I accomplished two of my 90-day goals in just two days! Do you want to know how I did that?
On this training, I am going to share with you how I was able to accomplish two of my goals in just a short period of time.
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Two BIG Goals!
I thought it would be fun, to share with you how I accomplished two of my 90 day goals in just 2 days. Now, these were big goals and it could literally take 90 days to complete these. But I finished them completely in 2 days!
It really astounded me.
And how I did it? It was through my virtual writing retreat.
I hosted my very first one on January of 2017 with my Author Audience Academy members. It was incredible. It simply works!
I used the same schedule and setup to what I did with my in-person writing retreat in Colorado last year. In my in-person writing retreat everyone finished their first drafts. And those books have went on to be published.
I thought, “Man, if this works well in person, I really think this could work virtually too. It’s a way for people to experience it without having to pay travel. They wouldn’t have to pay the higher expenses that it cost to come to an in-person retreat.”
And so, I’m going to share with you a short excerpt of the retreat and the very first day. And at the end, I’m going to share with you some of the successes that my members had as they participated in this 2-day retreat.
I really encourage you to consider it. My next retreat is March 10th and 11th of 2017. You can just go to my website ShelleyHitz.com/VirtualRetreat and check out when the next one will be.
I plan to do the retreats quarterly. Let’s do this together!
I’m really excited to help you get some results. So, here is a sneak peek. Check this out and tell me what you think. Hopefully you can join me on one of my upcoming retreats.
Encouragement
Last night, as I was preparing for this (writing retreat), I was thinking. I was wondering what I really was hoping would happen during these next two days. What I really hope happens is that you will be fruitful and you can get a lot done.
Maybe there are things you wanted to do that you have not been able to. I would really love to see you be fruitful and to do it. The verse that God gave me when I was thinking about this last night comes from Jeremiah 17:5-8.
This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord.”
In this field of writing, there are so many times that we get into self-sufficiency. It’s so easy to get into depending on ourselves, on what we know, and what we have. We depend on our own strength, energy, and mindset.
Yet, it says, “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.”
But here’s how to be fruitful:
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.”
Is your confidence in the Lord right now? Are you believing in Him for what he’s going to do through you over the next two days?
I want it to encourage you, if it’s not. Replace your trust and your confidence in him.
Say, “Lord I am trusting You for what You are going to do in and through me for the next two days. I am putting my confidence in You; not in my own abilities, and not in my own finances. It’s no longer in me but in You.”
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes;”
It does not fear when writer’s block comes. It does not fear when the book sales seem to dry up. It does not fear when we don’t know what to do next. It does not fear when technology demon’s strike.
“It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
You want to know how to be fruitful? Put your confidence and trust in the Lord. Not in us, or our strength. Not in our abilities or our finances. Not in what we’re doing, or what we see. And not in numbers or in anything the world says we should be as writers and authors.
We should trust in the Lord.
When we do, the scripture says “We will not fear. We will not have worries, and we will never fail to bear fruit.” So my word for you over the next two days is fruitful.
Who today receives that from the Lord?
I know that I need it, too. I’m going to do a lot of technical work and to be honest I don’t really love it. I don’t love setting up a new email list, and connecting all the pieces.
I also don’t love updating a book to make it perma-free. I don’t love those kinds of stuff.
This is what I love. I love encouraging you. I love teaching. But the stuff that I’m going to be do, I don’t really love. But that’s OK.
We don’t have to love everything. God can be our strength. He can be our source, and he can make us fruitful no matter what we are experiencing.
Preparation is the key for something like this.
I hosted my first in-person writing retreat last September. Every single person who came and attended finished the first draft of their book. And those books went on to be published! It was just incredible.
And that is why I decided to start hosting virtual writing retreats. I saw the power in a focused time of energy, writing, and work, whatever you’re working on. It’s powerful, but preparation is key.
I always open my retreats in prayer. I believe that the fruit comes from trusting and putting our confidence in the Lord. It comes from asking him for ideas.
