How to become a writer advice is everywhere. Most of the advice, though, misses an essential step of the how to become a writer process. That step is a successful writer’s mindset. Without a success mindset, you might as well not bother attempting to become a writer.

Why?

Because we are our own worst enemies. In your mind, right now, evil lurks. Well, okay, maybe not evil. But certainly trouble. The trouble is in the way you think about your writing goals and yourself and in what you spend your time imagining. To avoid that trouble, you need to take at least two important steps to develop a success mindset.

1. Get clear about your intention.

Every act begins with an intention. Most of the time, though, you don’t set your intention consciously. In fact, you often have conflicting intentions. Let’s say, for instance, one of your intentions is to lose weight and the other is to eat as much chocolate as you can. Split intentions regarding dieting and food are pretty common, and they result in people staying the weight they are, even if they’re unhappy with it. Do you see what happens when you have conflicted or unconscious intentions? You don’t get the results you want. Conflicted intentions tend to get you stuck in no action at all. Subconscious intentions tend to get you in messes you did not expect to get into.

If you want to be a successful writer, you must have a clear, conscious intention.

In other words, answer this question: What do you want? What is it you want to create in your writing life?

What you aim at is what you will hit. So before you begin walking the path to writing success, get clear about where you want to head. So you need to get very clear about what you want from your writing career.

2. Visualize your intention.

This step toward getting the mindset you need to be a successful writer will hopefully come easy to you. What are writers, if not experts in imagining? Visualization is using your imagination to see what you want in great, vivid detail.

I’m sure you’ve heard of visualization. It’s used for healing. It’s used by athletes. It’s used in business. Visualization is painting a picture in your head of what you want. You see yourself doing what you want to do, having what you want to have. Visualization is programming for your subconscious. Did you know that your subconscious mind is what drives your actions?

Your subconscious mind is the part of you in the driver’s seat. What visualization does is give your subconscious a picture of what you want. It’s like a blueprint that your subconscious can follow. Once it has this picture, it will get you in action. Give your subconscious the right pictures, and you’ll take the right actions toward your goal. Give your subconscious the wrong pictures, and you won’t get anywhere near what you want.

Make sure you’re focused on what you want. Set an intention and keep that intention alive in your mind’s eye. Developing a success mindset is a powerful foundation of how to become a writer.