The Triple C Project

Why I wrote my second book; and Why you should read it

• Ryan Spence • Season 2 • Episode 120

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It’s almost book release day! But why should you care?

In this week’s episode I tell you as I share my reasons for writing my second book,  "The Triple C Project: Find Your Place, Purpose, and Peace in a World that Wants to Box You In", and the reasons why you should read it.  

The book drops on Sunday 17 November. Set your alarms and grab your copy while it’s hot! 


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Speaker 1:

And I very clearly remember saying to myself on a number of occasions yep, that's it, I'm not doing this again. I've written a book. I've always wanted to write a book. I've done it now and I'm good, and that's it. It's done, it's over. So what made me go back? You're listening to the Triple C Project. Welcome to the Triple C Project, the podcast that helps you gain clarity, boost confidence, build courage so you can live life lit. I'm your host, ryan Spence, the Big Law Dropout, life coach, author, speaker, lover of hoodies, hip-hop and big, hairy, audacious goals. If you're tired of living the life you think you should want and ready to start living the life you do want, this podcast will help you get from where you are to where you really want to be. So now we're friends. I invite you to grab a drink, take a seat and allow me to guide you towards living a life that's lit. A life that's lit, hey, hey, welcome to episode 120 of the Triple C Project. It is going down Very excited. I'm excited because, in a few days time from recording this, I'm recording this on the Friday, and on Sunday, the 17th of November, it's release day. It's the release date for book number two, the Triple C Project. Find your Place, purpose and Peace in a World that Wants to Box you In. Book why I wrote it and why you should read it, get you excited and all geared up to go and grab your copy on release day, on the first week of release. So start off by saying that I didn't want to write this book. So when I wrote my first book the CCC Method it was one of those where the book just came out. Once I decided I was going to do it and committed to the process. The book just flowed and the first draft was done in a little over a month. The first draft was awful, as you probably heard me talk about before, but it formed the foundation and the bones of what then became the book itself. And from when I actually started the book in the August, the book came out in the April. And writing a book is not something you just do on a whim, and particularly once you've done it once and realise the challenges, the rewards, yes, but the challenges of actually birthing this thing and everything that needs to be done to get it out there, you're not really desperate, shall I say, to do it again, and I very clearly remember saying to myself on a number of occasions yep, that's it, I'm not doing this again. I've written a book. I've always wanted to write a book. I've done it now and I'm good, and that's it. It's done, it's over.

Speaker 1:

So what made me go back? Well, I guess I just had more to say, and I think that this is the thing when you're writing something from a place of a deeper why, and when you are living by the mantra that I live by, which is service over ego, then it becomes less about what you want, ie me, and more about what you believe the people you are wanting to help or the parts of the world that you wanted to change need. And this book, the second book, was just calling me and as I was continuing to work with more of my coaching clients and seeing some themes, some common themes that were arising, I wanted a way of putting those things together so that people could see my thoughts on those themes in one place and could have some simple projects, mini projects, that would allow them to start to tackle those themes, so that they could find their place, purpose and peace, and break out of their box. And as much as I ignored that calling, the calling, just kept coming, and kept coming, and kept coming, and until it got to the point where I thought, okay, well, okay, enough time has passed now that you've forgotten the darkest depths of writing, steps of writing, so just make a start. So I did.

Speaker 1:

What I hadn't contended on was that, when I made a start, I was just about to start the renovations on my house, and I had no having never done it before, no inclination, no idea of how much that renovation process would take out of me. Renovation process would take out of me Financially, yes, but energetically, spiritually, emotionally. And so while my initial thoughts were I would turn the book around in the same amount of time as the first one, if not quicker, it quickly became apparent that there's no way I could do that and make the book as good as I wanted to make it, and also in a way that was sustainable for my own well-being, and so I made the what, at the time, was quite a difficult decision, because I just I had this plan I just wanted to get it out there of pushing back the release date and of taking some of that pressure off myself while I figured out what this book was going to look like, what I wanted to include, and the book that you will have in front of you from Sunday is not necessarily the book I set out to write, in the sense that I had a lot more stuff that was going to go into it, a lot more chapters on other themes that I was going to include. But I had some very clear parameters for this book. I wanted it to be similar in length to the first book. I didn't want some long, sprawling, 50, 60 plus thousand word tone, because I don't believe that that's necessary for what it is that I'm trying to do with the book.

