#028 - Why You Might Need an Acknowledgment List

Welcome back to the Hit Splits Podcast. My name is Shelly Hits, and today I want to talk about why you might need an acknowledgement list. So years ago I was working with a life coach and she was like, Shelly, you accomplish so much in every day, but you don't really see or realize all that you're accomplishing. You're just seeing what you didn't finish or what you did didn't get done on your list. And she said, so I want you to start an accomplishment list and I want you to start writing out what you did accomplish that day, what you did do and realize, like, celebrate that, you know, celebrate what you do accomplish. And one of our mottos in Christian Book Academy is celebrate every word. Because it's so easy when you're writing a book or even like, like when you're marketing. Celebrate every sale, celebrate every review, everyone, you know, and it's so easy to look at like the big thing. And you know, we want to publish our book or we want to reach a bestseller status, or we want to sell so many books, or we want to make this our career and be able to earn money from it or have this big result. And yet what is happening every day, celebrate that and really work to compound that. So again, in Christian Book Academy, every month we have a 15 minute writing challenge. And just even writing 15 minutes a day can help you cross that finish line and get you to the place where your book is done. And so even with marketing, you know, we're starting something new this month in Christian Book Academy called the marketing mission. And every week we challenge you to do a 15 minute marketing task, 50 minutes or less. And we give you a prompt if you want to use that template, you know, or a prompt that you can use, or you can choose whatever marketing task that you want. But at the end of the month, everyone who has done at least 15 minutes a week will be entered into a prize to win a prize. And it's just something fun to do, but it's, it's about taking Those small actions 15 minutes a week or less to market your book, and then 15 minutes a day, you know, to write. You know, those are things that are often overlooked in the day to day. So writing down and saying, okay, what did I accomplish today? What did I accomplish this week? We have something also in Christian Book Academy called praise parties. And in every Friday we have a post in our private group where you can share what did you accomplish this week? What did God do through you this week? And share that. And so it's it's just another way to have kind of like a accomplishment list in a way. But for you, this could mean that you just have a sticky note and every day you're just kind of like writing on that sticky note the things that you get done that day. And maybe you have a three ring binder or some sort of folder and then you just stick that sticky note in the folder, put the date and then, you know, they just start adding up and you just keep adding them to new pages and, and then you can flip through that and think, oh, wow, I really have done a lot. Or if you're a digital person, maybe you have a Google Doc where every day you put the date and then you just add a couple things and then you have the, the newest one on top and then you're just making your little list. Maybe you have a, a, a task manager or something else that you use. You know, you can do this anywhere, can do this in just a regular notebook or a journal. But if you've been struggling lately to feel like you're getting anything done, or if it's easy for you to always just look at what still needs to be done, this might be something to do. And then thank God, like, come into a place of thanksgiving and gratefulness. Thank you Lord that I was able to write for these 15 minutes, Lord. Thank you that I was able to post that one post on that one social media platform. Thank you Lord that I was able to reach out to that one podcast host about being featured on their podcast. Thank you Lord that I was able to accomplish this one thing, you know, and get in a habit and it really will begin to change your perspective. So the other thing though to do is to not try to cram too much into your to do list. So I've talked about this before, but, and maybe, yeah, maybe I'll do an entire podcast on this. But sometimes you need to strategically procrastinate and procrastinate on certain tasks and not put so much pressure on yourself to get everything done right now. Focus on what you need to do right now. What are the most, the highest impact tasks for you? Now if you're trying to finish your first draft, then that's the button chair time. You just have to, you know, get your button in the chair and, and, and begin allowing those words to flow from the Lord through you to that pen or paper or that, that keyboard. But if you're marketing, I really recommend choosing a specific 90 day goal where you're going to focus for this 90 days, of course, you're going to be doing multiple things, but what is your main focus? Is your main focus right now getting podcast interviews? Then focus on that and maybe put some of the other things aside. Those bright, shiny objects get very, very tempting to start doing all. All the things. So narrow it down. What are your top three priorities for the day? Usually you don't want to have a list of too much more than three things, unless, you know it's kind of a list within a list. You know, it's like, I'm going to be doing this one task, but then there's a list that you have to do to get that task done. You know what I mean? So you may need to narrow down your task list if you're constantly overwhelmed and really prioritize where to focus. But you may also need an accomplishment list, at least for a season, and, and really be able to say, okay, thank you, Lord. Thank you that these. I was able to accomplish these things. And if you're finding that you're not accomplishing the things that you want to, maybe there are some distractions. Um, in an earlier episode, I talked about some of the ways to overcome some of those distractions, and you can go back and listen to that again. But anyways, let me just pray for you. Lord, we thank you. We thank you for everything you're accomplishing through us right now. So many days, it's easy to just not even see it, to not recognize it, to not acknowledge the things that we are doing. But, Lord, we thank you that it is through your strength, through your holy spirit, that we're able to move forward in this call to write, publish, and market our books, and that you will give us the wisdom in where to focus and what to do. You will give us the words to write. You will give us the marketing ideas and the. The focus of where. Where we're to be right now. And, Lord, I just pray that each person right now would just be able to follow you and do the things that you're calling them to do. Faith without action is dead. So, Lord, give them the faith, Give them the connection with you, the personal connection with you, but then also help them to step this out every day, one small task at a time, one word at a time. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So, friends, celebrate every word written for your manuscript. Celebrate every small task that you do to market. It adds up over time. And also keep meeting with God in these business meetings with him. Ask him, what are. What are the priorities? What's. What's really going to work or if you're stuck on an outline. If you're stuck in your manuscript, ask the Lord for wisdom. And we would love for you to join us in Christian Book Academy. You can join us@christianbookacademy.com if you're not already a member. We have many, many ways to help you move forward in this call to write, publish and market your books. And I will talk to you in the next episode. Bye Bye.