Personal Growth Archives - Page 7 of 11 - WeGrowMedia

The Dials, Levers and Buttons of Building Your Author Platform

The difference between a traditional book launch and building an author platform

If you are a writer and want to build a successful career, what options do you have? The above image is an example of how one could look at a traditional book launch vs a writer developing their own platform and marketing channels. There are two ways to look at this:

The good:
That if you choose the bottom box – to build an author platform – you have more levers to pull, buttons to push, dials to tune, and this means you have more options, more chances for success. That you are not waiting for someone else to validate you in order to have the chance to be published, that you don’t just have one 6 week window in which to promote a book that you spent years writing and bringing to publication. The above image looks ‘good’ because a traditional book launch can look like this:

A traditional book launch

That timeline here can be weeks or a couple of months. It has taken years to get to this point – you have slaved over writing the book, worked hard to find an agent, a publisher, and get to the culmination of a long process. At that point, you have a few weeks to try to get good reviews, get the media to notice your book, get placement with book retailers, and find your readership.

For most books, that spike does not represent tens of thousands of books sold. Often it is just hundreds of books, or maybe in the low thousands. Does that spike meet your expectations? If you worked on your book for 5 years, and sold 1,100 books before sales trailed off – is that building the type of career you want?

The bad:
Another way to view the image up top is that when you have more levers to pull, buttons to push, dials to tune – that it’s more work. Most people don’t like that. Most people are already swamped – juggling their writing, their career, family, home, hobbies, and other responsibilities. Maybe they struggled to find time to write, and don’t understand how they can find time to engage with potential readers and build their author platform.

To them, having all of these levers, dials and buttons means that your work becomes scattershot. They prefer a simple, elegant, and powerful solution. They want that first box up top – just flip the one toggle switch, and have magical things happen.

So which side is right here? The one that views an author platform as a wonderful opportunity, empowering writers, or the side that views it as a confusing road that takes one away from their writing?

Honestly, I don’t think either side is right, I think there is merely a difference in attitude. That the writer who sees the opportunity in how the web has empowered them – is one who will do the work to find a way to connect with readers. That they don’t find excuses to avoid connecting with readers and finding an audience. That one’s desire is a primary factor in the outcome – that one has a passion to reach their goals and will leverage any opportunity to do so. That these buttons, dials and levers all represent opportunities that did not exist in the old publishing world. That waiting for a phone call from an agent or publisher is not their entire strategy for the success of their writing career.

Don’t get me wrong – I love agents and publishers – enablers of sharing writing with the world, and connecting people through it. But in a world where LOTS of books are published each year, where nearly everyone is a writer and potential author – having your own writing career depend on a single switch is akin to making a bet.

A bet that in that one moment, that one short time frame in which you flip that switch, that your dreams will come true. This, instead of slowly building your dreams – doing things every week to build your audience and your career over the course of months and years.

A reality for writers is that many people are trying to fill a certain niche with books. There is lots of “competition” – although I hate to think of that word in terms of creative work. But the fact is: you are not the only person writing in your genre or on a specific topic. You may feel that fiddling with all of those dials is not for you. The problem is that – other writers in your field or genre WILL make the time. That they might look at those dials, feel confused and overwhelmed and begin fiddling anyway. Because in fiddling with something new, you learn. This is how you find connections that matter. Sure, you will do some things poorly, but you will also unlock opportunities that propels your career forward.

Overall, this is about expanding the number of options at your disposal. More options to build an audience and connect with others.

This is why I am relaunching my online course: Build Your Author Platform. It’s an 8-week course I will be teaching this summer that takes writers through a structured curriculum, but also offers personalized help to grow their writing career. Click here to sign up for updates as I move towards launch.

Have a great day!

-Dan

Perfection vs Progress

Today I want to talk about perfection, and how it does or doesn’t relate to progress. Each of us are juggling a million things each week, and seeking perfection can often stand in the way of getting things done.

