Tag Archives: #amplanning

Focusing on the future – post Covid 19 – my career & a new #visionboard…

I’m a big planner – you  know that because you know I like to plot my stories before I ever write a word.

Part of planning for the future – be it an event, a wedding, a trip, or even where you want to go in your career – involves thinking, researching and in some cases ( like mine!) doing a vision board.

5 years ago when I set out on my publishing journey, I made a vision board of what I wanted to happen in my life. One of the things I plastered across it was a meme that read 3 YEAR PLAN. I had originally intended to update it after 3 years, but life gets in the way, you know?

Since the world stopped a few weeks ago for the majority of us, I decided to finally update my board. I truly believe in my heart and soul that seeing ( visualizing) what you want to happen in your life is the first step in making it happen.

This is the updated version of my writing career path, wants and desires, 5 years in:

There are lots of little Peggy-isms on this board that I want to highlight for you:

First, I believe you can only grow by learning from others. Those two people in the top left of my board are my mentors ( even though they don’t know it!) If it weren’t for Jack Canfield giving me the tools on how to live my best and most successful life, I probably wouldn’t be published today. And Nora Roberts’ career path is one I so admire and want for my own! The sign says it all: KEEP CALM AND LEARN FROM THE BEST. In my humble opinion, these 2 are the best. And look: I met them both!

I am so intune with this statement and the one in blue below it: I believe that I can and I will, and She believed she could and she did! You have to believe in yourself, your dream, and your path to success. If you don’t believe in it/yourself, no one else will.

There’s a line from an old Kevin Costner movie that goes “If you build it, they will come.” I Peggy-fied that to read “if you think it, it will come to you.” Notice the three different Best Seller tags on this part. One of my life goals is to be a bestselling author, but Jack Canfield always says why stop at just one? Magnify your goal and dream x10, so…. I want to make as many best seller lists/categories as I can. Is that big enough? For now, yes.

This time, there’s no time stamp on the board. Why? Well, my career is not going to stop once I achieve the goals I’ve set forth on it here. So, once I do achieve them, I guess I’ll make a new vision board.

And then another…and another…and……

 

 

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Goals, Actions, and Plans….Oh my!

So the New Year is 10 days old and I’m already hearing people have broken their NY resolutions. I’ve even seen it with my own eyes at the gym. Last week I had to wait for a few machines because all those people who vowed to lose weight and get in shape for 2018 were all gung-ho about hitting the gym every day and sweating the fat off. Fast forward to week 2 and most of those people are back to sleeping in and saying, “I’ll exercise later/tomorrow/never again.”

This is the reason I don’t make resolutions. It’s too easy to break ignore them.

Instead, as I’ve said before, I make a list of goals every year that I want to accomplish during that year and then make an action plan for those goals. Just saying, “I’m gonna hit the gym more this year,” doesn’t put any action behind the process. How often? When? What body areas are you going to center on? Those questions need to be asked and answered with a PLAN.

Remember the A-Team  (the television show, not the horrible and lousy movie remake) and the line George Peppard always said when they finished a case? “I love when a plan comes together.”

Yeah. And, duh! What’s the significant word in that line? PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN.

In order to have an effective plan, you need to define the actions to bring that plan to fruition. Once you do, you’ve formed your GOAL.

Seems common-sense-y, doesn’t it?

So, one of my goals this year was to get my life more organized. You might think since I have the luxury of being a full-time writer that there wouldn’t necessarily be a need to get organized. I mean, don’t I just write every day?

Yeah, but….

This year I wanted to set a goal for the number of books I’m going to write and for the number of blogs I want to do each week, so I bought a planner with one section devoted to PROJECTS. Here’s how my process goes:

  • 5 days a week write a minimum of 2500 words daily in your current WIP. No less.
  • On Sundays, writer your 2-3 blog posts for the week.
  • Schedule your Social Media posts days ahead of time using Hootsuite. Book those posts on Sundays.
  • Shut off the phone alerts and all SM alerts while performing #1

Now, if I write 2500 words minimum 5 days per week I’ll have 12,500 words written a week. My books usually range 75000-90000 words, and using this formula I can write a book in 7.2 weeks ( 90,000 words) That’s less than 2 months!!! Yowza. And I’m a good record keeper. This is the daily word count for a Christmas book I just sent to my editor for review:

REGINA daily word count

November 27, 2017                           0                      1064                           1064

November 28, 2017                         1064               1379                           2443

November 29, 2017                         2443               441                           2884

December 4, 2017                            2884               2517                           5401

December 5, 2017                            5401               1622                           7023

December 6, 2017                            7023               2468                           9491

December 7, 2017                            9491               2174                         11665

December 10, 2017                         11665              4307                          15972

December 11, 2017                         15972                2876                          18848

December 12, 2017                         18848                  597                          19445

December 13, 2017                         19445                 2301                          21746

December 14, 2017                         21746                 1438                          23184

December 18, 2017                         23184                  2448                          25632

December 19, 2017                         25632                   2000                          27632

December 20, 2017                         27632                   3138                          30770

December 21, 2017                         30770                    1961                          32731

January 1, 2018                               32731                        5482                          38213

January 2, 2018                               38213                        2578                          40791

January 3, 2018                               40791                        1275                          42066

January 4, 2018                               42066                        3222                          45288

January 5, 2018                               45288                        3812                          49100

January 6, 2018                               49100                        3106                          52206

January 7, 2018                               52206                        696                           52890

Finished!    1.7.18             23 days and a total of 52,890 words.   For me, this isn’t bad!

So, plan+action=goal.

Easy peasy.

When I’m not putting action behind my plans you can find me here, but only after I’ve written my daily 2500 word minimum!

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