🏰 AUTHOR INTERVIEW: 'I Would, But My Damn Mind Won't Let Me!' by Jacqui Letran

Jacqui Letran is a passionate and energetic leader who is truly gifted at helping teens transform into confident, happy and successful young adults. Jacqui teaches teens that success and happiness are possible, regardless of their current struggles or circumstances.

Jacqui is an International Best Selling Author, National Speaker, and Founder of Teen Confidence Academy. She has 17 years of experience in Adolescent Health as a Nurse Practitioner, Success Coach and Teen Confidence Expert. Jacqui is passionate and committed to guiding teens to achieve remarkable success in their academic and personal lives.

She is also the winner of the:
2016 Literary Classics Lumen Award and Gold Medal for Youth Non-Fiction
2016 Readers' Favorite Gold Medal Award for Young Adult Non-Fiction

When not working with teens or writing, you can find her traveling in her RV, hiking with her dog or spoiling her three cats. She now lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

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Title: I WOULD, BUT MY DAMN MIND WON’T LET ME!
Author: Jacqui Letran
Publisher: A Healed Mind
Pages: 158
Genre: Youth/Nonfiction

Literary Classics' 2016 Lumen Award for Best Young-Adult Non-Fiction book of the year, "I would, but my DAMN MIND won't Let Me! is recommended for home, school and public libraries and for use in clinical settings."

Do you believe that life is unfair or that change is impossible? Are you unhappy and frustrated with your life? If you answered yes, you’re not alone! Teen Confidence Expert, Jacqui Letran, is here to show you a quick and easy path to a happier, healthier life. You can learn to create permanent changes for the better!

Your past can cause you to believe that making positive improvements requires a miracle. In Letran’s award-winning book, I would, but my DAMN MIND won’t let me!, you will learn the simple steps to overcome your obstacles and struggles. Once you understand how your mind works, you will have the knowledge and power to take control of your thoughts and feelings. The power to challenge your old negative patterns and create the exact life you want is in your hands.

In this book, you will discover:

·             How to challenge old negative beliefs and create positive new patterns

·             How to stay calm and in control of even the most difficult situations

·             How to keep unhealthy thoughts at bay and replace them with positive ones

·             How to use the power of your mind to create the success you deserve

·             How to create positive life experiences and much, much more!

·              

I would, but my DAMN MIND won’t let me! is a groundbreaking guide to help you take control of your life. If you like real-life advice that works fast and doesn’t talk down to you, then you will love Jacqui Letran’s game-changing book for teens and young adults. This book is recommended for teens, parents of teens, professionals working with teens, and anyone who is interested in learning how to take control of their mind.

Get the award-winning book today to give yourself an unfair advantage in life!

I Would, But My Damn Mind Won’t Let Me!

is available for purchase at

Amazon.

Can you tell us what your book is about?

“I would, but my DAMN MIND won’t let me!” is an easy-to-read primer that teaches how your conscious and subconscious mind work to create your life experiences, and how you can take control of your thoughts and feelings.  In a sense, it’s an Owner’s Manual for your mind.

Can you give us an excerpt?

“You might have guessed by now that your unconscious mind is your personal

assistant. Your unconscious mind's job is to deliver to you whatever experience you are looking for in the easiest and quickest way possible.

What you might not know is that every thought you have and every feeling you feel is a command to your unconscious mind to give you more of the same. That’s right. Every thought you have and every feeling you feel is a command to your unconscious mind, “This is what I want.  Give me more!”

So if you said, "I'm so stressed," your unconscious mind heard that as a command: "I want to be stressed. Look for evidence to support why I should be stressed. Give me more reasons to feel stressed." Once you give that command, your unconscious mind will immediately go to work to look for stressful details in your environment. Details that could stress you out get pushed to your IC so you become consciously aware of those details and can become more stressed. In addition, your unconscious mind will also look in your movie library to find your stressful movies to play in the background for you. You are the boss, so when you asked for stress, your unconscious mind is happy to deliver it to you.

Does this begin to sound familiar? How many times have you felt stressed out about something and then started having stressful thoughts about something else and pretty soon you were overwhelmed with stress and other negative feelings? This is because whatever you focus on grows bigger. Whatever you are focusing on, you are telling your unconscious mind to give you more of that thing. It's like feeding a monster food and watching it grow out of control right in front of your own eyes.