But I often find myself considering the value of focus, or seeking perfection, and of the downsides of what we sometimes call “progress.” If you are a writer or a publisher, I imagine this might relate to how you find your role changing as digital media evolves our behaviors and capabilities. That we all feel pressure to do more, to leverage more, to focus more on spreading ourselves thinner and thinner, and less on taking the time to produce a single work of exceptional quality.

Tea ceremony from the movie The Last Samurai

The above image is a scene from The Last Samurai featuring the ritual of a tea ceremony. It’s image that I try to keep in my mind often. The character here has devoted his life to this ritual, to perfecting the craft of tea. I always consider it in terms of how I approach my daily life – how I can become more focused on delivering exceptional value in my business. How can I focus on fewer activities, and do them exceptionally well?

My friend Catherine Carr shared an interesting Tweet this week:

A good meditation for today. RT @simonsinek: Progress is more important than perfection.

I understand this idea – that sometimes the search for perfection can ensure that we never get anything done. That oftentimes “good enough” is enough to get an important project started, and can lead to very important accomplishments.

But…

What if sometimes accomplishment is not really progress at all; that we must judge quality, not just quantity.

For instance: the toaster you bought 40 years ago was heavy duty metal, big, one function, easily repairable and lasted forever. New toasters are cheap plastic, have millions of options, and when they break, you throw them away. Is this progress? Oh, there still is a nice heavy duty single function toaster on the market:

This Dualit toaster costs $340 from Amazon, marked down from its retail price of $380. I picked up one of these at a yard sale a few years back for $45. It’s the centerpiece of our kitchen counter. I can’t see doing the same with a “Back to Basics” Egg-and-Muffin 2-Slice Toaster and Egg Poacher:

I love how the “back to basics” brand name tries to ride the simplicity trend, but designs a product that is akin to Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons.

Is there something wrong with doing just one thing very well? In not following 100 paths, even if they are all fun and worthwhile. Having the discipline to do one thing exceptionally well. Not rushing around doing more and more, always “unlocking value” – finding ways to shove more into our day, and eek out every last bit of “value” from everything we do or own?

That focus and limits can help us become better at what we do, and accomplish greater things over the long term.

Let’s look at some examples…

Greatness Sometimes Has Nothing to Do With Progress
Many of the people I admire were not innovators. They simply did one thing very very well. An easy example is Michael Jordan, in this classic commercial:

His goal was not to reinvent sneakers, create new ways to play the game, make a fortune off merchandising, realign pay structures, enable new leagues or anything like that. Sure, some of those things happened because of him, but he just focused on getting the ball in the hoop.

A great counterpoint to this is my band. What? You haven’t heard of my band? Maybe that’s because in the years we played together during and after college, we spent more time shopping for cool gear and fiddling with it all, than we did really learning our instruments and writing songs. Somewhere I have hundreds of hours of recordings of cool sounds, none of them arranged into any kind of coherent songs.

Is perfection possible? Car maker McLaren tried to find out with their F1 super car in the 1990’s. Jay Leno, an avid car buff, calls it “the greatest car of the 20th century.”

It opts for basics, with no power steering or traction control – Leno mentions how it’s like driving a go kart. Every single part in the car is designed and manufactured by McLaren. That’s incredible in this age where we outsource everything.

Here’s a video where Jay takes a tour of the McLaren factory:

Sometimes We Justify Compromises
Not compromising can be VERY expensive. That is why a McLaren costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, if you can even get one of the few they produce.

Oftentimes, compromise is something that is necessary in order to live our lives. We balance family, work, hobbies, social life, and mowing that lawn.

Yet, removing obligations allows us to focus our energy. This is one reason that my wife and I rent instead of own our home. I don’t have to mow the lawn, trim the hedges, repair the boiler, or shovel the walk. Instead – I spend more time rolling around on the floor with my son.

