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Welcome to the Writing Momentum podcast.

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We're recording this

live on New Year's Day.

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Happy New Year's.

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Gena: Happy 2025.

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Christopher: And Merry

Christmas to any of you.

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We haven't said Merry Christmas to you.

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Gena: Merry Christmas.

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Happy Hanukkah.

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Christopher: Oh, really?

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You're gonna go through all the holidays?

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Gena: Happy Kwanzaa.

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Happy New Year.

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Christopher: Yeah, Happy New Year.

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You know what would really

make my New Year happy?

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Gena: I, I don't know, what would it be?

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It would

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Christopher: be moving the needle.

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Gena: Moving the needle.

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This is,

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Christopher: this is what

we're talking about right here.

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This is moving the needle.

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You know, we all have goals that

we want to achieve, um, with our

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writing and in other areas of life.

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And.

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Uh, this is always a great time of

year to sit down and say, Hey, I'm

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gonna get my goals down on paper.

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I'm gonna put this in writing and

say, This is what I'm gonna stick to.

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And then on January 2nd, we can

put it in a drawer and forget

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about it until the next year.

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No, we don't want to do that.

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Gena: No!

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No,

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Christopher: we want to move the needle.

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And so what does that mean?

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Well, that means Actually

writing down your goals and

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making them, uh, smart goals.

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We love smart goals.

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Smart goals were, came from

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Powerful today, like you're still, you

know, I should probably use a microphone.

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I just realized my microphone

was nowhere near my, me.

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So if you haven't been able

to hear us, sorry about that.

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Um, but yeah, goals goal setting

is one of those things that's, I

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think super important for authors

is super important for anyone who

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wants to get a creative work done.

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Um, otherwise it can just take

forever, but instead by setting.

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Small, achievable, smart goals.

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We can get our writing done.

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So that's what we're going to

talk about today on the podcast.

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Gena: Yeah.

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I think there's a lot of times

where people will think that there's

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this conception, this misconception

really, that you don't, you kind

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of have to wait for inspiration

that when inspiration strikes.

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Somehow the work is going to get done.

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And that's really not what

we have found to be true.

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There have been many times that we have

had things that we've wanted to do.

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And until we have put them on our calendar

and really made room and space for them

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in our life, They just didn't happen.

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I mean, and it wasn't that some

of those things that don't happen

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aren't as important to us, right?

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Some of those things, we really do get

to the point where it's like, is this

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really what I want to spend my time doing?

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But there are those things that

are those passion projects that

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we want to get done, like writing

our book or getting published.

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And the truth of the matter is

guys, it just takes dedication

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and consistency to get there.

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And so, Um, because that does

not come naturally always to

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us because our lives are full.

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We have three kids, we have

clients that we're working for.

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We have, um, volunteer

projects that we're a part of.

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We have other things that we're

doing because we have all of these

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things fighting for our attention.

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Um, it takes.

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really effort and a plan.

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Like move the needle.

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Yeah.

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For us to get it done.

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Christopher: So that's

where this plan comes in.

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So this is a.

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This is the ebook that we ended up

creating because we've shared this with

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several people and they're like, Hey,

can you get that down on paper for us?

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So that was what we've done here.

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If you go to writingmomentum.

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com and you'll see it down there at

the bottom of the page where you can

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just put in your name and email and

the ebook will come right to your

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email as a PDF, and then you can

print it out and that sort of thing.

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And what we thought we'd do today

is we would just bring you through

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basically what move the needle is

all about, about setting those goals.

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So if you want to set some goals with us

over the next 10 minutes or so, um, you're

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welcome to, um, because what we like to

do is not set necessarily year long goals.

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only year long goals because setting a

year long goal is a great overview idea

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of what we want to do but it's a little

much to try and keep track of all year

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long unless you break it into bite sized

pieces and that's what this is about.

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We like to break our goals into six week

stints that we do that We can easily

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measure as we go along in those six

weeks how we're doing with our goal.

