| The secret of getting ahead is getting
started. The secret of getting started is breaking
your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable
tasks, then starting on the first one.
~ Mark Twain ~
This article is a perfect example of a task that,
at first, overwhelmed me. Jennifer put out a call
to the membership for articles and I wanted to
support her, but didn't have a subject or, I thought,
the time. With a job, a family, and oh yeah, that
little book I've been working on, shoehorning
anything else into my schedule is a challenge.
However, contributing to the newsletter is a worthy
goal I thought could be achieved with a bit of
planning; in fact, I knew it could because I've
been working on a career plan and a major component
of career planning is goal setting. In fact, (I
realized with the joy of the chronically lazy)
I could write about finding time to achieve one's
goals and the research was already done!
With that decision, I took the first step toward
achieving my goal: I defined it. The second step
was making the notation "Begin Goals article
for newsletter" under theweek of Feb 23-Mar
1 in my goals notebook. Yes, I keep a notebook
for my goals. And yes I wrote 'begin,' not 'write,
'because I don't have time to write an article.
Remember? See, when you set a goal, you have to
define it, identify the obstacles, outline an
action plan, track your progress and (my favorite
part) celebrate your success. For me, time is
always an obstacle. To overcome that obstacle,
I have adopted the notebook as part of my action
plan. It helps me break down the goal into manageable
pieces and helps me track my progress. (So I can
celebrate!)
I began the notebook after taking an on-line
course in career planning, offered by Lucy Monroe
(The Greek Tycoon's Mistress, Presents,
Oct/03.) If you have an opportunity to take this
course, do. Lucy's approach is basically to take
a macro look at the goal and then slowly focus
it down to the smaller, easily achieved goals.
For instance, most of us can relate to the goal
"Write a book and sell it." Through
Lucy's approach, you would ask yourself:
What can I do this year? a: Finish the book
What can I do this month? a: Finish the rough
draft
What can I do this week? a: Finish the chapter
seven
This is over-simplifying, of course, because
Lucy offers lists of questions so you touch on
every aspect of your career. You tailor your weekly
goals to balance all the things you want to accomplish,
so you're not sacrificing precious writing time
to, say, write an article for the chapter newsletter.
I also have to acknowledge the article by Lee
McClain in the December 2002 RWR. (Lee Tobin McClain,
Ph.D, is the director of the Seton Hill University's
Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction Program.)
She outlines her "SAG" plan for revising
a manuscript. SAG stands for "Small Achievable
Goals"and it has become my mantra. When I
committed to writing this article, the first thing
I did in that week where I had scrawled "Begin
article" was scratch out a few small goals
for the weeks ahead. One was as simple as "Brainstorm
points to include." That took me fifteen
minutes and boy, did I feel like I'd accomplished
something.
Which brings me to the tracking part. I'm very
visual. I like to cross things off a list, and
log my hours at the computer and keep a running
tally of my page count on a calendar when I start
a new book. Every time I come across a new method
of visualizing goal achievement, I have to give
it a trial run and somewhere in one of my"How
to track the time you're wasting by tracking every
move you make" resources, I came across a
thermometer method which I'm going to share because
it's so much darned fun.
Take a big goal, like "Write a book and
sell it." Now take a piece of paper and write
on the very bottom edge, left margin, "Began
writing." Put the date you started your first
book, if you like.
Now make some notations above it. Have you finished
a book? Or two? Or more? Write down the titles.
Have you joined RWA? Submitted anything? Taken
a course or attended a conference that really
made a difference? Had a contest win? SOLD a book?
(That goes at the top!) Okay, have you written
a few things up the side? Now get a strip of paper
in a nice bright red (or whatever color turns
you on) and glue it to the bottom, on the right.
Fold it over so the top is even with your top
achievement. Sure there might be some distance
yet to cover, but you've come a long way, don't
you think? Certainly you deserve a pat on the
back, or a chocolate hug. Or a glass of wine,
a bag of popcorn and the latest episode of Sex
and the City.
Okay, that's my reward for writing instead of
watching TV all week. You have to devise your
own rewards, but do promise yourself something.
Relate them back to your goals, if you can. If
you have a favorite author beckoning from the
to-be-read shelf, promise yourself you can read
all night if you write five pages of your own
first. Do some web research when you first go
on-line and checking email will be guilt-free.
The more goals you set, the more rewards you get.
They don't have to be big goals. Small and specific
will get the job done. Eventually. I promise.
So here I am in week four. I have broken down
the goal into manageable pieces (week one), brainstormed
(week two), drafted the article (week three) and
now, in week four—picture me tracking back
to see how I've progressed—I am attempting
to finish my promised article, but I have hit
another obstacle.
When it comes to a spectacular, epiphany-like
conclusion that will prove the system to me and
my readership, I have nothing. But I want Mark
Twain, along with Lucy and Lee to be right. I
want to believe we can all achieve overwhelming
goals, like selling a book, if we focus on the
manageable ones, like writing a few pages a day.
But nothing is coming tome. I'm dry. A fraud.
Except...hmmm. The article is done, right?
Dani Collins is a GVC member with many goals,
including selling her Golden Heart Finalist Hustled
to the Altar, completing her current WIP
by the NYC conference and writing a more interesting
bio.
Articles may be reprinted in RWA® chapter
newsletters, attributed to the Spotlight.
Non-RWA® newsletters may not reprint articles
without the permission of the authors.
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