Free Chapter

I would be delighted for you to read the first chapter of my next novel, He Loves It When She Smiles, which will be available later this year. 

Download Chapter One Here

If you enjoy this chapter and want to read more, please like, follow, retweet, pin or whatever else you can do on social media to help spread the word.

Thanks for your support!


About He Loves It When She Smiles 
Determined to start with a clean slate, freshman Kyle Davis heads off to Boston’s Klondike College. His academic studies quickly take a back seat when his crush on a flirty co-ed with a mesmerizing smile leads him down an unexpected path. His new-found friends provide Kyle with a plethora of unsolicited dating advice, all of which cause him to flounder. Confused and discouraged, he finally hears the one voice he should have been listening to all along.

Bittersweet, funny and believable dialogue peppered throughout the story will make you simultaneously laugh and cringe over the series of crazy missteps the young characters make.

He Loves It When She Smiles is the second novel by Karl Bimshas, whose Three Blinks and a Sigh debuted in early 2012. Both books, set in the city of Boston, explore difficult relationships with fun characters engaged in conversations you’ll swear you’ve overheard yourself.

Find other fiction and non-fiction titles here or ask for them at your bookseller.

Vision + Passion + Action

Vision + Passion + Action = Exceptional Performance 

With your goal firmly set in your mind, use this matrix to see where you fit in. Make adjustments if needed and then advance confidently in the direction of your dreams.

Categories

• Vision: 
Can you vividly imagine the outcome of your goal?

• Passion: 
Can you feel a burning desire to complete your goal?

• Action: 
Do you execute your plans and accomplish what you set out to do?

Results

• Daydreamers
have passion and vision, but lack action.

• Workaholics
have tremendous action and passion, but no vision.

• The Mediocre have vision and action but no passion.

• Exceptional Performers
have the inspired combination of vision, passion and action.

Determine if you're running at optimal performance in each category. Focus on your strengths and fill in your gaps.

It's Obvious

Want to figure out what you’re good at? Need to find a way to be useful to humanity? There is no shortage of books and programs designed to help you explore those questions. I'll save you a few hundred, maybe a few thousand dollars, and give you the answer. It's obvious.

Think for a moment about some of the best gifts you’ve received. Undoubtedly they were meticulously wrapped and presented by someone who loved you. They wore a huge smile and were brimming over with confidence when they gave it to you. They knew they had found the perfect present for you and were excited to see you open it. It was probably something you hadn’t asked for, hadn’t even thought about. But they did. They thought about you and knew this was something you had to have. When you think back on it, they were right.

We all start out with a special gift or two. I believe they were presented to us from God with that same enthusiasm and knowing smile, but maybe for you, it was someone else. As a blob of a kid you didn't know what it was, but you gurgled and squealed, happy to receive it. God didn’t tell you how to use it, or even what it was. The wrapping is part of the gift. You get to guess what’s inside by shaking it around a little and going through some trial and error.

Some people unwrap their present at a very young age, others wait until they are much older. After a lot of poking, prodding, staring and guessing, everyone unwraps their gift eventually, but not everyone knows what they’ve been given.  

It’s obvious.

Your gift is the thing you do well. It’s your talent. The thing that comes so easy for you that you mistakenly assume everybody has it. They don't. Your gift is the thing that you do nearly effortlessly and without thought. It’s frustratingly simple to uncover. You've probably been ignoring your gift because it has seemed too easy, or not grand enough, or you haven't felt worthy because you've been tricked into thinking your gift needs to be some complicated thing. Powerful gifts are not complicated. Your talent is easy to identify. How you choose to use it is the present you pass along to others. Once you’ve identify your gift, use it. It's insulting not to.

How to Put Your Hero in Peril

When writing fiction, it’s sometimes difficult to create what feels like enough conflict for the hero to overcome. We often root for the protagonist as we’re creating them and probably subconsciously protect them from too many of the evils in the world. Like our children, we want them to grow and show their mettle, but we’re also ever vigilant and try to mitigate hardships they may encounter. Good for a parent, less good for a writer.

A devious idea struck me. I’m a big fan of The Haddon Matrix, which helps design interventions to reduce injury to people. It’s an excellent system for problem solving. Invert it and the writer now has a template on how to put the story’s protagonist in ever increasing peril.

Use negative events as inspiration to increase the factors of peril your main character has to endure. Then plot how they’ll respond to the mounting adversity. This eliminates the protective shield you may be inclined to put around your hero, and that will make for a better story to write and to read.

