Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello and welcome
to cultivate and publish the writers
guide for organization. My name is Neil Hogan and I'm
a multi published author, educator and a lover of goal
setting, an organization. Along with publishing
my own books, I've created multiple courses on self-publishing
and novel writing. I credit my ability to juggle the many tasks I've
taken on over the years, all while being a parent
and a full-time teacher, to setting smart goals
and organizing my tasks. I would not have been able to successfully published
five novels and produce six courses without setting and tracking
actionable goals. To common complaints I hear
from writers is that they feel like they don't of time and they have
a lot of ideas, but can't seem to organize them. As an educator,
I've worked closely with my students to
help them set goals and create action steps to reach their goals without
actions are just ideas. So setting realistic goals, checking in on your
progress and celebrating your success can help
make reaching your goals. Pray with this course is
the resource I created for myself to help keep me
motivated and organized, entitled to cultivate
and publish the intentional goal setting
planner for writers. I purchased many goal-setting
planners in previous years, but couldn't find one
geared towards writers. I made one myself. This is a printable PDF that
you can download and use as a digital resource
or even have it printed and bound at
your local copy store. My suggestion is to have it laminated to use
again and again. This resource aligns directly
with this course and will help walk you through
how to best utilize this PDF, as well as some additional
things you can do to help you cultivate your dreams and publish your next writing piece. This course is for
anybody looking to get organized and has dreams of someday publishing
their writing. This course is not
for people who are master goal setters
and organizers, or people who have no interest
in writing or publishing. In this course, I
will take you through several exercises to uncover
what you want to cultivate. How to prepare for
this journey ahead. How to create a
step-by-step action plan and examine and
reset your goals. Once you've downloaded
the free PDF included in the project
section of this course, It's time to begin
the first lecture.
2. Preparation: Preparation. In this lecture, you will examine what you want to
cultivate in the year ahead. Brainstorm ideas for your
writing and publishing journey. Explore your feelings. What makes you your best self and record any
lingering questions. Uncover who you are and unbox yourself by
eliminating limitations. Change how you speak to yourself and choose
a word of the year. Face your fears and let go. What's holding you back? Praise your experience and
have a moment of gratitude. Explore positives and negatives. Prioritize yourself by
saying yes and no to a few things and create
some writers affirmations. We've got a lot to cover.
So let's get started. What comes to mind when you
hear the word cultivate? Maybe soil, or crops? Well, in the context
of this course, cultivate means to
acquire or develop. Our goals are a lot
like gardening. You lay the groundwork and prepare for the seed
that you'll plant. Over time with proper
care and attention, your seed will grow into
something beautiful for you. Maybe your seeds are a novel you've been
working on for years. Maybe it's an article for
a well-known publication. Or maybe it's to just start that blog that
you've been talking about. Either way, the idea
is for that seed to grow into whatever
you want it to become. So my question to you is, what do you want to cultivate? This seed may take
weeks to grow or years. But the idea is not to keep sitting on something
that's fertile, but to allow it to
take root and grow. It's possible you've
already made a list of the things you need to do to
become a published author, it's time to transform
your tasks into a clear, meaningful pathway to success. Being intentional
about something means you are making
calculated moves. I believe we all have a purpose
and with a plan in mind, we can achieve anything. Setting intentional
goals will help you act by cultivating what matters most and creating a plan that is
meaningful to you. It doesn't have to be perfect or rigid as long as it's yours. Because this course is specifically geared
towards writers, all of these exercises are about writing or
your author journey. For our first exercise, we will answer the question, what do you want to cultivate? You can use page eight
of the PDF to jot down whatever comes to mind when you think about
your writing journey. Words and phrases that I
wrote down were favored. Influence, profitable,
sold out, inspires others. Free to stop here for
your brainstorm session. If you feel comfortable, if you'd like to
share your words and phrases in the
comments section below, Let's see how much we have
in common as a class. You might see a word
that resonates with you from your peers that you'd
like to add to your list too. Unless you're brand new
