Are the writing goals you’ve set for yourself helping or hindering your writing?
Susan Uttendorfsky, Adirondack Editing’s book editor, managing editor, and owner posted a helpful observation on LinkedIn. She wrote:
“Some writers only think about the last step—publishing their book or article. And sometimes that never happens! What can you do to prevent failure to complete your main objective?”
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/setting-goals-writer-susan-uttendorfsky/
Her answer was to set interim, reachable writing goals that help set you up for success. She suggests making sure that your goals are SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Time-bound
As she points out, “finish my book is not specific, measurable, or time-bound, although it may, for you, be achievable and realistic.”
Besides, finish my book is the end goal, not the interim goal. You need to find a way to reward yourself along the way by setting the kinds of smaller goals that you can actually meet or surpass on a regular basis. That’s called self-motivation.
Conversely, creating daily time expectations or word-count expectations for yourself that are unrealistic and that you’re highly unlikely to achieve just sets you up for disappointment and self-castigation. And that’s a surefire recipe for never reaching that end goal at all.
So, this year treat yourself like you would someone you love. Set yourself up to win by creating a series of specific interim writing goals that you know you can achieve. Then when you go above and beyond, give yourself a high-five and let your steady accomplishments fuel the rest of the ride.
Here’s to an awesome 2024. Happy Holidays everyone!
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