Speaker 1:

Books are written for different purposes and I love to read a good fiction book that's a deep story that you can dive into. I love to read a good book around neuroscience or the history of yoga that kind of requires that expanse of words to sort of distill the information that it's trying to get across to you. But with what I'm doing and I see this with a lot of personal development books sometimes they're a lot longer than they need to be, and that's not necessary, because what you want to do, what I want to do, is give you a story to show you that I understand the particular situation, because either I've been through it or I've helped a client through it, so that you can get the sense that, okay, I know he knows what I'm talking about and he understands me. Then I want to share with you how I worked through that situation again, either myself or guided the client for it. And then I want to give you something small but actionable that you can do to start that process. I can't give you everything, because I don't know your individual situation, and throwing a lot of stuff at you isn't the way. You just leave you more overwhelmed and confused than when you started. But by giving you a small thing, a small step, a small action, a small project that you can do, then if you then go ahead and do that and notice a shift, then that's going to inspire you to keep moving forward.

Speaker 1:

So the book doesn't need to be hundreds of thousands words. So this book is around I think it's about 30,000 again like the first one around that amount, not exactly that amount. So that's what I wanted to do with the book. So I knew that, and so therefore, I knew that I couldn't fit in everything that I hadn't initially thought about. So then I had to come back and think okay, what? What do I feel are the most important things or the ones that are the most commonly reoccurring in the conversation that I'm having with clients. And there, what ended up in the book? Those other ideas? Will they appear in another book? I don't know. I'm definitely at that place where I'm like not doing this again, but I've learned to never say never.

Speaker 1:

So, coming back to the why I wrote the book, because there was more I felt I needed to say and share following on from the first book. The first book was very much. This is my story, this is what I had to work through to get from that that big law lawyer in the soul sucking environment who couldn't see a way out, to the big law dropout who is carving their own path in the world and doing things a little bit unconventionally and trying to find another way and trying to find my joy, my aliveness, trying to live life lit. That was the first book, and the first book had tools and strategies in there as well, helping you to find your clarity, confidence and courage. But clarity, confidence and courage are the foundational pillars, but there is more that shoots off that. So you can think about a tree you have the roots, then you have the trunk, but then you have the branches that kind of come off that they're all interconnected, and this second book you can kind of think of as some of the branches stemming from that first book, the roots and the trunk of the first book.

Speaker 1:

So I wanted to build upon that and give additional tools that, if you've read book one, you've done those things, you started to implement those things. It's then going to be easier for you to then take the tools and strategies in book two to build upon what you've already done, because you're already going to have experienced some of those shifts, some of those changes, some of those transformations, some of those reframing of thoughts and of ideas. And so this time your mind it will be even more open than it probably was when you read book number one. So I felt I had more to say, I felt it was more that needed to be said and there were things that I was seeing a number of people struggle with commonly struggle with struggling with feeling overwhelmed at all of the things that they had to do in life, not feeling they had any time for themselves, not knowing how to escape that overwhelm, how to deal with that overwhelm, you know, of finding time to just be, not knowing how to just be, still not feeling that there was any value in taking time out to just be still. So I wanted to share how valuable that actually is and how that can actually increase your productivity. It can actually help you to get to where you want to get to quicker, because it allows you to clear your mind and get that clarity that you allows you to do the things that you need to do, to set the boundaries, to have the difficult conversations, because, as a child, that fear that we have as an adult, that fear, isn't really there. We can be more direct about advocating for ourselves and what we want and what we don't want. So these are some of the things that I wanted to share with you.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to talk a little bit about why yoga is so important to me, why it's been so valuable to my transformation, to my change, to finding my lit life, why I teach it, why I share it with people, with students, with clients, so that you could have that insight and start to think about whether it's something that could benefit your life, could help with your transformation, could help connect you back to yourself and balance. Balance is probably I don't know if it's number one, but it's definitely up there of things that clients struggle with. I would need to have work-life balance. I don't have balance here, I don't have balance there, and I wanted to share my perspective on balance, what I believe about balance and how I look at the idea of balance, probably in a way that you maybe haven't thought about it before, so, again, that you could just start to take some of the pressure off and accept where you are at any given moment in the ebbs and flows of life. So these are just some of the things which I felt were important to be chair, to share from my perspective.

