mojatu .com
22 category
Interview with Michelle Johnson on her new book
DO GREAT EXPLOITS
Michelle Johnson’s launched her debut book, Do Great Exploits: Saying Yes to
God’s call When It’s Easier To Say No for sale on 1 st January 2017. Here is an
interview with the writer:
Does fear hold you back from doing the things you
dream of doing? Do you doubt that you have what it
takes to accomplish your dreams? Perhaps you have
had some set-backs and given up on your dreams.
Do you want to break through to higher levels of
achievement than what you have achieved thus far?
These are the types of questions H. Michelle Johnson
asks in her genre busting new book titled, Do Great
Exploits.
“You’re called to great exploits,” Johnson says. “The
keys shared in the book will help make it easier for
you to say yes to that call. I wrote the book to show
people how to identify and overcome obstacles that
may be holding them back from moving forward in
life the way they would like to.”
The book draws on the lives and stories of a diverse
range of people including modern and historical
personalities and biblical characters, both men and
women as well as the young and not so young. It
gives examples of the many issues such people faced
at different stages of their lives. Do Great Exploits
picks apart how these people overcame in their
situation and offers their strategies for how we too
can overcome our own obstacles. “It breaks things
down and gives really practical insights for breaking
free of limitations of the mind and of the past that
may be holding you back,” says Chair of the Board
of Trustees and Pastor, Muyiwa Olubowale, God’s
Vineyard Church and Vine Fruits Community Interest
Company.
So Mojatu contacted Ms Johnson and asked her some
questions about Do Great Exploits and this is what
she said.
Why write such a book?
I wrote this book because I have a heart for people
of all types. I look at everyone and think each
person is great, they have potential, but some aren’t
releasing their full potential. And that’s tragic on
two levels. First, the person isn’t experiencing the
joy of producing what they were put on this earth to
produce. And secondly, the world is left lacking what
they were supposed to do or to produce. Imagine
if someone like Barack Obama hadn’t decided to
maximise his potential? Or someone like Usain
Bolt, or senior politicians like Diane Abbot or top
businessmen like Richard Branson. Everything they
and countless others have produced with their lives
so far has had massive impact for untold numbers of
people. Everyone has abilities, gifts and talents. Each
of us has a responsibility to develop and use these to
help other people and make the world a better place.
Who is the main audience for the book?
For over twenty years I’ve worked closely with
teenagers and young adults through mentorship,
counselling, coaching and running small groups. I
even taught at a comprehensive school for a short
stint when I was younger. I’ve always sensed the
energy in young people, seen their potential and had
a strong desire to guide, help and encourage them
to release their potential and be the very best person
they could be. So the book was primarily written with
them in mind. I thought, If I had a son or a daughter,
this is the kind of thing I would tell them very early on in
their lives. (It’s the kinds of things I wish someone had
told me when I was younger). I’d want to give them the
strongest foundation upon which they could develop
their confidence and build productive lives. However,
when I sent the manuscript to my editor, she wrote
me a lovely letter saying that while I had written this
book for that age range, it had had an impact on her
and she was in her late thirties. She suggested that
the book had a much wider appeal. So, I tested that
theory with people I know who are in their thirties,
forties, fifties and even late sixties and they all fed
back that the book had really challenged and inspired
them and they had learned new strategies to move to
new levels of effectiveness in their own lives. So now
the book is being promoted for all age groups!
Is writing something new for you?
No, I’ve been writing since I was very little. In the book
I wrote that kids my age were playing with dolls and
riding their bicycles in the street, I was sometimes
inside writing little stories. I remember some of them
were just a paragraph long!
I’ve worked hard to develop my potential in this
area and have written and published many feature
articles of leaders and achievers I have interviewed.
Doing this combines the two things that are of great
fascination to me – people and writing.