While listening to a talk the other day, I heard the speaker talk about business and said ‘It’s not just about inspiration, it’s about execution’ and this got me thinking about how many of us writers are very inspired, but we never action our ideas?
Everyone has ideas, but the writers who succeed, and get their work out there are those who push through inspiration to execution.
It’s easy to dream of seeing your work on the screen, seeing your book in a bookshop or on some online platform, winning accolades, earning money from your work, but if you don’t move those dreams to reality, then they’ll remain just dreams.
It takes a mindset shift to move past dream to reality and today I want to share some tips on this.
- Stop it with the self- sabotage: How badly do you want something? And when you want something badly enough, what are the actions you take to ensure you get to your goal? Example, you can’t say you badly want to lose weight, then continually over indulge in chips and chocolate fudge cake (talking to self haha) What you want in life and the actions that follow the want, must speak in the same voice. So take a long look at your writing life and eliminate all the self-sabotaging activities you have.
- Stop it with Perfectionism: I can bet you, anyone who’s tried to put their perfect work out there has succeeded in doing one thing; Keeping their work locked in the closet and is yet to see the light of day. You can’t wait for your work to be perfect to put it out there, ‘Am I good enough? Will people like my work? I’m I an imposter? Blaah blaah blaah. Put your work out there! Even when you’re second-guessing yourself. We’re all doing it afraid, so join us!
- Stop blaming others for your failures: It Is much easier to blame others for your failing dreams than to take a long hard look in the mirror and point the finger at yourself. Are you still blaming your folks for not being able to pay for that Course in Creative Writing that you wanted to do? Are you blaming the script editor who said your writing was bad? Or the teacher who killed your dream when you were 8 years old? Or the spouse who won’t let you prosper? Stop it and take charge of your life. Accepting responsibility that your failed dreams are majorly to do with your own mindset is the beginning of moving past, just a dream to executing it.
- Stop pushing the deadline further: Set that deadline and stick to it! Get people that you can be accountable to onboard your dreams if you must. If you want to start a blog, set a date and push towards it, if you want your e-book up, set a date and plough on towards it. Keep that deadline sacred, this is the only way to make sure your work gets out into the world. I’m telling myself this because even I have a big issue when it comes to my personal deadlines. Out here I am known as the writer who never fails to beat a deadline on other people’s projects, but I’m failing myself when it comes to my own deadlines, good news though, I know it, I’m aware of it and I’m changing that NOW!
- Stop it with the learning: I don’t mean stop learning entirely, but if you’re using learning as a crutch to not getting your writing done, when you’re happy being on a writing break because you’re learning something new about the craft, then you’re using learning the wrong way. Learning about the business and craft of writing is meant to be practiced, not theorized.
- Stop it with Comparisonites: This is the disease of comparing yourself and measuring your achievements to those of the ones around you that are winning it. What happens is that you end up feeling bad and stop focusing on what you’re doing and decide to try do what they did to get their success. Dear one, run your own race! Stop comparing yourself to others and focus on what makes you, uniquely you.
Hope these tips have helped jumpstart you to move from dream to reality.
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Happy Creating!