About My Book
The Challenge Mindset is about the phenomenon of personal challenges -- why they matter and how they change our lives. It examines the anatomy of passion projects, experiments, trial runs, or learning experiences, and what they all have in common, along with the mentality it takes to design and pursue them.
My name is Greg Roth. I’m the author of The Challenge Mindset (so my name is on this book!) About three years ago, I started to notice and research challenges, as alternatives to goal-setting or habit loops or optimization. I wanted to write a different kind of personal development book. Not one that prescribes routines and mastery, but instead emphasizes risk, adventure, discovery, and self-expression.
The Challenge Mindset will help you adopt a new outlook on life: a willingness to experiment, in order to break out of ruts, to learn new skills, to do something remarkable, or to give something cool to the world. This book is a mix of unlikely origin stories, unique passion projects, and recent research, and my own personal experience as someone who’s had over 100 jobs and even more interests.
In this book, you'll learn about what constitutes a challenge, the four types of challenges, the five qualities of a challenge mindset, and how to put them to use in your personal and professional lives, and how they show up in the workplace among great teams and organizations. You'll hear stories like:
- How a copywriter with no drawing background invented a one-of-a-kind art and consulting company
- How a scientific researcher used a challenge to change the trajectory of her career and make history
- How a former addict invented one of the world’s most beloved eating plans
- How companies use challenges to experiment with new processes
And many other challenges that led their creators down roads and paths they never imagined. If you want inspiring stories, empowering wisdom, and practical frameworks for your own life and work, you will enjoy this book and possibly challenge a friend to read it with you.
The Challenge Mindset is a nonfiction book that speaks to both seasoned professionals and those just starting out in their career, looking to develop the skills to reinvent, or just invent themselves, one project at a time.
Outline of The Challenge Mindset
The book is written in three main parts, with a fourth section appendix of practical guides, similar to a workbook.
Part 1 : What are challenges and how do they work?
Contains the introduction + chapters 1-3, which examine what constitutes a challenges, why they are transformative, and how they work, practically and scientifically.
Part 2 : The 5 qualities of a challenge mindset
Contains chapters 4-8, which dig deeper into each of the five qualities of a challenge mindset: curiosity, openness, immersive action, journeyism, and compassionate perspective. Each chapter is devoted to one of these qualities with interweaving stories of challenges, research, findings, and thoughtful digressions.
Part 3: How to use challenges to pursue your personal interests, skills, and goals
Contains chapters 9-12, which provide guides and frameworks for designing personal challenges, the difference between adaptability and optimization, and advice for teams and organizations, plus an epilogue.
Appendix
Contains a collection of guides, tools, resources, and endnotes.
How This Works & What You'll Get
This book will be published with New Degree Press. I set up the pre-order tiers to help cover the costs for publishing my book. Money raised will go towards the following:
- The editor I will work with to revise and publish my manuscript in April 2021.
- The cover design of my book. (The mockups you see currently are just placeholders)
- The layout design for the interior of my book (i.e. physical copy, ebook formats).
- The copy editing for my book prior to publication.
- The launch & promotion efforts to get maximum exposure when the book is released in spring 2021.
My sales goals and what they mean
This crowdfunding campaign is dedicated to helping a first-time author (yours truly) make publishing a reality. I've set up specific milestones to help fund the production of a paperback, hardcover, ebook, and audiobook:
- When I pre-sell 120 copies (or $5000) of my book, I can publish a paperback and ebook.
- When I pre-sell 150 copies (or$6000) of my book, I can also publish a hardcover edition.
- When I pre-sell 200 copies (or $8000) of my book, I can also produce an audiobook.
Tiers: Perks and Rewards at multiple levels of support
I am offering some exclusive rewards for people who pre-order my book now:
- You will receive a personally signed copy of my book when I publish it.
- You will be invited to join my Author Community and get behind-the-scenes sneak peeks into the publishing process.
- Your name will appear in the Acknowledgments section of my book.
- You will receive early access to the Introduction and other excerpts from my book, with the opportunity to review it and give me early feedback.
- You will have the opportunity to be involved in selecting my cover and title.
- And much more!
Extras and Add-ons
In addition to the Perks levels, you have the opportunity to add on extra features, such as:
- A comprehensive list of all the challenges collected for this book.
- Group discussion (like a book club) with the author.
- One-on-one coaching session at a deep discount of my normal rate.
Other Ways You Can Help
While supporting my launch through purchasing one of the tiers is the way to help, there are others things you can do to help me publish this book:
-
Post a message to your networks that you've pre-ordered my book.
-
Share my pre-sale campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn with your friends, family and network. If you tag 5 people, you will be able to request your own perk (and I have to do it).
-
Forward an email to a few people you think would enjoy this book.
-
Seemlessly work the phrase "challenge mindset" into a Zoom discussion of your friends or co-workers.
-
Be seen reading the book under a tree in the park after you receive your copy.
With eternal thanks,
Greg