to the craft of writing, you have some experience
under your belt, whether it's a few
weeks or a few years. For my more seasoned writers, let's take a moment to
reflect on the past year. If you haven't been doing
this for a full year, then think about however long
you've been writing for. Now that we've uncovered
what words match our vision, I'd like to pose the
second question. What would you have done
differently in terms of writing? To be fully transparent, I spent the last calendar year focusing on producing
new courses. And I just wrote fiction
for fun rather than with the intention to
publish a new writing piece. Because I write the scripts
for the courses I produce. I consider this a part
of my writing journey. Honestly, I could have
been way more productive. I could have produced my courses at least three months
sooner than I actually did. And how to create
a better plan for myself and not piled too
many things on my plate. This lack of productivity
cost me a lot of revenue. Had I utilized my own resource, instead of thinking I had
it all under control, My Year in Review would have
looked a lot different. Sometimes we don't take our own advice and it
cost us time and money. So I asked, what would you
have done differently? Include that in the box
on page eight as well. It's important to
analyze where we came from to know how to
redirect our course. Even if it's something small, like managing your
time poorly during a specific month or not
scheduling time to write. It's important to note that your journey is unique to
you and your schedule. So what you consider a failure will look different
from the next writer. Feel free to share those things in the comments section as well. Lastly, what do you
hope to accomplish? What do you want the end of your writing career
to look like? It's okay if it seems
unreasonable, That's okay. I encourage you to dream
big in this exercise. For me, my dream
has changed over time and yours may change too. If you reuse this resource
annually like I do, it will be fun to
look back on what you wanted your writing
journey to look like. Had I created this
resource when I first got into
self-publishing in 2014, I want it to be a New
York Times best seller, making a comfortable salary
and touring the country. This year. I want to use
a pen name to secure a number one spot
for any amount of time with the top
book retailers. And produce new, profitable
online courses each year. Whatever your outlook
on the future is today is worth
putting on record. Personal check-ins
is something I use in my classroom
on a daily basis because it allows
everyone to take some time to reflect on where
they are in that moment. Okay. To not be okay. Especially if you're
writing goals consist of you using your skills
to work full time. There'll be many days where
you're feeling overwhelmed. Planning for the
future can do that, but it can also be exciting to create a vision
for your life. Utilizing this planner is not about doing
everything perfectly. Adaptability is the
number one thing I've had to learn to be able to embrace. You can plan everything
down to the minute, but the only thing you have
complete control over is you okay if your
path is unclear, just like you're writing. Sometimes it takes on
a life of its own. You believe in manifesting
or not sometimes writing down what we want for ourselves makes our vision more concrete. Because we see it. We can study it and remind ourselves of what we
desire for ourselves. Just remember that
you are powerful, worthy of the life
you were dreaming of. I created an
exercise on page ten of the cultivator unpublished
planner called Who am I? You are today isn't the person
we may be months from now. This activity is a fun
way to see yourself evolve over time if you
continue to use it. We are unique individuals with unique interests
and qualities. This journey, some of us will
forget what inspires us. Sometimes we may even lose sight of who we
are because we're too caught up and
becoming who we think our audience
wants us to be. By exploring what you love, it creates sparks of
joy to remind us of what makes us feel
happy and inspired. Gone to these 12 sentence
stems and revisit this activity anytime you aren't quite feeling
like yourself. Here's mine. What are yours? Feel free to share
in the comments section when you're finished. At times, you may have felt like you're
being put in a box. But the truth is, these
boxes don't exist. What people think of
you only matters if you allow that thinking to
have power over your life. If you've been living in boxes that other people
have created for you, then this next exercise
will be a healthy way to release yourself from those
imaginary parameters. On page 11 of the planner, you'll have an opportunity
to let go of limitations. What things have you convinced
yourself or impossible? It's a seed that was
planted in your head by someone else that you've allowed to take
root in your life. The past people
tried to convince me not to put 100% of my eggs and my writers basket and instead to make writing a hobby
instead of a career goal. I know now that
