Reaching Your Goals

After spending three hours this morning polishing a story, preparing it for submission, I had one of those moments. “How am I ever going to get anywhere like this?”

I started stressing over the amount of time I’d just spent on this story and more doubts developed. “Why am I wasting my time?”

I decided to take a thirty minute break. I lay down on the couch, closed my eyes, and thought over the situation. I went over the list in my head of what I needed to accomplish this week and realized I was making it appear worse than it actually was. I got up, grabbed a notepad, listed each day of the week. I wrote down for each day three tasks I needed to complete.

My week’s goals were easily placed with room for extra tasks. I relaxed and went back to work.

Are you stressing over your writing? Are the doubts flying at you from all directions?

Take a moment to regroup and then jump back in. It always seems worse than it actually is.

Keep Writing.

An Endless Battle: Fighting Time

You’ve set your goals for the year, month, and week. Now you find yourself struggling to find the time to reach those goals. Now what?

Give up? Adjust your goals? Work harder? Giving up is not an option. Write that on a piece of paper and tape it to your computer monitor. Adjusting your goals is an option, but is it necessary?

Let’s take a quick look at my first week and a half. My week began on the 1st of the year, which was a Saturday. So, I’ve set my weekly goals from Saturday to Saturday.

I made great progress on my first three days. The fourth day, I had to work and developed a major headache. On the fifth day, I wrote for a couple of hours that morning, but found myself unusually tired and ended up sleeping most of the day away. The sixth day, my kitten was scratched in the eye and I had to take him to the vet. On that same day, my radiator developed a major leak and had to be replaced. Since the car couldn’t be moved anywhere, I took on the task myself. On the sixth day, I completed this task. On the seventh day, I made more writing progress. I was able to fit in a little writing each day and complete my goals for this first week, but it was tough.

The first day of the week, being a workday, I decided to take the day off. I made great progress on the next two days after the resting day. The third day, I had to take kittens to the vet to be neutered, and decided it was a good time to clean the house without them under my feet. In the mist of all this, my kitchen faucet decided to break, and yes it was up to me to fix it. Today, the fourth day, I worked and developed a major headache. I pushed through that and I am now fulfilling my blog post goal.

Do I need to adjust my goals? Not necessarily.

Most of the interruptions for the week were unusual. I was able to complete my goals that first week. Will I complete my goals this week? I will try but it’s not looking good. If you’ve had this much trouble with your first weeks in reaching your goal, give yourself a break. And don’t give up. Keep track of why you didn’t write that day. When you look back at the accomplishments also look at the interruptions. Adjust your goals if needed.

If you’ve missed writing because you had a television show on three nights that week and watched instead of writing, you may need to work harder.

But, in case you didn’t notice, look back at the sixth day of my first week. Don’t overdo it, because you’ll just miss out on a whole day's worth of writing.

How are you doing with your goals so far?

Setting Goals

The New Year is here and it's time to make new writing goals.

When creating your goals, there are aspects you should consider.

Be specific. Instead of write a novel, break it down to write a chapter a week.

Your goals should be self-attainable. By making your goal to be published, you put the outcome in another person's hands. To reach the goal of publication, your true goal should be to do everything in your power to make this possible. Write more. Submit more.

Reality should also reflect in your goals. A beginner athlete would not set the goal of playing in the big leagues. There are many goals to be accomplished before you would reach for such heights. If you're a short story writer who has decided to try writing a novel, don't make the goal of writing a best-seller. This is not realistic, at least not yet.

Time should be considered an important factor. The woman raising three young children and working outside the home would be asking for failure if her goal is to write a novel in a month. In no way should your writing goals be made around your life, but there is only so much time in a day, adjust accordingly.

I spent much of the second part of last year, adjusting and re-evaluating my goals. Determined to make as much progress as I could, I jumped in head first. After about two months, I burnt myself up in the process. So make your goals, but don't take on so much that it leaves no chances to enjoy life.

If this is your first time setting goals in your writing, I suggest starting small. Make a plan for the week and see if it works out. If you planned too much, cut back a little. Shoot for a monthly goal with what you've learned from that first week. At the end of the month, look back and see if you accomplished everything you set out to finish.

Remember, baby steps are better than giant leaps that leave you flat on your face.

Have you set your goals for the week, month, or year? What are you waiting on?

Happy New Year!

A new year with new goals, what could be more wonderful!

Hope everyone gets a good start and sees progress in their life this year.