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And it may be a smaller goal

that feeds into that large goal.

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So for instance, if my larger goal

is to write a fiction book by the end

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of the year, then my six week goal

might be to research That book, right?

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So that I'm ready to start

writing in the next six weeks.

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So should we jump right into this?

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Gena: Let's jump into it.

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Let's

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Christopher: do it.

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We, we, by the way, just spent some time

with our, we just had a great writing

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time with our, uh, writing momentum group.

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If you're not, if you're not part

of a writer's group and you'd like

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to become a part of a writer's

group that meets every single week,

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come over to writing momentum.

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com and we've got a

membership that you can join.

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It's very low cost and it's a great way.

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for you to have your

writing time be accountable.

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Every single week, and we just, we went

through an entire session working on

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this together with our group, and we

really had some great questions and

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great breakthroughs as we, um mm-hmm

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Went through this.

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So this is called, Hmm.

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Gena: Well, I just wanna point out

when he, when Chris is talking about

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accountability, it's really just.

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Um, for you to set a goal for yourself

that you set the time for yourself

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that every week I'm going to sign.

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I'm going to show up for this.

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It is not about us holding your

feet to the fire that, you know,

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did you get this done and getting

all intrusive into your life?

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It's not

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Christopher: an intrusive thing, but it

is a way to hold your own feet to the fire

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by not just being accountable to yourself.

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Right?

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To know that, hey, I'm going to have this

on my calendar, and I'm going to meet with

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a group of people, that helps me know I

got to kind of get my stuff done before

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we meet together, and by doing that, it

helps you progress in your writing, and

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we've had many writers who've worked with

us who've said, man, um, If it weren't

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for this, they've said, this is the anchor

of my week, this writing time together.

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And so that's really

encouraging always to hear.

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Gena: Absolutely.

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Okay.

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So now let's jump in.

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All right.

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Christopher: So we're

going to jump into it.

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So for moving the needle, the first

thing we'd like to do is to write

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down what our overall goal is.

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So for me, I'm going

to say my overall goal.

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I'm writing a book about writing.

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It's kind of meta, right?

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So I'm writing a book about writing.

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And so that's my goal is I want

to write my book about writing,

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but that is way too broad.

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So after figuring out what it is

that I want to move the needle

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on, My book about writing.

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This is where we're going to start

putting it through this filter, S

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M A R T, to make it a SMART goal.

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Gena: Yes.

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And the whole idea of the

SMART goal started in the, in,

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I think, the business world.

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And we have taken that and really,

um, honed it or, or kind of

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shifted a little bit for writers.

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So that's what we're, we're,

we, we, we perfected it.

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Um, yeah, that's what this is.

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So if you've heard about SMART goals,

you probably have heard it in terms of,

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uh, the vision or direction of a company,

but you know what we've said, writing

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is a business and whether you do it, uh,

Um, just casually kind of on the side or

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whether it is your main source of income,

it's still a business that you're working.

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So

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that's right.

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Gena: That's what we're working on.

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So move the needle.

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We've got first our overarching big

six week goal that we want to do.

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Christopher: We've got that goal.

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Now what we want to do is

put it through these filters.

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So the first thing we need

to ask is, is it specific?

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So, For me, I like to, if I'm writing

a book for instance, I'm not just gonna

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say I want my goal to be, um, writing

a book, I want to say I want to write

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a ten chapter book of about, um, Uh,

let's say 50, 000, um, 50, 000 words,

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okay, that is a lot more specific and

I want to have it done by July 1st of

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Gena: 2025.

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So basically you're adding

the math into it, right?

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You're adding the numbers.

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I like

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Christopher: adding numbers into it.

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You're adding numbers.

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That, as you'll see as we go to

these next few steps, knowing the

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numbers is really, really important.

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Gena: It's not just, I'm writing a book,

but it's, I'm writing this kind of book.

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It's going to be this long

and, or this many chapters.