there are plenty of writers that do this full-time. They don't have a second
source of income, and they do what they
love every single day. Writing as a career
is not impossible. I know that being an
author isn't easy. It's a commitment. And anytime someone tells me
they want to write a book, I encouraged them to let
go of whatever limitations they put on themselves or
have accepted from others. If you're not a
gifted writer today, that doesn't mean you
can improve in the box provided it's time to put those limitations in a box
instead of on yourself. What's been holding you
back on this journey? You need to put to rest. Feel free to share those limitations in
the comment section, I'd like to offer you
some encouragement down below article called Destroy negativity from your mind
with this simple exercise. In the opening line,
the author says, according to the National
Science Foundation, and average person has about 12,000 to 60,000
thoughts per day. Of those, 80% are negative and 95% are
repetitive thoughts. If we repeat those
negative thoughts, we think negative way more than we think
positive thoughts. That is a lot of negativity
weighing us down. If we fall into that category
of the average person. Someday is I'll be down a rabbit hole of
negative thoughts by dreaming up imaginary scenarios and playing them out of my head. I bring this up to draw
attention to how we have to change the way
we speak to ourselves. If our own brain can think so many negative thoughts on top of the people in our
lives and the social outlets that we engage in daily. How much room are we making
for something positive? Our mind is so powerful. And if no one else is going
to speak life over us, the most important person
to do that as ourselves. Imagine what could be possible
if you prioritize you. You must be open to
achieving anything. But you wouldn't be
enrolled in this class if you weren't ready
to change your life and the best way to record things that you're
open to achieving. Think to yourself. If opportunity came knocking, what would I love to say yes to? Fear is the number
one thing holding so many of us back from reaching the next
level in our careers. Holding you back from being
the best writer you can be. For many years, I had a
fear of public speaking. And the thought of having
to talk to a crowd about my book was what
was holding me back. On page 14 of your PDF, I'm challenging you to
look fear in the face. Release whatever is
holding you back, whether they are insecurities
about your skill set, fear of judgment, or worries about investing
your time and energy into a story idea and
leave them in the box below. Your purpose is bigger
than your fears. The things that are
holding you back, your load will be a lot lighter. You've probably
heard the phrase, our words have power. You talk to yourself the most. So be sure that you're
speaking highly of yourself. It's important to get into the habit of affirming yourself. In the mornings on
the way to the gym. I listen to affirmations
to start my dad. It's not always easy
for me to wake up an hour-and-a-half before I
really would need to hoard, even want to, to
get my day started. So I do this as a
way to think myself, prioritizing me when it
comes to my writing. Sometimes I worry about
what other people will think by filling up the box
on page 15 of this PDF, words or phrases of affirmation or even writing
yourself a love letter. You can revisit this page every single day if you need to. A little pep talk that
was created just for you. Of a long list of
things I wrote myself. My favorite was this. Someday Nia, you're going
to look back and thank yourself for being courageous enough to share your
thoughts with the world. And the things you
wrote are going to change someone's
life for the better. So keep going. Pause here to write
your affirming words. Do you struggle with saying empowering things to yourself? Well, I created a
script specific to writers on page 30 that
I think you'll like, fill in the blanks to create a quick affirmation that you can record and listen to at anytime. Try adding some
soothing music to the recording to help
center yourself. Here's mine. My name is Nia and
I am an author. I'm deciding daily that
anything is possible. I want to make this
happen because I am passionate about
sharing my thoughts and stories with the world. In order to change, I must let go of fear. My defining word for this
year ahead, discipline. I will continue to say yes to myself and say no to the
things that do not serve me. I will surround myself
with positivity. I will honor myself by
living in my purpose. I will take leaps of
faith along the way. I will transform my life
and show myself love every step of the way I
deserve the life I dream of. Now it's your turn. Fill in the blanks on page 30. Except that our experience
is our best teacher. I couldn't agree more. Just like history teaches
us our past educates us in a way that is catered specifically to who
we are becoming. Sometimes these
lessons are hard, but there's no doubt that we
learn from our mistakes if we are open to changing
