Latest / The Daily Writer / The Writer’s Notebook (September 2026)

Transcript

The Writer’s Notebook (September 2026) · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to the Daily Writer, where we help writers become authors of their own lives.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I also want to welcome you to the Writer's Notebook for the month of September.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And this episode is a monthly digest that dives deeper into the books, conversations, and moments that have shaped my thinking and writing in the past month.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, on the first of each month, I do this longer episode called the Writer's Notebook.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, this is an email that I send out to my email list as well.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And my goal here, whether you're listening on the podcast or if you get this over email, it my goal here is to give you some resources and questions to help you become the author of your own life.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that these pique your interest and give you something to think about.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got several sections here to this episode today.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the first section is the book that stayed with me.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I really like this because instead of just giving you a bunch of books that I like, I focus on one single book each month that really, really has stuck with me in a particular way.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the past several years have brought a lot of changes in my life.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I could list what all of those things are.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of them.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And at times I have navigated these changes gracefully, but at other times, I've really struggled to adapt if I'm being honest and transparent with you.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure that I'm not alone in that respect.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: We all struggle to adapt with change, unless you're the kind of person that just likes constant change in their life.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't really know anybody like that.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: So what I'm sharing with you here probably is not unique to me.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in my search to find some help in navigating these midlife transitions, I came across a book called The Middle Passage from Misery to Meaning in Midlife.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the author is a guy named James Hollis.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this book came out in 1993.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: So this was well before the age of the internet and all that, and smartphones and all that stuff.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So this book, I guess at this point, is 33 years old or something.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually like books that have been around for a few decades because if they're still popular and people are still reading them, they've kind of proved their worth.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And this book in particular is really good because, at a little over 100 pages, it's one of the most insightful and profound books that I have read in a long time.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: In this book, The Middle Passage, James Hollis explores why almost every adult goes through various crises during their midlife years and how we can get back to our true selves.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he describes this transition as a death of the old self and an emergence of the reborn self.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's a kind of a passage.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I have known a lot of people over the years whose lives have completely fallen apart at midlife.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And many of them never really enter into their later years with any kind of intention and purpose.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: They just sit on the sidelines of life and watch passively as life unfolds, however, it will.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I like this book so much because it reminds me that I want to do the exact opposite.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's giving me some tools to think about how these transitions happen, why they happen, and how we can navigate them more successfully.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I want to continue learning from my mistakes and blunders and challenges.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to use those challenges in whatever form that they come as leverage points that can propel me even further in my professional and personal growth.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: As they say, never waste a good crisis.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the midlife passage for many people is full of one crisis after another.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So the question is this how do we make these challenges count?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And will we learn from them or just be passive observers of our own lives?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hollis has a quote early in the book, and I want to share these couple of sentences with you.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Many of us treat life as if it were a novel.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: We pass from page to page passively, assuming the author will tell us on the last page what it was all about.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: The invitation of the middle passage is to become conscious, accept responsibility for the rest of the pages, and risk the largeness of life to which we are summoned.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is so beautiful because, in other words, it's up to us to accept responsibility for making the second half of life really, really count.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're in those midlife years and you want a great book to help you reflect on the changes that you're experiencing in this season, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Again, the author is James Hollis, and the book is called The Middle Passage from Misery to Meaning in Midlife.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to take a couple minutes to share with you a conversation that I've been thinking about.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: One of my coaching clients recently asked me how to get through a tough week.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: She was wrestling with a health issue combined with some other factors that were seriously limiting her time and energy to get her work done.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I gave her two pieces of advice that have really helped me immensely.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And anytime that you're having a tough week, I want to challenge you to implement these two pieces of advice as well.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing is when you're having a tough week of whatever kind it is, cancel or reschedule all the obligations and meetings that are not absolutely necessary.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because when your time and your energy are really reduced, you need to free up your bandwidth as much as possible.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: This helps almost more than anything else, is just knowing that you've got some more open time than you thought that you did.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And second of all, when you're having a tough week, particularly if it's a health issue or your energy is really low, work in little chunks of time as your energy allows and give yourself time constraints to get things done.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's really amazing what you can accomplish in a compressed block of time when you're really under the gun if you put that limit on yourself.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're having a tough week or you have a tough week coming up, these two suggestions really do work.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to share with you a question that I'm wrestling with.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of my favorite things that I talk about in the writer's notebook every month because I love questions and I love just letting those ideas roll around in my head for a little while.