A 90-Day Plan to Reach Your Creative Goals

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This week, two different writers told me that they wish they had found me 10 years ago. They have been digging into my advice recently on marketing and how to grow their platform, and felt it could have saved them years of work.

The idea of a writer spending years spinning their wheels, frustrated… that makes me sad.

I don’t want to be sad.

So today I want to give you a straightforward 90-day plan to kickstart you reaching your creative goals.

This is the process I have honed in working with hundreds of writers and creators every single day in my private mastermind group. Okay, here is the plan:

  • Get radically clear on your mission. On what you create and why.
  • Pick a clear goal that you can reasonably achieve within three months. It should be important enough to matter, but reasonable enough to be doable in a three-month time period.
  • Have accountability partners. Don’t do this alone. Have people who will hold you to your goal, and can help you along the way. These should not just be faceless people yelling “you can do it!” on social media, but people who are following your progress week-by-week, who feel invested in it.
  • Have a guide, a coach, or a mentor. Someone who will show you a path, but also help personalize it for you, providing you with feedback along the way.
  • Set weekly intentions. Small steps you can take each week that moves you closer to your goal.
  • Assess progress at the end of each week. Measure what worked, what didn’t, and what you learned.
  • Celebrate little successes, and even little failures. All of that is a part of the creative process.
  • Plan for setbacks. For days where you second-guess everything, or are sidetracked by things you can’t plan for like a fender bender, money worries, friends in need, etc.

Want that in a worksheet format? Here is a downloadable PDF:

In truth, it is difficult to do all of this by yourself. To get clarity, to find others to help along the way, to stay on track.

I think that is why I have doubled-down on collaboration over the years. Why I have a standing weekly call with two different colleagues where we help each other through our creative challenges. Why everything I offer requires collaboration — I don’t run any programs where you just get information and are left to struggle on your own. It’s why my days are filled with deep conversations with writers who are busy doing the work.

Because that is what separates dreaming of one’s creative goals, to actually ensuring you reach them.

I genuinely hope the process I outlined above can help you.

But if you find it difficult to find the accountability partners and someone who will give you feedback each day and each week, that is why I developed the Creative Shift Mastermind. For three years, I have spent nearly every single day showing up in this group.

Every day, I:

  1. Read every message from each person in the group, and reply. I see you.
  2. Am constantly amazed at the ways the members of this group support each other.
  3. Guide you through a clear step-by-step program, that is 100% customized to you.

If you want a turnkey solution to making real progress with your creative goals in 90 days, then consider joining the Creative Shift Mastermind. You instantly have me as a guide starting July 1, and I’m with you each day until October. You will be welcomed into a small group of 10-20 writers and creators who are as motivated as you are.

Full details are here. The group is about half-full right now, so if you want to join us, please register as soon as possible.

Thanks!
-Dan