I'm finally doing what makes me happy

Charlotte,

Congratualtions on your decision to do what makes you happy. So many of us settle for mediocre living, when we should be inspired to live with passion.

Fantastic! It's more important that you are happy doing what you want to do than doing what you have to do. I am actually a little envious because I would like to get into novelling but I feel I don't have the chops to whip up a good enough story for someone to want to buy.

Your know-how of SEO is going to put you light years ahead of your competitors in selling books. So yeah, definitely squeeze out every drop of that to your advantage.

I look forward to your author blog (however pathetic it may be) to see how you are doing. Good luck!

Charlotte,
Can't wait to read your first novel. Keep us posted

Rose

Charlotte, way to go!

Yesterday I was in a conversation with someone who mentioned how much stress they'd been under, yet explicitly stated for them it was "all about the money" - for now. Said they'd have fun later, and I felt sad because I thought there may not "be" a later for them to have fun in, you know?

Both excellent reasons to "go for it."

Tina

I'm sure what you learned about IM in all the period will serve you well in the marketing side of your novelling.

I'm sure many great novels haven't been read for that reason

Well done Charlotte, everything seems to fall into place one you are doing something you enjoy. I know myself that things started to look up once I put myself first and started working in an area that I genuinely enjoyed.

If you're lucky enough to be in that position a lot of the "work" is taken out of having a job (if that makes sense) - it just becomes something that you do in return for a salary and not the hard slog that the rat race can be..

I once heard a quote that said "If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life". Sounds like something Zig Ziglar would say. But that's been my motto ever since I started my business.

Are you going to have your book self-published by way of a site like Createspace (Amazon?)

Awesome...I wish you nothing but the best!

That's awesome news Charlotte...congrats on making that decision and moving forward to achieving success in your next "chapter" (sorry couldn't resist LOL)

Hey Charlotte, I think you're doing the right thing. Look forward to seeing your author blog.

I am writing a mystery/drama and having lots of fun with it

Congrats Charlotte!

I really respect that you're taking your marketing experience with you into your new venture. I believe that's the sign of successful people, they draw on all of their life experiences in everything that they do. It's kind of like the snowball principle applied to the knowledge you pick up through your life.

Awesome!

I've been pondering taking that plunge as well.

Well, that's kinda funny. I clicked on NEW POSTS and I run into yours right off. If's funny because I just put the finishing touches on something similar myself a couple of days ago. It's short storying, I suppose. There is actually very little in the way of this kind of thing out there. Now I'm busy between all my other "money making" stuff adding content. My own! (For now.)

I wonder what that means? Ha!

Norm

Good Luck Charlotte - hope you put your book on the Kindle. If it's a good book -- It should do really well on the Kindle

Your message is very timely, Charlotte.

Although I 'sorta' retired from I.M. a while back, I'm still working on another project that earns me a fairly decent return on investment. I have come to really dislike the project (and the process) - but because it helps pay the bills, I keep doing it.

I wish I could just pack everything away and walk away from it. Forever.

Your post has got me thinking that maybe the time has come to do exactly that.

However, it is scary it is to give up the known for the unknown. I know that until I put the old behind me, I can't fully partake of the new. For me, it takes a lot of faith to follow my heart instead of walking down the money trail.

I applaud you for the choice you made and wish you every success!

Glad to see you found your path to happiness, Charlotte!

If you can't be happy with what you are doing why bother doing it, right?

To your success!

Golden words Dear, indeed golden!

Good luck Charlotte hope you do some good writing and find your way. There are so many different ways to find yourself. My wife has written 5 books that have been published in fantasy and she loves to write. I love to read or hear her stories, full of adventure and emotion. Artist are interesting people and well needed in any society from the ancient Greek till today.

Wish you luck and all the best.

Very good point, "Do that which makes you happy." We can not get success on the work which we don't like. In this short life, money is not everything. It's nice that, You find the way that can make you happy. Wish you good luck for your new journey.

Thanks everyone for you kind words I am hiding indoors away from the heat and sketching characters today. Fun!

I'm lucky enpough to be able to say that I did something very similar to you myself, although not writing.

I have never been happier and found that being able to liberate myself from a bloody computer exhilerating.

My view these days is that the IM game is not what it's cracked up to be, and some of us have to go through hell just to make a lousy few bucks. So these days I'm able to sit doen in front of my computer when I feel like it, and actually enjoy my time, rather than stressing about rankings, backlinks, pandas, penguins and all the other crap that's thrown at us.

I wish you nothing but the very, very best for the future and continued happiness doing what you love.

Excellent choice, Charlotte! I'm confident you'll do extremely well, and, as you said, at the very least you'll be doing something you truly enjoy. That make a huge difference - all the difference in the world, really. You've had glimpses of that already. Just wait until it's full bore, 24/7/365!

Congratulations! I wrote a novel myself. It didn't sell very well, but those who read it gave me great reviews. Best of all, writing it was a real challenge, one of the best things I've ever done.

Charlotte congrats on following your dreams. I wish you nothing but the best (and be sure to share with us that author blog when you're done!)

I think if we all placed more value on being happy and doing things that we A) love to do and B) are good at. The whole of society would be a much better place.

