Overcoming Life’s Obstacles and A.D.D. To Stick To The List
Introduce yourself, your mission and/or your business
I’m Mark J. Silverman. I am a Business and success coach and consultant. I generally work with business leaders and entrepreneurs. I also lead various workshops on leadership, sales skills, work-life balance, team building, and I partner with a Naturopathic Doctor for health and wellbeing workshops.
My mission is to show anyone who will listen that we own two things in life: our time and our attention. Where we spend our time and attention is where our life goes. I want people to know that if they get conscious, ask questions of themselves and make choices, their lives will be more productive, meaningful and enjoyable. I use these insights to help my coaching and consulting clients to guide their careers, businesses and their lives to greater success, but more importantly more fulfillment.
Introduce your book
Your to-do list holds many secrets. Only 10s helps you to be curious about the items on your to-do list because these items make up your life. Once you become conscious and question what is behind the items you are willing to spend your life on you can start making choices. You are already, but probably not as consciously as you should be. When you make conscious choices it is impossible to be a victim. Stress and overwhelm dissipates, and enthusiasm and energy moves in. Life becomes an adventure and you get more done than you ever thought possible-but now you’re doing the right things for you-the things you actually want your life to consist of. You become free!
What was your goal in writing the book? Or goals?
I wrote to give me a PHD in the subject I was writing about. I wanted to master the art of living only for 10s. Either only doing the things I want to do or absolutely needed to be done, or finding the reason for the things on “the list” so they became that way. I wrote the book for me. It just so happened that there are so many people like me in the world who benefitted from it.
What were your reservations about book writing?
I had many! Did I really have an idea that could fill a book? Could I write? If I could write, could I organize my ideas well enough for the message to be understood? Oh, and “am I crazy?!?”
What other obstacles came up while writing?
As soon as I agreed to write the book I moved my elderly mother to town. That was overwhelming. Add to that my A.D.D. kids, building a business, and having no idea how to write or organize a book… it felt like everything seemed to conspire against me publishing!
How did we help you in overcoming them?
The Author Incubator’s structured framework and deadlines were invaluable. As was working with a group of other authors who were going through the same things as me at similar times. The weekly calls and the other members of the group were essential to find out that what was going on with me was not some kind of personal deficiency.
The editors were also amazing. They would slow me down and get me to just write without worrying about anything else.
How did the book help you make the difference you are currently making in the world?
Feedback is the only way I know to gauge impact. The feedback I receive daily lets me know that my readers’ lives are more free, motivated, and focused. The attention from people all over the world is unexpected and beyond what I could have imagined. If your aim is to touch as many lives as possible, a book is a great vehicle.
What feedback did you get from readers?
The feedback feels like hyperbole!!
“It changed everything.”
“I felt like you looked right through me, called me out, and set me on the right path.”
“Your book is on my shelf with ‘The Art of War’ – it was that powerful!”
How does it feel to have your work out there?
Humbling. To get the sort of feedback this book has received is a bit daunting. The concept behind Only 10s freed me from lifelong challenges, and to see it do the same for others is just awesome.
Tell us about any particular stories about readers or clients from this book that might be of particular interest to our readers
I was speaking at an event in CA and mentioned the book. The next morning one of the attendees ran up to me, “Mark, I was up all night reading your book. Halfway through, I reprioritized everything, changed flights, canceled meetings. Your book helped me get so clear on what my 10s are and where I was wasting time. Thank you.”
Do you want to write more books, or is one enough?
I’ll say now that one is enough, but the way I work you never know. For this book I had an idea, decided to write, and had a #1 bestseller in 3 months! It could happen again!
What is the most important thing that you learned from writing a book?
That I could do it, and because I did, a lot of people have benefitted.
