Making peace with goals.

I’ve always hated the concept of “goal setting.” I think this goes back to my management consulting days. We had to create extensive goals each year, fitting them into particular categories, making sure they were “SMART” – i.e., Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound – and then, bonus! Our yearly evaluations were dependent on them. But we couldn’t just make fluffy goals that would be easy to attain. They had to meet certain requirements and then pass through several reviews to be approved by the powers that be. The problem was, after spending so long on the darn things, we were so relieved to have them written, that we would wipe our hands, pat our backs, and congratulate ourselves on checking the box and then proceed to move on with our “real” work. Until about 6 weeks before our evaluations, that is, when we would dust off the goals and scramble to see if we could come up with things we had done in the previous year to fit into each of our goal areas and start rehearsing our persuasive pitches of how we really did meet our goals. It was exhausting.

That’s not to say goals are bad. However, in my life, they have largely been associated with having to make them, and being graded on them. I guess I need to get over that. Because goals are good – and important. Even as I’m writing this, I’m thinking “maybe I don’t have PTSD from consulting, but rather, a learned avoidance of setting goals because I fear not meeting those goals.” Yikes, this might be closer to the truth.

Like so many things in life, the more we talk about them, share them with friends, and generally publicize them, the more real our goals become – we’re held accountable.  My goals likely need to be “SMART,” but for now, I’m just going to focus on getting them out there. After all, easier to be an editor than an author.

Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them. ~ Les Brown

Writing Goals for 2015

Complete and defend my Master's thesis. I know, I know. This one isn’t totally thrilling. But as anyone who has been through the process knows, it is a huge undertaking of both writing and research. While I would rather wax poetic for 100 pages from my own head, I think this process will be good discipline for me in applying the research component and learning to write within a confined structure. My initial goal was to graduate in August. In order to do this, I have to have a first draft in March (gulp), rewrites in April, final edits in May, defend in June, and bind it in July. I really want to do this, but taking my final two classes in the spring at the same time, might make me go crazy. I have the option of deferring graduate until December, and pushing out process a few months, but I really want to challenge myself to see if I can do it for August. Encouragement welcome ;)

Begin my book. I’ve written tiny bits and pieces of it my whole life. The idea and desire to write a book is not new to me. But I’m determined to actually make it a reality this year. I hope to complete the manuscript. But if not, I want to be fully, eyebrows deep in the process this year.

Maintain my blog. This blog is my outlet. As much as possible, I’m going to write here every day. It may slip once in a while – especially when the thesis crunch comes – but this is where I will let out the crazy thoughts and voices in my mind. It might be serious and thought-provoking, or it might be silly nonsense.  Likely, it will be both.

So there they are. My 3 writing goals for the year. Accountability – check. Maybe goals are going to be good for me after all.