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about Dolly Parton for just a second, because just like people all around the world, I was really saddened to hear about her death this past week.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to be honest, I don't normally feel moved by a celebrity death unless I felt a particular connection to their work or life.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because the reality is that we're all going to die someday.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And just because somebody was famous doesn't necessarily mean that I felt connected to them in some sort of special way.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: But Dolly Parton's death was different somehow.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: She did so much good in the world and she spread so much love and grace that it feels like the world has gotten just a little bit darker as a result.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that probably sounds overly dramatic, but still yet it's how I feel.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So over the past few days, I have found myself watching lots of interviews with Dolly Parton, and I'm astounded by how quick-witted and graceful she was, even when some of those interviewers didn't really know that much about what she did, or sometimes they just weren't very nice people.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: On one of our evening walks a few days ago, and my wife and I do an evening walk almost every single night for about 20 minutes, I told my wife Melanie that Dolly has really inspired me to start asking myself the question, how can I give more?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this question of how can we give more is something that we should all be wrestling with, because at the end of your life, nobody's gonna care that much about your awards or your accolades or your accomplishments.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: The foremost thing in people's minds, whenever you pass, is gonna be the question of how your life impacted them.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the main idea, actually, behind the book that I wrote a few years ago called Performance Driven Giving, which I wrote with David Hancock and Bobby Kipper.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, came out in I think 2022.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this week I'm gonna be flipping back through that book to remind myself of how I can keep pursuing a life of giving and a life of generosity.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because my goodness, Dolly Parton did so much good in the world.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And hey, maybe we're not gonna be as famous as she was, and you know, have all these records and all these awards and accolades and the theme park and all these things, uh, starring movies and all of that.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: But that's okay because each of us can probably give a lot more than we think we're capable of.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think her life is a living testament to the fact that you can use your success, whatever your success is in life, for lots and lots of good that actually impacts people on a very tangible level.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you might be laughing at what I mentioned about um flipping back through this book, Performance-driven giving.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I have to do that is because, yes, as a ghostwriter, you do forget what you wrote in books.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And as an author, I mean, when a book comes out a few years ago, I gotta look back through it and figure out what did I actually say in this book?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's a great book, so make sure and check it out if you want to become more generous and giving in your life.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Performance-driven giving.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk for a minute about what's ahead for September for me before I wrap up this episode.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, aside from my client work, my primary project for September is the launch of my new book, which you've already heard about if you've listened to past episodes.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the book is called The Ghost Powered Author: Save Time, Build Authority, and Amplify Your Voice with the Power of a Ghostwritten Book.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And this short book is for business leaders who want to harness the power of a great book, but they don't have the time or the desire to write it themselves.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And as a ghostwriter, I answer a lot of questions from prospective clients and writers about how ghostwriting actually works and why leaders might want to consider hiring one.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've wanted to write this book for a long time, and I felt like it was finally time to put those answers in one convenient place, which of course is a book.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm in the final, final, final stages of edits and design.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll hear more about the ghost powered author over the coming weeks.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the book will launch here in the next couple of weeks.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And in addition to that, though, I'm excited about two events that I'm participating in here in the month of September.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, on Tuesday, September the 8th, I'm sponsoring and speaking at the monthly NTX network lunch that is held here at the co-working space in St.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Charles, Missouri, called the Commons.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where I actually have an office.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here every single day.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, every weekday that is.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not here on the weekends typically, of course.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I absolutely love the Commons.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great place.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And at this networking lunch next Tuesday, September the 8th, I'm going to be sharing about my new ghostwriting book and why business leaders should consider hiring a ghostwriter.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then, second, on Tuesday, September the 29th, I'm hosting a free workshop again here at the Commons in St.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Charles, Missouri.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the workshop is called Think Like an Author: Four Practices for Your Life and Writing.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And this is going to be a 90-minute workshop where I'm introducing a fresh perspective on the creative life.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to dive into four very simple yet high-impact practices that are designed to help you write and create with purpose, consistency, and confidence.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really, really excited about this workshop because I love teaching in person.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are in the St.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Louis area or you are within driving distance and want to join either of these events, you can find links to register for these in the show notes.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I would love to meet you in person.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: So again, if you're in the St.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Louis area or you want to drive for a couple of hours, if you are within driving distance, then I'd love it if you would consider joining us because, again, I'd love to connect with you in person.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, my friend, thanks for checking out this month's edition of the Writer's Notebook.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's a way for me to share some insight into my world as a full time writer, and I hope that it adds some value to your world as well.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: As always, stay safe, healthy, and productive.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if there's ever anything that I can do for you, please be sure and let me know.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I will see you tomorrow.