TOMORROW?

 

“It’s the first blank page

 

of  your 365-page book.

 

Write a good one!”

 

Thanks to Brad Paisley for the quote, and to my old friend Tony Emanueli, the very finest New Jersey Realtor, for sharing it <www.TonyEmanueli.com>

It has been commonly reported in the publishing world that more than 80% of all people believe they have a book to write. Keep in mind that:

A) Books don’t write themselves,

B) Your “Resolution ” to write a book (or even a 7 words-or-less billboard!) will never happen without a plan, and

C) NO plan (book-writing, business sales and development, professional practice growth) works without all five of the following criteria…

1… Your plan must be REALISTIC.

You cannot plan to write a bestseller that will also be the basis for an award-winning film. You cannot plan to price your book for $139.95 and think you’ll make enough money from sales to retire, or spend the rest of your life in luxury traveling the Mediterranean. You cannot plan to write exactly 327 and 1/2 pages or have a genuine leather dust cover. In your business or professional practice, or book, your plan must fit the reality of what you are TRULY capable of doing, not what you dream of doing. It is NOT “a wish.” It is an approach to taking action.            

2… Your plan must be SPECIFIC.

Don’t allocate 10-hour workdays to uninterrupted writing time unless you’re a hermit. Having a goal to sell a million units a year or “paint the Brooklyn Bridge” or to “clean the house” will never be as effective as an agreed-to-in-advance monthly sales goal , or a goal to paint each girder (or clean each room), so you can check off daily/weekly sales –girder or room at a time– what you are in the process of achieving, and gain a sense of realistic timing to complete the goal.

3… Your plan must be FLEXIBLE. 

Nothing is in concrete. Goals need to be changed to fit the reality of changing circumstances. A plan is meant to be edited and changed according to life circumstances. You can always keep the target and change the dates or the methods to use or the steps involved… or you can even change (enlarge/expand/ reduce/move the target to best accommodate the flow of people and changing events involved.

4… Your plan must have a DUE DATE.

Figure the hours and days and weeks and months, perhaps years, involved. If you approach the due date and see it won’t happen, regardless of whether the reason (There will A-L-W-A-Y-S be interruptions in life!), simply move the due date or reduce the desired results and get back on the horse. Remember #3 above and don’t berate yourself. Remember your due date is what you seek to achieve. It’s a target that you’re free to move or expand as circumstances dictate.

5… Your plan must be IN WRITING.

Electronic keyboard entries don’t cut it! There’s a physiological response that handwritten plans produce by sending the message from your brain, through your neck and shoulder and arm and wrist and hand to your pen into the ink, and onto paper that adds up to genuine commitment.

Have a happy, healthy, productive 2019-2020

filled with accomplishment of realistic,

specific, flexible, due-dated, handwritten

plans (not empty Resolutions) for your life,

your business, your professional practice

. . . and, yes, your book!