Compromise is often about resources and value. In another video, Jay Leno showed us a car that was given to him – an odd car from the 1950’s that was interesting, but ugly. He took it up as a cause, and will restore it at the cost of $25,000. When he’s done, the car will be WORTH $5,000 on the open market because it is not a collectible car.

Silly, right?

But maybe this is why an estimated 50% of early Hollywood films were lost – no one bothered to preserve or restore them. Those who focus their energies in this way can accomplish things that can’t be measured in traditional ways – money and power.

Perfection is hard. In the rush to accomplish things, we leverage a range of platforms and tools created by others. We can’t focus 100% of our energies on every small thing. It’s unlikely that you proofread every single email you send 10 times to ensure each word is perfect. But it is a choice we have – where to focus our efforts, what is worth doing exceptionally well, and what merely needs to get done.

But accomplishment alone is not a key indicator of happiness or success. The happiest people you meet are often those who have very little financial means. Some of the most unhappy people have lots of financial resources – but with it comes a personal expectation to do more, to live up to the external expectations put upon them.

How Focusing Can Be a Means for Differentiation

Something I find myself considering is how do I build quality into what I offer in my business. There are LOTS of people who do what do, and many of them are quite good. How do I differentiate myself? I suppose I try to offer something unique, and something VERY high quality.

One foundation of my business is teaching. I spent nearly an entire year developing my first online course: Build Your Author Platform. The first session just ended, and now I am taking a month to revamp it and improve it for when I offer the next session in June.

From what I have seen, this is the wrong way to build a business. If I wanted to scale immediately, if I wanted to maximize revenue, then I should be offering dozens of classes, different levels (bronze, silver and gold), be upselling ebooks and webcasts along with them. I should be “unlocking value.”

Instead I am obsessed with doing this one thing very very well. Will it be perfection? Nope.

But I am pushing myself again and again. I am asking for honest feedback – getting it – and apply it to help improve what I offer. I’m resisting the urge to be satisfied by survey responses that say my students feel the course has exceeded expectations. I want to raise their expectations even further, and exceed those.

Quality is often a process, not a destination, something you constantly strive for. And it’s a decision that each of us make every day, across the hundreds of things that we do. Inherently, focusing on quality is as much about what you DON’T do in your life, as what you do focus on. That your energy is finite, and creating something of unique value requires sacrifice.

Anyhow – let me know if I can help you build something uniquely valuable to you and your community.

-Dan

Why Publishers & Writers Need to Embrace Digital Media

I read the most incredible article this week, and I want to take the time to really explore what it means. Specifically… what it means for you and your career as a publisher or writer.

The article is a Fortune piece on Conan O’Brien, and his transition from old media personality to becoming a multimedia brand. Even if you hate Conan, read the article. It’s an important reflection on the power EACH OF US has to reshape our lives and careers.

What amazes me is that this happened last year. By then, Twitter was already seen as normal, when we all felt like we missed any “opportunity” with Twitter that would have profound effect. And yet, here we have Conan’s story, which perfectly embodies not just the power of digital media, but the power of an individual who focuses on purpose and connection.

Below are highlights from the article. But this is the main theme:

“Like millions of other Americans, Conan O’Brien’s life has been disrupted by the digital world, and he’s been forced to reinvent himself.”

If you are in publishing – if you are a writer or creator – consider how this article reflects on your career. On how we have ALL been challenged by new media, but that there is opportunity hidden within it if we care to look. I want to be clear: Conan’s story is not about technology. It is about removing the pretense, about getting back to basics – connecting with people, and doing so via a shared purpose.

If you don’t know the basic’s of Conan’s recent experience: after 17 years as a late night talk show host, NBC made an unreasonable demand: to move his show, until after midnight, and put his biggest competition (Jay Leno) in the time slot ahead of him, at 11:35. Conan would not make the move, so he left the show of his dreams. Via social media and the web, fans helped support him, and it lead the way to a very different type of career for Conan.