Get Over Yourself

This new ebook I put together, "Get Over Yourself; 17 Actions to Stop Whining and Reignite Your Purpose" is an attempt to get you moving in a positive direction. 


The 17 actions contain exercises and thought starters aimed at helping you get over yourself and get working on something productive. 


You’ll find ideas that you can apply to virtually any role in any organization / company / family / tribe. 


Best of all, it’s FREE for a little while, so grab your copy today!

** CLICK HERE NOW **

Nobody Wants to Wait 10 Years for Your Story

Everyone has projects they would like to get to, but life seems to get in the way. Sometimes that takes the form of procrastination. On the rare occasion, it's because you truly have been too busy. (Too busy is often code for, poor time management, or prioritization based on the needs of other people.)

Most often a project lays dormant because of fear, uncertainty or doubt. Can it be finished? What will it look like? Will you like it enough? What if no one else likes it? These are all reasonable fears, but they hold you hostage, and that is unreasonable. If you're going to feel those emotions anyway, doesn't it make sense to get them over with?

I know, sometimes it takes time to erect a statue or build a new park. Somethings can’t be rushed. Ideas need to ferment, and the Muses need to sing in perfect harmony, but for how long ... really?

I have no shortage of half-baked prose sucking up disk space and file cabinets, but I'm talking about the projects you’re actively working on. There are countless tales about authors who have worked on their novel for years, sometimes they finish it on their deathbed and sometimes death beats them to their final period.

When I hear those stories I often wonder, what the hell took them so long? What got in the way? Sometimes a war, often depression. Believe me, I get it. Debilitating things in life can keep you from working what you tell everyone you want to be working on, but let's be brutally honest, nobody wants to wait ten years for your book. You're supposed be a storyteller, not a tease.

If you write, write the damn thing. If you're an artist, paint the damn thing. If you’ve got a passion project, finish it. Otherwise, what good is it to the rest of the world? You undoubtedly had plans for it to begin with, what happened?

It's now generally accepted that productivity helps to create happiness. So, it stands to reason that those who wallow over the lack of progress in their project, primarily due to their unproductive behavior, won’t be particularly happy. To me, this is one of life’s tragedies. You’ve got enough of a gift, skill, passion, or maybe all three, to have gotten something started. Now finish it. Stop with your excuses (see 10 Best Excuses Worksheet) Keep your commitments to yourself and move on.

Dog Days - Avoid the Pack

We’re entering the Dog Days of summer, but with two political conventions on the horizon and the start of the Olympic Games, it’s hardly languid. There’s a lot of ambition in the air.

Leaders, artists and entrepreneurs don’t typically take the summer off. They use the time to prepare for the autumn months. They know the things they do today will help them to finish the year strong. 

Relaxation is a crucial component to success. It’s tempting to move slower during the hotter months, sip on iced tea and relax by the pool. This is an excellent time to self assess. 

Ask yourself, “How am I doing?” Take account of several areas of your life.

• Are you where you want to be financially? 
• Is your career going as you had planned?
• Are you happy with the current state of your health?
• Are you pleased with and fulfilled by the relationships in your life?
• Have you created enough time in your schedule to pursue your hobbies?
• Are you regularly increasing your education, either formally or informally?
• Are you satisfied with the contributions of time, treasure or talent you’re making to the community of your choice?
• Are you continually improving?

If you’re less than satisfied with your answers, don’t just shrug it off. Make a plan that will start moving you to where you want to be. Do something, right away, even if it’s just writing down your goal or a next action. 

It’s hot and many people are on vacation, so you may not feel as motivated to do something as you would a couple months from now. It helps to remember, that if you start today, a couple months from now you could be finishing, instead of starting.

10 Best Excuses Worksheet

When people neglect pursuing their dreams they often create clever stories to justify their lack of progress. 

Sometimes they kick their feet along the floor and act apologetic. Frequently they minimize their commitment to their own goal. 

“Something else came up,” is a common refrain when what they did was prioritize trivial things over the things they once deemed as important. 

There is a word for the hearty defense they offer. It’s called an excuse. 

Some people have no shortage of excuses for why they didn't do what they know they should have done.

Well, don't fight it anymore. Instead, use this 10 Best Excuses Worksheet I’ve developed. 

To get started, brainstorm your 10 best excuses for not accomplishing the most recent thing you committed to accomplishing. 

Next, explain why this reason is not an excuse.

The rest of the sheet is self-explanatory.

When you’re done, you’ll essentially have two choices. 

1. Either eliminate your goal, because you're not serious about achieving it.
2. Eliminate your excuses, and turn them into obstacles to be met and overcome.

