July 1st marked my first day out of my Mastermind group. For the months of April, May and June I checked in daily with my group to watch a video posted by our fearless leader, Dan Blank. Once I inputted my daily dose of wisdom, I shared and collaborated in our private online group, as did the other ten participants. Our goal? To learn how to make connections in a way that would further our creative careers.

In these three months I stretched my thinking, applied some best practices, met new friends, made big plans and learned A LOT. And now… that it’s all done… now what?

Now I put my head down and my blinders on. I need to do something with all of that thinking, all of that learning. Now, I am going to say NO to new learning. NO to opportunities that pique my interest. NO to anything additional. That might sound weird, especially coming from a teacher, but hear me out.

Unless I take time to honor what I just learned, take time to complete my current works in progress… the learning didn’t really ACCOMPLISH anything. I put a lot of time into this Mastermind, a lot of time into my learning and connecting. If I don’t produce any RESULTS from that hard work, it will not have been time well spent. It will have been time wasted.

So in July and August, I am going to work. HARD. Mostly on my own. And I hope that come September, I will have some great things to share with you… the result of a lot of learning, and an equal amount of doing. I’m also going to reward myself by going on some vacations, so you’ll see some guest posters in the weeks to come. In my absence, please welcome them and show ‘em a little word-nerd love.

I’d love to hear what you are working on this summer in the comments below!