the way we think and act, challenges are a natural part of growing in any
area of our lives. Let's take a moment to
reflect on those hurdles. Page 16 gives you space
to record anything that has stood in your way and make those moments
a teachable one. Stop here to ask
yourself what didn't work about those things and
what you learned from them. For me, in the past year, I tried producing
five forces at once. Instead of focusing on
just one at a time. This left me feeling
overwhelmed, which lowered my productivity. I learned that it's
okay to not be hyper productive and to take
things one at a time. The lesson sometimes are
things we already know to do, but continued to and are just learning our
lesson the hard way. Keep in mind that not all challenges or
negative experiences I, sometimes those challenges
still take us somewhere. We can apply the same thinking
to these experiences. It's important to give
time and attention to the positive things along
your journey as well. What's something
good that happened along your journey
in the past year? For me, my first Skillshare
course hit 3,000 students. This was a big deal
for me considering how long it took to welcome
in my first thousand. That was the biggest
highlight of a very slow year for
my publishing journey. I learned that
patience is important, as well as having a
good advertising team. Had I rushed the process
or not sought health, I would not have had
such a successful year. Maybe the positives about
your writing journey last year was that you dedicated a small amount of time
to daily writing. Consistency is
worth celebrating. What made your last year great? What lessons came out of it? I like the saying,
If it ain't broke, don't fix it because
it reminds me that I don't always have to
reinvent the wheel. What worked well for you in the past that you can implement? Again, take a moment to jot
those ideas down on page 17. Even the most successful writers don't have it all figured out. The business of
writing changes over time and so do the consumers. You may have a foolproof
plan for the season, but the most successful
writers are always adapting. You may still be coming
into your own as a writer. Maybe you're shifting gears
with your author brand. Regardless, you evolve
whether you notice it or not. What are some lingering
questions about yourself or your writing process that you'd like answered by the
end of this journal. It can be about your
audience, your style, your investments, your
goals, or even your plans. It's okay to not have
it all figured out. You can explore these uncertainties
when you're ready to. It's good to record these questions so that
if the answer arises, you'll be more likely
to pay attention to it. Stay heat stop here and use page 18 to jot down those questions. Majority of books have
a dedication and or an acknowledgment page
where they give thanks to those who helped or inspired
them on their journey. Most of us do not venture
down this road alone. Sometimes your support system
is your family and friends, and sometimes it's the
writing mentor or a coach. On page 19, I challenge
you to make a list of the people in your life that
you're most grateful for. You can stop here and
do make your list. Take a look at your list. These people are your go-to contact list when you're feeling discouraged or need advice
on your path to publishing. If you're feeling up to it, let these people know you're
grateful for them and why? Whether you want
to buy a pack of greeting cards and
hand pen and note, draft and electronic
card or an email, or send a gift and a text. Finding a way to say thank
you will feel good to you and for the recipient
of your gratitude. Most of us wear many hats from the role we play
in our families, in our careers to our
extra curriculars. It's easy to put
others before yourself depending on what roles you
play in the lives of others. But just like we have to
help ourselves first and an emergency situation
before assisting others. Remember that your
writing career is dependent on the work
you put into it. Not all the wonderful things
that you do for others. This year. Prioritize yourself, prioritize your dreams
of being published. It's okay to say
no to the things that don't serve you or
your writing career. I started freelancing
less than a year after I published my first book. I was taking on a
lot of projects and was not being
compensated for my time. That was time I could've used to pour into my own
work writing dreams. Had I said no to projects
that didn't serve me, I would've had more time to prioritize my own writing goals. Not all opportunities
are good opportunities. Some drain you of
your creative energy. Maybe you have to learn
to say no to people. In my younger years, I
spent a lot of time out at restaurants and participating
in game nights. Fun and moderation is
great for the soul. But I definitely had
a hard time saying no to people who ate up
a lot of my time. That needs to be put towards meeting deadlines and finishing
up my writing projects. If discipline isn't your issue, remember that sometimes