Okay, here is what I took away from the article:

Conan Focused on Greater Purpose and Beliefs, not Selfish Motivation
His response to NBC’s demand that he move his show from 11:35 to 12:05:
“For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting… I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.”

This wasn’t a discussion of contracts or formats. It was about the greater affect of his decision on the people it affected most: the fans and the work he would be building – a work that has a rich history. Messing with those things in the name of profit alone is not something he wanted to be a part of.
Context Matters
Conan’s use of Twitter started when a fan created an image, Facebook Page and Twitter account to support him. In coming to his support, Conan saw the power of social media – something he knew nothing about. When he saw its use within the context of his situation, a light bulb went off.

For those in publishing – some of this talk about digital media, social media, apps, etc must seem very foreign. Look for ways to put the proper context around it – to see how it can connect you with your core mission of sharing information and stories – of connecting with people.
The Role of “The Audience” has Changed
On the generational shift, thanks to the web and social media: “It’s an audience that doesn’t want to be just an audience — they want to be participants. They love being connected to one another and to the celebrity objects of their affection; they love posting and creating and remixing.”

In the publishing world, I hear the phrase “People still love holding books” a lot. You know what, I love holding books too. We all love books. But that’s not the question. The question is… do some people enjoy connecting with information and stories in a different manner too. Is there another opportunity IN ADDITION to holding books. One that does not belittle the book, but is simply different from it. When we stop focusing on the book, and start focusing on readers, a world of possibilities opens up.
We Sometimes Represent Things Greater than Ourselves
“Generation X is finally at the stage where they can have the jobs the boomers had, and the economy crashes. There’s nothing left for them: There’s no Social Security; there’s nowhere to invest. Conan was a great stand-in for the frustration with this never-ending boomer legacy.”

For a writer or publisher, this is about understanding that people’s relationships with your work is something deeper than purchasing and reading a magazine article or a book. That the work LIVES within them, they think about it and act on it long after the process of reading it has ended. Consider what those deeper connections are all about.
Value Can Be Created Where There Was None Before
“What was interesting about it,” points out O’Brien, “is that all the legal prohibitions were coming from people in the old media. They were saying you can’t do all these things, and pretty quickly we realized, ‘Wait a minute!’ Someone said, ‘Does that include Twitter? No. It doesn’t include Twitter.’ And so I started tweeting.”

If the publishing world tries to create the digital media (eg: ebook) world in the same image as the print world, they will find challenge after challenge. The rules that we think apply don’t really exist. But for most of us, it is scary to consider this – that these rules that secure our world-view don’t exist. For others, it leaves an opportunity. To help shape the world, and improve it.
Power is in Aligning Purpose to Connection
“On January 23, 2010 after taping his last broadcast, Conan O’Brien, a guy who had been a staple of late-night television for 17 years, no longer had a show. Nor did he have a Facebook or Twitter account yet.” A month later, he amassed 250,000 Twitter followers in his first day on Twitter.

Was Twitter the key in Conan’s success? No. It was merely a channel, be it a relevant one for his audience. It was his purpose – in combination with the channel – that had such a profound effect. When you approach a channel like Twitter, you can’t think about what it can do for you, you have to think about what you are putting into it. That is what matters.
Learn by Doing
He sold 120,000 tickets to his live concert tour with a single Tweet, and sold out 30 shows within a few days. During the live shows, they would create a unique twitter hash tag, so Conan could keep track of what was happening in the audience, and use it in his performance. “Suddenly O’Brien wasn’t just performing for fans; he was also engaging in a conversation with them.”

Conan kept exploring what could be done – how to further connect with his audience – even during a theater tour, something very traditional. Again and again, he broke down barriers that separated him from his audience.
Freedom Matters
With his new show on TBS: “O’Brien is in control of all the on-air creative and, just as important, all the digital use of his content. He and his production company Conaco own the show. Among the other late-night talent — Leno, David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson, and Jimmy Fallon — Letterman is the only host who owns his show. It’s the opposite of O’Brien’s setup at NBC, says Ross, a partner in the company. “Conaco owns the show, and TBS is a participant. At Tonight, NBC owned the show, and we were participants.” And ownership makes all the difference for O’Brien and his team.”

