February 2, 2011

How are your writing goals? Did you know that 75% of New Year’s Resolutions (or goals) are abandoned by the end of the first week?

While I spend much time on the blog encouraging you to make changes and deal with feelings that are holding you back, I thought it might help to pause here and do a short series on the dynamics of change–or how to make permanent changes.

How do we make changes that stick? How can you be one of those 25% who keep on keepin’ on and accomplish their writing goals?

Change in Stages

One mistake we make is thinking that change happens as an act of will only. (e.g. “Starting today, I will write from 9 to 10 a.m.”) If our willpower and determination are strong, we’ll write at 9 a.m. today. If it’s very strong, we’ll make it a week. If you are extraordinarily iron-willed, you might make it the necessary 21-30 days proven to make it a habit.

Most writers won’t be able to do it.

Why? Because accomplishing permanent change–the critical step to meeting any of your writing goals–is more than choosing and acting on willpower. If you want to achieve your goals, you need to understand the dynamics of change. You must understand what changes habits–the rules of the game, so to speak.

Making Change Doable

All of the habits we’ve talked about in the past–dividing goals into very small do-able slices, rewarding yourself frequently, etc.–are important. They are tools in the process of change.

However, we need to understand the process of change, the steps every successful person goes through who makes desired changes. (It applies to relationship changes and health changes as well, but we’ll be concentrating on career/writing changes.) Understanding the stages doesn’t make change easy, but “it makes it predictable, understandable, and doable,” says Neil Fiore, Ph.D., author of the The NOW Habit.

Change takes place in four main stages, according to numerous government and university studies. Skipping any of the four stages lowers your odds drastically of making permanent changes that lead to sucessful meeting of goals.

Here are the four stages of change that I will talk about in the following four blog posts. Understanding–and implementing–these consecutive steps is critical for most people’s success in achieving goals and permanent change.

Stages of Change

• Stage 1: Making Up Your Mind (the precommitment stage). This stage will involve feeling the pain that prompts you to want to change, evaluating risks and benefits of the goal you have in mind, and evaluating your current ability.
• Stage 2: Committing to Change. This stage involves planning the necessary steps, building up your motivation, and considering possible distractions and things that might happen to discourage you or cause a setback.
• Stage 3: Taking Action. This stage includes several big steps. You must decide when, where and how to start; you must show up to start despite fears and self-doubts; then you must focus on each step.
• Stage 4: Maintaining Long-Term Success. This is your ultimate aim if you want writing to be a career. It will involve learning to recover from setbacks and getting mentally tough for the long haul.

(For a thorough discussion beyond the blog posts, see Chapters 11-14 of Neil Fiore’s Awaken Your Strongest Self.)

The Blueprint

So…that’s the plan for the next few blog posts. Do not despair if you’re struggling with meeting your writing goals. Help–and hope for permanent change–is on the way.

10 Comments »

1. 

   Just what I needed to hear today. Looking forward to your insight. I started implementing exercise back into my life. Made it four days in a row, but took this morning off. Looking forward to tomorrow though. Also can’t wait to think about more specific writing goals. Keeping small, short, specific, bite-size chunks WRITTEN DOWN helps me actually accomplish them.

   Comment by Christie Wild — February 2, 2011 @ 9:31 pm

2. 

   Christie, I have enjoyed writing the series. I was caught in airports for two days in the storms and got my blogs written there. I was very excited by the time I’d written the whole series. I hope you will find it helpful.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — February 3, 2011 @ 6:39 am

3. 

   Kristi,

   I realize this is off-topic to the post above, but I wanted to be sure you read what I’m about to ask.

   A few days ago you posted about e-books and I wanted to say some things on the matter.

   I know in the past you’ve warned us about the risks and pitfalls involved in self-publishing in general, and the once slow, but now more noticeable adoption of e-books.

   That said, I’ve had no success in publishing my work through traditional channels, and unlike some writers I know, I don’t produce quality work quickly, and what little I do have isn’t making any waves.

   Since e-books have a better rep now than years ago, is it more feasible to build a following that way?

   If so, is it possible to do it when you have little money to spend?

   If it’s still too much of a gamble for those of us that aren’t a “Brand name” and who don’t have a cutthroat entrepreneur mindset, what can we do to get better?

   Finally, if you haven’t done it already, I sure could use a post about what a writer can do to network when they can’t go to writer’s conferences and nothing in their state is worth going to for what they need.

   Comment by Taurean Watkins — February 3, 2011 @ 1:06 pm

4. 

   Taurean, you might find it helpful to scroll down to the e-book blog post and read people’s comments. Several people have experiences they’ve shared there. This is all very new to me, so I can’t really be giving advice about it beyond my own tiny niche (self-help for writers). I don’t think I will try any self-pubbed fiction books though. (I guess you should never say never, but I don’t think so.) I will track my royalty statements and see how many electronic Kindles my publisher is selling–and maybe I’ll change my mind!

   I honestly don’t know if you can build a following with e-books. I’ve never tried it. I inadvertently built the following first with this blog.

   But yes, social networking is pretty much free, which is the beauty of the Internet. I rarely go anywhere anymore, to be honest. The newest Writer Magazine has a big article on social media (which I haven’t read yet), but you could check that out. Also, a book I have which I used called INBOUND MARKETING is very good. It’s about using Google and social networks (like Facebook and Twitter) etc. to sell books. They’re all free!

   As I learn more, I will be glad to share it!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — February 3, 2011 @ 4:46 pm

5. 

   Kristi — It makes me laugh how often you’re reading (or, you’ll quote) books that I’ve got on my to-read pile! Sometimes it makes me wish we lived closer so that we could just swap books! LOL.

   ~MizB

   Comment by MizB — February 4, 2011 @ 5:17 pm

6. 

   (LOL… and I hope that doesn’t come across as all creepy and stalker-ish…. ’cause I don’t mean it to!).

   ~MizB

   Comment by MizB — February 4, 2011 @ 5:18 pm

7. 

   MizB, you didn’t sound the least BIT stalker-ish. Not to worry. I think it would be a great idea to have writers start their own writing lending library. I have six bookcases of writing books–I could start!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — February 5, 2011 @ 2:34 pm

8. 

   If I had the money to mail books, I would definitely join you in that! I’ve got a whole shelf of writing books (probably more), too! And, some other good “motivational” books, too!

   Comment by MizB — February 7, 2011 @ 7:15 am

9. 

   Kristi,
   I actually exceeded my word count goal in January by 5,000 words. I’ve written at least 25,000 words each month since October. In fact, this is the first time in my life I’ve succeeded in making writing daily a habit. I don’t beat myself if I fall short of a daily goal or even miss a day of writing completely.

   Now if I could make exercise a daily habit, I’d be good to go!

   Comment by Kirk — February 9, 2011 @ 3:04 pm

10. 

    Kirk, I loved your blog. What a busy man you are! To have also written 25,000 words per month is PHENOMENAL!!!!! You put me to shame…I’d better go write!

    Comment by Kristi Holl — February 10, 2011 @ 10:27 am

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