Most everyone who has the desire to become successful in an occupation must follow the start-move-grow plan. Without starting there’d be no reason to move forward in the learning process and grow in your gift. We must find the one thing that captures our attention and makes us happy.
Take me, for instance, when I felt the call to become a writer, I sat at my computer and let my fingers dance across the keyboard. It never occurred to me there were different methods of writing and specific styles in punctuation, like The Chicago Manuel of Style or The Bedford Handbook. I assumed writing was, well, writing.
What a rude awakening when an editor returned my first nonfiction submission and suggested I “learn” how to write? Really?
After sulking a couple of weeks and giving my wounded pride time to heal from the rejection, I began my search for ways to learn. My search ended when I discovered a four-year online writing course by Jerry Jenkins. Lesson by lesson I learned from the beginning.
Start: I completed each lesson, step-by-step. I didn’t always know what I was doing, but at least I’d registered, paid, and started my first writing projects—writing articles. Words appeared on paper and began building on each other until I had a full 1,200-word article written. It was exhilarating to see it flow correctly. I did it. I got the process started.
Move: Keep going. Be diligent. The lessons grew harder. Since the course required the assistance of a writing mentor to look over my work, I received constructive edits, suggestions, and a lot of encouragement to keep moving. Therefore, I pressed forward.
Grow: After completing the course, I continued my writing journey and began submitting short stories for anthologies. My year of jubilee came when an editor accepted my submission and announced that I’d won second place in the writing contest. The acceptance of this story confirmed that my writing had improved. I had grown. But, let’s not get too excited.
The growing process never ends. Since then, I’ve started the next piece of my journey by writing romantic suspense novels. I’ve moved forward and grown in my desired career. I’ve studied, submitted, been rejected, studied, rewritten, and resubmitted. It’s an ongoing, learning process, but well worth the efforts.
It doesn’t matter what profession we choose our success will depend on the Start-Move-Grow Plan.
What’s your profession? Share how this plan worked for you.
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