It is hard to state how big of a shift this is for the media world. Conan will not be the last to experience a shift like this in their career.
Rewrite the Rules of Success
“Team Coco touches more than 5 million people each month, many of them primarily consumers of O’Brien’s brand of humor online. “A lot of television executives still have the idea that a show is something everybody watches.” His team also shares clips from the show very quickly – so instead of people needing to rip them and post them, Conan’s team encourages them to simply share.

Conan’s new role is something very new and very traditional at the same time. Regardless, he has rewritten the rules of success, paving the way for others.

So why am I so excited about this story? Because it’s not just about creating great content and broadcasting it, but about strengthening the CONNECTION and ENGAGEMENT between the creator and the audience. Digital media is not about marketing to people – tricking them to engage with you. Rather, it is about aligning for a common purpose.

For each of us, this is about not just embracing a thing (digital media), but embracing a change in our own identity. That even though we may have EXPECTED our careers to be one thing, we have to be open to shift and expand. Not for the sake of ‘media’ – but for the opportunity for our work to have a deeper affect on the world.

In the end for Conan, it wasn’t about him keeping “The Tonight Show” at all costs – about sitting in Johnny’s chair. It was about connecting with people – entertaining them – making their lives better.

For those of you in publishing and who are creating great work that flows through the publishing world – this comes down to the idea of whether you are focusing ONLY on the book or magazine or newspaper – or if you are focusing on the effect your work has on people’s lives, regardless of media type. And that the opportunity in front of you is to strengthen your connection to the world, and give your work the chance to have a greater purpose and effect.

-Dan

How To Get Off the Sidelines of Your Writing Career

I spent the past week meeting dozens (hundreds?!) of writers and publishing insiders at two events:

Writers Digest Conference
Digital Book World

These were days filled with learnings and inspiration, and have left me considering how it is that a writer takes the reins of their own career – to shape their own destiny of creating and sharing their work. I had such a great time at these events, and spoke at four sessions:

Today, I want to talk about ways that you as a writer can shape your career. How to stop wondering about the future of publishing, how to stop waiting for someone to answer your query letter – how to begin to not just work TOWARDS a writing career, but to actually experience it.

One thing was clear at both of these events – people are getting very serious about embracing the business side of publishing – to ensure that there is a vibrant future for writers and publishers in the print and digital domains. Authors were actively discussing marketing tactics and the business of publishing – publishers and other insiders were reviewing reams of data to understand the marketplace and find opportunities.

The centerpiece of the Writer’s Digest Conference was a “Pitch Slam” where writers would be able to pitch their books to high profile agents. This was a very cool event, and an engrossing site in so many ways.

Hundreds of writers waited to be let into the Pitch Slam room. I watched them practice their pitches the previous day and that morning – this was a huge opportunity for each of them to get feedback from professionals, and perhaps even find an agent who wanted to work with them. As you approach the room, this is the middle of the line:

And here we are at the front of the line:

Finally everyone is let in. I found it really symbolic how thin the doorway was, compared to the size of the crowd waiting to squeeze through it, and even the size of the room inside. As if there is not enough room for everyone to become a successful writer.

Here we have it: authors in organized lines waiting for their 90 seconds to pitch the agents who are seated. This is incredibly difficult for both the writers and the agents, yet at the same time, a rare opportunity for both:

This really floored me: that invisible line separating the writers (on the right) and the agents (on the left.) A barrier to reaching their dreams, to reaching readers.

This was such a great event, and I spoke to many writers who had been preparing for months for this moment.

