The Comfort Zone

The Comfort ZoneThere is strange limbo of a zone that is not quite like being either in or out of the zone. Many people can wallow in this place for years.

When we sit in our Comfort Zone, we are both at peace with the world while also not challenging it, and perhaps experiencing it to the full. If we don’t stick our heads above the parapet, nobody can take a pop at us.

If the Comfort Zone was a place, it would sit geographically between a Doing Zone and a Danger Zone. It is safe harbour and somewhere we can’t get hurt whilst also not truly shining our light.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. Some choose to spend their whole lifetimes in the Comfort Zone. Why rock the boat? Why take risks? It something isn’t broken, why attempt to fix it?

There is quite a close similarity between the Comfort Zone and a Being Zone. The difference though is subtle.

When we spend too long in the Comfort Zone, we can atrophy. On an individual basis, stimulation and change promotes good mental and physical health which, in turn, fosters good health, well being and longevity. Collectively, the human spirit strives to know and achieve more in each generation. This means that it is natural that things have to change. When they do, we find we have to wander into new, uncharted territories.

This is not about change for change’s sake. Many human activities have proven to have a negative impact on our health and environment. Our modern world has many faults but they are perhaps outweighed by our marvelous achievements, all of which have required some brave souls to step out of their Comfort Zone.

The technology of war ironically has some surprising peace-time spin offs but many have lost their lives in the process of such ’advancement’. Many surgical techniques were first pioneered on the battlefield. The use of fossil fuels has given us mass transportation but at the expense of an altered environment. Our use of natural resources has brought, for many, an improvement in well being. It has also scarred the planet and many species have been decimated as a consequence. Many peoples have lost their natural homelands too.

It’s clear then that stepping out of our Comfort Zone has to be done with care and diligence. What helps us take the right steps in the right direction is having purpose and high intent. It may be altruistic but it helps to take steps out of our Comfort Zone with the aim of helping others, and only ourselves in the process.

When we move out of the zone and make our intentions clear, we will find support from those around us should we stumble. Any faux pas will only serve to strengthen our resolve and show us the right path should we wander down a blind alley. We may be entertaining others with our art or teaching others with our learnings and research. We may be inventing the next amazing life changing gadget.

Without doing a survey, it is common sense that there are many more half-finished manuscripts than published books. There are many more patents that never made it off the drawing board than inventions in use in some form or other today.

Many of us will sit back and let someone else carry to baton. There are over 7 billion of us and some people have a natural disposition to lead, to explore and to be change-makers. The explorations of the zones in this book are designed to help those who want to get out their armchairs and off their sofas to make something happen.

My new book, The Zone will introduces the qualities needed to escape your Comfort Zone by wandering into in a Doing Zone. By exploring the Danger Zones, the book gives strategies to help cope when the wheels come off the bus.

The last section of the look explores the Being Zones. These are a place where we reach a new level of comfort. We find then a Comfort Zone that exceeds all our expectations. These are places where we make change by just being who we came into this world to be.

The Zone is available for Kindle, Kindle readers, in print and as an audiobook with guided meditations.

The Zone Kindle Touch

It’s Powtoon Time

Created Using PowtoonBig Thanks to Lea Woodward and Jackie Walker for pointing me earlier this year at the most fabulous animation tool called Powtoon.

It allows ‘numpties’ like me to put together pretty amazing trailers for product and book promotions – there’s just a few examples below of what you can do with it.

And even better still, they have invited me to do a animation series on how best to communicate a message in Just a Minute … watch the trailer here

Powtoon Application #001 : Product Promotion

I prepared this short trailer to promote my Bending Time ecourse


Powtoon Application #002 : Web Site Landing Page

Here’s a trailer for a new web site for the marvellously talented Sue Warwick


Powtoon Application #003 : Book Trailer

This is an example for a book trailer


Powtoon Application #004 : Presentations & eLearning

I even used Powtoon to build a whole Udemy training course based on an earlier book called Flavours of Thought. This animation is just one of 30 in the course which comprise over 160 minutes of animated content – phew !!


