The night before my friend Michelle’s wedding, May 15th, 1981, I was going to sew on the sleeves and hem my bridesmaid dress. However, I forgot that I had to attend the bridal dinner the night before the wedding, and then I got home really late. I could just wake up early and sew on the sleeves the day of the wedding. there was enough time.
I arrived at the bride’s home just as the limo arrived to take her and the bridesmaids to the church. I didn’t get to help the bride get dressed, but I made the deadline of not missing the wedding ceremony. The dress I sewed wasn’t perfect, there were a few loose threads I didn’t have time to snip, but I finished the dress.
If there was no deadline, if they had not picked a date for their ceremony, I would have never finished sewing the dress. It would still be hanging in my closet, unhemmed, with the two sleeves laying on the floor waiting to be attached.
[share-quote]Deadlines help sew bridesmaid dresses and publish books. [/share-quote]
Book deadlines help publish books
If there wasn’t a deadline for How To Be a Cat, the book would still be waiting to be illustrated and formatted. The deadline was self-imposed, but it gave me a timeline and a framework to finish the book.
The book was written by my cat, Pooh Hodges, three years ago. If I didn’t make a deadline at the start of this year to publish the book on October 4th, the book would not have been made.
The book would have remained in my “dreams” on a list of projects I want to do. The October 4th deadline gave me a structure to plan from.
The book was edited, then it was illustrated, formatted, designed, sent to the printing company, Create Space, the proofs were ordered. Then Dr. Suess, was spelled the right way, Dr. Seuss. The word was, was changed to were, and honarary was changed to honorary. The final approval of the edited changes came back from the printing company twelve hours before the deadline to publish the book on Amazon.
Deadlines give you a goal to aim for.
Wedding dates and publish dates.
Do you have a project you have been working on and haven’t finished yet?
Do you delay finishing it because you want to make it perfect?
[share-quote] Be a dreamer, who finishes. Set a deadline, sew your bridesmaid dress and publish your book.[/share-quote]
Make a decision, do the best you can today, finish and ship. After you finish your project, learn from it, and apply what you have learned to the next bridesmaid’s dress you sew, or book you write.
What are you working on right now that you want to finish? Do you have a deadline?
I love to hear from you. Click here to comment, or scroll to the bottom of the post if you are on the blog.
xo
Pamela
p.s. How To Be a Cat is available on Amazon now! This week the Kindle version is only 99 cents. Click on the book to take you to Amazon.