Speaker 1:

And that takes me to, I guess, the third reason as to why I wrote this book because, like the first book, it's the book that I wish I could have read when I was back in the throes of big law, feeling stuck, feeling held, feeling held back by limiting beliefs trapped in my mental cell of self-limitation. Because, look, there were a lot of personal development books out there, some of which I read, some of which remained half-read, some of which I bought and sat on myself and I still haven't read, but I never really found one that spoke to me because it reflected my own experience, and that doesn't mean that for somebody to help you and have an impact that they have to have walked your exact path. That's not what I'm saying, but I think that there is a excuse me. I think that there is a power and there is an affinity with someone who has a similar background, has a similar path. So, for example, clients who are lawyers, who have worked in big law, one of the things they often say is that they wanted to work with me and they like working with me because there's a certain shorthand, there's a certain understanding, and they know I'm not just going to throw generic solutions at them. They know that when they are explaining a particularly challenging situation in their job with the partner, with their manager, with other people in and around their team, their manager, with other people in and around their team, that I'm going to have insight in that from personal experience. And whilst I'm not going to put my personal experience onto them, it does give me an understanding that somebody who hasn't been in that world won't necessarily have, and it means that there's less explaining for them to do and we can more quickly get to the essence of what's going on, how they want to deal with it, what they want the outcome to be.

Speaker 1:

And that's the same with the book or books. With the book or books, it won't be. They won't be for everybody. Not everybody is going to necessarily resonate with the stories that I'm telling. But if you've been in that world, if you are still in that world of big law or of a big corporate, there's going to be things that I tell you in the book about my own story or my client's stories, which you're going to read and be like, yes, that happened to me or that happened to a friend of mine or a colleague of mine, or that really resonates with me.

Speaker 1:

And I know that because people who have read the book already have told me and that's how I know that, yes, writing this book was the right decision. It was the thing that I needed to do, not necessarily that I wanted to do, but that I needed to do. I needed to get this book out of me and out into the hands of the people who it was meant to help. So I think that's all the reasons why I wrote it and why should you read it. And I think the reasons why I wrote it are pretty much the same as the reasons that, um, you should read it. Um, you should read it because I think that, in fact, I know that too many of us are living our lives, but not necessarily living them fully.

Speaker 1:

One of the things I talk about in a webinar that I've given is and what I learned in one of my coach trainings is there's a common thing that people want which is more, that people want which is more, and that more is more, not the more that you think of, not necessarily more money, more stuff, but it's more joy, it's more engagement, more aliveness, and I wanted to write something that would allow you to see that you can have that if you just start to think about things differently and approach things a little bit differently. And so if you are one of those people, you just think that, even if you think that everything's going great but there's just something missing, there's just more. I know there's got to be more for me out there than just going through the motions, than living, going through the motions, than living this groundhog day, than surviving through the stresses and the strains and the upheavals of the life that I'm living, then this book is for you. You should read this book Because, even if you read it through and do none of the exercises, just the process of reading it is going to get you thinking differently about what you can do and what you are capable of. And that's kind of the first step. It's, first of all, believing that there is another way and that that other way is possible for you, that you can do something that is different from the norm, that you can push back against the status quo, you can live a quote unquote unconventional life and enjoy it and be happy, and whatever other people think, be damned so that niggling feeling that you there has to be more or that things just aren't right and there's got to be a different way.

