Having a dream is the start, but a dream alone is insufficient. When I was in middle school, I first received the itch to have a dream, and that dream was to write a book. I had an amazing English teacher that year named Mrs. Chapman. Mrs. Chapman had our class write in a journal every day, and I had this burning desire to write a novel. From what I recall, it was going to be about knights and dragons or something. That novel never became a reality.

Throughout my life, I have had various times when writing a book was at the front of my mind. I attempted to write a Christian horror novel in college, and I never made it past chapter one. I tried again with the same idea after I graduated, and again, it failed. I even began writing my book in 2017, but I would ultimately take a break for almost two years before actually writing the complete book.

I now realize that I was never able to make my dream of a book a reality, as I had zero planning to go along with my dream. I could visualize the end goal of having a book with my name on the front of it, but I could not see any of the steps that were needed to get there. It was like visualizing a house that I wanted to build, but not having any blueprints or the plans of what I should actually do. I was able to finally write a book because I sat down and I made a plan.

With this book, I had a complete game plan of how I was going to do it. First, I made a strategy of what I wanted the book to look like. How many devotions would it include? Would there be challenges or prayers at the end of each devotion? What types of devotions did I want to write? I spent time in prayer, reading scripture, and reviewing some old devotions that I had written over the years to determine which people from the Bible that I wanted to highlight. I even came up with a typical format or outline for each devotion.

Then, I researched my publishing options. Did I want to self-publish or did I want to seek a professional publishing company? I spoke to other individuals who were published authors and sought feedback from them. I weighed my options financially and timewise in trying to reach my goal. Speaking of time, I made a plan for how many devotions I would write per week, and I set an ambitious goal of when my book would be published. I really began working significantly in November 2018, and I had a goal of having the book published by the end of May 2019. I was able to accomplish that goal by April 29, 2019.

When I was working on my plan, I followed the SMART criteria: my goal was specific, it was measurable, it was achievable, it was relevant, and it was time-bound. All of those items were important. I had a specific goal of writing a book. The way I evaluated or measured the success of the goal was whether I was able to complete the book. I knew it was achievable, as I knew others who had become published authors, including my dad. Writing a book was relevant to my goal, and I had set a time-frame of when I wanted to accomplish it.

I know that I was able to be successful in my plan because of God, but I knew that I had to put in the work to create a plan. I believe that many in the Bible followed that same type of strategizing. Noah had a blueprint of sorts from God in terms of the dimensions of the Ark. Moses was able to lead the people through rules and laws given by God. Joseph strategized how Pharaoh and the people would survive a feminine. Nehemiah rebuilt the walls around Jerusalem by strategizing and organizing the people. Nehemiah’s planning is one of the devotions in my book. It’s evident that people throughout scripture made a plan before they tried to tackle their goal, their destiny, or their dream.

I have found throughout my life that failing to plan will result in me planning to fail. If you want to be successful, you have to have a strategic plan to accomplish your goals. Otherwise, you’re working blindly and just hoping for the best, but part of that strategy has to include CRAFTING TIME, which I will discuss in the next post.