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The Daring Author
The Daring Author
Bringing your Author Vision Board to Life
What if your vision board is just the beginning? Many of us craft these boards with hope and enthusiasm, only to watch them collect dust as the months go by. I share my personal journey of losing focus and the pivotal steps I took to align my dreams with reality. Tune in as we unravel the secrets of transforming your vision into actionable goals using the SMART system—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Whether you're planning a book launch or starting a new venture, I provide practical strategies to organise your timeline, navigate unexpected hurdles, and stay accountable with tools like Google Sheets.
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Website: https://thedaringpress.com/
Welcome back to another chapter of the Dearing Author podcast Now.
Speaker 1:After our last episode, where we were talking about vision boards, I thought let's do the next steps, like, what's the next steps after creating a vision board?
Speaker 1:Now, in the past, I have been known to create a vision board, get super excited in the process of creating the vision board and having so much fun that then I'll just leave it. And then what happens? Not much. I do things that are not on my vision board, that I, yeah, have, that aren't my visions, that aren't what I want to create, and I just go off track. And then I get to like a few months into the year or six months into the year and think, what the hell am I doing? Like this, this is not what I wanted to achieve this year. And then I need to get back on track. So that's what I wanted to talk about today is the next steps after creating a vision board, because it's all good and well creating the vision board, but then we need to really look at reflecting on it and creating aligned goals with the vision, with your vision board. So the first step that I would take and do take is really breaking down the vision board into clear, actionable goals is really breaking down the vision boards into clear, actionable goals. So doing a structure like the SMART system, which stands for Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound Goals that really align with the vision. So, for example, on this, if you have a book launch on your board, so you want to launch a particular book this year and you've got that on your vision board and that's what you want to bring forward, what goal will get you closer to that vision? So the easy one is writing. Spending an hour a day, two hours, whatever your day looks like, however many hours that you can dedicate to writing. That would be one of your goals is to set out time in your diary to write uninterrupted for however long that you can, and doing it in little sprints or whatever process works best for you. So that is one thing. So how we look at that. It's specific because you want to launch this particular book, whatever it's called. It's measurable, so you can put for the measurable part. You can put in that I want to write this book by June 15th 2025, and that's measurable because you've got an end goal Achievable. This is where we would look at when you are setting that goal for the release.
Speaker 1:Let's work backwards. Let's work on okay, how many words, roughly, do I envision this book being? You know, looking at your past books or if you've written a book in this series, in this world or in this particular genre, you'll have a good idea of how many words that you normally write for this. So it could be 70,000 words, it could be 100,000 words, whatever it might be. Let's just set a rough goal on that and always allow for a bit more, just because it would be better if you achieve and get to your writing goal and just allow a bit more space, because life happens, shit happens. Things come up and always throw us off the plan and the path and that's happened to me many times because I'm like, okay, yes, I want to have this goal and I want to write this book by this particular goal and I want to write this book by this particular time and I need to write this many words a week and blah, blah, blah. And then I get to a certain point and life happens, or I'm not feeling it that day, or I might get sick, or some other business stuff comes up and it just throws it out. So we want to make sure that we have got the release date and we've got the amount of words that we want to write, and let's go backwards from that.
Speaker 1:So, once we've got the amount of words that we want to write and I do this with my writing coach as well so then we'll break it into this way You'll get your calculator out and do a bit mass and work out. Okay, let's divide that overall amount by the amount of weeks that it is until that release date. So say that the release date is in 12 weeks time. So we want to divide that word count goal by that and even more. I would even cut that back and allow a few extra weeks, at least two weeks or even more time on top of that, so that you have got allowance for when weeks that you don't meet your goal. Or there might be weeks where you kick it out the ass and you're ahead. So it's always yeah, just allowing a bit more extra time definitely helps in reaching the goal, because you've just got that time for when things happen that are outside of your control. So we go backwards, we work out the maths, get out your calculator, work out the maths, put it in an Excel document, work out. Okay, you can put in the dates you could put in Excel document work out. Okay, you can put in the dates you could put in.
