New Year’s Writing Goals

How can you achieve your new year’s resolution writing goals?

The new year is here!  Some of us set new year’s resolutions which include our intentions to write better or write more.  

One of the hard pieces about new year’s resolutions is that people tend to set a lofty goal that is difficult to achieve.  

Once we have this goal in our minds, we typically do not give ourselves the organization and motivation to achieve the goal and thereby fail in our efforts.  Once we have failed to meet our goals, we tend to invalidate ourselves and give up the goal.

One way to avoid this kind of catastrophe is to create an organizational system that helps us to achieve our goals.  The problem is not that we lack the capacity to achieve our new year’s resolutions but that we may lack the established habit and need to address that element first.

What are some steps a writer could take to achieve one’s writing goals?

1. Set up a regular schedule.
2. Use a calendar feature, daytimer, or reminder system to stick to the schedule.
3. Schedule catch-up times.
4. Communicate the writing goal.
5. Enter into a writing-goal partnership.
6. Create rewards or incentives for meeting goals.
7. Create multiple means to meet the goal.
8. Identify five steps to reach the goal.
9. Identify five tools to reach the goal.
10. Give yourself a break.

OK, so what do these ten steps mean and how can a writer use them to achieve a new writing goal?  After you identify your writing goal, set up a schedule to accomplish it.  

If the goal is to write a blog a week, then add the time to blog onto your weekly schedule.  To further support your goal, create a reminder system on your phone or a pop up on your Google (or other brand) calendar; this will help to remind you that you need to set aside that time to be successful.  

Also, schedule a catch up time for the goal.  Inevitably, there will be a week when you cannot meet your goal (you got sick, the kids are being noisy, or your job wants more time from you), so add to the calendar monthly catch up sessions where you can make up for any lost time.

I strongly recommend entering into a writing-goal partnership.  My writing partner, Christy, and I meet every Sunday at our favorite coffee shop–Ziggies.  We spent an entire two hour writing session deciding on our writing goals, brainstorming the details around our writing goals, and most importantly communicating what our goals are.  

Although I do not expect Christy to penalize me for missing a writing goal, I do believe that I am more successful with her aware of my goal.  Your partner does not necessarily need to be a fellow writer or artist.  You might create a partnership with a friend who is trying to lose weight or with a colleague who is working towards a professional certification.  Any person who can encourage you, hold you accountable, and accept your encouragement and accountability in return has the potential to be a fantastic partner.

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Give yourself a reward for a goal met.  Each time you meet a goal, pat yourself on the back.  This can be as simple as buying your favorite latte or picking up a particular book that just came out.  An unappreciated goal can feel empty, especially if the only people who know about it are you and your writing partner.

How do you meet your goal?  Most goals require multiple steps and tools to meet them.  For example, if a person wants to lose ten pounds, the steps might include: eat less junk food, eat more vegetables, exercise daily, and so on.  The tools needed to achieve a weight loss goal might be: hire a personal trainer, join a recreation center, and buy an  MP3 player to listen to books or music which exercising.

The same is true for meeting a writing goal.  To meet your writing goal, you may need to: set aside time daily or weekly, hold yourself accountable for a certain amount of writing, read more often, and attend writing workshops or classes.  

​The tools to achieve the goal might include things like: add a calendar reminder app to one’s phone, wake up an hour earlier each day, set aside money to attend writing workshops, drive to the library to check out necessary books, and purchase a memory stick to hold one’s writing files.  Identifying what steps you need to take, what tools you need to have, and your means to achieve your goal can greatly improve one’s success.

Give yourself a break.  We all achieve some of our goals some of the time, but rarely do people achieve all of their goals on the first try.  Recognize that you may have to try and try again to achieve the end result of the goal achieved.  Give yourself space emotionally, mentally, and physically.  As you recognize a problem along the way, try to address it so that those barriers melt away on the road to your completed goal.

Eventually, meeting your writing goals becomes easier, but it is usually a process that requires some flexibility.  Hopefully, these steps will assist you on your path to reaching your own writing goals.

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