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And, or, I'm going to write, and we

can talk about this as we get more

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into this, how, Maybe how many minutes

we're going to spend writing it each

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week, how many pages or words it's

going to be, all of those things.

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Christopher: So that's the

next one is measurable.

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If we want to talk about

how is it measurable?

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How can I know that what I've

done, I have accomplished.

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That's what we're going

to do in this session.

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So if we know that we want to write,

for instance, I want to write a

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nonfiction book over the next six

weeks, What do I have to do to make

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myself to let myself know that I've

actually accomplished that thing?

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So for instance, I can't write the

whole book in the next six weeks.

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So what I can do though, is

write a thousand words a week.

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Okay.

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So that's my measure.

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I'm writing a thousand words a

week, or maybe I'm going to say,

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I'm going to write for 45 minutes.

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per week.

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Okay.

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Something like that.

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You want it to be measurable because then

at the end of the week, you can look back

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and say, did I write a thousand words?

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Did I write for 45 minutes?

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Did I do that thing that

I wanted to measure?

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And am I now behind or am I now ahead?

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Right?

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That's why we want it to be measurable.

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So in this case, I'm going to say, well,

I'm going to write a thousand a week.

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Now, this is also important because

If I know my book has to be 50, 000

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words and I'm only allowing myself

to write a thousand words a week

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as my goal, how long is it going

to take me to finish that book?

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Gena: 50 weeks.

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Christopher: 50 weeks.

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See,

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Gena: it's the math.

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It's

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Christopher: the math.

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Gena: He said math never intersects

with writing and creativity.

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It does.

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Christopher: But this is super

insightful because if I thought

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I was going to write my book.

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One hour a week.

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And now I know that it's

going to take 50 weeks.

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Didn't I say I want to

have it done by July 1st?

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Well, that means I have to do more

than one hour a week, doesn't it?

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So now I've got to write at least two

hours a week to have it done by then.

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So that now informs me and lets me

know, Do I want to add writing time?

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Do I want to change my due date?

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Right?

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Make it measurable so that

you get a clearer picture of

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exactly what you're working on.

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Gena: Yep.

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Christopher: Yeah,

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Gena: absolutely.

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Christopher: All right.

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What's, what's A?

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Oh, I'm messing with our graphic there.

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Sorry about that, y'all.

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Uh, what's our next step, Gena?

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Gena: A.

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Christopher: Achievable.

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I'm like, wait a minute.

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What was the word?

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Gena: It's achievable.

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It has to be achievable.

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Cause I think it's very often

that we set these goals.

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Like Chris said, I'm going

to write a book in six weeks.

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And he, as he's doing, go walk,

working through this, he realizes

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that's not even possible.

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I can't, I, you could, if you had nothing

else on your plate, maybe, but But even

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then, you'd probably just get like a rough

draft done and there would still probably

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be quite a bit of work left to do.

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So it just gives a good frame

of reference and gives you

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clarity of what you can achieve.

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Is your goal achievable?

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When you really look at your life,

what you've got going on, you've

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got, um, children, work, volunteer,

community events, you know, social

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life, those kinds of things.

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What is it?

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That you can realistically achieve, but

you do want your goal to be achievable.

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So it shouldn't be too easy.

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Like if you can finish it this week

and it's not going to take the full

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six weeks, well, then maybe you need

to change your goal to make it a little

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more, um, a little more six week.

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In the six week range, something

that would take six weeks.

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But if it's something that you say, well,

yeah, when I look at my life, there's

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no way I'm gonna be able to do that.

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Then break that goal down.

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Yeah, just make sure

that it is achievable.

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Christopher: Then the next thing

you wanna do for the R is you wanna

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make sure your goal is relevant.

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Now, this is actually

an really interesting.

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part here.

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Uh, this, I actually prefer to do this

first because otherwise you just wasted

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a lot of time because the relevant is

asking yourself, does this goal that

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I am setting really align with what

I am trying to accomplish this year?

