If you are determined to succeed but not sure where to start, consider the man who wrote his first hit comic at 39 years old. Over the next four years he created what we now see on the big screen, the Marvel Universe. I don’t know about you, but every new Marvel movie, I watched for the cameos of the man himself, Stan Lee.
No matter what your age or where you are in your goals, it’s possible to learn how to follow your dreams. Three steps in particular have helped me with my dream of becoming a traditionally published author.
And while publishing books is its own lane, you can apply the lessons I’ve learned (and am still working on) to your creative endeavors as well. You may not want to become an author, but these three steps can help you further your creative goals.
There is no secret sauce to success, but over time, continual progress in the right direction creates monumental results. The three steps that help me are simple: Set long term goals, create specific steps to reach them, and stay focused. Let’s dive in!
What’s your long term goal? Not the goal you think you should pursue, but the one that keeps you awake at night, dreaming before you ever fall asleep. Do you desire to:
- Work remote, traveling the world?
- Start a business that brings in full time, passive income?
- Provide jobs for those in the creative field?
This is the step to dream big, broad, and reach for the moon. We’ll get to the details in step two. With your long term dream in mind, give yourself a concrete sentence to match:
- “By the time I am thirty I want to work fully remote so I can travel the world with my family.”
- “I want to work hard now so in X years I can live off my passive income stream.”
- “Five years from now, I want to be CEO of a business that provides jobs for creatives.”
Setting goals for the future is simple. Taking actionable steps to work them into reality is not quite as straightforward. However, just like there’s only one way to eat an elephant, it takes step by step progress to achieve your goals. Every small step forward matters immeasurably.
Whether you want to build a writing career, start a business, or become a public speaker, every long term goal starts with short term steps.
The writing careers begin with aspiring authors who write short stories or poems, business owners start with an idea, public speaking often starts in interpersonal conversation. So how do you go from a book idea to a bestselling author or from a conversationalist to TEDx speaker? Start with where you are.
Chances are high that for the majority of you reading this article, you work a day job. Maybe you have a degree in creative writing and work as a high school English teacher. Maybe you went to trade school and now work in plumbing. Maybe you finished high school and immediately jumped into the workforce.
Wherever you are, your first step must start there. My writing mentor often encouraged his trainees to keep their day job. In fact, he focused on this almost as much as he did the importance of establishing great writing habits.
We can dream as big as we want, but until our income matches that of our current day job, the prudent choice is most likely to keep the job and focus on the career in off hours. This alleviates financial stressors and in turn, frees up mental space for creative processes. No, it’s not the exciting answer, but yes, working your day job is an extremely practical way to support your dreams.
The second tip that has helped empower my dreams is to read, and not just books on writing. Many details accompany the determination to succeed. For instance, if you want to become a traditionally published author, learn how publishing companies market their books.
If you want to work remotely as a full time freelancer, study negotiation tactics. You’ll be the one who determines your salary. Dream of moving to Nashville and recording your first record? Study networking, nonverbal communication, and of course, music.
Much of the creative space is about who you know, and once you know the right people, how you handle your interactions and the resulting opportunities. When a large company says they want to hire you for your SEO copywriting skills and asks how much you charge for a website audit, you should know what number to give and why.
Reading (or listening to) books is a great way to further your education without ever investing in a college course.
This is perhaps one of the smallest decisions that has taken me the furthest: Show up for your dream like you show up for your job. It’s so easy to treat dreams as hobbies, a side hustle, or just “something I’m working on.”
This mindset takes away the time factor. When we view our dreams as hobbies, we pursue it:
- On the weekends
- When we feel like it
- Without purpose
But if we want to build a career out of our dream, we must get to work. The time element is crucial. When you pursue your dream, pursue it in the same way you pursue your job:
- Show up on time
- Give your best work
- Refuse interruptions
When you view your dream as a future career instead of a current hobby, you compile the necessary hours of practice that can eventually lead to full time success.
What does achieving these step-by-step goals lead to? With time, commitment, and effort, you’re on track to achieve your dream. No longer do your goals need to be in the distant future. Instead, you bring them into your current reality by outlining your steps to achievement and then executing on those steps.
The most important aspect of these three steps is to stay focused. It’s easy to set a long term goal and draw up the necessary steps to achieve it. Actually taking those steps, executing them, is another matter entirely.
The good news is, once you know where you want to go and how to get there, all that’s left is to take that first step.