you have to reject thoughts and feelings that
are holding you back as well. Drowning and negativity in doubt won't do anything
positive for your career. What emotions, tasks, or
people do you have to say no to this year to cultivate what matters on your
publishing journey. Use Page 21 of the planner to stop here and make your list. We're taught from a young age to advocate for ourselves
by saying no. But when's the last time you
were encouraged to say yes. Page 22 of the
planner is all about saying yes to the things
that serve you well. What feeling do you want
to walk into this year? I'm claiming energy,
inspiration, and peace for the next 365 days. How do you want
to live by faith? Luxuriously? How do you want to be this year? Productive, disciplined? You write your own narrative. These words of affirmation
can remind you of what you committed to saying yes to and you feel
yourself slipping. My next question is, what does the best
version of you look like? What fuels that version? As an introvert, I need a
lot of time to recharge and loan in order to be the best
version of me most weeks, my list of recharge
activities are long. I made a list two
years ago to remind me of things I can do
to care for myself. When I'm feeling
down On page 24, I suggest making a list
of go-to things when the road gets rough to help
you re-center yourself. Whether it's a bubble bath, putting aside time to
watch your favorite show, making a warm cup of coffee, or maybe even a staycation. It's important to know what you can do when writer's block hits, challenges come your way, or you just aren't feeling
like your best self. To help you get back on
track as soon as possible. Publishing can take weeks, months, or even years. But the big picture
here is that we're here because we want to
be published writers, whether it's traditionally
or self-published, the decisions we make
today impacts our future, whether we like to
admit it or not. The hour you spent
on social media when you should have
been working on your publishing goals could ultimately push back
your release date. So I ask you, where do
you want your decisions to take you forward or backward? If you were to live
your life purposely every day starting this moment, what would your
future look like? We don't know our
last day on earth. But if you did get that moment to examine your life's work, what will be important
to you in the end? What would you look back and be proud of about your
writing career? Be clear about the big picture. This may change, but what do you aspire to
accomplish right now? Use page 25 to pause
and examine that. If examining the
big picture is too challenging right
now, don't worry. Let's take a step back and look at something more tangible. If this next year starting
today was your best year. But what it looked like for me, I would produce six
more courses and help for more writers with
their publishing goals. Your best team doesn't have
to be anything like mine. If you're just starting out
or have a busy schedule, maybe your best year
is daily writing for 15 min or finishing
your first draft. Don't feel like the best of your has to be
something you know, is unattainable for
your current lifestyle. Not everyone has the same amount of time to dedicate to
their writing dreams. You know yourself best. In the same way. It's also okay to
go back years ago, my accountability partner and I chose a word that
resonated with us. And we did weekly activities that helped us to
explore that word. My word that year was valiant. It was a word I
revisited to remind me to not allow fear to
control my narrative. I knew I had many tough things
that lay ahead date year, and I wanted to
award to describe the ear that I desire to live. You force. Don't have to choose
just one word. If there are multiple words
that define the year, go ahead and take some time to report those on page
27 of your planner. Once you've outlined what
matters most to you, you'll have a clear
vision of how you want to live your life. If publishing your writing
is important to you, you have to live your life like a writer by dedicating
the time to your craft. Don't let a yet another year go by without publishing
if that's your goal. Good writing takes time, but don't sit on
your ideas either. The world needs you. Throughout this lecture, you examined what you want to
cultivate in the year ahead. Brainstormed ideas for your
writing and publishing journey, explored your feelings, what makes you your best self, and recorded any
lingering questions, uncovered who you are. And I'm boxed yourself by
eliminating limitation. Changed how you
speak to yourself and chose a word of the year. Face your fears and let go. What's holding you back? Praised your experience and
had a moment of gratitude, explored positives
and negatives. Prioritize yourself by
saying yes and no to a few things and created
writers affirmation. Now that we're done
setting boundaries, exploring our desires,
and affirming ourselves. It's time to put
a plan in action. Hopefully you enjoyed these
exercises as they are the foundation for the plan
that you're about to create.
