Don't Try. Do!
For a while now (okay, my entire life), I’ve thought about writing a novel. I did write one once, actually twice. Truthfully, however, I wrote drafts and never reworked, edited, made them better. Currently, I have an idea I think is really good, and I periodically jot down notes or scenes. Sometimes I even read articles or parts of books about How to Write a Novel. But I don’t do the things that one needs to do in order to write a novel, particularly the biggie: Write regularly.
To tell the truth, I feel a lot like my clients.
They need to increase their revenue, get their board more committed and engaged, think strategically about the next 3-5 years. But too often, they don’t seem to get there. Oh, they hire me (or someone like me), and they have meetings, and react to work I do. At least some of them. But they don’t engage in the hard work.
One of my strategic planning clients, for example, was great until we got to the part where I noted that they—not me—needed to look at the goals and objectives we’ve outlines, put specifics on those objectives, identify who owns what, and—crucially—what the budget implications of these actions would be. I mean, let’s face it. A strategic plan without price tags is so much more of a hope than a plan.
A lot of my work is working with organizations on increasing their fundraising results, either by helping them to create and implement a fundraising plan, or working on one specific area (planned giving, major gifts, revamping their annual fund). We create the plan, but implementation? Not so much. It’s “too hard,” we “don’t have time.” Some crisis hits, and instead of thinking, ah! We really need to do the fundraising, they go into panic mode, and nothing much gets done.
Much as I do when it’s time to sit and write. Daily.
In my daily work, I’m big on putting things in my calendar. Not just my meetings, but the things I need to do. Today, for example, between 8-9 I have “Work on articles for April newsletter.” And that is exactly what I am doing. I could, I should, I MUST start putting in Work on Novel—x pages, words, hours. And then I have to commit to doing that.
Likewise, if you need to increase your fundraising, you have to calendar what you need to do and then, of course, you need to do it. If your board has to be engaged—here’s a news flash—it’s not going to happen by itself. What are the ways you could engage them more? And then calendar time to prepare or do that work.
I know, it is easier said than done. How will you reward yourself for doing the work? When I sold insurance and had to make 100 cold calls every day, I allowed myself to walk around the office after every 10 calls, and after 50 I took a 15 minute coffee break. With a chocolate chip cookie. Today, my Apple Watch reminds me to stand up and move around every hour, and I do that—sometimes taking the dogs for a short walk or playing ball with them in my backyard. That, of course, makes them happier than it does me, but any port in a storm
The important thing—-and this is me talking to me as much as to you—is to make a commitment and stick to it. When I was getting my MBA a hundred years ago (ok, only 40 something), we were encouraged to “buddy up.” That is, find someone to encourage you and egg you on. Daily, my buddy Mary and I would call each other (email did not exist then), and ask if we had done the reading, the research, the writing—whatever it was that we had to do for class. It worked. While I still have anxiety dreams about missing classes or not having done the reading or homework, it is always about my undergraduate days where I missed more than I didn’t and felt that I pretty much wasted 4 years! Graduate school didn’t create that feeling that I was always leaving things undone.
Stop thinking about what you are going to do. Or as someone famously said, “Don’t try. Just do.” It’s really good advice for us all!