Ready? Take the First Step.

by Michelle Gines

Every year many set out to accomplish a list of worthy goals over the course of the year. To assist all my friends and blog readers this year, I thought I’d put together a very short list of some things you can do to ensure success if writing a book is one your goals.
 
Now, I want you to know that I used this very same process to make sure that I finished the work I needed to ad complete my forthcoming book, Giving Your Intentions Some Attention, set to release April 2017.
 
1.  First and foremost, set yourself up for a successful year. Remember, Steven Covey who says Begin with the End in Mind.” Determine when you want to see your book in hand and make the goal realistic (i.e. Summer 2017, Fall 2017 or Winter 2018). You know when you want it and how much motivation you need to achieve it, but starting with a realistic goal is important.  

2.  Review and compile all your book info resource.  Plan to tie reading and writing together, and look for various ways to incorporate writing into your weekly schedule. Go through your phone notepads, grab your old journals books and save information you’ve used as citable works from books and online. You want to incorporate the information you’re working on into a folder on your computer for easy access and to see what you already have in the way of content. You’d be surprised how many notes you take at random.  

3. Now, categorize all the content you’ve compiled. It’s amazing to see just what goes and flows from one thing to another. Content is king in the social media space. So, keep in mind some content will make great chapters, while others will make good flutter for blogs and short posts for Facebook, Instagram and the like. Staying organized also ensures that you can keep your forward progress.  

4.  Finally, just start writing. Dr. Martin Luther King said “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase.” And he was right. In faith, begin your journey to write and publish your book. You’d be surprised what can happen once you take the first step. Once you begin writing, your thoughts will flow, the words will appear and your staircase shows up one page at a time.  

Today, we honor the great, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for his leadership and legacy.  Because of the steps, he took back then, we can make the strides we do now. Let us remember him and his legacy and continually educate, equip and empower the next generation. He did it for us- let us do it for them.
 
To Your Success,

MG