Speaker 1:What I have is like a Google sheets and I'll have my 2025 release plan. I'll even do 2026, just be a year ahead, if I know what I want to do there, but I'm working on 2025. So I have got listed out the months of the year there. I have got a few columns that I have. So I will have writing, I will have revisions, I will have editing and releasing and also events I have on that column too. So I've got a structure where I have all of that in there so that I can put in when I'm going to be writing, when I'm going to be editing, when I'm going to be doing revisions, when I'm going to be releasing. So I like to put all the data into there and you can also work out in there and put in your dates.
Speaker 1:For once you've worked out your calculations and then you want to be like okay, to meet this goal, I need to write 10,000 words a week or whatever it might be. It might not be that much, might be more. There's no right answer for this, it's just on the math. So when you've got like that you need to write 10,000 words a week. I also like having in that Excel document another sheet and I will have. This is where I calculate all my writing sprints. So I will have all the dates on one column to the left and then I will have writing and I'll put in each day how many words I've written and then I've got all the calculations and the things that calculate over the week. So I will have like a total and it will calculate every day what I input into there and then I can see, you know, where I am or if I'm on track or whatever it might be.
Speaker 1:So you probably need to work out how many words can I commit to writing a day and do less? Don't do the most, do less than you think that you can. You might be like yeah, I can write 5,000 words a day. Yeah, you could. But what happens when you get a phone call, or the kids need to be picked up, or somebody's sick, or you're sick, or you need to attend different meetings, or you've got a full-time job or you've got? There's always something, there's always a curve ball.
Speaker 1:So let's go with like, say that you're like oh, yeah, I can, I have written 5,000 words in a day. Okay, yeah, you can, there's no doubt about that. Yes, you can, but let's even, let's maybe go half of it, maybe a little bit more, and be like okay, I can. Definitely. Like, without a doubt, no matter if something comes up, I can commit to writing 3000 words a day. That's just like easy math, like that is easy for me. I can definitely do that without a doubt. So let's set that goal as the word count for that particular day and each day, and then an overall weekly word count. So I normally do like a weekly word count and then I'll be like then I'll divide it by the five days or whatever, however many days I've got to write that particular week, and then I'll know how many words that I need to write each day. And then sometimes, you know, some days I might not write many words, and then I'll play catch up on a Friday when I've got more time, or something like that. So you work out what's best for you and I think putting it all in that Excel will be really, really helpful. So that's an example of using SMART goals.
Speaker 1:So we want to make sure it's specific, measurable, like what we were just talking about achievable. That's what come into that making sure that we can achieve it. And we've allowed extra time in that. We've allowed extra two, three weeks for when things happen. And I think with release, you've also got to look at not only finishing the book. We also want to look at booking in editing. We want to book in cover design, we want to book in arcs, arc readers, promotion, pr. All of that stuff comes into it. And when you're working out your goals for that, this needs to play in there in terms of the dates and allowing extra time to finish the book and then allowing time for edits, which might take two weeks, then allowing time for arcs, which might take you know, you might give them two, three weeks, four weeks for them to read as well. So this all goes into it. So we've got to make sure that we've got that, and using excel with dates or something like that would definitely be helpful in putting it all together. All All right. So we've done the relevant and then time bound as well with what we're talking about.
Speaker 1:So the next step in bringing the vision board to life is creating a strategic plan. So I really love doing like a 12-month plan. But with me and some people might relate to this thinking like planning 12 months in advance, like you never know what's gonna happen, I love it to have like a vision and to have like it's like it excites me of, like that visionary strength of mine. I think it's not even in my top thing, but I think futuristic is in my top. I'd be in my top 10 on my strengths. I'll have to have a look, or it might be in my top 20. Anyway, it's on there and I always love looking ahead and sometimes that can be a bad thing of not living in the present moment. But anyway, I digest, I digest. So you want to look at your 12-month plan and look at, okay, for the year, if we're looking book-related, I want to release two books. I know the next two books that I want to write. You might write more books than that. This is just an example.