Regardless of your answer, don't dwell on it. Take action and move on.

Do Your Passions Overlap?

Sometimes when I'm surrounded by competing priorities, long to-do lists and neglected wish-lists, I feel stuck. So, I open up a notebook and see where my pen takes me. 

More often than not, I sketch a mind map that resembles a smashed spider. A splotch of something in the middle, surrounded by eight or so legs, each labeled in an attempt to either quiet my mind and organize my thoughts, or motivate me into action.

I usually keep these brainstorming notebooks and every once in a while I glance through them to reminisce and try to comprehend what my thinking was at the time. It surprised me that many of my pages contained variations of a Venn Diagram containing; Leadership, Business and Writing. 

These are not the only things I'm passionate about, but nearly every significant project that I've successfully pursued has taken place in the overlaps or sweet spot of these three themes.

There's a clue there.

What three things are you passionate about and how often do you craft your life to work on all of them simultaneously?

RELATED POST:  Where to Invest Your Time

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Find easy to download and read .pdf versions of these titles:  GO GET IT!, Pushing Back the Ocean, Trouble with Women, Attracting Success, and for a limited time, a special 8 title package called, Goal Goodness.  CLICK HERE

61 More Thought Starters to get you in the Write Frame of Mind

You can CLICK HERE and get 61 More Thought Starters in an convenient pdf ... or just keep reading.

1. If you know every characters’ internal and external motivation before you start writing, you’ll be less surprised by their actions. 
2. Give your protagonist a nervous tick or habit that reveals their character. Make them fold a napkin, slurp a straw, twirl their hair or check their phone incessantly.
3. To find fictional names, open up a magazine and scan the masthead of editors and contributors, then combine the first or last name with a noun. 
4. Often the best villains are the ones that practically mirror the main character except in one or two areas.
5. If your antagonist showed up in an art gallery what pieces would they gravitate to and how long would they stay?  
6. How would you feel if you were in a cafe and you learned another writer was looking at you, getting inspiration for their villain? 
7. What trait do you personally have that would serve your antagonist well?
8. What would happen if you changed the gender of every character in your story and started over? Would your characters be the same if you changed their race, or age? If not, you might not have enough life in them yet. If you change those identities, your characters should change. If they don't, you’ve got some more work to do. 
9. What would your story's antagonist blog about?
10. Put your characters in conflict. Make them uncomfortable and write them out of a predicament.
11. What would happen if one of the characters you created tweeted you?
12. Pick up on a random conversation at a cafe and then imagine the backstory or create a new one.
13. Characters that have at least one thing that others admire about them, and one thing that makes them an ass, gives them realism.  
14. Run your characters through something like a Facebook 20 questions and see what they would answer. 
15. Sit your characters in front of Google. What would they do?
16. Would you like to have dinner with your character, or are you worried that they may think you're too boring? Would they pick up the tab? 
17. What’s an interesting and potentially awkward dinner topic to have with the characters you create?
18. Be careful of developing crushes on your characters, they don't love you nearly as much. What if they did?
19. Interview your fictional character. 
20. Open Cosmo or whatever magazine they would read and have them take one of the quizzes.
21. Do you know if your characters are left or right handed or are you just assuming? 
22. Insult your characters and pick a fight with them. See what they do.
23. Your characters will tell you when the words don't feel right. Until then, let them talk. 
24. Give your villains something to love and your heros something to hate.
25. When you can't write, plot. When you can't plot, write.  
26. Google as your character for 5 minutes then look at your search history. TaDa! Their personality is revealed.
27. Sometimes you have to silence your pen to hear your character speak.
28. Make your character arc match your character ache.
29. Write on index cards, then shuffle them until a story emerges, then write to bridge each card. If stuck, skip around.
30. Never neglect the middle of your story. Why? As in life, your middle makes an impression to those who you've enticed to look.
31. It doesn't matter where you start. It only matters that you start, and then finish. It won't be complete otherwise.
32. Typos are the cowlicks of a writer's life. Tidy up, but don't be fussy.
33. The beginning is a great place to start, but anywhere will do.
34. Make villains do three things expected and two things unexpected.
35. Pay attention to your villains. Know their internal / external motivations & conflicts as well as any other character.
36. The 'villain' can be a clash within the Hero's value system.
37. The villain is the personification of an obstacle to the Hero. It’s fun when an obstacle can't be easily assigned to a person.
38. It's killer when the Hero & Nemesis see themselves in each other's eyes and are disgusted by the view.
39. Make your nemesis & hero have 80% - 90% in common with each other then highlight what's different.
40. One person's hero is another person's nemesis.
41. Inspiration is the spark that starts you on your path. Discipline is the fuel that keeps you following it.
42. Voice is your wardrobe & comportment. You can change it, but generally you don't. You stay in a range that fits the occasion.
43. Find your voice by looking at your body of work. Voice is bigger. It's there all along. Change it if you want to.
44. Books have been published about discarded shopping lists. Ignore people who say, "No one will read ..." They lack imagination.
45. Don't beat yourself up as a writer. Pay professional editors to do that for you. Struggle with editing. Don't struggle with writing. If you’re creating a story you get to make things up.
46. Desire is easy. Commitment takes work.
47. The writer is responsible for building a relationship with a reader. This is accomplished through writing.
48. Hope is a vital ingredient, not the meal. A day with only hope is destined to disappoint. A day with no hope is destined to fail.
49. Pacing ebbs and flows like a tide. It's predictable, but sometimes a storm wrecks havoc. The storms are your plot points.
50. Try to write while standing up. You're voice will have more authority and less entitlement and whining.
51. Plot your life as you would your stories. Fill them with interesting characters to face predicaments in a setting you enjoy.
52. Read something important. Learn something important. Write something important. Do something important. Not for yourself, for others.
53. Want to write? Schedule the time in your calendar and keep your appointment. When it's time to write - write.
54. Writers pluck inspiration from air and color them with ink. Those who are successful get readers, who begin to think.
55. The written word can been consumed in many places. 
56. If you feel "stuck" in a first draft, you're not understanding the concept of a "first draft."
57. Answer the question "What happened?" in an intriguing way sprinkled with grace, humor and urgency.  
58. Sometimes the piece you're working on is like unrequited love. You may be lavishing it with unwelcome attention.  
59. Decision by indecision is the plague of progress. Errors can be fixed, but change can never occur unless one acts.
60. The greatest obstacle for a writer is perfection. Their fear of it, or their belief that they have obtained it. 
61. Craft trumps inspiration, but without inspiration, craft is crap.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE PDF