Related links:
Start Powtooning yourself today – use the coupon TOMEVANS to get 20% off too!
Mind Stretching Animations
Bending Time
Sue Warwick’s Soul Verses
Get your copy of This We Know
Flavours of Thought

Avoiding Mindfalls

Mindfall HeadHave you ever had the same thoughts running around and around in your head? Perhaps somebody upset you or crossed a boundary. Maybe you have a conversation looming that you were dreading or are rehearsing a speech or presentation.

These internal ’conversations’ can go on for days. Nothing you do can shake these thoughts from your head. This state is known as a mindfall.

Such mindfalls can be debilitating and can ruin your day. Eventually, if left ’untreated’, they can even lead to mental ’dis-ease’ such as depression or, on the flip side, even generate illusions and delusions of grandeur.

In this short video, I show how to use a single flavour to jump out of a mindfall.

So That Was 2012 !!

2012 2013Well that was a bit of a year !!

Before launching into 2013 (and taking a well deserved holiday in the sun), I thought it worth wrapping up the year on this blog with a bit of a summary of the journey I’ve been on this year.
Strangely, the only thing I had vaguely planned was to write Planes of Being but even then at the start of the year, the title and theme of the book weren’t fixed … roll on 2013 !!

So what’s planned for 2013?

Well not a lot as I am so looking forward to all the serendipities unfolding …

but I have a series of workshops planned for the last Thursday of each month – check out these happenings

… a book to co-author with the fabulous Vicki Wusche

… at least two new courses for Udemy

and the writing of next year’s opus on how to move to the next level of human evolution

So not much on really !!

Have a fabulous Xmas and stunning New Year

SnowFlake

5 Tips for Publishing on Kindle

Kindle Course Cathy PreslandYou would be forgiven to think that someone who has published eight books on Kindle would know all that there was about publishing and Amazon’s KDP platform.

Well let me disavow you of that notion.

Sure I know how to write a book, format it and upload it for sure but when it comes to book promotion, I confess that I pretty much make it up as I go along – I am still learning.

Now I had pretty good initial success with my latest book, This We Know. A month after I wrote and published it (incidentally which took less than a month), the book got over 30 reviews [UK & US] and not a bad ranking in the charts in its genre.
This We Know Amazon
Since then, like many books, it’s been sliding down into the Amazon noise floor. Like many authors, I was getting despondent and wondering what to do and what I was doing wrong.


Finding Udemy

Then out of the blue, I had an email inviting me to look at Udemy. Less than a month later, I had uploaded three of my own courses – see here … but then a real bonus came in.

I started to connect with other fabulous instructors and to discover their marvelous course materials. One that jumped out and grabbed me straight away was Cathy Presland’s course  – Publish Your Book on Kindle

Not only does it cover everything you need to know about formatting your book, which is great if you haven’t done it before, but there’s a whole load of really useful information for “old hands” like me on selling and promotion.

I’ve only implemented a couple of the tips this weekend and already sales have started to come in again – eternal thanks Cathy.

I love too the way you share success stories of your students – you are a god send to all authors.

Five Things I Didn’t Know About Publishing on Kindle

  1. How to get eyeballs on my book
  2. How to do a proper Best Seller campaign
  3. How I am not the only one to have made mistakes in the past, so not to give myself such a hard time
  4. How to get people to sign up to your email list from your book – courtesy of Steve Reeves
  5. How it can lead to creating passive income from your writing & blogs – courtesy of Tom Ewer

So whether you are a new author starting out or an existing author, this course should be high on your list of investments this year.

Learn how to really Publish Your Book on the Kindle here

p.s. I am only recommending this course because I purchased it myself.

p.p.s. This is an affiliate link so there is a revenue share for me if you decide to purchase it too. I am pointing this out because if you like the course, as much as I did, you can do just the same.