The No-Regrets Formula for Writing
(and Life) Success
By Eddie Stephens

I’ve been “high” on occasion. Perhaps I should clarify.

If you’ve been to summer camp, had a spiritual experience, attended a powerful seminar, or an AWAI Bootcamp … you’re familiar with what I’m talking about.

I call it the “camp-high” — that euphoric feeling after attending an event that’s accompanied by a strong determination to live differently. In essence, a defining moment!

The Truth About Defining Moments

The power of a defining moment is not the fact that you experienced it. The power of a defining moment is what you do because you experienced it!

Defining moments can define your future. But, one thing they can’t do is insulate you from problems, setbacks, and life’s “drama.”

And, make no mistake … Daily life is public enemy #1 of the defining moment.

So … let me ask you. Do you want to:

• arrive at the end of a day, week, month, or year with no regrets?
• know how to prevail when life happens?
• transform the “camp-high” into a way of life?
• leverage every defining moment into a profitable future?
• use the no-regrets formula to achieve success in living “the writer’s life”?

Before I share a simple formula for how you can do this, I should confess how “high” I am this week. I recently returned from my second AWAI FastTrack to Copywriting Success Bootcamp and Job Fair.

Not only was it my second Bootcamp, but I went as an AWAI Circle of Success member for the first time. (I made that decision to join Circle of Success within the week following last year’s event.)

Bootcamp and Circle of Success are major tipping-points in my journey to six-figure copywriting success. As I share my no-regrets formula with you here, you’ll see why I believe each piece can help you move to success as well.

R+R+R = The No-Regrets Formula for Writing
(and Life) Success

Resources

You’re sold or at least interested in what AWAI offers or you wouldn’t be reading this. I still remember the defining moment I experienced when I was on the sixth or seventh reading of the “Retire This Year” promotional letter from AWAI.

I defined my future success as a copywriter by seizing the necessary skills offered by the Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting. I still think about the day the box arrived on my doorstep. I recall the life events that followed as I perused the first sections. Another defining moment came when I decided — now two years and many “miles” later — to invest in my first Bootcamp (2009).

Both of these defining moments were defined by a decision to find-a-way … make-it-happen. And each decision was the result of believing the resources to be undeniably necessary to go to the next level of my success.

The same held true when I returned home from the 2009 Bootcamp and made the decision to join Circle of Success.

I don’t know where you are … but I’m smack-dab in the middle of mid-life. If I chose a different career path and invested in more higher education it would not deliver the quality I receive from hands-on access to the world’s best copywriting and career resources I get via Circle of Success.

My advice to you? Expand your “resource stash.”

• Do the math and view AWAI’s Bootcamp and Circle of Success as long-term investments in your education and commitment to living “the writer’s life.”
• Talk to any of the over-the-top helpful AWAI staff. Share your goals and allow them to assist you with making-it-happen.
• Act now! You’ll save money and build instant momentum for 2011.

Resources are a no-regrets essential. And there’s more …

Resilience

I define resilience as the character and inner-drive that gives you the ability to roll-with-the-punches and press-on no matter what happens in your daily life. It’s not easy — trust me! Nor would I presume that my life-drama is more or less challenging than yours. The stories we could tell …

Time won’t allow for the details, yet from the moment my journey to copywriting success began, I’ve hit my share of speed-bumps and roadblocks. Each has tested my “metal” or been a source of extreme distraction (mostly emotional).

I remember reading the first sections of the Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting by the dim light and hypnotic hum of the medical equipment next to my wife’s hospital bed just hours following her cancer surgery. Gratefully, she’s cancer-free today (and I’m more resilient).

Within three years, my copywriting career has been challenged by cancer and a number of family and financial challenges. I’ve had to be resilient.

Fortify your resilience.

• Lean in to, and learn from, every challenge to your commitment.
• Accept assignments, projects, and tasks that are out of your comfort zone.
• Track your success journey by keeping a daily journal of your actions or lack of them.

AWAI’s resources are the tools and the roadmap to copywriting success. You (and I) must bring resilience to every challenge along the way.

Resources + Resilience + …

Resolve

Achievers have a quality that separates them from the crowd. It’s a come-hell-or-high-water attitude I call resolve.

Resolve creates a path where there is none. I would not be sitting at my desk, writing this article, if I gave up my resolve to succeed.

Sure, I’ve had days where I wonder what-the-heck I’m doing and how I’m going to achieve greater success in my copywriting career. And then I think of how far I’ve come since the sixth … seventh … or tenth reading of that “Retire This Year” letter. So …

Deepen your resolve.

• Set measurable goals that stretch you — research and decide on a niche, school yourself on the industry, decide who you want your first client to be.
• Create and follow a business-building daily task list.
• Join Circle of Success and form a mini-peer review group. Or, connect with someone for resolve-building accountability via the AWAI blog or forum.

Resources (a big plus). Resilience (a required plus). Resolve (a necessary plus). And these all equal … No Regrets!