Grow Your Grit — Audio Book (#312)

December 2023 has been a month of change for me. First, I got the website updated. Second, I started my journey to becoming certified as an International Coaching Federation - Associated Certified Coach. And now I released an audio version of Grow Your Grit: Overcome Obstacles, Thrive, and Accomplish Your Goals.

Grow Your Grit Audio Cover

When I originally published the print version of Grow Your Grit in 2021 I was reluctant to publish an audio version. I wasn’t sure there was going to be enough interest in the written version to justify the expense of an audio version. Over the years I have had several people ask me about an audio version. The tipping point happened when Dallas Heckel, an executive in El Paso, Texas, encouraged me to put out an audio version so that busy executives could listen to it on the road. Thanks Dallas for the encouragement.

For those authors out there, it is easier than I thought it would be to put together an audio book. I used Luke Oldham, a professional narrator, to read the book and create the files. I got an account on Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) and uploaded the book. ACX is a marketplace for professional narrators, authors, and publishers to connect and create audiobooks. ACX is owned by Amazon and after a week of reviewing the files, posted the book on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. The only other obstacle was that I needed a square image of Grow Your Grit for the marketing. Abby Simmons, a graphic designer, designed the square cover of Grow Your Grit.

Grow Your Grit

For those not familiar with Grow Your Grit, I define personal grit is “the will to persevere to achieve long term goals.” A person’s grit is built upon six components: a purpose, a goal, their perseverance, their resilience, their courage to deal with the fear of failure, and their motivation.

I have coached scores of executives over the past three years. Working with these high performers, two things have had a transformational effect on developing their grit — personal purpose and goal setting. To develop a personal purpose you must first understand your values and then create your why or your purpose. Understanding your personal purpose really helps you focus on whats important. Doing better goal setting — using the SMART mnemonic device — and figuring out what needs to come off the schedule to accomplish the true goals is incredibly powerful.

Conclusion

If the audio book helps one more person develop their grit and accomplish their goals, then publishing the audio version of Grow Your Grit is a success.

Need help developing your grit? Reach out and let’s start talking about how to accomplish your goals in the new year.