In the spirit of my upcoming return to the 1WC (1 Week Challenge), I am posting my original challenge and the follow-up. I plan to begin the next challenge this Saturday, May 2nd 2020. Enjoy!

This was originally published on August 22nd, 2018

Sometimes we bite off more than we can chew, in fact I’ve written about it before. It’s a human thing, that part of us that is creative and filled with ideas can clash with the reality of the world. Family, bills, and a day job get top billing as they should, along with all of the other activities that we choose to engage in. I am notorious for such things. There are so many projects I want to start that it is hard for me to contain my excitement and wait for the completion of one before I start another.

That is where I find myself now. I’m sitting on book ideas and comic ideas and music ideas, all in various stages of development, but none of them completed. When this does happen, I often look to others for inspiration. It can be in writings or in grandiose actions. The problem with this is the fact that those folks are not you or I, and though you can use that for inspiration, in the end it is you who must act. Procrastination is a hell of a drug and often I gain inspiration from these readings, but it does not convert to meaningful action.

I’m sick of it!

Satisfaction comes with completing these tasks and moving on to others, not idly toiling away at them only to get frustrated as they seem never-ending. That is why I’m going to challenge myself to take all of the tasks that I’ve started and get them moving in a meaningful direction. No more meandering, endless ideas that lead nowhere. I am giving myself one week from the publication of this post to make meaningful progress on five points of action in my life.  

My Five Point Action Plan to Address Everything I’ve Been Putting Off

* Though this is not a part of my action plan, I will use this opportunity to point out that during this week I will also be waking up at 6-6:15am, as this is something I’ve wanted to achieve for a while. It will fit right in with a one week blitz to kick start my drive toward financial independence and living my most effective life.

1. Create Comprehensive Business Plan

I have been meaning to write an actual business plan for years. Trying to “wing it” and pull together a wide range of interests and ideas without an actual roadmap is damn near impossible. Every time I accomplish something, there is no clear path on where to go from there. The first step I will take on my week of change will be to write a comprehensive business plan. It will not be a list of 10 vague goals that I hope to achieve, but a proper business plan. I am going to schedule out in these increments: 1 month, 3 months, 9 months, 1 year, and 3 years. In doing this, I will create rock solid and achievable goals that will motivate me to continue.

2. Work Area Setup

When running a business of any sort, you need a space where distractions can disappear and only the work remains. For the writing part of my venture I will need a spacious and accommodating desk. My main battle will be keeping that desk clear and workable with two daughters and a kitten.

My other work area is not quite as easy. When I started Comic Jones, it was out of a want to enjoy something I love and make some money on the side. Well, when you run an Ebay business that deals in physical goods, you need more than a desk to perform your work. In order to achieve the work area that I desire, I will need to clean my garage and set up a packaging/shipping station as well as an area to take proper photos for sales. I will take a photo of my garage in its current state to show exactly why this task will not be as easy as it seems.

3. Book Editing

In previous posts I have talked about the fact that I’ve written a book. I’ve also discussed how hard of a time I am having staying on task when it comes to working through the second edit of that book. The only way it will ever actually be completed is if I work on it daily, and in a scheduled manner. By the end of my one week challenge, I will have established a pattern of editing my book, Darkness Falls, At the Edge of Light, for at least 30 minutes a day until it is done. By forcing myself to do this I can continue to utilize the time for writing after I have finished editing my book.

4. Comic Jones

A while back I started an Ebay business based on the acquisition and sale of collector comic books. I started this because I already had an extensive collection of comics from my youth that I wanted to sell along with a love of comics. Once I figured out the nuts and bolts of this, which I wrote about, I went into business as Comic Jones. Sales were steady and at the beginning of this year I stocked up on comics that I thought would sell well.

Then I stopped.

I don’t know if it was the collector in me coming out now that my adult self could afford books that I thought out of reach as a youth. Maybe I was intimidated by the amount of work it would take to fire up the comic machine again. A lot of my apprehension revolves around the fact that I don’t have a sound and indentifiable plan. At the end of my one week challenge I will have cleaned up my shipping area and laid out an easy to follow and effective plan to get business moving again.

5. Business 2 Business Website

The final step is to create a Business to Business(B2B) freelance writing services website. I know what you’re saying, “You already have a website, why build another?” This website is my baby, I write about what I want, when I want, and throw caution to the wind. In order to start actively applying for copywriting work, I’ve realized that I need a site that is dedicated to just that facet of my business. The catch-all, generalist nature of my current site suites my large variety of interests, but it does not do a good job communicating the fact that I am seeking to promote myself as a copywriter.

Another aspect of doing this is the fact that I am going to use WordPress to build the site, as opposed to my current site which I built with WIX. I have wanted to do this for a while to learn the WordPress platform as it is the most popular for building websites.

Variables

I would like to point out a couple of things before I take on this challenge in order to be completely transparent.

• I have already laid the groundwork for almost everything I am choosing to work on. I have sold comics as Comic Jones and started editing my book. The only completely new thing is building a B2B website.
• These goals are lofty and though my main motivator is to complete them all, forward progress on all 5 in any form would be a draw.
• This will all be new to me as I try to achieve it. You will either get to see me succeed and set another one week challenge or flame out spectacularly.

What about you?

As I write this, I am both excited about the possibly of advancing my goals and nervous about the prospect of failure. These feelings are the ones that haunt anyone who is trying to achieve a goal that seems too large.

But what about you? What is the thing that you have been putting off?

It doesn’t have to be a whole set of ideas, but one thing that you’ve always wanted to do but have never been able to focus on totally. My challenge to you is to set your own one week challenge. I have often searched for folks who have tried something similar, but I realized that I cannot look to the deeds of others to solve my problems or advance myself. I alone can make that happen.

In the end, you are the catalyst for your own success. This challenge will officially start upon posting of this article. I am working on a 7 day week, not that 5 day business week garbage. That means that it will go from Thursday, August 22nd 2018 to Thursday, August 30th. If all goes well, I will then set another one week challenge. Sometimes you just need to take it one week at a time.

Talk to you in a week!

Peter