Category Archives: focus

Happily Slogging On!

Here are some thoughts from Non-Profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer, Derek Link, on focus and perseverance:

Doing something difficult is always a trial of wills. You must enforce your will over the task, and over all other competing tasks. You must make a commitment that the task at hand is the one that matters most, and devote your focus on it entirely through the inevitably arduous march toward completion.

I’ve experienced this happy slog over and over in my life. Fortunately I got good advice about the slog along the way, and actually before I even began my first one (the university). I had a wonderful teacher in high school named Norm Barker. He was an architecture teacher and a terrifically talented person. He could do anything with his hands. I admired him because of those skills, and he was actually in my neighborhood so I got to see some of his handiwork first hand. He rebuilt a 1961 Porsche from paint to engine to upholstery, he built his own stereo speakers, he took an old wood-burning pot-bellied stove that he’d found in a field and welded up all the bullet holes and recast the missing parts and it was a thing of beauty when he finished.

What Mr. Barker taught me, in addition to some drafting skills, was that dedication to an endeavor produced good results. I recall that he was inspiring me to become an architect at one point as a student and he showed me a list of the courses at Cal Poly I’d need to take to become an architect. I remarked to him that I wasn’t good at math (truth be told, in high school I didn’t do my homework which mostly accounted for my poor math scores). He told me a valuable thing that sustained me throughout my Bachelor’s and my Master’s degrees: Mr. Barker said, “Derek, there’s nothing you can’t get through for one semester”. BRILLIANT ADVICE, Mr. Barker.

So, this is a long bird-walk to get to my topic of the Happy Slog. When you are in the midst of writing a grant and you’re feeling like you’ll never slog through it, just keep Mr. Barker’s advice in mind (with a little twist) “There’s nothing you can’t get through in three (fill in your deadline) weeks.” The deadline will come and go, so keep your mind focused and ignore all the competing distractions that are bound to come your way.

Slog on grant writers, slog on!

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Happily Slogging On!

Here are some thoughts from Non-Profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer, Derek Link, on focus and perseverance:

Doing something difficult is always a trial of wills. You must enforce your will over the task, and over all other competing tasks. You must make a commitment that the task at hand is the one that matters most, and devote your focus on it entirely through the inevitably arduous march toward completion.

I’ve experienced this happy slog over and over in my life. Fortunately I got good advice about the slog along the way, and actually before I even began my first one (the university). I had a wonderful teacher in high school named Norm Barker. He was an architecture teacher and a terrifically talented person. He could do anything with his hands. I admired him because of those skills, and he was actually in my neighborhood so I got to see some of his handiwork first hand. He rebuilt a 1961 Porsche from paint to engine to upholstery, he built his own stereo speakers, he took an old wood-burning pot-bellied stove that he’d found in a field and welded up all the bullet holes and recast the missing parts and it was a thing of beauty when he finished.

What Mr. Barker taught me, in addition to some drafting skills, was that dedication to an endeavor produced good results. I recall that he was inspiring me to become an architect at one point as a student and he showed me a list of the courses at Cal Poly I’d need to take to become an architect. I remarked to him that I wasn’t good at math (truth be told, in high school I didn’t do my homework which mostly accounted for my poor math scores). He told me a valuable thing that sustained me throughout my Bachelor’s and my Master’s degrees: Mr. Barker said, “Derek, there’s nothing you can’t get through for one semester”. BRILLIANT ADVICE, Mr. Barker.

So, this is a long bird-walk to get to my topic of the Happy Slog. When you are in the midst of writing a grant and you’re feeling like you’ll never slog through it, just keep Mr. Barker’s advice in mind (with a little twist) “There’s nothing you can’t get through in three (fill in your deadline) weeks.” The deadline will come and go, so keep your mind focused and ignore all the competing distractions that are bound to come your way.

Slog on grant writers, slog on!

———————————-

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Grant Writing – Don’t Chase the Money

You have seen this here before – Chase your dream (your vision, your mission), not the money.  I know it sounds counter-intuitive to you, especially if you are a non-profit executive or school administrator who is just trying to keep your programs alive, but it’s important.  Not only is a focus on the money rather than your mission the surest way to get pulled off-track with your work, but most savvy funders can see right through the ruse. You end up doing more work for less return.

It just makes more sense to stay focused on your mission than  to keep trying to fit the square peg of the funding source in front of you into the round hole that is your organization’s mission-driven need.