The fact is that we teach our young to go and earn and compete instead of being happy and having the experiences we all want to have. We have this very rigid way of thinking that says to have the things we want in life we need to earn and compete.

I remember at school all they ever taught in economics and business class was earning and making as much money as you could and how this would make us all happy.

Never did anyone say to me "Gee Andrei you are really good at writing and story telling and you seem to like it too. Maybe you should do a little more of these classes if you are interested. Would you like that?"

No, instead they said "This is how someone with your grades can make money, become a plumber!"

This is the challenge though.

Just this morning I was asking myself the same question.

What am I most passionate about?

The answer?

Many things.

Some more dominant than others, yes.

As humans, we are not one dimensional creatures.

The aim? To do the things we love to do (most of the time) while getting paid enough so that we don't have the things we dont want to do and to be able to pay money to do the things we love even more.

There is doing things you love and doing things you actually love.

Doing things we actually LOVE to do. Like; eating, having sex, going on holiday, watching TV, drinking beer, coffee or whatever is your choice of beverage is, hiking, fishing, lounging, having children, playing with pets or partying like it's 1999....

But what is the reality?

Even billionaires struggle even they are not always happy. You will never truly be happy unless you choose to be. It is a choice to be happy.

But what if you are confined in a solitary environment and are forced to be unhappy, maybe by something called torture? Can you choose to be happy in this environment?

Of course you can not.

I think in this example it's to stay within the realms of reality and practicality...

Some say its the Chicken and Egg story all over again.

I say its life.

Life is and always will be a struggle to some degree. Just as a tree struggles to push its sprout outside of the Earth and then struggles to stay alive in the wind, in front of predators and then to suck enough water and nutrients into its roots -so does a person struggle to grow to the point where they can blossom and bare fruit... and apparently become happy.

It's just one of those things.

There is only so much something external can do to make you happy and there is only so much something internal can do to keep you happy. It is all about achieving the balance I believe.

Have to say that your story is actually quite inspirational. Thank you for sharing this to us!

One observation here but before I do just know that I tend to pay too much attention to the words people choose.

You said "3 years of learning", and you could have said "3 years of doing", but you didn't. So that makes me think that a good portion of those 3 years were spent just reading.

Obviously I could be totally wrong, and it doesn't really matter as you seem to have found something youre passionate about. But I still have to say DO NOT give up internet marketing 100%. Reason I say that is I've only been doing it for about 6-7 months now, and finally I'm starting to reap some very satisfying rewards. My website is getting lots of traffic, we're actually getting phone calls, selling jobs, and I only have this forum to thank for that.

On the side I have an ebook that has just began selling too, and all of this is just motivating me to work that much harder to learn more, sell more, and hopefully make more money.

Either way though its something I'm very passionate about, as boring as it is. So maybe just finding what you're REALLY passionate about will make all the world of difference.

Good luck! - Red

This is definitely inspiring! You have achieved what I am working towards and I am very excited for you. I will hopefully be in the same boat in the next few months. I'll have to be on the lookout for your author blog. I hope you achieve success with your novel!

Can't wait to read your novel, but what is it on?

Good Luck! All the best to you.

I am glad that you have found what you love doing!
Congratulations & I definitely wish you all the best for the future.

that's marketing, no?
writing novels is just another 'business'.
marketing is a tool.



Best wishes for your venture!

Winston Tian

Hi Charlotte, congratulations! I'm really happy for you.

I love writing fiction too and found the exact blend that makes me really happy...I'm novelling! Except it's for others. So I get paid to write fiction for others (ghostwriting) and I'm in IM bliss. I suppose it's IM in a way because I have to market my services etc (though I don't do much of that these days). But I'm having fun and I can't even believe I'm being paid to do what I've been doing as a hobby for donkey years.

Weldone on following your passion.

So happy for you! And it's really a gift that you found what you love and good at it.
I hope I can do what I really love and earn money from it one day...

If you don't make that thing that makes you happy now that you can put all your "power" and effort, when are you going to do it? Wish you all the best

Hey Charlotte!

I did it in reverse... I wrote my book first then moved into IM... still do the parenting thing though...

Check out my book if you like:

www.howtoraisechildrensuccessfully.com

I would really recommend to everyone to write a book. It is very easy to do as self publishing has made it accessible. So check out createspace.com or lulu.com (the former is Amazon so carries it's weight)

I also use Kindle to get additional sales.

Good luck with your journey!

Keep in touch with your progress...

Llwyddiant!

Joe/Wayne

You do the right thing. Congratulation!

Very interesting, such a drastic turn of focus is brave and in this case I believe will prove to be very fruitful.

Charlotte, the good thing here is that I think it's more difficult to become a "great" writer who can move & compel people to act with stories than it is to learn the technical aspects of marketing online. I consider myself to be an above average writer, but I dread doing it. The fact that you enjoy it so much is a huge asset and could pay dividends for you in the future online.

Hopefully it'll suck you back in eventually. Either way, it's definitely fulfilling to be doing something you really enjoy.

Hey Congratulations May you have huge success in your endeavors because I also believe in find a job you love and never work a day in your life again. Enjoy it and lets us know when you publish.