An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Start each day identifying three positive things for which you can be grateful. Granted, some days it is harder than others. One night things were so challenging one thing on my list was “the emergency room vending machine coffee wasn’t as nasty as I expected.” The more you practice finding silver linings, the easier it becomes.
Growth is an essential part of life, both personally and professionally. Every day presents an opportunity to learn, evolve, and become better versions of ourselves. But how do we seize these opportunities? How do successful writers, leaders, and influencers ensure they are constantly growing and improving? What daily habits, practices, or mindsets contribute to their continual growth? In this interview series, we are talking to authors, leaders, influencers, and anyone who is an authority about “What We Can Do To Grow Every Day”. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Allie Pleiter.
Allie Pleiter is the best-selling author of over 60 books, with 1.8 million copies of her fiction and nonfiction sold around the world. She cites a daily journaling practice as the key to her personal, professional, and spiritual growth. As the creator of the MY DAILY MOMENTUM: A 90-DAY JOURNAL FOR A PRODUCTIVE LIFE, Allie shares this practice with people everywhere.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us your “Origin Story”? Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in New England, then headed to the Chicago area to study theater at Northwestern University. My original plan was to be an actor, but when that didn’t work out, I made my way through cultural management to fundraising and then finally to the career I enjoy now as a full-time writer, productivity speaker, and book coach.
Can you tell us a bit about what you do professionally, and what brought you to this specific career path?
It certainly wasn’t a direct route! Storytelling has always come naturally to me, even though I never set out to be a writer. It was the dare from a friend that shifted me from fundraising to fiction. Some dares are definitely worth taking! My theatrical background helps a great deal in writing fiction, crafting dialogue, and speaking. Writers need to be prolific in this current market, so I began to study how to be consistently, dependably productive in my writing and my well-known Chunky Method was born. Still, knowing what has to be done isn’t the same as finding the motivation to do it, and that is where journaling is such a powerful force for me. Journaling is how I create the momentum I need to reach my personal and professional goals. I believe journaling works for everyone, not just writers, which is why I created the MY DAILY MOMENTUM journal.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about Personal Growth. To make sure that we are all on the same page, let’s begin with a simple definition. What does “Personal Growth” mean to you?
Personal growth means movement toward what and who you want to be. It means seeking and taking the steps that expand your skills, vision, capabilities, and impact in the world around you.
Why do you believe that it’s important to commit to growing every day?
Every day is the only way it happens! Just like The Chunky Method builds upon small steps of writing to accomplish a book, daily commitments to gratitude, goals, and affirmation keep us moving in the right direction with small steps every day.
What are the key upsides for those who mindfully engage in a journey of personal evolution?
When you take the time to get specific about what and where you want to go and how you want to get there, you help ensure that it happens. I often say “the most powerful knowledge of all is knowing what to do next.”
When we stop evolving in intentional ways, what do you think are the biggest downsides?
Quite simply, we stagnate. Or obstacles loom so large they seem insurmountable. That’s almost never true. Taken in consistent small steps, so much is possible. That’s the power of momentum at work.
What specific practices, if any, do you have in place to ensure that you don’t become stagnant in life?
For over ten years, I have begun each day with the written practice of identifying three things I am grateful for, three goals for the day ahead, three things to avoid, and one person to affirm. These are the elements of the MY DAILY MOMENTUM journal because I find it so important to do this thinking in writing. This enables us to see more clearly, to document growth, and to look back and see where we’ve been.
Is there any particular area of your life where you are most committed to growth (e.g., spiritually, professionally, socially, internally, relationally)?
As a person of faith, my spiritual growth feeds all other aspects of my life. My daily journaling is often paired with spiritual texts and devotions. I see the fruits of that focus in my professional life, my social and family relationships, and even my health.
Here is the primary question of our discussion. If you could offer five tips to readers on how to stimulate and perpetuate self-growth, what would they be? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.
1 . Start each day identifying three positive things for which you can be grateful. Granted, some days it is harder than others. One night things were so challenging one thing on my list was “the emergency room vending machine coffee wasn’t as nasty as I expected.” The more you practice finding silver linings, the easier it becomes.
2 . Then identify three key goals just for the day ahead. Not long range, but specific steps to take today. You can’t solve your weight problem in one day, but you can plan your breakfast or drink the right amount of water. It may be as simple as starting to look for an expert who can help, asking a friend for support, or identifying the first step in a long process.
3 . Follow this by thinking about what you might want to avoid in the day ahead. I think of these as guardrails that I put around my day. Make a deliberate choice to avoid Negative thoughts, poor eating choices, worrying about something in your future, etc. One that often comes up for me is “scarcity thinking”: convincing myself (often wrongly) that I don’t have enough time or resources to do something. There is tremendous power in setting the intention to keep these things out of your day — and your thoughts.
4 . Choose one person to affirm every day. It may be someone you plan to praise or encourage, or you can choose to simply open yourself up to someone who will cross your path that day. We forget how much power we have to lighten someone else’s day. Doing this keeps us positive and hopeful.
5 . Finally do all the above IN WRITING. We can so easily embrace damaging thoughts, but when we put them on paper we can often see their true nature.
What advice would you give to someone who feels stuck and unsure of how to start their personal growth journey?
We tend to get stuck when we get overwhelmed by the big picture. Huge challenges seem to require monumental effort (because they do), but very few challenges are overcome all at once. As I said earlier, the most important knowledge of all is what to do next. Just next. So if someone is feeling stuck, the solution is often to find something — a right thing, not necessarily the right thing because there are often many — and find a way to do even a piece of it as your next step.
Are there any books, podcasts, or other resources that have significantly contributed to your personal growth?
I’d have to place the MY DAILY MOMENTUM journals and practice at the top of the list.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would start a movement of each person affirming one person every day. A small kindness or compliment can work wonders and multiply out exponentially around the world. Plus, I know of no better antidote to your own discouragement or weariness than to lift up another person.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
The best way is to visit my website at www.alliepleiter.com to learn more about all the things that I do.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com
Growing Every Day: Author Allie Pleiter On What We Can Do To Grow Every Day was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.