Speaker 1:And then you want to break it into your quarters. I really like looking at a quarter at a time. I love the 12 months and then I love bringing it in closer because I think if you've got a 12 month plan, it's like, oh cool, I've got 12 months to achieve all of this and you think, oh, I've got plenty of time. But, as you know, the days turned into the weeks, the weeks turned into the months, the months turned into the year and then, before you know it, it's the end and you're like, holy shit, what have I done? It's always good having the 12 month, but let's break it into the quarters. So quarters we want to go January, february, march, march, april, may, so on and so forth. So quarters in three months stints. So the first quarter.
Speaker 1:If you look at your vision board and you're looking at book release and you know you're going to release this particular book in March 2025, so the first quarter of the year is focusing on that book. And you also might have another goal on like this is from my vision board is launching my online direct sales shop. So that is something that I am focusing on for the first quarter. So I will look at and I will work out what that looks like. So we've got the goals and want to launch the direct sales. I want to launch the book and then you need to break it down into the quarter and then you need to break it down even further into the task managements and into task blocks.
Speaker 1:Now I love if you haven't heard of the HB90 by Sarah Cannon. She has a really great system with the HB90 and looking at you, break down your goals and looking at your time blocks and how much time you've actually got, and it's a really great system to work through. So if you are interested, make sure you go check that out. They have open enrollments a few times a year. So I like to look at it that way and then I sort of I look at that and then I'll break it into my own unique way of doing things.
Speaker 1:So I'll look at the first quarter and then I will break it down into the activities. So, for example, direct sales shop Okay, so I've got the shop set up, I need to do the backend automations. So I've got the shop set up, I need to do the backend automations. I need to, you know, writing down all of the list of things that I need to do to make that direct store live. So looking at the big picture and saying, okay, I need to do this, this, this. So writing down all of the tasks into a program like Notion If you haven't heard of Notion, notion is a really great tool that you can create like little dashboards and have all of your tasks there have your daily tasks, have your weekly reoccurring tasks, have your goals listed on there images. It's a really great program. I really love Notion and also you could use something like Asana to help with like the task management and the progress towards your goals and the vision for the year. So that would be the next step Break it into quarters, then break it into months, then break it into weeks and what you need to be doing today to move the needle forward. So one step at a time towards that bigger goal. And the next thing on this so now we have got the vision board, we've got the goals that are on the vision board and we've broken them down into the quarters, into the months, into the weeks. The next thing is it's all good having a plan, but we've got to actually take inspired action every day, every day.
Speaker 1:So what I love to do is a daily practice of visualization on the particular like the life that I want to create, my vision. So what I love doing is I love journaling and that has always been part of my practice. That is something since I was a teenager. That is a way that I express myself, a way that I get clear on things, a way that I just keep moving that needle forward. So every day, this is what I do I'll get my journal out, I'll do affirmations, I'll do writing. I'll even do like some visualization writing, which is basically looking at the future. So if we're looking like 12 months from now or the first quarter of the year, and I've got my goal, so I will look at, okay, at the end of March. It's the end of March right now and you feel like you're in that particular space, so you're living it already.
Speaker 1:I've launched my online shop. It is looking beautiful. It is so user-friendly. Everyone that goes there can see my beautiful books. I'm making X amount every single day. I am packing books. I can tap into the feeling of it. I'm feeling so lit up, I feel so much joy and happiness and every time I wrap an order or get an order notification, I just feel so good that readers want to read my books and they just love this. And blah, blah, blah, blah. So you can sort of see when you see that vision and this has worked for me.
Speaker 1:Talk on manifestation for a minute and visualizing stuff. This has worked for me on many occasions where I will write out my ideal day. And I did this when I was working a full-time job and all every time I sat on that desk I would look outside and just be like, oh, I wish I was home working on my side hustle and on my business, but I'm stuck here and all of that. And I always wished that I could work on my own business full-time and have the flexibility and be able to just run my own empire. And so I wrote out a visualization of that and I wrote out my ideal day that I was working for myself full-time, that I would, and I put up like literally step step, like the day, how I'd wake up, what I'd be doing, and it was like listed out and how I was feeling and tapping into those emotions, because that's what moves the needle forward. And then, finally enough, I reckon it was like 12 months later I was living that life. I had everything that I wrote down in that visualization.
