It’s finally here! I’m checking one of my oldest dreams off my list.

In November 2021, I was sitting at my day-job desk one morning thinking about my readers. Many were dreading the holiday season, and I wanted to help.

Then came a lightbulb moment. I could create a 30-day email course to give my readers the strength they needed to make it through those tough months.

The 30 Days of Positivity Course was born, and the rest, as they say, is history.

After the first 100 participants finished the course, I kept hearing the same reply: “This needs to be a book!”

So, I promised, quite some time ago, to turn the course into a book.

But then, life happened. I also got stuck in my head, changing my mind about the direction for the book at least 50 times. Imposter syndrome and an obsession with perfection kept me from moving forward.

A few weeks ago, I decided to get out of my way, and guess what? The book is done!

Releasing on August 3, 2024, you can now pre-order the digital, paperback, or hardcover (hardcover on Amazon only) from your favorite retailer.

Here’s a link to all the stores.

The 30 Days book has all the original lessons, journal prompts, creative writing prompts AND the full text of all the additional reading material.

With a critical eye, I edited and revamped every chapter, so even if you took the course before, you’ll find a lot of new things in the book.

Here’s the teaser trailer:

Publishing a book with my name on the cover has been one of my life goals since I was old enough to hold a pen. It took me 52 years to get here, but here I am soon to have the book in your hands.

While I would love for all of you to buy the book, what’s more important is the lesson.

Bipolar disorder doesn’t end your life or your dreams. If you’re willing to put in the hard work, you can make almost anything happen.

This book would never have happened without all of you. Every time you open a newsletter or click a link to one of my stories, you give me the motivation to keep writing.

This is Book 1 of the Positivity Club Series. Book 2 is already written and being edited now. I hope to tell you more about it soon.

Thank you for helping me reach one of my biggest dreams.

Announcements

I turned off all the outside ads on the Speaking Bipolar site. If you haven’t visited lately, take a moment to see the new format.

2024 Change Update

My goal with choosing “change” as my word for 2024 was to go from writer to published author. In just a few days, that goal becomes a reality.

Featured Post

Have you ever wondered why I started sharing pictures from my yard every week? This week’s featured post (below) answers that question.

Scenes from My Yard

Photographs of flowers from the author’s yard — Photos by author

Many consider the thistle an invasive weed, but I think the flower is beautiful. It’s amazing this one bloomed after four weeks of no rain.

Until next time, keep fighting.

Scott Ninneman

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Yes

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Why I Share Pictures From My Yard in My Sunday Newsletter

It started as a game.

My sister and I were talking about all the negativity in the world and how easy it was to get blinded by it. So we decided we would look for pieces of beauty in our world. When a gem caught our eye, we would take a picture and text it to the other.

The game helped both of us. Our desire to outdo each other taught us to look at everything around us.

In time, the game stopped, but I still search for beauty wherever I can find it.

This world is full of darkness. There are lots of ugly things filling our sightlines, but there’s also lots of beauty. Sometimes you have to hunt to notice it.

Share the beauty

My yard is about an acre. Not a lot of land, but much more than people in the city might have easy access to. Every night, as I walk my mom’s dog Peanut, I seek pretty things. I always find something.

As I thought about how much my sister and I enjoyed sharing our little snaps of beauty with each other, I decided to share it also with my readers.

A few months ago, I added a Scenes From My Yard section in my Sunday All Things Bipolar Newsletter. Every week, I search for bits of goodness to add to that week’s edition.

Do I do it because I’m a fantastic photographer? No, of course not. As you can see from the pictures on this page, there’s nothing great about my photography.

Instead, I include the pictures to remind everyone how much beauty is in the world. Even if you have to search for it, you will always find it.

How can you find more beauty in your life? Here are a few tips.

Look close and far

Some beauty is unmissable. A blazing orange sunset, a peacock on parade, or a bouquet of stargazer lilies are hard to miss. Those fragments of beauty grab your attention, even if your mind is consumed with other things.

The obvious pieces are not the only bits of value in your life. If you look around, you’re likely to find more.

Maybe it’s the cloud in the sky shaped like an elephant. It could be the dandelion growing between the cracks in a city sidewalk. The beauty may be a gray pigeon landing on your windowsill.

If you look for beautiful things, you will always discover some.

Open your mind

Sometimes you may think of beauty as only the things you want to see. Perhaps you love art, and so you only think of it when you visit a museum.

If you open your mind to different types of beauty, you’ll see a lot more.

For example, I love flowers. It doesn’t matter the color or the variety; I love them all. When I started looking for beautiful objects in my yard, I found much more than just the blossoms.

There’s the lush green moss that grows abundantly on the lower part of my lot. When the rain and heat combine just right, my lawn explodes with mushrooms of various varieties. There is also an abundance of wildlife, from colorful insects, birds, and butterflies to tiny gray tree frogs and blue-tailed lizards.

When you’re open to all sorts of beauty, you’ll find so much more of it.

Look where you are

When my sister and I first started sending each other pictures, I sent her things I saw everywhere. It didn’t matter whether I was at home, at my office, or in the city on a shopping spree. If I saw a pretty item, I took a picture and texted it to her.

As I did so, I wondered how much beauty you could find if you were stuck at home.

Living with a mental illness means that sometimes you can’t leave your house, no matter how hard you try. So I wanted to see how much I could find if I just stayed within the confines of my property.

I’m amazed I’ve been able to find little snippets of beauty every week. Even when we had a month-long drought and much of my yard turn brown, there were still spots of beauty worth photographing.

Wherever you are now, there is beauty. Even if you don’t have a yard you can walk around in, you still have a window where you can look outside.

Look up, look down, and look near and far. You’re bound to see marvels outside your window to fill you with positivity.

No matter how scary the world gets, there are always traces of beauty. Looking for them will help you stay focused on the good things in life.

Until next time, keep fighting.

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