How to Follow Through and Make Your Writing Dreams Reality
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One thing I´m good at is following through. This became especially apparent to me now that I´m finishing my last week of classes as a school teacher. And when I say this, I mean my last week of classes EVER! That´s right, my coaching business has liberated me from my day job. It´s robust enough to go full time!
Whether it’s your book, a day job, or anything you’re taking through the final steps, as you get around to finishing, you´re working through the hardest part. You’ve felt this. What began as an ecstatic and inspired idea, now moves more slowly as you get to the end.
There are edits, decisions and those exacting final touches that are difficult to get through. This is natural. Manifesting something into real life isn’t only about vision boards, it´s about follow through as well.
Lately I’ve been studying the art of manifesting through the chakras with teachers like Anodea Judith, Lion Goodman, and Jeffrey Allen. It´s fascinating because it shows you how to bring dreams to life simply by working them through your energetic system, one chakra at a time. An idea may start as a wistful vision in your mind, but through love and action it guides you through the steps of making it reality.
Here’s the thing I noticed right away. When your project is in the higher chakras (the earlier, dreamier phase), it’s easy to move energy around. One minute I’m publishing my book, the next I’m a best seller with all sorts of lofty interviews, and then I’m a rock star, and then I’m an astronaut! All within a matter of minutes and a few swift moves in my mental theater.
As we move down the chakra system, energy gets a little denser with every step. Next you have to find your voice, then you have to move into a regular creative practice and keep going even when we don’t feel like it, until we’re finally you're editing and publishing, where you really need to slow down and stay focused. You can't expect you're experience at the end to be like your experience at the beginning. You're working through a lot of different blocks!
This can be hard. It's tempting to give up right as you reach success. I'm speaking from experience here. On this, my last week of classes, it took me twenty minutes to calculate a single grade. I would get up, take a walk around the room, check my inbox, right an idea in this blog, and then finally get to the point of adding five numbers together and dividing by five to get the average. Pressure builds as you wrap.
However, when you're honest and admit that finishing is a different animal then starting, there are simple strategies that can carry you through. Here are three quick tips to make sure you don't fall off the wagon, before you cross the finish line.
1. Congratulate yourself on everything. Don’t fall victim to the nasty habit of beating up on yourself up because you´re not fast enough. When you're this close to the end, every step counts for a million. Celebrate that!
2. Make each task small enough that you can´t fail. If you cant seem to write a book, write a sentence. If you can´t seem to write an article, write some bullet points instead. Any steps keep you in motion, so if the big stuff isn't getting done, make it smaller.
3. Perfectionism is the enemy, especially on your first time. You're teaching yourself to follow through. There might be blocks to clear out, so just pave the way. Take off the pressure and indulge in some healthy self care.
I know that I wouldn’t be moving out of my teaching job into a full-time business without this ability I’ve developed to follow through. Anodea Judith, author of the spiritual classic "Eastern Body, Western Mind" has some great practical wisdom as to why. She says, “If we are involved with constant change, we are like a rolling stone that gathers no moss. We’re kept at a survival level because we are constantly building new foundations. Only through focus and repetition can we achieve expertise in an area leading to larger manifestation of goals, be they physical or ideological.”
Following through might now be as sexy as a vision board, but it creates the foundation for dreams to become reality. Every time you finish, or publish, move on to a new job, you're completing a transformational cycle. If this becomes a habit your life will continue to evolve without limits!