Speaker 1:

You should read this book. This book is for you because it's going to change the way that you think, change the way that you think about the world around you and change the way you think about your own life and change the way you think about the things that you do, why you do what you do. You should also read this book because it's actionable. It's not a puff piece saying hey, I did this and I'm so great. It's a book with actionable steps, and particularly between chapters two and eight. There's a mini project at the end of each chapter.

Speaker 1:

And this is again small steps, small things that you can do that will again get your mind working in a different way. Journal prompts, a meditation practice, a yoga practice I mean all of these things which are just contained in the book and not in a dogmatic way saying you must do this to get that, but more from a case of here's how it's helped me, it's helped other people by going through a process similar to this. Why don't you give it a try and see what comes out of that process for you? Give it a try and see what comes out of that process for you. And like anything that I do this podcast, the first book, social media posts, webinars that I give you take what resonates with you. And it may be that not everything does, and that is okay. But if you're listening here, then I've got a sense as the kind of person who you are, the world that you're in, the things that you're thinking about, and there will be something for you to take away if you're open minded enough to allow that thing to appear. So that's why you should read the book and you should really sort of make me happy, but that's kind of a reason, but it does. It really makes me happy.

Speaker 1:

I received a uh, a comment on LinkedIn literally a couple of weeks ago from, um, someone who had just got around to reading my first book, someone who I didn't know, but they'd been. My book had been recommended to them, um, and to them by their manager actually, which is pretty great, and they had gone and read it and they had felt inspired enough to just post on LinkedIn. They tagged me, but it wasn't really for me, it was more to kind of share with their audience, with their followers, and it was just another sort of sense that this is all worthwhile. When I feel sometimes that I'm just shouting into the ether and putting stuff out there, it's always humbling to kind of get those messages that people have read it, they've understood it, they're inspired by it, they've had insights, they're going to take things away from it and they're going to do things differently off the back of it. And again, that's why you should read this book, because if you do, I can almost guarantee that there's something in which you will do differently, um, in your day-to-day, even if it's only one thing, if it's only one thing that you take away from this book. It's going to be worth your while. And the final reason it's short, like I say it 30,000 words.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't take you long to read this book. It's one of those books where, like the first one, I expect that you will come back to it. So if it was me, generally what I would do is read the book straight through. I don't do the exercises straight away, necessarily, but I'd read the book straight through and then come back to each chapter or exercise at a different point and start on that. You don't have to do the whole thing at once. And the good thing about the way I've written this book is it's kind of like a choose your own adventure. You can read the chapters out of order because they are all pretty much standalone, and so maybe you'll you'll.

Speaker 1:

You read it and you think you know what. The biggest thing I'm struggling with right now is overwhelm. And so you then go back to the overcoming overwhelm chapter and you read through that again with a more informed lens, and then you say, ok, for the next 30 days I'm going to work on the exercise in that chapter, the many projects in that chapter. That's going to be my focus and then you evaluate after that time how you feel what's changed, what shifted, and then maybe you continue, and maybe it's something that is so then ingrained in your daily routine that actually you keep doing that practice, but then you choose to build another one of the practices on there. So then maybe you think doing that practice, but then you choose to build another one of the practices on there. So then maybe you think balance that's the thing I really want to focus on now is is is finding balance in life. And so you then go ahead and do the balance exercise.

Speaker 1:

You go back through the chapter, you do that exercise and you start to integrate that, and this is what it's supposed to be like. You know what I mean. It's it's what I mean. It's a slow process. You need to take the time to read, to understand what it means for you and if it resonates with you, and then implement and integrate in a way that works for you. There is no race here. There is no time period in which you must do it. It's all about doing what works for you, what works for you in your life and where it is that you want to be and where you want to go. So that's kind of what I had to say today. It's why I wrote the book and why you should read the book.