So my question is: what ELSE should a writer be doing to build their careers? Once you have gone home from the Pitch Slam, once you are back in your day-to-day routine, how do you turn that dream into a reality while you wait for the phone to ring? And taking this one step further… what should writers be doing that will help them if an agent actually does take them on. How can the author help their book do well?

This is the thing: writers are waiting to connect to gatekeepers, when the gates to their audience no longer exist as it once did.

Of course, the role of agents and publishers is AS IMPORTANT as ever, if not more so. But, along WITH them, there are so many other things a writer can be doing to build their career. There are ways that writers can access readers, build a fan base, and nurture that process, all on their own. Imagine how much more successful your books can be if you are doing this IN ADDITION to working with agents and publishers.

Anyhow, the following tips are what I have come away from the conference thinking about.

Choose Your Identity
In the past several days, I heard publishers, agents, authors, and everyone in between discuss issues surrounding publishing. The digital revolution has provided many opportunities and many challenges, but inherently, they have each left us with questions about identity. What is the role of an agent? Is an author also a marketer? Do you need a traditional publisher?

If you are going to be a writer, my advice is this: be a writer. Don’t wait for the validation of a publisher or agent in order to change your identity from hobbyist to author. Decide who you want to be, then embrace it. They say acceptance is the first step to the road to recovery. I also think it’s the first step to the path of success. If you are going to wait for the world to validate you before you truly embrace your identity as a writer, then you will find too many reasons to never give it your full effort. And with that, you run the risk of never truly being a writer, because you have yet to commit 100%.

This is not one bit about diminishing the role or value of agents and traditional publishers. It is about the primary reason most people do not pursue their dreams of being a writer. That they are there own worst enemy – the only person stopping you is you.

I’ve heard story after story from creators – that they never finished their great novel, because they didn’t get a big advance from a publisher; that they gave up music entirely because their music label dropped them; that they don’t have time for their art, because they have to mow the lawn.

As I write this at 4am, I can’t help but feel that we are not faced with a lack of time, but a need to prioritize. That the drive to create a body of work lies not in others allowing us time, but in the motivation to realize our purpose as writers and creators.

Embrace All Aspects of a Writing Career: Art, Craft, and Business
If you are a writer, is it an art, a craft, or a business? If it is a mixture of all three, where do you draw the lines in your own writing career?

Perhaps the lines shouldn’t be drawn too firmly. Again and again, I am hearing people in publishing talk about the need for writers to build their fan base, to begin marketing their expertise and passion before they have even finished their book. That their work as a writer is a combination of art, craft, and business, and each needs to evolve in tandem. That if you spend years collecting ideas, but not honing your craft, then you will hit a wall. That if you spend years honing your craft, but not establishing a fan base, then you will hit a wall.

These things work together to build a career: the art, craft and business aspects of your writing. You can’t put off one of them for years, hoping that magically you can tack on a solution at the last minute. Balance your focus – because this is not just about creating a work, it is about building a sustainable career – one in which you interact with readers and build a fan base over the course of years and decades.

I remember walking through one house my wife and I were considering purchasing awhile ago. There were photos on the wall of magazines that the owner – a writer – had been published in, and covers from the book he had published. And it clearly represented a creative time period of their life that took place in the early 1970’s.

While I was impressed at their accomplishments, I had wondered why there were no works posted from the past 3 decades. Why was there not sustained career growth over the course of a lifetime, instead of a mere blip in their career as a writer?

I don’t know the answers to that one person’s story, but I imagine that at some point, they stopped evolving their art, their craft, or their business experience in publishing. And all three are essential to be engaged with in order to grow.

Take Action
Here we are in the publishing world, with writers and publishers and everyone in between considering the path forward.

But there is no established path anymore.
However, there is a choice. To cut your own path.
To take personal responsibility to shape your identity.
To make choices based on your personal goals.
To create a foothold for your own career, rather than simply wait until you are magically ‘discovered.’

