By Laurel Burgess
Grab your sword, it’s time to slay your New Year’s goals. Sure, maybe you’ve struggled to accomplish your resolutions in the past, or maybe you don’t even want to try because it never works. I know, but this time is different. This time you have the guidelines for success.
Make Specific Goals to Conquer Your Dreams
There is a difference between thinking about a dream and conquering it. Both are good, but if you want to succeed in your New Year’s resolution to live in a castle as a famous author, you are going to need to slice your dreams into actionable goals and steps. In her post “How I Resolve to Make 2016 the Best Year Ever,” K. M. Weiland said that specific goals have actionable resolutions. “[Specific goals] have clearly defined rewards standing just beyond clearly defined finish lines. They allow us to set limits for ourselves and brainstorm baby goals to help us reach the big goals one step at a time.”
Specific goals are great, but make sure they are also controllable. You could say you want to make 100 sales on your book by the end of the year, but you can’t force readers to buy your book. It’s a decent dream, but goals and steps should be something you can do without depending on outside influences.
For example, if your dream is to sell 100 books by the end of the year, your steps could be marketing your book. You could make a goal to watch three videos on how to run Facebook ads by the end of January. By the end of February, your goal could be to run that Facebook ad. By the end of March, perhaps you will check on how that ad did, and then run an updated version.
Notice how these goals are specific, are controllable because they depend on you, and have deadlines. Deadlines are important. If you are anything like me, you won’t get a thing done without a due date screaming and running after you with a mace. Check your steps weekly and look at the overall picture monthly to see if you need to tweak them. It’s okay to add, decrease, or change your goals to better reach your dream. Make sure they are in manageable, bite-sized pieces. You are doing awesome.
Track Your Wins
Now that you have epic goals and are keeping track of them, it’s time to pay a little attention to something less malicious: your wins. I had an epiphany on Twitter/X. @WriteforLife6 asked how goals were going this year and if they were reachable. This might just be me, but I often feel like I’m not doing enough, that I’m not doing anything at all. I forget to look back at all the mountains I’ve climbed. I grinned when I thought about my answer. I had actually done quite a bit. Who knew? I certainly didn’t.
Perhaps your Instagram Henchman Follower count feels small, and you could have posted more consistently during the holidays. Okay, but do you remember that reel you made three months ago that brought in a whole mob of new fans? That was fun! Oh, and do you recall how many posts you had last January? If it went up, that is worth celebrating.
Acknowledging our successes and feeling satisfied for doing work well isn’t pompous arrogancy, it’s a natural part of being human. In Genesis chapter 1, God looks back at His creation and calls it good. We can celebrate our work, too.
Friends, even small wins are awesome. Track your wins in a journal dedicated only to successes. Add to it weekly. Look over it monthly. Shout about your wins to friends or strangers in Walmart. Celebrate them.
Get a Fellowship of Accountability
It’s a mournful truth that you might not celebrate at all if you are alone in this journey. Frodo in The Lord of the Rings wouldn’t have made it to Mount Doom without the fellowship protecting him, guiding him, and giving him motivational speeches along the way. We need partners to cheer us on or else our own fears, exhaustion, and laziness will block our resolutions. We would be the Balrog to Gandalf’s: “You shall not pass!”
Accountability is such a wise move. Let’s say you want to edit your novel before Taylor University’s Professional Writers Conference this July, and you know it is going to be a lot of work. Get an accountability partner who will walk alongside you, encourage you, but also literally drag or carry you to the Mount Doom of your editing deadline.
This accountability partner could be someone who doesn’t know a thing about writing but will hard-core refuse to let you slip past your goals. Perhaps your partner could be a writer on a similar work deadline who could also use accountability. Both of you could keep each other on track.
Your followers through your newsletter, blog, or social media platforms can also keep you accountable. They are nosy, like Samwise, and want to eavesdrop on your adventures. You could post updates about your dreams, goals, successes, and trials.
Finally, give yourself rewards for meeting your deadlines. It can be some of the greatest accountability. When I finish editing my newest draft, I plan to commission art from @Beth_artworks on Instagram because her work is lovely.
Speaking of sharing for accountability purposes… you can start now! Drop your dreams, goals, plans, or tips in the comments for an extra sparkly 2024.
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