E-mails lead to 'Monday Morning Motivational Moments' for Destin businesswoman-turned-author

“We spend so much time trying to make decisions that sometimes we make no decision at all. Not deciding is actually a decision in itself. When we make a decision the universe will conspire to help us! If the decision doesn't work, then make another decision! My philosophy is this: 'Make your life a masterpiece, commit to the magic ...... and figure it out later.' ” - from Monday Morning Motivational Moments.
 

When she e-mailed a friend 11 years ago, Destin businesswoman Linda Kedy didn't know she'd taken her first step toward writing a book.

“The book is called 'Monday Morning Motivational Moments,' ” Kedy told The Log. “It is a series of 52 personally learned life lessons.”

The first of those lessons came in 1998, when the company Kedy worked for was dissolved. She e-mailed a friend about her disappointment, but said what really counted was what was learned from such experiences.

Later, after another tough week, she wrote another e-mail talking about what she'd learned; before long, Kedy said, she was writing them regularly. When she skipped one, she discovered she had more readers than she realized, and that some of them complained if they didn't get their Monday message.

“Then people began asking, 'So when is the book coming out?' ” she said. Her initial response? “Enjoy the free e-zine and leave me alone!”

After she recommended the book “The One-Minute Manager” to some friends, however, they brought up once again the subject of her turning the Monday motivations into a book, and offered to help complete it.

“Some said 'I'll edit it,' someone said 'I'll do the cover,' someone said 'I'll help you with publishing,” Kedy said.

“Six weeks later, I had the book self-published!  Then I sold the first printing as a limited edition and raised the funds to do a run of several thousand books. However I haven't marketed them; I'd sell them at my workshops, and have given away a huge number as door prizes and fund-raisers. I didn't want to do the book tour thing, as I'd done so much travel in the past, so I never really marketed them.”

Kedy, who's only writing about one motivational message a month at present, offers a minimal annual subscription to her e-zine and includes a free autographed copy of her book with the subscription.

“I need to move my inventory,” Kedy said, “as I have another book I'm working on, 'Cancer Is Great For Your Health,' which my readers are waiting for, but I won't print it until the inventory of my first book is done.”

The title, Kedy said, is not a metaphor:  “Cancer taught me so much about health and my health today is fabulous. It seems that people continue abusing their bodies until they get a bad diagnosis - only then do they start improving their health habits.”

Born in England, Kedy grew up there, then spent a decade in Israel before moving to the United States. She's a three and a half year Destin resident, who said she first learned about the area's beaches while working in Fiji. An Atlanta resident at the time, she visited Destin, fell in love with the beaches and bought an investment property here.

When the real estate market went south, Kedy said, she decided to sell her places in Atlanta and move into the Destin property.

“I had wanted to move back to the beach for some time, so I now I'm down here and could never look back,” Kedy said.

Kedy said her businesses down here involve seminars and workshops  to educate people in “life skills” as well as identity-theft protection and prepaid legal services.

“We need to unlearn what we learn in school and learn alternative strategies,” Kedy said, “so we can make better decisions for our health, finance and life-styles.”

ON THE WEB
For more information contact Kedy at www.healthyspirits.com.