3. Creating Your Action Plan: Action plan. In this lecture, you'll brainstorm goals
for the year ahead. Examine your why and
brainstorm celebrations, and intentionally outline
your action steps. When you create a goal, you should be creating a plan for how you're
going to reach it. The action steps should be
intentional and realistic. These manageable
bite-size pieces will help you to
reach your goal. If you're like me, you have more things that
you can count on your hands that you'd like to accomplish in the course
of your writing career. These may not all be
goals for this year, but it's okay to overestimate your goals for the
next 365 days. We call these stretch goals. You know, just what
you're capable of. I'm sure when someone
saw my vision board, they felt my goals were unreasonable for a
year's worth of work. As long as you believe in it. That's what matters
most. On that note, if you're feeling hesitant
about putting pen to paper, remember this, these
are your goals. Something I had to learn
over time is that you don't have to share
everything with everyone. It's perfectly okay to
keep your goals private, even from the people
you love the most. Also, remember that
we are all a work in progress and that
includes our goals. And just like we change, so may the priorities
in your life that includes the goals
you have for yourself. Months from now your life
may be completely different. Allow your goals to grow
around your lifestyle, your resources, and your time. Adapting to change
isn't failure. Allow yourself the space to grow and the freedom to
embrace what comes. Look at it as a refresh. As you revisit your goals, you can always tweak them to
fit who you are and what you desire and what you are able to do based on
your current lifestyle. Now we shift into the action plans section of this course, where we narrow down the
list of things we want to accomplish and decide what we want to focus on
for the next year. You might think the
startup and New Year is the only time to set long-term
goals for the year ahead. But in fact, every day is the perfect time
to set new goals. You'll notice that
in the planner pages 34 to 53 are the same. This was no mistake. Here. I have provided space
to set anywhere 1-10 goals to cover you
for the next 365 days. Of course, you can duplicate these pages and create
as many as you need. But I figured I'd save you the trouble to get you started. Step one is to decide what
your long-term goals are. Maybe you're only writing goal is to publish a manuscript. If that's the case,
then you won't have nine other goals record. Last year, I had 10 v. This here I have eight cores. Ideas for the action steps
are exactly the same. So I consider this one bowl. I don't plan to publish
any more books this year. So in my mind, despite it
being eight separate courses, I'm giving myself,
I'm saving myself time by wrapping it
all into one goal. In the past, I would
have considered this eight different
goals because I felt more empowered by
doing it this way. Don't feel pressured to
have 10 v for the year. Whether you have one or ten, the point is to create a map
for how you reach that goal. Below that asks, why is
this important to you? It's essential to remind
ourselves of our y. What are the primary motivations behind the goals that we set? Anytime you're feeling lazy or discouraged, revisit your why. Your y may be the same
for all of your goals, or it may be
something different. Don't feel pressure
to make something up. Your y might be something
simple or superficial, such as making money. And there's nothing
wrong with that. The last part is a sentence stem about celebrating your success. How do you want to celebrate
reaching this goal? Celebrations don't have
to be big or expensive. Honestly, they don't even
have to involve anyone else. Maybe you want to celebrate
by creating a post on social media to congratulate yourself and to
commemorate the death. Maybe you want to treat
yourself to an experienced, such as getting a special treat, but you only have
once in a while. Maybe you want to take the
day off and you're busy writing schedule and
just enjoy the day. Or maybe you want to book a flight to another
country to tell you. So thank you for doing the deal. Either way, it's important
to give yourself something to work towards a reason
to follow through. On the second page
of the action plan, you'll find a place to list
all of your action steps. If your goal is to have your
manuscript professionally edited than your action steps might look something like this. Set up a calendar to schedule
all tasks and deadlines. Set of professional
editing budget, look for and create a list of
professional book editors. Reach out to those editors on your list higher and review
those service agreements. Pay the editors invoice, complete a progress check, review edits and approve, submit final payment
to the editor, and leave them a review and complete a
final proofreading. Consider all the little
things you'd have to do in order to reach
your unique goal. Even if it seems like a
no-brainer, write it down. It's important to have
a full picture of what it's going to take
to accomplish your goal. Every action step takes time, whether it takes 5
min or five days, it's important to not miss
a step or skip any either. Not to mention, it feels good crossing those small tasks
off of your to-do list. This can also allow you to