Speaker 1:And do you know why it works? Because you put it out there. And then you took that inspired action every single day, every single week, and it added on, it added on and then you created the life that you visualized. Because you visualize it, you can see it. You can see yourself as a bestselling author. You can see the money rolling in. If you can't see it, let's visualize it. Let's do daily practices where you can like, spending a few minutes every single day. You've got a few minutes. Don't tell me that you don't Make time. Few minutes, two minutes, three minutes.
Speaker 1:Grab out a journal, sit with your eyes closed and visualize the life that you want and then that will inspire you to take that action every single day towards that goal. I, you know, like some people think that like manifestation is yes, I envision the life, I know what I want and I'm just going to sit back and get it and that doesn't work. Like. You need to take that inspired action, not pushed action, not forced action where you burn yourself into the ground, into a pit of fire, Like we don't want that, we want inspired action. So you see the dream life and you know the action. Steps that feel really good, you feel really lit up, you feel joyful and then you co-create that with the universe because you're just in that vibe. Can you see the difference? I can. So that is what I recommend doing Spending a few days every single day, journaling, visualizing, whether in meditation form, closing your eyes, visualizing, journal, whatever works for you. Do that every single day and then take your aligned action. So really taking small, powerful actions every single day towards the vision.
Speaker 1:So, if your vision board shows financial freedom, you know maybe that's looking at reaching out to maybe a business coach that will inspire you and help you learn particular things that you need to move the needle forward. Or you know it might be setting up you know your direct sales or it might be setting up a new income stream, whatever it might be Like, if that's on your vision board and we've broken down the steps of like, how to get there, that's what you need to be doing. Like, you can't just sit back and be like, oh, and be in this negative mindset where it's like, oh, I'm not getting any sales, oh, nothing's working for me. And if you're in that negative thing like, and oh, I'm doing everything, I'm posting on here, I'm posting on there, blah, blah, blah, blah, if you're in that negative mindset, you're not going to be attracting what you want. You're going to keep attracting that same negativity and I'm sorry to say that, but that's the truth of it. Like, if you are in that negative mindset, you're just going to keep getting that and we want to flip that. We want to like feel good, we want to do what lights us up. We want to put that same energy into what we're creating, into our marketing, into the PR, how we're showing up, and be in that positive mindset, in that positive light, and it's not hard Like, yeah, I really get sick of seeing that negativity and that's all you sort of see. And I really love when I do see the empowering like people posting empowering things that are happening and what they're achieving and don't feel like when you do read that, feel inspired, don't feel like, oh, I'll never get like that, oh, I'll never be like her, because you won't. If you're thinking that, get it, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think the next thing that I do want to say is stay flexible and open. You know life changes. Be open to adapting the plan as needed. So you might have on your vision board that you wanted to achieve this certain thing and then you might achieve it and then, or you might achieve it and it might not feel good, or you need to tweak something that isn't really aligned, or you know, just work with it and be flexible and open and adaptable to that with it and be flexible and open and adaptable to that. I think the vision board is a guide. It's not a rigid map and it's okay to revise your dreams as you grow throughout the year.
Speaker 1:Things will change, the path might change, you might be going down a different road and different journey, and just remember that's okay. It's not steering you in the wrong direction. It's steering you there for a reason and what you'll learn there and how you'll grow. And that's the way it's meant to be. Everything happens for a reason.
Speaker 1:Now the last thing I will say accountability and support is definitely going to help you with staying focused, staying empowered, inspired. So maybe finding an accountability partner I know I have accountability author buddies that I will talk to every single day and keep me aligned and keep me on track. Or you might look at like a mastermind group that keep yeah, that you can talk to every single day and just be in that space. Or it might be reaching out to a coach and having someone on your team and looking like they know your goals and what steps you're taking and you can bounce ideas off them. So I will leave it at that. If you do have any questions on this or you want to share your vision board or goals, make sure you do reach out to me at the Daring Press and I would love to see it.