No matter how hard I try to educate my clients, I saw it again last week,  As I met with a client to discuss the details about a grant the said they wanted to pursue, it became obvious that this grant opportunity is not aligned with the organization’s current priorities.  Yes, they could go for it.  They might even get it, but then they’d have to implement a program that is not aligned with where they say they want to go…..and all this for a couple of million dollars that they wouldn’t be allowed to spend on what they really need anyway..

Let’s say you need $100 to get to New York next month for a family reunion and someone offered to give you $200, but only if you would go to Santa Cruz next month. Would you take it?  Only if you really wanted to go to Santa Cruz instead of New York anyway. If not, you’d probably be focused enough to know that spending next month in Santa Cruz would take you off track from your plan to get to New York for the family reunion and you wouldn’t take that deal.  You’d keep looking for someone who could help you get to New York.

You should keep the same level of focus with your grant research. Keep your mission and vision front and center, and look for the funding sources to help you get there.

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Grant Writing – Don’t Chase the Money

You have seen this here before – Chase your dream (your vision, your mission), not the money.  I know it sounds counter-intuitive to you, especially if you are a non-profit executive or school administrator who is just trying to keep your programs alive, but it’s important.  Not only is a focus on the money rather than your mission the surest way to get pulled off-track with your work, but most savvy funders can see right through the ruse. You end up doing more work for less return.

It just makes more sense to stay focused on your mission than  to keep trying to fit the square peg of the funding source in front of you into the round hole that is your organization’s mission-driven need.

No matter how hard I try to educate my clients, I saw it again last week,  As I met with a client to discuss the details about a grant the said they wanted to pursue, it became obvious that this grant opportunity is not aligned with the organization’s current priorities.  Yes, they could go for it.  They might even get it, but then they’d have to implement a program that is not aligned with where they say they want to go…..and all this for a couple of million dollars that they wouldn’t be allowed to spend on what they really need anyway..

Let’s say you need $100 to get to New York next month for a family reunion and someone offered to give you $200, but only if you would go to Santa Cruz next month. Would you take it?  Only if you really wanted to go to Santa Cruz instead of New York anyway. If not, you’d probably be focused enough to know that spending next month in Santa Cruz would take you off track from your plan to get to New York for the family reunion and you wouldn’t take that deal.  You’d keep looking for someone who could help you get to New York.

You should keep the same level of focus with your grant research. Keep your mission and vision front and center, and look for the funding sources to help you get there.

—————————–

Would you like a free 30-day trial membership at GrantGoddess.com? Send an email requesting a free 30-day trial with your first and last names and email address.

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

A Few Words from the Coach About Focus

The Coach’s Corner section of the grantgoddess.com member site is full of inspiration and wisdom from certified coach, MaryEllen Bergh. She’ll also be sharing some of it here for everyone. If you want more, learn about becoming a member.

For now, here’s what the Grant Coach has to say about Focus:

In the movie “UP”, a pack of dogs are viciously approaching our heroes – teeth bared, eyes   focused and fixed on their goal. All of a sudden, there’s a shout, “Squirrel!” The dogs suddenly lose sight of our heroes and run excitedly in all directions, falling upon one another in their frenzy to find the squirrel.

How do you discriminate between distractions that contribute to your creative process or those that have you chasing squirrels?

Try these 3 ways to stay focused:

1)      Eliminate distractions. Turn off the phone, close the door, close email, stay away from squirrels.
2)      Quickly picture what you want to achieve. Stay with it for a couple of minutes to truly experience the feeling. The start your writing or other project.
3)      Take a short walk. Before you return, think of two things that you want to accomplish when you return.

A Few Words from the Coach About Focus

The Coach’s Corner section of the grantgoddess.com member site is full of inspiration and wisdom from certified coach, MaryEllen Bergh. She’ll also be sharing some of it here for everyone. If you want more, learn about becoming a member.

For now, here’s what the Grant Coach has to say about Focus:

In the movie “UP”, a pack of dogs are viciously approaching our heroes – teeth bared, eyes   focused and fixed on their goal. All of a sudden, there’s a shout, “Squirrel!” The dogs suddenly lose sight of our heroes and run excitedly in all directions, falling upon one another in their frenzy to find the squirrel.

How do you discriminate between distractions that contribute to your creative process or those that have you chasing squirrels?

Try these 3 ways to stay focused:

1)      Eliminate distractions. Turn off the phone, close the door, close email, stay away from squirrels.
2)      Quickly picture what you want to achieve. Stay with it for a couple of minutes to truly experience the feeling. The start your writing or other project.
3)      Take a short walk. Before you return, think of two things that you want to accomplish when you return.
Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com