Hiya writer friends,
When he was eight years old, my son and his friends got obsessed with Rubik’s cubes. They challenged each other first with speed, and then with more difficult versions (4×4, eight sides, etc.) At his peak, Jude could solve the cube within a minute. But as the complexity of the challenge increased, so did the number of steps.
Still, it was a sequence. A specific set of steps that were needed to solve the cube.
If you knew the steps, you could solve the cube.
I think about that a lot when I’m teaching anything—pitching, finding clients, landing an agent, writing a book, or building a business.
When the results are incredibly impressive, we assume it was a feat of ingenuity and creative thinking that led to them.
More often than not, all that’s required is that you follow a sequence of steps—consistently.
Solving a Rubik’s cube does not require extreme levels of intelligence or superhuman skill. It requires the ability to memorize a sequence of steps, the willingness to practice until you build muscle memory, and the openness to make tweaks in the way you hold the cube or repeat the steps in order to shave off seconds from your solving time.
It’s not that different with freelancing or publishing or building a creative business.
You need to learn the specific steps to getting the result you’re after. Have the willingness to practice until it becomes habit. And be open to making tweaks in the way you do things so you can improve your results.
It really doesn’t have to be complicated. Unless you want it to be.
Cheers,
Natasha