I’m not a fan of limiting the determination to change to early in January. But since this is the time when a lot of people do think about how they might like their New Year to be different from the one just past, it’s a good time to say a word about this. It’s actually a phrase you’ve heard from me a lot: “do something different.” Here are the steps to follow if there’s an aspect of your writing (or life) which you’d like to change:
1-Identify what the situation is like now. Be as specific as possible.
2- What did you do (or not do) this past year that is responsible for how this situation is now?
3- What will you do differently in order to get the outcome you want?
4- What do you need to do in order to be sure that you can actually follow through with what you’ve specified in the previous step? What resources (time, money, help from others) do you need? How will you get them? Is there anything you need to give up or stop doing in order to free these resources?
5- Do the different things for a month.
6- At the end of each month, return to step one and cycle through the steps again.
Rather than trying to change lots of things at once, you might try selecting one thing and following the six steps. Once that thing has changed to your satisfaction, choose another change you’d like to make. If you do this for a year, you’ll be gratified by the end of the year at how much you have achieved.
(Note: this is one item on my Dec 06/Jan 07 Brainstorm e-bulletin--there's no charge for this usually-monthly creativity and productivity e-bulletin, and you can sign up at www.timetowrite.com)
