Edging Closer to Your Goals

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I used to be able to attend a weekly Zoom book club. I got involved because a lady I met on LinkedIn posted something about when the book club met and the title of the book they would be reading. I had been following that particular author’s podcasts, so I asked if I could join.

It was a great group of women and during those first three or four months, we really got to know each other well as we met and discussed what we loved, disagreed with, or what hit home for us in that week’s reading assignment. I had never been in a book club before and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to other points of view. I often walked away thinking differently about something because of the points made by one of the other five ladies.

The second and final book I was able to read with my book club was called The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington.

The overarching premise of the book is that a year is too much time to try to accomplish something. According to these two guys, you should be able to get it done in just 12 weeks.

These men have a solid argument. If you think about New Year’s Resolutions, for example, how often are they achieved? Most people have the best of intentions on January 1st, only to fizzle out quickly, and probably don’t even remember what it is they were going to do by May 15th.  

The author’s suggest that we need to shorten the time frame. Twelve weeks is three months, which seems long, but not when you follow their advice and create measurable goals. They offer free resources on their website (12weekyear.com), which include goal and planning worksheets and a way to grade yourself on how well you’re doing.

The point is?

What does any of this have to do with becoming more authentic? Everything.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve always had this thing in the back of your mind, that you felt you should be doing. For me it’s always been writing. But thinking about doing something is only the first step.

You have to imagine yourself doing whatever it is that you know you’ll love. After “seeing” yourself doing that thing, your brain starts to think that you’re actually doing it and the crazy idea starts to feel like something you already do. Not so crazy after all.  

For myself, I started by writing newspaper articles. Once that became a normal thing I do, I upped the ante. A book idea had formed in my head, so after picturing myself writing it, I began sitting down, creating strings of sentences which eventually formed chapters. That was awesome, except that I forgot all my 12 Week Year advice and just wrote whenever I wanted to.

However, within the last couple weeks, I found a group of writers who invited me to try writing sprints, joined them, and began writing regularly.

I thought again about the 12 Week Year planning sheets, and now I have a measurable goal, with an end date on paper. So exciting!!

Some background

For anyone wanting to work on measurable goals, the Pomodoro technique is amazing. Pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato. The creator of the Pomodoro used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer, timing himself working for 25 minutes, then taking a break, then working again for 25 minutes, non-stop. The guidance I’ve been given is that during the 5 to 10-minute break, you should move your body and stay off your phone.

My writing sprints consist of two 25-minute periods with about ten minutes of walking around my house, doing stretches, or petting my dogs, in between. My brain has gotten used to this method and now when I sit down to write, everything clicks into place and it’s easy to get lots of words on paper. Just as I’ve been told would happen, I’m able to get into the flow so much quicker than before.

In the past, I’ve gently nudged you to try whatever that idea in your head is. Now, I’m giving you practical methods to get busy on it. Before long, I’m hoping to hear that your path - and mine - to authenticity has become a real thing, whether it’s selling cupcakes out of a horse trailer or publishing an actual book. 

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