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A review by merholley
Attorney by Day, Novelist by Night: Bring Your Book to Light While Still Practicing Law by Kim Benjamin
5.0
Love this one by my coach friend, Kim Benjamin! Kim and I were trained together at The Life Coach School, and she is just one of the most wonderful, beautiful people you'll ever meet. There were three Kims in our group, all of whom were in my small group for our certification process. In the certification practicum, we recorded ourselves coaching our clients to be approved. I remember every time I listened to Kim's calls, I was so excited to hear her beautiful, calm voice.
I was so happily impressed by the lovely writing in this book and all of the wise tools and inspiration for pursuing writing, while still keeping a professional job. By the end of the book, I was absolutely convinced that if I followed Kim's tools, I could write a novel. She lays out exactly how to manage your schedule and what to expect from yourself.
My main takeaway is that she talked about writing a book as a "practice," in the same way that law is a practice. It is something we come back to and commit to, without an end goal hanging over us and giving us an excuse to create disappointment.
I also loved something Kim said, "Whatever your thoughts were, they just were. They are neither good nor bad. Thoughts are neutral. It is the attachment of emotions to our thoughts that controls the directions we take." Love that. I often think about the stories we attach to neutral circumstances and how much chaos that creates. But, I had not fully separated that attaching our emotions to thoughts is another layer in that chaos. And then acting on those emotions is the next layer. There is always a place to interrupt the cycle.
Highly recommended if you are a professional who wants to write, but you are worried about how it will look, whether you have time, and all the other excuses we make to not fully show up in the world. Thanks for being such a shining star, Kim!
I was so happily impressed by the lovely writing in this book and all of the wise tools and inspiration for pursuing writing, while still keeping a professional job. By the end of the book, I was absolutely convinced that if I followed Kim's tools, I could write a novel. She lays out exactly how to manage your schedule and what to expect from yourself.
My main takeaway is that she talked about writing a book as a "practice," in the same way that law is a practice. It is something we come back to and commit to, without an end goal hanging over us and giving us an excuse to create disappointment.
I also loved something Kim said, "Whatever your thoughts were, they just were. They are neither good nor bad. Thoughts are neutral. It is the attachment of emotions to our thoughts that controls the directions we take." Love that. I often think about the stories we attach to neutral circumstances and how much chaos that creates. But, I had not fully separated that attaching our emotions to thoughts is another layer in that chaos. And then acting on those emotions is the next layer. There is always a place to interrupt the cycle.
Highly recommended if you are a professional who wants to write, but you are worried about how it will look, whether you have time, and all the other excuses we make to not fully show up in the world. Thanks for being such a shining star, Kim!