Four Go-To Steps to Doing Anything You Want

In the fall of 2019, I wrote a book in a week.

For a few years, I’d been sitting on a story that was just waiting to be told, and it became clear in the fall of 2019 that the time had come.

Instead of freezing up because I had no idea how the hell to…

-write a book

-format a book

-publish a book

-market a book

-(you get the idea)

I used my foolproof system to figuring out the un-figureoutable, the same system I’d used time and time again when I was figuring out how to…

-scale my business

-raise my prices

-write my course The Business Behind the Blooms in a month

-flip a house in fifteen days

-pay myself six figures

So here are 4 steps to doing anything you want.

1. You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.

   Figure out exactly what you want to do, the one thing you want to focus on. I’ll say it again…you can’t do everything, but you can do anything.

   You need to be able to go all-in on one thing, so listen to your gut and choose one thing, one job, one resource, one marketing angle, that you want to go all-in on.

2. Make a list.

   List everything that needs to happen to execute your vision. Start from the end result and work backwards. Just list! Don’t plan or give in to overwhelm or judge. Just list.

   For my book project, that list looked like this…

   • Release book

   • Come up with a book release strategy

   • Hire someone who knows how to market a book

   • Format book for public consumption

   • Edit book

   • Find someone who knows how to format/edit/publish book

   • Write book

   • Outline book

   • Find a block of time to write book

   • Tell story from beginning to end

     Now, those steps might not be easy to execute, but now, they’re at least simple. I know exactly what needs to happen to take my book from idea to hardback.

3. Create a timeline to match project.

   I knew that on May 7th, my book needed to be 100% ready to be in the hands of readers. That gave me the deadline for my entire project.

   When I found out about the book project, it was October. So I knew between October and May, each step needed to be executed.

   My current PR agent had a team who could execute the logistics of publishing a memoir, and they gave me a deadline for the first draft of the book to be turned in. The deadline was November 1st.

   As I backtracked, I realized that I needed to write the book in the next three weeks in order to have enough time to get it edited, formatted, and published.

   Then, I took action! I booked a room at my favorite hotel in Little Rock, flew out a teammate who had experience in non-fiction narrative writing, and we wrote the book.

   I couldn’t think about the steps later further down the line. I just focused on what was mine to do to complete the step I was on.

4. Do something every day

   There are days when your goal will seem scary and unattainable, even with a solid plan. As I’ve been working on the book, there have been days or even weeks where I felt overwhelmed, like there was no way I could get everything done in time!

   Achieving your dreams is more about commitment than motivation.

   I might not be motivated to work on the book, but doing at least one thing each day to take a step towards your goal really adds up!

   Small steps forward add up quickly! And any action is better than hours of thought without action.

I feel so strongly about the power and importance of executing those big goals and dreams in your life that I’ve created a whole program around it: Know Your Numbers: Annual Planning for Your Best Year.

If you loved this how-to blog, check out the course here!