Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. —Vincent Van Gogh 

Lisa Takes On A Project

The first summer during the pandemic I decided to take on a low-stakes self-improvement project. I signed up for Duolingo and started learning French.

French isn’t likely to help me in my career or personal life, but I thought it would be fun to look forward to a future in which I might go to Montreal and order coffee in French. So I decided to take it easy; I just committed to practicing for a few minutes almost every day.

I’m WHAT?

Yesterday, the app informed me that I was among the top 3% of learners worldwide. I was truly surprised, given how small my commitment is...I had assumed that most people were practicing much more than I have been.

But this is the reality: it isn’t easy to do a little bit of something every single day. And if you manage it, you can make a huge difference in the outcome of your goals.

J’aime Le Francais

With only ten minutes a day, I can now speak and understand beginner French. I could absolutely order coffee in a Montreal cafe. I can also book a room, buy a purse, and inform someone that their cat is eating pizza with a horse.

Writing Is The Same

Similarly, I love working with writers because when I check up on them after a few weeks, they’ve usually made significant progress. I spoke with one writer several months ago who was overwhelmed by what lay ahead of her to produce a manuscript. I suggested that she pick a small, very achievable goal—250 words daily—and see where she was after a few weeks. In three months, she’d have over twenty thousand words.

I’m thrilled to report that she has kept it up, and has written close to fifty thousand words.

If you’re looking to set a realistic goal for your writing, Bookflow’s daily prompts are a great way to achieve something in a very limited amount of time. You can use them to experiment with your work-in-progress, to generate all new ideas, or simply as an exercise to warm up your creative brain before diving more fully into a project.

Plan Now For The Person You Want To Become

When you invest time in your creative life, you’re building your future—a future in which you can look back and see how each small positive step you took played a part in the person you’ve become.