How to Succeed At Your Writing With Four Steps To Success

Step 1. Decide what you want.

Do you know what you want? It's important that you know what you want to achieve. Success starts with knowing your goal. Unless you know where you're going there's no chance that you'll get there.

You may have hopes and dreams, but usually these are mixed up with fears and anxieties in your mind. We've discussed setting goals, if you haven't done that already set at least ONE GOAL right now.

Step 2. Act boldly. Writing is a process of discovery - how to succeed becomes evident only in the process.

Writing is a process of discovery -- all writing -- and you can't know how you'll achieve your goals until you've actually written. Writers write, and once you've decided what you want to achieve, start writing. The HOW will become apparent as you write, not before.

The writing process will always tell you what you're writing. You don't even have to know whether you're writing a novel, an essay, or a non-fiction book. The writing will tell you.

So act boldly, and start to write.

Step 3. Next, watch for the results of your actions.

The results can be reactions from other people, or your own reactions. Everything that happens when you write is feedback. As a writer, you have to get comfortable just writing, without necessarily knowing what the outcome will be.

The most important result is your own feelings. What does your instinct tell you? Are you enjoying your writing? If you're enjoying it, keep going.

Results also come from others, often in the form of rejections. Most writers worry about rejections. However, I can tell you right now, that sooner or later you will discover that what's most important is the writing itself, never a rejection. Your writing will have unintended consequences. You'll get help that you never expected. You'll make sales that you never expected.

It all starts and ends with your writing. Unless you're writing, you have no results to watch for. So act, that is write, and keep on writing.

Step 4. Change your actions until you achieve what you decided on in Step 1.

A world of possibilities will open for you when you act -- when you write. All you have to do is choose the next actions, which will achieve what you decided on.

This is perhaps the hardest thing for most writers, both new writers and highly experienced professionals, to learn -- to keep going in the face of obstruction. It goes against everything that seems instinctive, but it works. Our tendency when we're obstructed is to stop. Resistance to writing builds up.

Ride the horse forward!
I learned to ride when I was very young. Every rider knows that you ride the horse forward. No matter what the horse is doing, you ride forward. This stops rearing, bucking, shying and other bad habits that horses develop. You make the horse go forward, always. When the horse is moving forward, you have control.

It's the same with writing. No matter what the challenge, obstruction or resistance is, you write -- you keep going forward. You keep writing – the obstructions will magically melt away.

When you keep going forward -- you will succeed.

These four steps to success work with anything, not just writing – try them. You'll be stunned at the effects, I promise. :-)

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