So I begin to prepare. I already kind of knew what I was going to do because I had written out some things. I don’t know if you guys saw the video I had done on
my 2017 plan. It’s in the Plan-It Day module now. You can watch it if you didn’t get that.
So I had some things already written out in there. And then last night I began writing out my action plan of what I wanted to get done.
What I’ll do is just stay open, as I’m writing it out and deciding. This is how I work on projects. Then I’ll just stay open and pray, asking God for wisdom, “God what do you want me to do, or what would work best?”
I changed some things in the midst of that, even from last night and this morning. I may change some things even as I go and that’s OK.
Change is sometimes needed as we plan. We don’t see the full picture all the time or we don’t know exactly everything until we get into it. So I say, always stay open. Have a receptive spirit, an open spirit, to what God wants to do and ask him for wisdom.
James 1:5 says if we lack wisdom we just simply need to ask God and he’ll give it to us.
“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” (NLT)
So I encourage you, as you have your outlines and as you’re preparing with your action plans, keep asking God. Just come to God and ask “God, do you have something else for me? Is this what you have for me? Is there a different way it would work?”
Like I said, I felt like I was even given wisdom just this morning and I was changing some things on my action plan.
Testimonials from Attendees
Kim Steadman
“Hi there, this is Kim with KimSteadman.com. I just finished a virtual writing retreat with Shelley Hitz and the Author Audience Academy. I cannot begin to express how absolutely excited, over the moon excited, I am about this two intense days of writing. I was able to get the 9,000 words written for this new children’s book. And I was able to also get the first five chapters self-editing. I mind mapped out the ten images that I want for the book. So, to say I’m pleased, I’m beyond pleased. I am so excited.”
Kevin Cunningham
“This is Kevin Cunningham and I say, it has been phenomenal. The opportunity to clear the schedule and have time to dedicate to creating new content. I have at least 16,000 words transcribed from the sermons today, another 1,500 words that I created just today alone of fresh, new content, and that’s just day one.”
Rebecca Livermore
“Hi I’m Rebecca Livermore. If you’ve ever thought of writing a book but you struggle to get it done, I want to encourage you to attend Shelley Hitz’s virtual writing retreat. It was a great combination of encouragement, community, and just time alone to write. With that combination, I ended up writing over 11,000 words in two days.
I was able to complete four chapters of my book project and Shelley prayed for us at the beginning of each day. My request was for clarity and I was just getting all kinds of ideas, the right words that I wanted to use and that was really a blessing. Second day my request was for a techy problem I was having and we chose somebody in the chat box to pray for, the gal that had my name happened to be able to help me with my techy problem, so that was great interaction and very invigorating.”
Susan Mueller
“I’m Susan Mueller and I had the opportunity to participate in Shelley Hitz’s two day virtual writing retreat. It was fabulous. I accomplished a lot and it was just the nudge I needed to start taking action and to start setting up some goals for my writing.”
Azalea Dabill
“My name is Azalea Dabill. I’m an author of historical and YA fantasy. There was great interaction with the group, the format was really easy to follow, and I’m a slow kind of writer, but the Pomodoro technique has really helped. I recommend it for anyone who wants to up their word count and production. During these two days I completed the rough draft of Kingdom School with adding 1,200 words, and I also completed the outline for my next book.”
Chuck Livermore
“My name is Chuck Livermore and writing for me is often a grueling, slow, tedious process. I was given the opportunity to attend a virtual writing retreat. The two days that we had working with each other we were able to encourage each other, we were given personal help by Shelley, and we just had a great time of fellowship.
In those two days I was able to write drafts for two additional chapters, and I did have time at the end of the second day to knock out a blog post. If you want to experience the benefits of this highly productive time, sharing with other writers, and learning new methods of writing more effectively, I encourage you to attend one of the virtual writing retreats. It will make you a better, more productive writer, and you’ll also have a lot of fun.”
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