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Declare your Independence from Mediocrity with the Goal Goodness Package

Are you where you want or need to be?

Start the second half of the year strong with these books, tools and programs from Karl Bimshas, aimed to help you find, set and achieve your great goals.

Here’s what’s in the Goal Goodness Package

1. Go Get It! Your Guide to Finding Purpose, Setting Goals and Maintaining Success

2. Pushing Back the Ocean; Tide Turning Leadership Lessons

3. How To Stay When You Want To Quit; Re-scripting your life from whiner to winner

4. Write Advice: Inspirations, tips and thoughts for Leaders and Artists

5. Perspectives; A 30 Day Journal to View Your World Differently

6. Just The Facts Worksheet

7. Time for Change: A Quick Guide to Manage (Survive) Planned (Sudden) Change

8. The Day Kevin Turtle Abandoned His Shell; A Short Story to Transform Wishes into Work

Plus more, all in separate .pdf files 

Build your own goal setting course!

To celebrate America’s Birthday, there are only 236 available at the special Fourth of July price $47

Click the Goal Goodness button

Goal Goodness

Declare your Independence from Mediocrity with the Goal Goodness Package

Are you where you want or need to be?

Start the second half of the year strong with these books, tools and programs from Karl Bimshas, aimed to help you find, set and achieve your great goals.

Here’s what’s in the Goal Goodness Package

1. Go Get It! Your Guide to Finding Purpose, Setting Goals and Maintaining Success


2. Pushing Back the Ocean; Tide Turning Leadership Lessons


3. How To Stay When You Want To Quit; Re-scripting your life from whiner to winner


4. Write Advice: Inspirations, tips and thoughts for Leaders and Artists


5. Perspectives; A 30 Day Journal to View Your World Differently6. Just The Facts Worksheet

6. Time for Change: A Quick Guide to Manage (Survive) Planned (Sudden) Change


7. The Day Kevin Turtle Abandoned His Shell; A Short Story to Transform Wishes into Work

Plus more, all in separate .pdf files

Build your own goal setting course!

To celebrate America’s Birthday, there are only 236 available at the special Fourth of July price $47

CLICK HERE for Goal Goodness.

Trailer for my next novel

The Sense of Words

Words pursuade. It doesn't mater if you're writing fiction or non-fiction, you want to convey your thoughts to another.

The problem some leaders run into is they sometimes believe everyone thinks like they do. They don't. People are reached in different ways. The same is true for readers.

