Do you want to write and publish a book this year? When you decide on your main goal and objectives for writing a book, it’s normal to start with the result you desire, then work your way backward, to achieve that goal.
When I was a ghostwriter, the way most of my clients worked was to decide to write a book. And so, the first thing they’d start with was the huge job of doing the research needed. (And in more than 50% of the time, that’s as far as they got.)
When they started working with me, I would get a huge box delivered by Fed-Ex, filled with piles of paper, notes, half-finished thoughts written on note pads, research materials (not yet researched), and a variety of additional information. Part of my job was to turn that into workable material for writing their books. If I hadn’t had a plan which included mini-milestones, I would have felt totally overwhelmed by getting that box!
The problem most people have is the goals they set are so big that they require a lot of work and dedication to complete, and it’s easy to get stressed out and overwhelmed along the way.
I’m going to share one of my ghostwriter’s secrets that you can use to reach your big goal of writing and finishing your book this year.
The secret to reaching any big goal is to create what I call mini-milestones to achieve them. I believe the biggest advantage of setting mini-milestones for getting your book written is that you’ll be able to see the progress you’re making on each of your larger goals. When you know you’re making progress, it motivates you to keep going.
Make Your Mini-Milestones Easy to Reach
When you set long-term goals for getting your book written and published, you need to make setting mini-milestones a part of the process. Not only that, you want to make them action-oriented, and easy to reach.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you set a big goal unless you understand the smaller action steps you can take to achieve it.
Writing a book is not a simple goal, and you have to plan on it taking several months, especially if it’s your first book, and you don’t yet understand the process.
Trying to reach that goal of writing your book can feel frustrating, and overwhelming, and you may give up before you reach it. Not because you can’t do it, but because there’s so much involved.
So put your focus on simpler, reachable goals, like starting with a brain dump, to get all your ideas for writing your book out of your head, and down onto paper. Starting with that small milestone will seem simple, and feel great when you’ve achieved it!
Then, once you’ve got all the ideas written down, the next mini-milestone would be to organize the ideas into categories or topics.
Achieving Your Mini-Milestones Feels Satisfying
It feels great to finish and achieve a goal you’ve been working towards. However, if all your goals take more than a day to accomplish, you will not get ongoing satisfaction in achieving them. Because rather than getting to celebrate the journey, and crossing another item off your to-do list, you’ll always be waiting to finish that big goal.
Instead, imagine you set a mini-milestone to write 500 words a day. (This should take about an hour.) Think how satisfied you’re going to feel when you have accomplished that mini-milestone, and now you’re 500 words closer to getting your book written!
Your Mini-Milestones Bring Clarity to Big Goals
Setting a big goal like writing and publishing a book means the result can seem fuzzy and far away. But setting clear and easily understood mini-milestones can make your progress towards achieving that big goal suddenly very clear. And celebrating the mini-milestone you’ve achieved today, means you’ll believe that what you want IS achievable. It also proves that you’re going in the right direction because you can see the progress you’re making every single day!
Achieving Mini-Milestones Builds Your Confidence
When you check off something on your to-do list, even if it’s a task that won’t show the result for several months, it’s still going to feel good, because you’ll know you’ve accomplished something! It will also build your confidence and self-image. By enjoying the little milestones, you’ll let go of the all-or-nothing approach and feel more creative and free!
Make Your Mini-Milestones Motivating
When you set small milestones for each larger goal, it feels so motivating to mark off each of the mini milestones from your to-do list. You can see your progress and know that what you’re doing will achieve the results you want. When you are motivated, you will keep going to write and publish your book!