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And with who I am as an individual,

is this what I want to do?

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And that doesn't mean that

the goal is right or wrong.

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It's just, is this fitting with.

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What I'm wanting to do

at this particular time.

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For instance, I would ask myself

if I'm wanting to write this

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non fiction book on writing.

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Is that really what I'm feeling

burn inside me right now?

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Or is it that I'm wanting

to write a fiction book?

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Because if that's what it is,

then this project really isn't

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relevant for this time period.

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And so this is just a good measure.

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It's a good filter to work things

through and say, Is this, is this

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relevant for my life right now?

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That's why I like doing this

first actually, but then the

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acronym would be all messed up.

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S M A R T, the R would come first

and it'd be RSMAT or something.

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RSMAT,

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Gena: because it's not as positive either.

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It But that is really true.

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I think that's a great, you've been

using this word quite a bit here lately.

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This idea of alignment is what

you are working on, aligning

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with your overall goal.

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And is it aligning with what you want

or need to accomplish this coming year?

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And I think that's a great way

of just asking is, is it aligning

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with the direction that you feel

Called or feel drawn to walk in.

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Yes.

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Gena: So, and do so.

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And there might be some projects.

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There's a lot of great ideas.

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I know you are probably a creative person.

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You can come up with 50 great ideas.

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But what is that?

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What sometimes we call the God idea?

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What is that?

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That idea that truly has that, uh,

touch of divine inspiration to it.

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Something that you really

feel like you should be doing.

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Christopher: Yeah, that's good.

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And then the T on this is time bound.

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Now, here's where the magic comes in.

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We've actually made this time

bound through this little

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workbook we've got here.

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I keep, for those of you watching

online, I keep messing with the

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graphic and I apologize for that.

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Okay, so what we want to do here though

is we want to create smart actions.

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I'm going to jump ahead.

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We want to create smart actions that

actually make this something that we

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can do in the next six week period.

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So what I like to do is I like to

set first of all the six weeks, I

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like to put the due dates on here.

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So if this is January 1st today, which

it is, what do I want to accomplish

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in week one, which ends January 8th?

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And then what do I want to

accomplish in week two, which

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ends January 15th and so on.

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If you do that with us today, you

will find that this ends on February

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14th, which is Valentine's Day.

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So it's really good to say, okay, my six

goals between Valentine's Day that week.

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So what do I want to accomplish each week?

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Well, it may be as simple

as saying, I know I want to

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write a thousand words a week.

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And so my week one smart action

is write a thousand words.

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My week two is write a thousand words.

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My week three is write a thousand words.

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I would encourage you to also maybe put

the date and time for each one of those.

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When you're going to write those

thousand words in there, try

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to be as specific as you can.

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But here's what I found when

I started filling this out

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for myself, for my project.

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Yes, I want to write a nonfiction book

and start that over the next six weeks,

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but I realized when I was starting to

write out what I was going to do each

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week, I thought, wait a second, I've

also got to do research for this book.

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I can't just write a

thousand words a week.

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I've got to do research for each chapter.

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So realistically, my first six

weeks on week one, I went to

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research chapters one and two.

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On week two, I want to research

chapters three and four.

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I want to find quotes.

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I want to find stories.

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I want to find things that support

what I'm talking about in the chapter.

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And when I finished doing that, I realized

my first six weeks was mostly research.

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I would not have thought of that.

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Had I not sat down and done this, I

would have just said, I'm just going

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to write a thousand words a week.

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And then what would have

happened about week three?

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I would have felt like I'm not getting

my goals done because my goal was

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to write a thousand words a week.

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And instead I am spending all my

time researching, but that's okay.

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That's part of the process.

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So that's why we're working through

this so that we can know that what we're

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doing is actually what we're looking for.

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to do.

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Gena: Absolutely.

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That's so good.

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That's so good.

