Setting a Concrete Writing Goal

Ben describes choosing a six-figure book deal as a clarifying goal that shaped his writing career.

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Episode notes

Benjamin Hardy’s articles have been read by over 100 million readers. He has also been the #1 writer, in the world, on Medium.com. How does he do it? In this episode, he shares his writing process and how he plans, structures and ships his articles. We also talk about why it’s important to set the right goals to help us reach our most courageous dreams, how our goals shape our identity and personality, and the importance of the environment in achieving our goals.

Dr Benjamin Hardy (@BenjaminPHardy) is an organizational psychologist, bestselling author and the world’s leading expert on the application of the Future Self science. His books include Be Your Future Self Now, The Gap and the Gain, Willpower Doesn’t Work and Personality Isn’t Permanent. His blogs have been read by over 100 million people and are featured on Forbes, Fortune, CNBC and many others. He is a regular contributor to Inc. and Psychology Today and from 2015-2018, he was the #1 writer, in the world, on Medium.com.

SHOW NOTES

[02:47] How we underpredict our future selves

[04:15] How Ben clarified his goal to become a professional writer and land a six-figure book deal

[06:55] How Ben used Medium to grow his email list from 0 to 400k

[10:05] Ben’s systems and processes to create consistently popular articles

[14:47] Ben's writing process and how he plans, structures and ships his articles

[17:30] On using Medium vs LinkedIn.

[19:18] On repurposing an article for two different platforms

[27:50] What does it mean to orient our lives towards our goals? From LeBron to watching Youtube late at night

[31:26] How James Clear’s goal led him to sell 2 million copies of Atomic Habits

[33:40] The importance of environment in changing your life and achieving your goals

[39:35] Why being useful is important, and how you can get what you want by helping other people

[40:51] Resources for crafting good headlines

[44:29] Why ‘empathetic witnesses’ can encourage you to write, publish and more

QUOTES FROM BEN HARDY

“...most people think that who they are today is who they're gonna be in the future. So their future self actually isn't imagined far different. They think that their future self is going to kind of pretty much be the same person that they are today, which is just not what the research shows. We massively under predict how much we're going to change in the future. And we spend so little time imagining our future and turning that into concrete plans and strategies for courageously becoming the person we wanted to be”

“What is the actual objective of this article? What am I trying to accomplish? Or what am I trying to have the reader accomplish? What is the purpose of this article? Like just answering that question, like, what am I trying to accomplish? What am I trying to solve here?”

RESOURCES:

Podcast Offer: To access the Genuis Blogging Course, email [email protected] and mention the LWS interview offer along with proof of purchase of Ben’s book.

Follow Ben Hardy:

Website: benjaminhardy.com

Twitter @benjaminphardy

Instagram @benjamin_hardy_phd

Ben’s Books: