I have a confession to make. I’ve been a big slacker. There is nothing like what you think will be “bragging” to someone to bring you down a peg or two.
Sixteen days ago, I had a meeting with a potential book coach, Cathy Fyock. I am prepping for my big May 2017 event launch in conjunction with the vision board workshops that I host (stay tuned for more on that later). I stressed to Cathy the importance of finishing the book in time for my late-spring/early-summer event launch. As we were chatting, she asked casually me how many words I had written. I said proudly, “A little over 6,000. I’ve been working on it for the past year.”
The phone suddenly went quiet, “Okay, Mimi.” she said, politely. “For a 100-page book, the word count usually falls around 35,000 words.”
“35,000 words,” I said with a big gulp. Wow. I had no idea. I was embarrassed. I thought she’d be impressed with what I accomplished. I was so far off. It was pitiful. To add insult to injury, the title of her book is: On Your Mark, From First Word to First Draft in Six Weeks.
After our call ended, I had a lot to ponder. If I was really serious about getting this book written, I needed to get my poop in a group. In other words, I needed to kick my writing into high gear. So I made myself a commitment. I decided to write every day until I finished the first draft. Right now, I am on day 16 of writing and I have written a considerable amount. At last glance, I am at 23,727 words. Not too bad for someone who could barely put a paragraph together a few weeks ago.
Here is the thing. There is nothing special about me, but there is something very special about making a commitment and building momentum.
What in your life and business do you need to make a commitment to? When you pair together commitment and momentum you get a powerful combo. How would you like a breakthrough success in your business? Here are a few things that up to this point have helped me building momentum with this book project and can help you reach your goal.
- Commit to your goal for at least 60 days. I don’t subscribe to that bologna that it takes 21 days to form a habit. Research says it actually takes longer. Think about the hiring process for most jobs. Often, you’re on probation for 60 to 90 days before you are “official”. Don’t you owe that type of commitment to yourself?
- Make your commitment public. I have two phenomenal mastermind partners. We have a private Facebook group dedicated to our mastermind process. We meet bi-weekly to discuss the goals for our business and our progress towards making them happen. I shared with them my commitment to finishing my book and they are holding me to it. I get random text or Facebook messages asking me how it’s going. Who can you ask to hold your to your commitment?
- Work on it daily. Momentum is a powerful force. You can build momentum by putting in consistent daily action. It’s funny, because in the last 16 days there have been many times where I wanted to throw the towel in and say, “ I am not writing today. I’ll make it up by writing more tomorrow.” But Mr. Brown, my husband and live-in accountability partner (aka nag..j/k) said, “Nope you need to write tonight.” It’s not about the quality of words or even the quantity of words. It’s about consistency. You’re building the muscle of writing and you can’t build a muscle sporadically.
Where can you apply these lessons in your business? What have you been putting off that you need to commitment to? I’d love to hear your responses. Comment on the blog below.