Last month we talked about the fact that getting to “The End” often involves change and that change can be difficult. The good news is that change can and should be managed. That’s where the Four Ps can help.
What are the Four Ps? William Bridges identified them in his book, Managing Transitions.
- Purpose – why we want to make this change
- Picture – what the successful conclusion of the change will look like
- Plan – when, where, and how the change will occur
- Part – who’s responsible for each aspect of the plan
- These are like the four legs on a table. You need all four to succeed, and if any one is shaky, the whole table will be shaky.
Purpose
First is purpose, because if you don’t know why you want to make a change, that change is highly unlikely to occur. As we’ve done before, we need to answer several questions to fully identify our purpose.
What do you hope to accomplish? Since we’re talking about reaching “The End,” the answer to this question is straightforward: we hope to finish our books.
Why do you want to do this? This is a bit more difficult and harkens back to Analysis. The reality is, if you don’t have a strong motivation, you’ll never reach “The End,” because higher priorities or even simple distractions will send you on detours and drain your energy. It doesn’t matter what your motivation is – whether you need the royalties to pay for groceries or whether finishing a book will satisfy your deepest inner longing. What’s important is that your reason for wanting to write this book must be so compelling that it’ll sustain you through the inevitable difficult times between “Once upon a time” and “The End.”
Do you have the WIT factor? Are you familiar with that acronym? It has nothing to do with humor. Instead, it stands for Whatever it Takes. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to finish your manuscript? Will you forgo lunch with friends, the movie everyone is recommending, or even a weekend away in order to get your writing done? If your answer is “no” or even “maybe,” you’re going to have difficulty getting to “The End.”
Next comes the picture. If you can’t envision what the result of the project you’re undertaking will look like, how will you know whether you’ve succeeded? Furthermore, how will you motivate yourself to work toward a nebulous goal? You won’t.
So, create a picture – a tangible picture, not simply a mental image. Remember the book cover that I encouraged you to make when you were developing a culture of writing? This is the perfect time to make sure it’s posted everywhere. You don’t want to forget the reason you’re going through the admittedly difficult process of change.
The second part of developing a picture is to formalize your goals. Again, this needs to be tangible, so once you’ve identified your goals, both the intermediate and ultimate ones, write them down and print them out.
Next month we’ll talk about making your goals SMART and developing the plan as well as identifying parts. See you then!
(C) 2018 Amanda Cabot
Amanda Cabot is no stranger to getting to “The End.” She juggled a sixty-hour a week job with nonnegotiable deadlines and building a house long-distance at the same time that she wrote two books a year. Whether or not she kept her sanity during that time is debatable. Amanda is the best-selling author of over thirty novels, eight novellas, four non-fiction books, and what she describes as enough technical articles to cure insomnia in a medium-sized city.
Her most recent release is A Borrowed Dream, the second in the Cimarron Creek trilogy.
You can find Amanda at:
www.amandacabot.com
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http://amandajoycabot.blogspot.com/
