Can you believe 2015
is next week?! The future is upon us, people. ;)
For many of us, the
start of a new year means it’s time to set some resolutions, so I thought it might
be helpful to go over a few things that will help us set goals we can actually
achieve. I like the S.M.A.R.T. goal method. If you google S.M.A.R.T. goals, you’ll find many
variations on this method, but this is what works for me.
S – Specific: Focus on one or two small things for each goal.
Making your goal too broad not only makes it difficult to maintain but it can
also make it too daunting to complete.
To give you an
example, I recently bought a new house. (Yay!) And when I say new, that’s not
just new to me. I mean brand-spanking new. It was kind of miracle it all worked
out and seriously the best Christmas present I’ve ever received. We’ve been
very blessed this year.
Anyway, so new
house means keeping it sparkling and pretty is all on me (and the teenage
minions, who are selective about their helpfulness). I can’t blame past owners
for something not being maintained correctly or the build-up of dirt and grime.
If I want it to look good in ten years, I have to take care of it. The problem
is I’m a terrible housekeeper. Really, really terrible.
I’ve set the same
goal many times: Be better about keeping
the house clean.
This goal has never
worked because my focus was too broad, and honestly, the idea of keeping an
entire house clean overwhelms me. And when I’m overwhelmed, my brain is very
good at ignoring the issue, whatever it may be.
So when we moved
in here, I set two very specific goals with the idea that I would add to them
as time went on.
- Never go to bed with dishes in the sink.
- Do one load of laundry per day.
I admit the
laundry one has been the harder of the two, and a lot of times I end doing two
loads ever other night or 4 or 5 loads on Saturday. In my defense, I really
hate laundry. That’s a good excuse, right? ;)
The dishes goal
is the one that has made the most difference. We’ve been here a little over a
month and there has only been one night I’ve gone to bed with dishes in the
sink. This goal has given me something specific to focus on without
overwhelming me. It’s been interesting to see the ripple effects. My kitchen is
almost always clean and my mornings are much less stressful. It has even
affected my budget. It’s much easier to come home from a long day of work and figure
out dinner when the kitchen is clean. My desire to just go out and grab some
fast food has diminished significantly, which, in time, should also have a
positive effect on my waistline. :)
M – Measurable: Are you able to measure your progress over
time?
My goal to do my
dishes is a daily goal, so it’s very easy to measure. If the dishes are clean
before I go to bed, mission accomplished. But not all of our goals are going to
be this simple.
Let’s say you
want to set a goal to complete two manuscripts this year. First you would need
to make it more specific. What do you mean by complete? First draft? Revised
and ready to query? And then you would need to set guidelines to make it
measureable. How many words/pages do you anticipate in each manuscript? If you
plan to have them revised by the end of the year, when would they each need to
be completed to make it through your beta readers so you have time to revise? Based
on your writing schedule, how many words/pages would you need to complete
during each writing session to reach that goal? This not only gives you a final
measurement for successfully completing your manuscript, but it gives you some
smaller (and less overwhelming) goals to help make sure you’re staying on track
to reach that larger goal.
A – Attainable: Is this something you have enough control
over to make it happen?
It can be
tempting to set a goal for something like getting an agent or getting a
publishing contract. These are great things to aspire to, but you have very
little control over the outcome. Sure, you can revise and tweak your work to
make it better and in the process this will most likely make you a better
writer, but no matter what you do, you can’t control the market and you definitely
can’t control the tastes of the agents and publishers. Sometimes, I think even
they don’t know what they want.
It’s best to
stick with goals where you can put in a certain amount of work and know that
you can make it happen. Maybe make a goal to query a certain number of agents
or small publishers, or make a goal to get your query into the best possible
shape. Goals like these could very well lead to an agent or a publishing
contract, but they don’t focus all your success on something you can’t control.
R – Realistic: Are you biting off more than you can chew?
This is the one
that usually gets me. When I’m setting goals, I am invincible. If I want it,
surely I can make it happen. All it takes is the will to do it. Yes, this
applies to life in many ways, but some things are just not possible. I know
some people can pump out a new draft every one or two months, or
write 10,000 words in a day. This is not a possibility for me. I have to schedule time just
to get an hour of creative time every day. 500 words per day is more
realistic, maybe even 1000 per day to push myself. Setting a goal that’s too
high would only overwhelm me and make me avoid it, and as a result, cause me to
fail.
T – Time-bound: Did you set a date to complete your goal?
Setting a
deadline for completion of your goal helps to keep you focused and on task. Resolutions
are often set for the whole year, but setting deadlines for certain aspects of a
long-term goal, like a daily writing goal to reach an annual word count, can help you stay on track and keep it from getting pushed aside
when other things come up.
And I wish there
was a way to add a C in there. Maybe
it’s silent—SCMART? ;) C is for Challenge Yourself. Don’t take the easy route.
Look for ways to improve and make your life better. Achieving your goals will
be so much more satisfying if you do.
So, what about you? Anything to add? Are
you a resolution setter? What are your goals for 2015?