Take the reigns. Don’t wonder what will happen when OTHER people act on your behalf.
Arm your self with the tools and connections to make it happen. Not as a negative – a reaction. But a positive – an action.

It’s too easy to feel that we could move forward if we only had that ONE missing puzzle piece. Find that missing piece you need.

Structure Your Learning
Why does the Weight Watchers program work? Points, meetings, and accountability. They create a structured system that makes you accountable to YOURSELF, and does so by connecting you with other people each week. There is no hiding in the Weight Watchers system, the points don’t lie, and if you miss the meetings, then you aren’t really in the program. Standing on that scale in front of other people is a critical part of why it works.

Find a way to learn the skills you need – regardless of the fact that you likely have no spare time. There will NEVER be time. We are all balancing family, work, home, hobbies, a social life, and other obligations. And yet, some make the time to build their writing career, and others will only dream of having one. Structuring the process by which you build your career is a key way to ensure it actually happens.

This is not just about learning, it is about executing. That you need to not just PLAN, but you need to DO.

Likely, you need to build a platform for your career – to establish the skills you need that always give back. The skills of surfacing creative ideas, skills of honing your craft, and skills of connecting with the communities and marketplace that your work speaks to.

There are a variety of ways to do this. I am offering one way to do this – an online course for writers to Build Your Author Platform. Maybe this course is for you, but maybe it isn’t. The fact is, there are plenty of other course, writing groups, coaches, workshops, and ways to structure your writing career. Find one that works for you.

Make a choice – make a commitment. Involve other people in this process. Don’t work for a decade on your novel before you show it to anyone – before you get your first glimmer of feedback, before you engage your first fan. Do it now. The only thing stopping you is you.

Why do I say you should get off the sidelines of your writing career? Because we all have to realize that there is no coach who is going to let you in the game. It’s just your initiative that does it. Others will undoubtedly help you along the way – but don’t wait for it – earn it.

Let me know how I can help. Thanks.

-Dan

How to Grow Your Writing Career

Today I want to talk about how we will each grow this year, and how to actually make that happen. How will you move your career forward, how will you change direction professionally, how will you pursue a dream that has been sitting on the shelf for far too long?

A lot of my focus is with writers and creators, and I will frame my comments to them, although I think this topic is useful for anyone. So if you are a writer – how will you pursue your goals in 2011. How will you move your writing career forward?

This is the nitty-gritty stuff. For those who choose to find room for growth, it is the bleary-eyed decision to wake up a half hour earlier to do some writing, to put off doing the laundry, in order to grab coffee with a colleague to get advice on something.

This is not the sexy stuff of feeling empowered, of innovating, this is the hours and hours and hours of work pursuing something that those around you could care less about. In all likelihood, your friends, family and colleagues like things how they are, they like you how you are. They define you as you are now, as you were yesterday – and that is enough for them. They don’t mean any ill-will, but they probably don’t feel that drive to redefine you or your life. In fact, likely, no one will push you to do that, but you.

Now, companies talk about ‘growth’ all the time. Typically, they mean make 20% more profit than last year. I’m not talking about that kind of growth. I mean, sure, money may be a byproduct of your growth, but that’s not the goal. Are you making room for growth? Are you putting resources towards it? It’s not enough to just hope that you make incremental movement towards a successful writing career. That’s what I want to talk about today.

You need two things in order to find the growth you are looking for this year:

A talent or skill of some sort
Hours and hours of focused hard work

Too many people have one or the other: either tons of unfocused hard work, or a talent that is never properly developed, never honed. Acknowledging the need for both is essential for growth. To not be complacent in your past accomplishments, in your present skillset. And likewise, to think critically enough about how to target specific areas for growth – knowing where to focus, and what to let slide.

Talent is not enough. Experience is not enough. You need to challenge yourself, to take those innate talents and push them hard. That it is about DESIRE and MOTIVATION. To make space in your life. And to be really particular about how you will find the resources to grow.