The good news is that the process works both ways. This means that when you focus on something positive, that positive thing will also grow. So if you are stressed out, you can choose to focus on being calm. Remember, you have an assistant who will obey your every command, so use her to your benefit. In stressful moments, you can say to yourself, “Even though I feel stressed, I choose to be calm.” Say, “I choose to be calm” several times to catch your assistant’s attention because this may be a new command for her. After saying that three times, start repeating “I am calm. I am calm. I am calm” over and over again. As you are repeating “I am calm,” imagine yourself doing something that calms you down. It might be reading a book, laying out on the beach, or taking a nice soothing bath. When you follow these steps, what you are doing is saying to your assistant, “Even though I am stressed, I choose to be calm. Calm looks like this. Go get it for me. Give me more of this.” It makes it super simple for your unconscious mind to bring you to calmness.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would that be?

My advice to my younger writing self is very simple. You have a unique message that only you can deliver, in a way that will reach the readers who need to hear that message, exactly as you have written it.  So keep writing from your heart.  Keep spreading your message.

What would you say is one of your interesting writing quirks?

I’m not sure if this is an interesting quirk, but rather a challenge to my writing ability.  I grew up in Vietnam, and in my country we don’t pluralize things by adding an “s” to the end of the word.  In my native language, it’s one banana, two banana, three banana. We also don’t have past or future tenses.  Instead, we say (roughly translated), “I go now” “I go yesterday” and “I go tomorrow.”  Because of this, I do have some difficulties with grammar and I must read and re-read what I’ve written several times to catch mistakes. Even with re-reading, there are many times that I would miss them entirely. Thank goodness there are editors I can hire to help review my work.

Do you hear from your readers?  What do they say?

I hear from my readers quite a bit, and I love it.  Most readers email me to thank me for sharing my case studies in the books.  Seeing how other people just like them overcame similar situations gives them hope and encouragement to go after what they want.  I also have many readers who contact me with questions about themselves, and some even become clients.  I love how my books have helped to remove a geographical boundary to allow me to reach and help so many more people.

What is the toughest criticism given to you as an author?

I remember the morning I woke up to a 1-star review of my book on Amazon.  I was in total disbelief at how mean the reviewer was.  They were not just attacking my writing, or the content of my writing, but me as a person.  I remember feeling so embarrassed, almost like a fraud.  After all, who was I to write a self-help book.  My confidence tanked, and for at least 30 minutes, I contemplated removing my book from circulation and retiring it completely. That was when I remembered something I’ve heard at a seminar along the line of, “You haven’t arrived until you pissed someone off.”  In that moment, I threw my arms up in the air, grinned wildly, and yelled, “I’ve arrived!” My confidence came rushing back and I knew I was on the right path.

What has been the best accomplishment?

My book, “I would, but my DAMN MIND won’t let me!” has won two Gold Medal Awards in the Youth Non-Fiction category from Literary Classics and Readers’ Favorite in 2016. In addition, it was awarded the Lumen Award by Literary Classics for best Youth Non-Fiction book of the year.  Walking across the stage to receive my awards, and connecting with other authors and readers were some of my best moments of the year!  I feel so blessed and grateful for all the support and praise that I’ve received for my effort.  

Do you Google yourself?

I google myself, my books, and my businesses on a regular basis -- in addition to having Google Alerts set up for them.  As a business owner and author, I like to know what is being said about me and my brand so I have the opportunity to correct any misperceptions and connect with the people who support my work.

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

I have two books in the works.  One is a second edition of my book, “5 Simple Questions to Reclaim Your Happiness!” I have been getting some awesome feedback and requests so I’m working new ideas into the next edition.  Many readers requested more case studies, so I’m adding in several more.  In addition, I’m making part of this edition a workbook so readers can follow along and use the questions and other tools to quickly reclaim their happiness.  

The second book I’m working on is called, “How to Unleash Your Inner Super Powers and Destroy Anxiety and Self-Doubt.”  This is the third book in my Words of Wisdom for Teen Series and the most fun to write so far.  I’m working toward a late August release, just in time to help teens to go back to school with increased confidence having learned about their own Inner Super Powers!

Do you have anything specific that you would like to say to your readers?  

One of the most powerful lesson I have learned is, “change your thoughts, change your life.”  It sounds simple, and it is very true because whatever you focus on grows bigger.  Your thoughts are like colored goggles. Whatever color your lenses are, you will experience the world through that tint. Your thoughts work the same way. Whatever your thoughts are about your situation become the experiences you live. Your thoughts are also like a giant magnet, pulling towards you more of the same.  If you have negative thoughts, you’ll attract more negativities into your life.  Conversely, if you have positive thoughts, you’ll attract more positives into your life. So, if you are having an experience you don’t like, challenge yourself to change your thoughts into more empowering ones and get ready to be amazed.  Grab a copy of my book, “I would, but my DAMN MIND won’t let me!” and learn how to easily and effectively change your thoughts.