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I think there is, there's something

about going through this kind of process

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that really does help you shine a light

on the areas where you've forgotten

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and really help you bring some, maybe,

um, maybe some, What would it be?

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The things that you, your

expectations more into alignment.

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I'll use that word again.

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Um, I know for myself, I have

trouble sometimes with time.

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You know, this about me,

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where I will say, Oh,

I can do that in a day.

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And Chris is over on the side going,

that that's, That's going to take

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you a week, that's going to take you

way more than what you're expecting.

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Because

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Christopher: most of us do this,

we're very optimistic when it

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comes to the things we can do.

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The things we commit, we always

over commit ourselves, right?

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Gena: Right.

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So, uh, this, going through this

process of really breaking it down, It

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just really helps to say, okay, yeah.

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And it also helps so that you're

no longer looking at this big goal,

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but you're looking at, okay, this

week, all I have to do is this.

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I don't have to write the book.

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I just have to research

chapters one and two.

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I don't have to write the book.

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I just have to.

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Um, write a thousand words.

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I don't have to write the 50, 000

word book, just a thousand words.

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Yeah.

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Christopher: So, and this will

work not just for writing, but

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you could put in your health

goals through a filter like this.

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Any other goals, financial goals, put

them in a filter like this and you'll

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have realistic goals that you can set.

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And then what we do is when the six

weeks is up, we do it all again.

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And we only, we're starting

now with having finished our

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first six week SMART goal.

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And now we're working to week two.

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And by the end of the year, hopefully

we'll have finished that book or

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by July or whatever our goal was.

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Yeah.

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Gena: And then the last thing that I would

add is just making sure you write it down

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so that you are looking at it each week.

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You've got these, these due dates

that you've written down for yourself.

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So by this day, I have to have this, but

if you then take this and put it in a

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drawer, it'll be real easy to forget it.

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So I know for me, He'll look at his

week at the end of the week on Fridays.

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A lot of times he'll come

back and he'll say, okay, what

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did I accomplish this week?

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I do it on the other side.

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I do it on Sunday afternoons is when

I sit down and plan out my week.

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And I actually look at what appointments

do I have and what commitments do I

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have and what deadlines do I have?

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And where do I need to be at what time?

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And then I see what space I have for,

Maybe these projects that I'm wanting to

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do so I can go ahead and pin them in at

the beginning of the week so that I know.

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First of all, at least I have

the one hour of writing momentum.

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Yeah.

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That we get together on Wednesdays, but

also in addition to that, I might have

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a couple of hours on Thursday, or I

might have an hour on Monday afternoon

427

that I can do it, and so I start

working those in each week and really

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setting them down and writing them in.

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Christopher: That's right.

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Hey, we hope you accomplish

all your goals this year.

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Yeah.

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Please go to writing momentum.com.

433

Get this free.

434

Ebook called move the needle.

435

You'll see the link.

436

It's somewhere at the bottom of the page.

437

It's absolutely free and then Do

check out the while you're there check

438

out our membership because we'd love

to have you join us each week It's

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only 25 to join us for a month And

we have all we meet together four

440

times during that month and doing co

writing we have Round table sessions.

441

We have critique sessions.

442

We got Hundreds, literally hundreds of

training videos on writing that you can

443

enjoy all as part of the membership.

444

So come on in, join us.

445

We'd love to see you there

and get your ebook today.

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Yeah.

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Gena: Yeah, absolutely.

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We hope you have an amazing.

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Start to 2025.

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An amazing 2025 in whole.

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I know a lot of us are 2024.

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It has is done and we're

looking for a new start.

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And I, if that's you,

we're right there with you.

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And It's, we hope that you will join

us, however you can, um, join us for

455

writing momentum, join us through

our social media, join us on YouTube.

456

Um, just join us because

we are rooting for you.

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That's right.

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And we're

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Christopher: not in this thing alone.

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That's right.

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Together,

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Gena: we have writing momentum.

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Bye

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Christopher: bye.