Chris, have you written a book yet?

If I started collecting money every time someone asked if I’d written a book yet, I’d likely have a nice side stream income coming in. What is it with people seemly feeling like I need to write a book? In my mind, I blog a couple of times a week and you’re more than encouraged to pick and choose from these blogs. That being said, people don’t seem to feel as though that’s enough.

Well, candidly, I will write a book at some point in life if not multiple books. The challenge at this point is “why”. You see, not all, however, most who ask seem to be approaching it from the standpoint of using it as a marketing tool. Everyone knows that, in most cases, you don’t make money off books; however, they tend to bring credibility to you. Books often lead to speaking engagements which often leads to new clients. So, when it comes to writing, there are two types of books I’ve been pondering. One, which is on my heart to write, the other is one most feel I need to write.

The “need to write” book deals with characteristics of high performing leaders and their teams. From a coaching and consulting standpoint, this is my sweet spot. Like Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunction’s of a Team, I could likely write a fable telling stories of what I regularly observe in working with clients. Things like a lack of trust, lack of authenticity and candor, fear of conflict, lack of focus on vision, and a few other common characteristics that all relationships could use improvement. So, while it would benefit leaders and their teams, I’d prefer people simply pick up a copy of Lencioni’s books and call me to help.

What book is on my heart to write? Well, without hesitation, I will tell you it’s about finding your life purpose and calling and hearing God’s voice. Yes, click on my Hearing God’s Voice category in my blogs and you’ll get a taste of what this book likely entails. Spend any time with me and you’ll see that I get to deeper questions about life pretty quickly. Things like:

1) What’s your life purpose?
2) What’s your life mission statement?
3) What’s God’s agenda for you?
4) How do you hear God’s voice?
5) What do you do when you’re in the desert?
6) What are your spiritual gifts?
7) What are the deepest, darkest struggles you’ve had to face in your life and how is God using them to fulfill your purpose?
8) Who are the people and places in your life and how do they tie to your purpose?
9) Who do you have in your life that you’re having these deep conversations?
10) Have you placed God in a box or do you have a real, authentic, two-way relationship with Him?

How’s that for a starting point? Yep, that’s the book that’s on my heart, however, I don’t know that it’s the one people are thinking I should write. So, what’s stopping me from writing this book? It’s that I don’t have all the answers to these questions and more as it relates to the topic. Writing a book would likely just stir up more questions than answers in my own life, let alone my readers.

The past few days, I have read Jennie Allen’s Restless which she’s written on a similar topic and directed it toward women. A couple of things that impacted me in her writing were that she too had similar concerns as I in writing the book. Jennie acknowledges right up front that she doesn’t have that answers and is still in the journey herself. Additionally, she saw all of these other great writers with similar books and didn’t see why the world needed another book on the same topic.

Well, thankfully, Jennie faced her fears and thousands of people around the world now are benefiting from her book. A casual glance at her social media will tell you how impactful her writing has been in many people’s lives. You can add my name to that list today.

So, what do you say? I think it’s about time I committed and got down to work. If you agree, I’d love to hear your support and ideas.