With a month into the new year, I want to share my writing goals for the year.
I bet you’re wondering why I haven’t shared them sooner. I’ve been working on them and tweaking them into doable smaller goals.
The goals you set don’t have to be perfect, but I take my time thinking about them. After all these goals are about my life.
Thinking about your big goals takes time. Breaking those big goals down into those smaller ones takes even more time.
Big vs. small writing goals
Why the big and small goals? The big goals help me see the overall big picture of what I want to achieve for the year. The smaller goals make me less overwhelmed and feel more accomplished when I hit the bigger goals.
I’m a huge procrastinator, and I admit that.
So I started reading a book called Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy.
Yes, the title is a bit weird, but this book has helped me set my goals. It has helped me realize why I’ve been procrastinating.
One of the first mini lessons in the book is to write down ten big goals. Tracy asks that you write them as though you already hit the goal.
Out of the ten goals I wrote down, four of them are writing goals:
- I have three good writing clients.
- I published my Rick Springfield memoir.
- I rewrote my first two novels, and they are doing much better.
- I marketed my writing and editing business every day for twenty minutes.
Now that I have my big goals, I write down the smaller goals associated with each. Tracy says to write down as many as possible.
For instance, when I say, “I published my Rick Springfield memoir,” I could break it down into these smaller goals and even set deadlines.
My smaller goals might look something like this:
- I finished writing the Rick Springfield memoir by March 31.
- I designed a book cover using a professional book cover designer.
- I edited the book by April 30 after leaving it set for two weeks.
- I sent the book to an editor by May 15.
- I started marketing the book April 1. I let readers and other Rick fans know that I’m almost ready to publish.
- I fixed problems my editor suggested by June 30.
- I published the memoir on July 15.
See how by breaking the big goal into smaller ones and setting deadlines, I don’t feel so overwhelmed?
Or, at least, I don’t feel like it right now.
Now I can go back and do this breakdown with each of my big goals.
Writing down goals
Another point Tracy makes is to write the goals down. I agree.
I am a visual person so I prefer writing down my goals. Actually, I must write them down. I need to review them every day so I keep moving toward my goals.
My goals are written down in my Passion Planner. I started using this planned last year after researching several different planners.
The Passion Planner gives me plenty of room for journaling about my progress toward my goals, taking notes, and keeping track of how I use my time.
I’m even using some of the blank pages to paste in some inspiring quotes. I use these to remind me of how determined I am to make this year a successful one.
What writing goals, or even other goals, do you have for this year? I would love to hear them!