Get Ready, Get Set – Goal!

Goal setting is easy for me – I think of something I want and I decide to go after it. Like the 1793 times I’ve made a goal to lose weight. Or the 47 times I’ve made a goal to stop using swear words. Or the 16 times I’ve made a goal to write every day. See? Goal setting is easy! I’ve done it thousands of times!

Follow through, that’s my problem. I make my goals too lofty – lose forty pounds in two months, finish my entire To Do list today, make everyone happy – and then I can’t achieve them. But I’ve heard several different speakers in the last few months talk about making goals you can achieve so you set yourself up for success. Making goals you can’t achieve sets you up for failure, then you fail, then you see yourself as a failure. Bingo! That’s what I’d been doing to myself for years!

Because I’d worked myself into the rut of believing I sucked as a human being, let alone as a writer, I had to start out with ridiculously small goals to build myself back up again. Sometimes my goal for a writing project was “Don’t Quit.” Sometimes it was “Write at least one sentence before you go to bed.” When my confidence increased, I’d say today’s goal is to not do anything else (check email, answer the phone, wash the dishes) during my scheduled writing time. On a really good day, my goal might be to not stop until I have another chapter done. But that would have been far too lofty a goal for me in my “rut” period. And perhaps too much for a holiday period. (Hint, hint!)

When I am making new goals, I ask myself a lot of questions. Am I feeling confident, or nervous, or discouraged? Do I need a carrot or a threat or a reward right now? What would help me work more consistently? What would keep me from quitting? Am I in a planning mood (and can plan 4-12 months in advance) or a “now” mood (and can plan no more than a month or so at a time)?

I also ask myself spiritually leading questions like, what do I think God is leading me toward right now? What doors or windows seem to be opening and which seem to be closing? What project or schedule seems “right” for me right now? Is there something I’m supposed to be learning, or something I’m supposed to be teaching right now?

If you see your life more like the ocean, understanding that everything has an ebb and flow, and not trying to set everything in stone, you may find you actually accomplish more and have more joy doing it. And that is a good enough reason for me to make goals. There is so much I want to do in life, and I don’t want to wake up one morning and realize I’d done some nice things, but I could’ve done so many cool things if I’d taken the time to plan things a little better. I also want to know how far I’ve come, and have a method for deciding if this or that is worth my time.

Next week we’ll talk about how and when to evaluate your goals. I’ll tell you how I decide when the goal needs to be adjusted, and when I need to work harder (or differently) to meet the goal. I’ll even commit right now to having my 2009 writing goals ready to share by then! Eek!