on for advancing my career and life.

Advancing my career. That looks a lot different for me now than it did 12 months ago. Completely different actually.

I was a career woman; an insurance agent and office manager for 20 years. Advancing my career meant continually learning about my ever-changing industry, earning new clients, considering fresh sales strategies.

I walked away from that world to write a book. I still enjoy and benefit from the master motivators, but I’m struggling to figure out what career advancement looks like for a career that I’m diving into, yet an outsider to.

I say ‘struggling’ very loosely. When I start looking forward six months or a year down the road and my future is more full of unknowns than it ever has been… I struggle. When I stay in today and focus on what’s in front of me… a promising manuscript… I feel like the luckiest girl in the world, doing what I love.

I’m a planner. I like to know the next 25 steps of progress, heading towards a very distinct goal. How exciting and uncomfortable, and thrilling and terrifying to just plan my day rather than my decade. Oof.

Some people may see this as irresponsible and some people understand it to be incredible personal growth.

So here I go, on my way to fully embrace being a writer- one day at a time; one word at a time.

Here’s to looking the part… my LinkedIn selfie photo shoot… Do I look like a writer?