The start of the school year is here and with it we have a few crisp fall-weather weeks just bristling with potential. Which means it’s time to pull out all our notebooks and evaluate where we want that potential to take us!
I’ve talked about setting goals a decent amount before because it’s one of the simplest ways to increase our ability to make our dreams a reality. Goals can be as basic or as complex as we want them to be and we can adjust them as needed which is pretty convenient!
There have been numerous studies showing the effectiveness of goal setting even when used casually. Even something as simple as saying a goal out loud, writing it down, or telling a friend can help increase self-confidence and motivation.
There’s no right or wrong way to set goals, really- we each have to find out what works best for us in the season of life we find ourselves in. But here are a few strategies to get us started!
Setting Great Goals
Brainstorming and Dreaming
One of the most fun aspects of goal setting is dreaming!
It’s important to take time to dream, to think about what we would do if we could do anything, to evaluate what brings us joy and satisfaction.
What would we do if we weren’t afraid? What would we do if we knew we couldn’t fail?
It’s hard sometimes when we’re busy with our routines and chores to slow down and actually think about what we love and what draws us in. Sometimes our dreams feel very out-of-reach and sometimes the practical side of things can be daunting.
But identifying where we want to be can help us to move even just one little baby step closer!
For further reading check out: Audacious dreaming.
SMART Goals
The “SMART” goal metric is a great resource to create helpful goals for ourselves.
SMART stands for:
Specific: We need to focus and name a specific item we want to work towards. The more specific we can be the better!
Measurable: We need to identify how our goal can be measured and how we will know if we’re making progress or have achieved it. If our goals are too vague it can be difficult to actually work on them.
Achievable: We need to examine our personal situation and recognize if this is an achievable goal for us, personally, at this time. We want a goal that is reasonable and where we can identify some approachable next-step actions.
Relevant: Does our goal match our priorities and values? It is important that the goals we set for ourselves are personally relevant. Examining our own motives can be a valuable step.
Timely: We want our goals to be set in a particular time-frame, such as by setting a deadline for review. This keeps us from putting things off indefinitely and keeps us honest!
Creating SMART goals isn’t some magical process but it can be a good way to think through, focus, and define our goals which in turn allows our goals to be more useful overall.
For further reading check out: SMART goals for SMART writers.
Recognizing Seasons
Goals can (and should) look different for different people. We all have different situations as well as different approaches to life.
But what I sometimes forget is that our personal goals may actually look different at different times. We go through seasons of life where things change- some seasons are busy, some are stressful, where others are laid-back and calm. And that’s not just okay, it’s expected.
There are some seasons in my life when I can set big goals and plow right through them. This type of productivity can feel invigorating!
But there are other seasons of life where I can only handle the very smallest and gentlest of goals and I need a healthy dose of patience with myself as I slowly make my way forward.
Honestly identifying where we’re at can be helpful in knowing how much to push ourselves forward and when to give ourselves grace to be slow.
We won’t always be perfect in our goal setting or our execution of our plans and that’s okay, we’ll just keep trying! And that leads us to…
Reviewing and Revising Goals
As writers, we know all about reviewing and revising, amiright? 🙂
Reviewing and revising our goals can be much like reviewing and revising our writing: We’ll look it over, see what’s working, what’s not working, and then evaluate what we can do to make it better.
I know some people who like to do this on a weekly, monthly, and/or quarterly basis, and then of course there is the traditional January 1st goal-setting rush. We don’t want to spend all our time planning instead of writing (despite our good intentions, that can be too much of a distraction!) so we’ll want to evaluate what balance seems to work well for us.
Setting goals and then working to achieve them is valuable and important but the reviewing is important as well.
Sometimes we’ll take a look at what we’re doing and it’s all good so we can progress full steam ahead with confidence! It can be great to push forward and make progress!
But sometimes when we examine what we’re doing we’ll notice that we’re really struggling in a certain area or that what we’re working on maybe isn’t what we wanted at all. Sometimes we don’t know exactly what we want until we get started and we need to adjust out way. That’s okay.
These goals are for us! We don’t need to be tied to a plan indefinitely. We’re allowed to change our minds, allowed to modify our plans, and we’re allowed to take breaks.
Reviewing our goals periodically is a healthy way to ensure both the progress of our writing but also the wellness of ourselves. Listen to your body, trust your instincts, and remember that you are the writer here and this is your life!
A Few No Pressure Exercises
Totally optional! But if you want to brainstorm some goals stuff, these prompts can help you get started 🙂
- Freewrite 3 pages of what you would do if you weren’t afraid, if you couldn’t fail, if you could do anything at all in the world. No rules or limits here!
- Freewrite about your big picture life goal and what you would love to achieve with your life.
- Brainstorm what smaller goals would lead you towards your bigger life goal and identify what the next 1-3 steps towards those would be. (Basically this is just breaking the bigger goals into smaller, bite size pieces that we can approach realistically! These smaller steps are the day-by-day goals to be focusing on.)
With all of your goal-setting and planning, don’t forget to congratulate yourself for all progress big or small! You’re doing amazing work just dreaming and persevering and being you!!
Happy goal setting and creating to you!
