In taking on such an enormous task such as self publishing a series of children’s books, I need to focus on setting goals to achieve success as an author, or this project might end up on the ‘never going to finish’ list. Yes you know the one I mean, we all have them, but I’m not going to let that happen. I needed to focus on the importance of setting goals to achieve success.
Make Lists!
Lists are my lifeline. Lots of lists. Long lists, daily lists, shopping lists, pencil on paper lists, phone app lists and the epic bucket list. My favourite list app is www.trello.com. Super easy to use, with reminders, task lists, everything a list junkie could ask for.
With the help of my mentor and the team at Ocean Reeve Publishing, the daunting list of tasks and goals to achieve the end result is expertly delivered to me as an author in a very manageable way.
Sometimes the road to success cannot be obtained alone. I believe in myself and my ability to accomplish goals, but to go on such a journey with absolutely no idea of how, when, where and who, turning to an expert is the only way to accomplish this success.
Write it Down
So how do you set a goal and achieve the success you have dreamed about? Start with a pen and paper. Write down your ultimate goal, and once it’s on paper, that’s it! You’ve just signed a contract with yourself. Mine was: become a famous author, and write a series of 10 children’s book. It was two different goals but the end result is the same. Two things to tick off the list is better than just one.
Once you’ve decided on your ultimate, number one, super awesome, kick ass goal, it’s time to break it down into bite sized, workable chunks. Make a quick list of a few things you need to do to get to the big cheese.
That list looks a little less scary that the first big one right? Well it gets better, now it’s time for micro goals. These are the most important goals list of them all. Your step by step, one bite of cheese at a time list. Now you’ll see it’s manageable, and not really a dream any more. You can see that the ultimate goal is now a reality.
My second stage goals to achieving my ultimate goal were as follows:
- Find an illustrator and get the book illustrated.
- Find a self publishing service.
- Launch a Social Media campaign and website.
- Start a crowd funding campaign, www.crowdfunding.com is a useful site to get the complete overview of the platforms available and their features.
- Print the books, sell them to friends and family, put the books on www.amazon.com.au, and hope for the best.
As you can see, those five things make the ultimate goals seem more manageable, even though the ‘hope for the best’ thing is not ideal, and I didn’t really have a plan of attack for that goal at the time, it wasn’t going to stop me from still believing that I could become a successful author.
It’s incredible what the universe presents to you when you’re really looking. After some research of self publishing companies I found a Brisbane based company that had over 60 5 star reviews. As you can see from my previous post, Ocean at www.oceanreevepublishing.com quickly sold me the whole package from beginning to end, and changed the ‘hope for the best’ into ‘I’m going to be a successful author’. Pretty amazing!
Use Micro Goals
Now all those micro goals that I would have had to of spent hours coming up with and researching and end up tearing my hair out over, were presented to me on a silver platter. My dream tuned into a reality overnight and although I still don’t quite know how to get to the end result, the masters are leading the way and I am following and absorbing absolutely everything, one step at a time.
I am swimming in micro goals, smashing them one by one, slow and steady wins the race, softly softly catchy monkey style. Every day I open my calendar and get stuck into the tasks for the day, planned out strategically by my publishers, it’s all set in stone, done hundreds of times by successful authors before me, now it’s my turn.
Anyone can achieve their dream, by following simple steps and believing in yourself, finding an expert to help you get the knowledge you need to learn about setting goals to achieve success.
What is your ultimate goal and your five second stage goals? Share them and start making a plan towards turning your dream into a reality. Here is a list of my life goals, and examples of setting goals to achieve success The List 101. You can follow my author journey here.
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