A Recyclable, Relevant & Rewarding History

The 3 Rs
So, you think you found a match (see previous blog post). Your first step in writing a successful pitch for any grant proposal, contest (or other opportunity) is to write yourself a brief history. This history can include information about yourself, your team, your classroom, your school, your region. Bottom line...you choose what goes in your history - be honest and transparent - but, you don't need to include everything. Keep it simple and brief. The idea is to create a text of history that can be recycled and tweaked with every 'opp-pitch' (opportunity pitch) you make. For this step, take a page out of Austin Kleon's book, "Steal Like an Artist" - step away from your computer and sit at a table or desk with paper, pens/pencils, sticky notes and Sharpies (if that's your thing) and brainstorm some key aspects of your professional history. The idea is to pull out the history that is relevant to the proposal you are writing...obviously, without making anything up. You will end up with a skeleton-history that you can adjust to match any pitch you write. Once you have some historical highlights mapped out, write yourself a brief history honing in on points relevant to the grant application you are writing. After editing and having several friends and colleagues look it over, save your history in its own GoogleDoc or file and label it history. You can now copy and paste this into any proposal you write. Simply add and subtract relevant information depending on the granting organization - remember you want them to know you are a great match for what they are offering. Now for the disclaimer: prepare to feel rewarded. Writing a brief history to be used in an opp-pitch naturally withdraws accomplishments from your memory. When you go back to review and edit your history, you will likely feel awesome at the progress you have made so far in your professional lifetime. This feeling, at the beginning of the grant-writing process, will give you the energy you need to finish this thing.