order the steps by priority. While you may have more
than three action steps, it's a good idea to create deadlines for the biggest steps. First, I like to give my biggest and most important
tasks, hard deadlines. To begin with. The bottom of that page, you'll choose three to
record in the planner. But you have as
many as you like. Copy those tasks on
the lines and jot down the month and the day that you'd like to finish those tasks by. These deadlines
can help you build a schedule in the upcoming
sections of this planner. On page 55, you'll see this
sheet called yearly overview. Even if you start this in March, you can still track until
the following February. Page 55 through 56 of this PDF will allow you to set your
priorities for the month. If you're not able to think 12 months into the
future, that's okay. There's no pressure to
have every month full before you begin
activating your plan. But if you know you'd like to self-publish eight
months from now, you'll likely have
the next eight months of this
overview filled out. Okay, If these boxes shift or completely changed
months from now, the idea is not to
feel tied down, but to distribute your goals, to give each month the purpose. Maybe you want to
dedicate next month to connecting with
the writing mentor. In two months from
now, you want to focus on self editing
your writing. You can add as much in
there as you'd like. The purpose is to create a general overview of
what you'd like to do. Hopefully, these two
goal action plan sheets helped you to dissect your
goal into manageable tasks. In this lecture, you brainstorm goals for
the upcoming year, examined your why and
brainstorm celebrations, unintentionally outlined
your action steps. In the next lecture,
we will break down even more to help you create an even clearer picture of how your best
manage your time. Hopefully you're feeling more confident about what lies ahead. If not, this next
section is going to help put a better
perspective on your goals. Next up, refresh.
4. Refresh Your Goals: Refresh this lecture, you will create a monthly
action plan and learn how to reflect on
and refresh your goals. For this lecture, we're
going to use pages 57 to 59. 60 to 96 are duplicates of these four
pages we'll be focusing our attention on to
assist in setting and resetting yourself for the remaining 11
months of the year. These sheets are to help you set manageable goals one month at a time using the task list you created in the
previous lecture. After each month, I will show you how to effectively refresh your goals for the
following month based on what you
did and did not do. Let's say you're
a self publisher and you're focusing on
the month of January, you'd write January
and the top box. Your main priority has to do with formatting
your manuscript. You'd like to do this
in 30 days or less. Next, you fill that in. Now let's pretend that
your action steps for the month or as follows. You'd add those into the box. Next to break these
tasks up across the five weeks as well as wheat, one could be to set a
professional formatting budget, brainstorm interior
design elements, create an interior
designer wishlist. Look for, create a list of professional format
that leads to, could be to look for renal list of
professional formatters, reach out to the format
or it's on your list. Week three, review your
service agreements and pay formatting invoice. Week for upload interior files
to platforms for approval. And week five, approve your order and leave
a client testimony. That seems really doable once we break it
down into weeks. If you'd like to
take it further, you can use a calendar to
assign tasks on specific days. This is something that I
personally like to do and I just Googled printable calendar is and then I fill
everything in. Sometimes I printed and
other times I use it as a digital resource to make it
easy to move things around. I do this as opposed
to purchasing a calendar or a
planner because I have to refresh my goals
a lot and I need multiple copies of the
same month sometimes. But this is
completely up to you. For the next section,
daily action habits. Maybe you realize that week 1.2 where the only weeks
that you really need to focus on and you
decide to dedicate your Saturday and Sunday each week to knock out all tasks. You would fill
that into the box. Your deadlines are pretty much aligned with the weekly tasks. You plan to be wrapped up by the last Sunday of the month. So you can add that as
your final deadline. Now you have a completed plan
for the month of January. You know what you want to
do each week and by when. If you follow this plan, you can successfully
reach your goal. Let's play devil's advocate for a moment your format or asks for an extension because
their computer crash and they lost progress
on your order. This pushes you
back by four days. In addition, the file isn't uploading to
the platform that you're choosing to self-publish through correctly
for whatever reason. And now you're communicating back-and-forth with
the formatter, which adds, let's say another
three days onto the job. Turns out it was user error
and the file is just fine. You're now a week behind despite having
everything outlined. If you had February completely
mapped out already, that's going to require you to either move all of
February is holes down or double down and just add the end of January
is action steps into February as existing plan. Regardless of what you choose, we call this a refresh. You have to update
