What you are holding in your hands is a process that we have seen work with creatives just starting out, entrepreneurs wanting to get to the next level, and those with million dollar businesses. There are two PDF’s; one that is blank and ready for you to get started with and a sample one just to give you an idea of how to get started. Use as many pages as you would like to work through this. Download the Sample and the Blank PDFs below.
You can print out the templates and use them however you like. You can also use 4×6 cards if you want. Feel free to paint, draw, or do whatever you want to tell your story in the way that you want to. I suggest that you schedule an afternoon whenever you have the time to just focus on you.
Having recently witnessed the process of storyboarding that Pixar uses to tell those stories that tug on our heartstrings, I was blown away by how much time goes into the story before you even begin to tell it. Pixar normally spends 3-5 years getting the story right and then another two or so animating it. Most of us try and animate our life without having any idea what story we are going to tell. Take a few hours and invest in your story. I promise you won’t regret it!
Roles & Titles:
Go through and think of all the roles and titles that you have (both personally and professionally). This is a key part to knowing what you are doing. Some of these are things that you can’t “undo,” but some are roles that you are playing that may need edited out of your story.
Key Events & Big Goals:
Now is the time to look at your next year and identify the key events that you have going on. Things like product releases, big events, trade shows, launches, and events you are putting on or are a part of.
Next, let’s look at your big goals. What are those “BIG” things that you want to see accomplished this year? Sometimes that means starting something new, sometimes it means actually finishing something you have started.
My Passions & My Strengths:
Let us help you with defining what your passions are. We chase dreams; our passions chase us. Our passions are those things that we have to do; they make us feel alive. They are the things that we can’t not do. I have been asked by tens of thousands of teenagers and college students, “How do I know what my purpose for being here is?” It’s simple; chase your passions. The bad news is that very few people actually live out their passions. They waste their life chasing the “American Dream” rather than their own. Our time on earth is too short to leverage our whole lives so we can wear black socks to our knees, velcro shoes, and sit on a beach waiting to die.
Others typically affirm your strengths. But there are things you know you are good at that either you have been listening to the voice of fear that says you can’t do that or the voice of doubt that knows you can do it, but refuses to allow you to actually do it.
My Brands & My Projects:
My brands may be clear for you to write out with product lines or they may be less clear right now. They may be collections you have, or they may have really general terms like Lunch and Dinner, or Canvas and Paper. The long-term goal is to get crazy specific here.
Your projects would bleed out of your goals that you have set. These would most likely be new things. Adventures you want to start. What are your big must do projects for this year?
Cast & Crew:
The director; who is calling the shots? You? Your faith? Your spouse? All 3? The lead character. That would be you. Writing it down just helps you know that.
Who is a part of your story? Who are the key players personally and professionally? No movie happens without a cast and crew. There are always about 10 people who spend most of the time on the screen and hundreds that never get a second of screen time. Looking at your story, who are these people?
Outsourcing:
What are the personal and professional tasks that you can outsource? You can’t do everything. What tasks could someone else do better than you could? If you look at your time as money, what could they do cheaper?
Role, Goal, or Project Worksheets:
You have two pages for you to really drill down on the story you want to tell with each of your Roles, Goals, and Projects (or brands, passions, and strengths) you can take this out as far as you want. You can save it from year to year, and edit, and add, etc.
-Success Is. If you don’t know what the goal line is, you don’t know how to get there. So define it.
-Establish your Why. Why are you doing this? With no “Why,” the rest doesn’t really matter to you or anyone else.
-Clarify your What. What exactly are you doing? What are the big things that you need to stare at every day?
-Determine your How. How is this going to happen? Get crazy specific here!
-Assemble your Who. Walt Disney famously said, “It takes people to make dreams a reality.” Who do you need to help get stuff done? For some tasks, this will just be you.
-Schedule your When. No really, put in on the calendar. Block off time. This will help you avoid the “I don’t know where to start” trap.
In a few weeks, you will get part two of this with next month’s module. That will help you put this all together. Trust me, you have several hours worth of work to get you started now! If you have questions, don’t be afraid to ask. Others may have the same question in the comments below. Feel free to post some pictures on the Facebook page of your storyboards. I can’t wait to see and hear what you guys create.
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