I do a lot of reading, researching and listening to music. I find the same story again and again behind great works by writers, creators and musicians. For instance: I bought the box set for Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’ last weekend and made a small update about it to Facebook. Dean Horowitz left this comment:

“Writing 70 songs for a single album demonstrates that genius is as much about focused hard work as it is about realizing ones gifts.”

In the documentary that accompanied the set, you saw how Bruce and the band pushed their talent, spend hundreds of hours shaping and crafting. They rejected enough finished material for well more than a single album. They judged their work at a very high bar: greatness.

How will each of us get on the path to greatness? Let’s explore some ways to frame our growth this year:

Set Goals
I’m not talking about vague resolutions, but specific goals with a real plan behind them. This means setting benchmarks and milestones, it means defining the difference between failure and success. Don’t be too safe about it, take a risk. Scare yourself into action.
Write It Down and Tell Someone
Make yourself accountable. Write down your goals and post it somewhere. Even better: tell people. Post it to Facebook, talk it over with a friend. Accountability is a big factor here. That is why weight-loss programs that require group activities tend to work more often than those that are just a solitary experience. You are more likely to stay on track, to feel good as you progress and have a support system when you stall. It’s also an important step, taking the dream out of your head, and sharing it with the world. In some ways, you are planting that seed, and giving it a chance of growing.
Do Your Research
Ask people questions. I’m so shocked at how infrequently people do this. Too many people ASSUME they know how to do something, what its value is, the hard parts and the upsides of whatever they are pursuing. But instead of guessing, ASK people who have done it. They will tell you how hard it was, what’s its really like. They will also likely help you get started. Don’t start down a path only to turn back once you realize it wasn’t for you. Do your research. It’s easy, buy someone coffee, and ask questions.
Listen With An Open Mind
Don’t just listen to others, waiting for them to support ideas you already agree with. Challenge yourself. If you are pursuing a goal that you have not yet reached previously in your life, there is a reason for that. Something needs to change, something in you, in order for that goal to be achieved. Listening with an open mind is a key way to get there. Step out of the echo chamber that you may live in every day, step out of your comfort zone. Talk to people you wouldn’t normally have access to, that are outside of your circle of friends. You might be surprised at what they say, and how easily their insight can remove barriers that exist only within you.
Structure Your Learning
Inherently, there are practices and skills that you may need to build here. A process that could be all the difference between putting your goals on the backburner vs actually achieving them. Don’t be afraid to structure that process – to make a commitment, be it financial or with other resources such as time. When you join a class, hire a writing coach, or something similar, you are putting a framework together for reaching your goals. This is often where you separate the dreamers from the doers – those who will put resources towards realizing their goals vs those who merely hope their goals magically happen.
Judge Yourself by Outputs, Not Inputs
Don’t judge the quality of your effort by how much you put into it, but by the work that comes out of it. I mean this in two ways. First: you are likely very busy, and any work you do this year to pursue goals you have will come at a great effort. So it will be easy to feel that any amount of effort you make justifies successful movement towards a goal. EG: writing 100 words a week, not 1,000. And yes, these little efforts add up, and SOME progress is better than no progress. But don’t judge the quality of your work just by what you put into it, but by what you share with the world – your outputs – and how well the quality of your work fits into that context. The second point here is the need to actually share your work, that you are driving towards a goal of releasing material, not just creating it. That in the end, if you don’t publish work in some form, if you don’t share it in some form, then the world will question whether it really happened. If tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it really make a sound?
Commit
This is what will separate those who look back on 2011 with an amazing sense of pride, and those who simply added another digital to the number of years they have worked the same job that they aren’t happy with. Do you think your life is more than a resume? Prove it. Commit to it.

So much of the year ahead for me is about pushing myself in exactly the ways I mention above. But mostly, I am focusing on helping others pursue their goals, to move their careers forward as writers and creators. If you think I can help you, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thanks.
-Dan