North star check

In Tucker Max’s book, The Scribe Method: The best way to write and publish your non-fiction book, he advocates constructing what he calls a north star check. The format of the north star check is:

I will use my book to target [primary audience] by teaching them [primary audience benefits gained or problems solved], which will lead to my ultimate goal of more [desired result].

The writer completes the square brackets in relation to his or her book and uses the statement as a guide. If they feel their writing veering off on a tangent, a quick read of the north star check will put it back on track.

But north star checks aren’t just relevant when writing a book.

What if you had a north star check for your business or hobby? What if you had a north star check for how you spoke publicly or what kind of spouse or parent or friend you wanted to be?

A reality checkpoint or alignment marker could be useful to all of us, every single day.