So, if you want to pursuade your audinece, it best to know them and which style they prefer to communicate. If you don't know, or if you have a wide array of personalities, then you may need to say they same thing in several differnent ways for maximum exposure.

With a hat tip to NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and other methods that encourage you to use different senses to comunicate, I've created four sets of words to kickstart your next communication.

For Visual Learners

Give your writing some vision with words you can see.

For Audio Learners

Listern to your writing with words you can hear.

For Kinesthetic Learners

Get active with your writing with words that move you.

For Sensual Learners

Add flavor to your writing with words you can taste.

(Why is this one so long? They way to the heart is through the stomach)

These are just a sampling of words, there are many more in the wild you can choose from. Choose wisely, and keep writing.

Goal Setting Survey

Please share your thoughts to help make better products, tools and services for "Goal Getters"

Click HERE for Survey

Happy Monday?

Happy Monday?

How's your day going? Did you sleep well last night, or did you toss and turn with the prospect of another Monday morning?

If you view the start of the week with anxiety instead of anticipation, that's a hint that you're on the wrong track. Everyone has up and down days, but if your down days are predominately Mondays, it's probably time to change what you do on Mondays.

We often think change has to be a big scary, well planned and executed event. Not always. Often change comes with the slight alteration of a habit.

I used to dread mornings in my house. It was a frenetic obsticle course to ensure everyone ate, got dressed properly, brushed their teeth and did everything else in the morning routine. It was never the peaceful and idealic scenes so often depicted in Disney movies.

A few months ago we created a breakfast menu. Now everyone knows what they're having for breakfast on what day of the week. For people who like variety and dislike structure, this comes across as ridged. It's not. Everyday there's something different to eat. Each morning takes just 10 minutes of my time to pour, cook or prepare breakfast and 10-15 minutes to consume it, together. 

Table time is important, and it's helped carve in some peace each morning. We use the time to discuss goals or concerns or just be together without screaming. It hasn't eliminated chaos, but it has provided an oasis from it. I know we're eating healthier, and starting the day far less stressed. The change was small, the benefits have been huge, and have laid the groundwork for other positive habits.

If there's something in your life that you regularly dread, what can you do to ensure you no longer complain about it, but instead address with a positive change?

The Day Kevin Turtle Abandoned His Shell

A new short story, part of the "Think About It" series of guide books I'm publishing is now available on amazon.

The main character, a downtrodden businessman by the name of Kevin Turtle, started his day as he had started every other day for the last two years, by dreading to get up. Each morning he was faced with the same dilemma. How would he get done everything he felt he had to get done, knowing nearly none of it was what he wanted to get done? Grudgingly but dutifully he attend what he calls a Rah-Rah Conference, but is surprised when the speaker presents an alternative course.

This brief parable provides much needed tips on how to transform your wishes into actionable goals. I hope you'll enjoy it and share it and other titles with your friends and collegues.

The Day Kevin Turtle Abandoned His Shell; A Short Story to Transform Wishes into Work ("Think About it")

by Karl Bimshas by BimMedia

Kindle Edition ~ Release Date: 2012-06-10

Buy Now

 

Plan and Do

Plan, so you're prepared.

Do, so you're accomplished.

Hero's Journey Template

Recently I had a great discussion with an old friend about writing, publishing and story structure. Pantsers grow queasy with any mention of an outline or planning and Outliners develop the shakes without an agenda to follow. There's not a right way or a wrong way. Like a good Libra, I fall smack dab in the middle of the two. The artist in me wants the autonomy of free expression and no rules when I write. However, the even keeled, disciplined part of my head requires at least some signposts along the way to reassure me.

Enter, once again, Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey. There are no shortage of tools and diagrams available for you to peruse, just fire up the Google. I married a few concepts together to create a storyboard template. I used the boxes above each stage to map a story I was working on that I knew lacked something, but I couldn't figure out what. Using this method made it painfully clear my story fell apart in the beginning of ACT III.

I used this template to help find and fix a structure problem. You can use it how ever you would like. Maybe to plan your next story, brainstorm alternatives or just print it out and doodle on the back.

Doesn't matter to me, just keep writing.
 

Empowering Questions

Here's a way to subtlety increase your own commitment.


Ask and answer:

1. What WILL you do to move forward?
2. How WILL you grow from this challenge?
3. What's within your control to change that you WILL change?

Think Outside the Box

When someone tells you to “push the boundaries” and “think outside the box” stop assuming you’re in the box trying to get out. Think bigger. Assume you’re already on the outside of the box and it contains your challenge. Push the boundaries to shrink it. Life works better when you act as a leader to minimize problems, not a victim trying to escape.