Goal Setting & Conquering Mountains

Goal setting sometimes feels like one of those things everyone says you should do, and everyone else seems to be doing, but also kind of feels like more of a pain in the arse than its worth. Yeah… my hand is firmly in the air right now. Even when I’ve got a lot of stuff going on, I’ve never really felt like I was a goal setting/intention laying kind of person. Why? Well I think I suffer from ‘planning paralysis’. Historically, it’s always cropped up when I’m trying to plot ahead in a novel (a painful affliction) and it has caused me to struggle with the idea of goal setting too. 

Previously, I’ve posted about our greatest resource for goal achievement & this concept of goal setting dovetails into that quite nicely. If we’re to succeed, we need a whole array of tools, and I think I’ve decided that routinely setting goals is a tool that will serve me well.

New Year’s Resolutions

I had a brief flirtation with New Year’s resolutions a few years ago before chucking that out with the dishwater. (Do people really have dishwater anymore unless they don’t have a dishwasher?) It just felt like it set me up to fail—as soon as I strayed off the beaten path, the resolution was ‘broken’ and thus what was the point in keeping up the slog? 

But it just so happens that James, my now-husband (yes, we got married last weekend!), is pretty good at intentions, goals, and self-introspection. All those things that haven’t typically been my jam. And it’s kind of hard to live with someone who takes the time to sit down and rationally assess their strengths, weaknesses, and values in order to plot their life path… without part of you wondering if you should do the same. 

Setting Goals for 2019

So, since I’m writing full-time this year, I thought it’d be a good idea to try setting some goals. Mostly because if you don’t have anyone else imposing deadlines, and you refuse to do it to yourself, you might find out you did nothing all year. (Except played a lot with two really cute kittens). And because I have a lot of mountains I want to scale this year.

If you’re not following me on Facebook, this is what I put together in January:

In the spirit of full disclosure, the first goal has taken a bit of a hit (I’ll be putting up a blog post on that next week). But the rest still seem feasible… Well, three isn’t looking so good right now either, but anyway. That’s not what we’re here for. 

The ‘Theory’ Of Goal Setting

The point is, I made a big ol’ list of goals for 2019. That was, surprisingly, the easy part—though in all likelihood I overcommitted myself (again). At this point, if you’ve ever done any kind of structured goal setting in the past, or been lectured on goal setting methods, you probably know what comes next. Are my goals SMART?

S—Specific

M—Measurable

A—Achievable

R—Relevant

T—Time Based

[Disclaimer: people quibble about the words used in the acronym & I’m aware there are others, but this is what I’m using here].

There are LOTS of articles about this on the internet (like here, here, and here), so I won’t get bogged down in how to set goals: everyone needs to find their own path there… as I feel my own journey reflects!

How Goal Setting Works for Me

One thing that quickly became apparent to me when going through this process was that in order to actually achieve my goals, I needed to plan them out a little. They had to be measurable. What you can see in the image below is me trying to imagine how that process might look. 

But even month-by-month goal achievement plans can feel a little big… So I’ve decided that every Sunday I’m going to sit down and set some goals for the week. Will I achieve them? My track record says it’s a little unlikely. But you’ve got to think it’s more likely if I actually try than if I leave it up to chance! So here’s to this week’s efforts—finishing off biography chapters, editing behemoth YA fantasy novels, and wondering if I’ll actually reconnect with my book proposal plans (more on that in the future!). 

See you next time!

Ana.