your monthly plan according to what you
didn't accomplish. I've happens. And we can't be tied
to a to do list in June that we created in January. Of course, the hope is that
everything goes as planned. But I know better than anybody that sometimes lands
are just starting. When we look back. I don't say this to discourage
you about planning ahead. What I hope you take away
is that it's okay to be flexible. In the same way. Maybe everything went
according to plan. Those two pages help to create a plan that was easy to manage. Your weekly focus and a place to determine what day it should be
reserved for, what? Whenever you want to create
your plans is up to you. Figure out what best serves
you and your busy life. Patient denies the planner and gives you a place to reflect on your goals by looking at the month and
review that passed. And it also helps you to
refresh your goals for the following month by
reflecting first step. Take the time to celebrate
anything good that happened. It would that goal maybe your
format or deliver early. So you met your deadline way
sooner than you expected. Secondly, what lessons
did you learn? It doesn't matter
how small it was. Maybe you learn
that you're able to take on more tasks and a week. And this can help you
to add future tasks reserved for a later
month to month to come. There. What's going well, a
whole month has passed, and no matter what
challenges you faced, there's always got to
be a silver lining. If it applies, what work
is still in progress? If there's something
on your task list that you didn't get to finish. Well, this is the
place to record that. Some months that box may be empty and other times
it may be filled up. Next, what challenges
did you face, if any? Maybe your challenge was
making time in your schedule. Lastly, and one of my favorite
boxes is your successes. You completed all
your task on time. Well, that's certainly
something that went well. My suggestion is to take
it one month at a time. I'm guilty of wanting to map out every single month until
the end of the year. It brings me a lot of
joy, the beginning, but also makes it
easier to grow on the towel if I'm having to make adjustments every single month, there's no harm in
doing it either way, as long as you don't look
at changes as failure. Sometimes it just
gets in the way. And it's important to
be resilient enough to refresh your goals,
can get back to it. Each month. You can compare your goals
for the previous month to determine how you can make the month ahead
better than the last. Hopefully these sheets helped
you to feel empowered, but also examine how you're doing along the
journey to publishing. In this lecture, you created
a monthly action plan and learn how to reflect
on and refresh your bowls. In conclusion, if you use this planner with fidelity
by the end of the year, I guarantee your
productivity level will increase the goal of this resources to
help you to reach the publishing goals
you set out to reach. No year is the picture
of perfection. But if you make any progress, there is something to
celebrate in that. By now you know how I feel
about celebrating your wins. If you get to the end of the
year and haven't treated yourself yet, it's not too late. There's nothing too small
to celebrate yourself with. Record those highlights
on page 97 of the planner so that you don't
forget how far you've come. To recap.
5. Conclusion: To recap, in this course, we explored what you want to
cultivate in the year ahead. Brainstormed ideas
for your writing and publishing journey,
explored your feelings, what makes you your
best self and reported any lingering questions
uncovered who you are and I'm boxed yourself
by eliminating limitations, changed how you speak to yourself and chose
a word of the year. Face your fears and let go
of what's holding you back. Praise your experience and
had a moment of gratitude, explored positives
and negatives, prioritized yourself by
saying yes and no to a few things created
writers affirmations, brainstorm goals
for the next year. Intentionally outlined your
own goals and action steps, created a monthly action plan, and learned how to reflect
on and refresh your goals. The first time I used an
intentional goal planner, I was amazed at how
my productivity skyrocketed in just
the first week. As someone who is
already setting intentional goals for my life, it allowed me to focus
on specific areas, streamlined my goals, and hold myself accountable
throughout the year. Becoming a multi published
author came through hard work, specific goal setting
and believing in myself, I wanted to create a journal specific to authors
and our journey. My goals and dreams outside
of writing are important. But as a mother and
a classroom teacher, sometimes my writing goals,
they took a backseat. This journal reminds me
that 365 days of the year, my goals are important. I hope you find this
plane are helpful and are able to cultivate and
published this year. If you found this
course helpful, please leave a positive review to encourage future students. Feel free to reach out with personal questions and concerns
at the email provided. Please follow me for future
courses and enroll in my existing courses for additional support with
writing and self-publishing. It's been a pleasure
taking you through this resource and I wish you all the best on your
publishing journey.