I love goals. I love ideas. I love the ideas of goals. Making plans, lists, spreadsheets, tools, and routines to (in an ideal world) achieve all of the goals I have my heart set on. An adjacent love I have is crossing goals off of my lists. Unfortunately, however, that part is a lot harder to achieve than actually making the plans in the first place.
I am always extremely motivated and sincere in my intentions when I make a goal. But then the reality of life hits, and it feels like I'm treading through water, racing against the current to even touch the thing I fully intended to set out to do. And to adjust any of those goals makes me feel like a failure.
Is there even a point to making a post like this when I feel eternally doomed to return with another report of disappointment? I don't know. But here I am once again, at the beginning of a new year, hopeful and enthusiastic to challenge myself to take another step to doing the things I've always dreamed of.
This time, though, I am being way more generic. No SMART goals with specifics and huge goal posts to measure success. Instead I am focusing on one achievement, and working every other area of my life to fit around that one goal with the hopes that I can set myself up to actually complete it.
This year I want to focus on creating, not consuming. I want to do this in all areas of my life, but more specifically:
I want to finish writing a book.
I have always loved writing, and have attempted many story ideas throughout my life. I've written substantial sections of books, but I have yet to finish one. At this point it is something that feels almost insurmountable. Impossible. Even admitting this desire is a huge thing to commit to out loud. But I have to admit it to myself before I can ever hope to actually doing it. And if not this year, then when?
The timing will never be perfect or convenient, so I just have to do it. But when thinking about how to make it actually happen, I had to be honest about what has been keeping me from writing a book in the first place. What I need to radically change to make this dream a reality.
Writing. First, in order to prioritize writing, I need to actually write. I want to crave writing like I crave reading and other hobbies. I want it to be as natural to pick up my writing as it is to pick up my phone. So I want to work on forcing myself to write, even if the circumstances aren't perfect. To grab those spare moments to put words on a page, whether it's 5 minutes or an hour. When I get specific, though, I want to finish the year with the bare minimum of 100,000 words in a manuscript (though ideally I would have a completed manuscript). This will be a challenge, but one I think is attainable in a full year.
Reading. If I want to write more I have to be honest with myself that my reading will have to be put more on the back burner. This is not the year to attempt to read 100 books. It's just not going to happen. And I'm okay with that. But reading is still an important part of the writing process and I can't physically give it up completely. My simple goal with reading is to just read 52 books, one a week. I also want to put an emphasis on reading good books and be selective with what I read so that I stay inspired in my own writing and storytelling.
Podcast. I have loved producing my little book podcast, and I don't have plans to stop doing it any time soon. However, like with reading, I just can't prioritize it this year. Instead I am going to focus on quality over quantity, with the goal to put out some kind of episode every other week. I also want to really hone in on a recording and posting schedule to add some kind of consistency. To figure out what works best for me with the podcast so I can do it to the best of my ability, experiment, and maybe even focus on growth in the upcoming years.
Social media. This is the hard one because I honestly don't know where social media fits in with my life. I see the pros and cons of it and can't get myself to fully give it up. This year will be an experiment to see if I can use it in a way that is beneficial to my personal and professional life. I'm not going to have a set posting schedule. I'm not going to try to go viral. I just want to post what I want to post, and avoid it when I don't have something to post. I need to eliminate the time suck of scrolling because it adds next to nothing to my life. It is only a distraction to the things I actually want to do. Deleting the apps when I don't have anything to say or share will be the biggest test, but is the thing I think will hinder or help my writing the most.
With these vague guidelines in place, I truly hope I will be ending the year with a stack of finished chapters in my hands ready for editing. I don't know how updated I will keep you through this journey, because it is a personal one. But I'm excited to see where I will be in a few months and to eventually share all the details of my book with you.
I wish you all the best reading and writing this year! We all need it.
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