Speaker 1:

And also, what I encourage you to do is when not if, because I know you're going to go out and get it, but when you read the book is think about and I say this in the at the end of the book think about who can I share this with, who would benefit from what I've read here, who is in a similar situation to me and maybe hasn't heard about this and I could recommend it to, because we are all influencers in our own right. You think about social media. You've got influencers. You need to think about social media influencers and influencers almost become a dirty word in some circles, but we are all influencers, mean we've all recommended things to our friends and family TV shows, books, films and we need to do that and just think when somebody you know recommend something, somebody whose opinion you trust, it hits different right and you think, okay, they've recommended this. So I'm going to go and give that a try because I think it might help. And so I want you to think about that for yourself when you have read this book.

Speaker 1:

Think about who? Who can I recommend it to? Who could I gift a copy to? Because and I think this might be a subject for next week's episode we can all make a difference in our own little world. Sometimes we can think about the bigger picture and it can seem quite challenging and leave you almost in despair at the fact that you can't really move the needle on change at that level. But we can all make a change in our local level, in our own circle, in our own community, and sometimes that change is as simple as recommending a resource that has helped you to somebody else who you believe it can help, and then, if they do the same and then the person they recommend it to does the same, see how that ripple starts to just pass without a huge amount of effort. What it requires is thought, thinking of others and thinking about what it is that you have, have that you have learned, that you believe can help others. So that's what I'm going to ask you to do. For me is get the book. Of course, preferably get it on Sunday, the day it's released.

Speaker 1:

Read the book. Read it with an open mind. Recognize what works, what doesn't. Share the book with. Think of at least three people who you feel could benefit from what's in the book or who might be interested in. Maybe you just meet them for a coffee and it just comes up in conversation. Or maybe you just dropped an email saying I've read this book and I think you might benefit from it. I think you might find it interesting.

Speaker 1:

Um, and leave a review is another one. Leave a review. This is all in the back of the book, but I thought I'd just share it here on the podcast. Reviews are so important. Sometimes you think, oh yeah, I might do it later and you just didn't get around to it. I know because that's me. But reviews are so important, um, for a whole host of reasons, both to me as an author and to the again, those who could benefit from what's in the book. So I really, really, really, really would appreciate if you would do that. Once you have read the book, just leave a review, rate it.

Speaker 1:

One sentence is enough. What was your key takeaway? What did you love about the book? Why should somebody read the book? Think of those questions. Write one sentence. That's all it takes, but it really does make a difference. The impact is bigger than you could possibly know. That's it for me. I've got a workbook to go and finish preparing and getting ready so that when you read the book you can actually click the link and get the book and not receive an error message. So I'm going to go ahead and try and finish that off in time for release.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening, thank you, thank you. Thank you in advance for supporting the book the Triple C Project. It really means means a lot to me when people do buy the book and read the book and sort of shout about how much it's helped them, how much they enjoyed it. Um, that was, was was a key highlight from the first book. Um, and I'm really hoping that um more people find this second book and, uh, more of the same happens and we create that ripple effect of people escaping their boxes and finding their place, purpose and peace in the world.

Speaker 1:

Until next time, thank you, as always, for being here and stop living a life of lethargy. Start living life lit. Thanks for tuning in to the Triple C Project. In the spirit of the Triple C, here's three things that you can do to support the show Head to ratethispodcastcom, slash triple C or over to your favorite podcast app and leavea review. Reviews really help people checking out shows to see what they can expect and how the show can help them. Second thing you can do share. Share this episode, share a previous episode with a friend, someone who you feel could benefit from what I'm throwing down on this here show. And number three head to IamRyanSpencecom, get on the mailing list. I'll be sharing news about the show, news about what I'm up to my new book start writing soon, so to be the first to be in the know, you need to get yourself on the list. Really appreciate you being here and until next week, stop living a life of lethargy, start living life lit.