Writers: Big Dreams Only Happen in Small Steps. (So Take Heart in the Small Stuff!)
Ever notice how the dreams you have and the goals you set are big, and the results you get seem so very small?
I have a problem with this. I’m a major optimist and love to dream and have all kinds of big, shiny ideas.
Optimism is wonderful, and even necessary. We need optimism to even have dreams. Here’s the problem.
I get super frustrated when I see the enormous difference between the size of my dreams and the size of my results.
Can you relate?
Maybe you’ve got big dreams of helping the world by starting a podcast or blogging consistently. So you start working on it. Week in, week out, you do the work, think up the content, plan what you’ll say, and do the hard work of saying it… and after months, it seems like no one has even noticed.
To make matters worse, everywhere you look, people are having success.
“Wow! I got picked up by CBC news!!” “Wow! Look at this! 3000 people shared my blog post!” Or, the ones that drive me the most crazy, (and feel free to imagine this in a floppy teenager voice), is when some 18 year old pops on in a video and with their baby voice, says, “So… like… I just started my new business? Aaannnd, like, the first week I launched my course it totally sold $10,000 worth! The internet is aaaawwwwsommmme.”
Puke. I hate those. I cannot roll my eyes enough at those.
THE LIE WE TELL EACH OTHER
I feel the need to clarify at this point — I have nothing against 18-year-olds.
Or people launching their products successfully.
Not at all! Good for them!! That ROCKS!!! And I absolutely sign up for coaching, teaching, courses, etc from young bucks who know something I don’t. That’s not the issue.
What I hate about it is the LIE.
There’s a lot of posturing going on in marketing, specifically with this misleading idea that big dreams happen so easily and quickly it’s almost inevitable. Like a complete amateur can bumble around on their first time at something, bump into instant success, and that this is a reliable, repeatable outcome based completely on such simple strategy even a noob can do it.The implication is that anyone who has to work for it is somehow missing the big secret and, essentially, are failures.
This writing thing requires facing enough personal fears and doubts without adding that to the pile, am I right?
THE TRUTH WE NEED TO BELIEVE
So… if that’s the lie, what’s the truth?
Well. Let me tell you about Jeff Goins. If you’re in the writing world, you will likely know of him. A well-known writer, podcaster, and thought leader, he helps writers be writers.
Anyway, the website is a bit different now, but there used to be this pop-up offer that said something about that he could teach you how to grow your audience to 150,000 or 300,000 or something in 18 months because he had done it.
Again, it sounded like one of those instant promises that’s too good to be true.
Here’s the thing. His current successful blog was not his first one.
Or second. Or even third.
He had EIGHT blogs before this one, and had blogged in relative obscurity for YEARS before he started getting traction.
Did you catch that?
YEARS.
Even Jeff Goins, well known thought leader with hundreds of thousands of followers, started his big journey with small beginnings.
“The Lie is that dreams are realized quickly and with ease. The TRUTH is that dreams are reached through many small steps.” -Kimberly Dawn Rempel
Tweet this
WHAT SMALL STEPS ARE YOU TAKING?
CELEBRATE THEM!
Feeling stuck at the beginning of this journey to a dream? Take heart! You’re probably doing it right!
It’s just how the path looks.
(Even those 18-year-olds, I’m sure, had to have had invested time and work into another venture that did NOT work, in order to learn the things that did.)
For a writer, some of those small beginning steps can include things like:
- Believing in your heart, “I am a writer.”
- Deciding your story matters, and choosing to share it with others for their sake.
- Parking at that desk and putting pen to paper, and fingers to keys, and facing down that blank page.
- Blogging or podcasting even when no one is reading.
- Daring to face and overcome the doubt and fear that creeps in every time you hit publish.
- Remembering that this writing thing is about giving, not about getting.
As you consider your own small steps on the path forward, I want to encourage you to do more than just ‘get okay’ with them. Embrace them. Celebrate them. Enjoy them even. Because they’re not only acceptable. It’s not only that they’re okay, they’re actually a CRITICAL part of our development, and we can’t move forward without them.
So love them. Treat them well.
These are the powerful steps that will take you forward.
What’s a dream you’re working toward, and one small step you’ve been taking lately? Or maybe there’s one you’d like to start doing?
— Share in the comments so I can cheer you on! —
