The goal chart

Before the year 2012 ended, I made up my mind on what kind of goals I wanted to accomplish for the year. Some of these goals were from last year, ones I could not accomplish, so I decided to try again for this year.

The problem is, I did not write any of these goals down. I know they say the first step towards accomplishing a goal is to write it down, but I have been very busy and just didn’t have the chance to do that yet. I was carrying them around in my head for all of January. I kept planning to write these goals down, but never actually got around to it.

Today, I finally got around to it. I had some free time so I sat down, created a chart and wrote down all my goals for this year. I had two goals to accomplish for each month of the year: A personal one and a professional one. One goal is something I really cannot control on WHEN it will be accomplished, so in the event it is resolved by that particular month, I added an alternative goal. Additionally, I left one blank for a professional goal because my writing life has been known to take so many twists, turns and surprises that I can't really say for sure if things will be the same way they are now three or four months later on down the road. So I left that blank in case I need to train for a new gig/job or have to do something (attend a conference, etc.) in light of those developments. But if there's nothing else by that time, I'm sure I will come up with something to do for that month. (As it is, I have been thinking of going back to publishing a magazine or an E-zine but not sure yet if I will actually do such a thing.) I also had one personal goal I would spend the year accomplishing and one professional goal I also hoped to achieve for the whole year, and not just for a particular month.

Fortunately, I have accomplished my January goals so far, and I have already started putting things in motion for the personal goal I have for February. That said, the status is, so far, so good.

These are important things I feel need to be done this year first of all to get things taken care of instead of waiting them out until it’s too late or the last minute and, second, because they will help me to be a better and more organized writer. Well, the NaNoWriMo goal is there for November because I have had to keep putting it off recently to take care of other things. I REALLY want to participate this year! I just hope I can do that.

After I finished creating this chart, I hung it up on my wall so that I will see it every day. That is the second step to accomplishing a goal: Hang it up where you will see it every day.

And I just felt it was better to have two goals for each month instead of a list of 12 or 20 goals to accomplish sometime this year. Every time I created those lists in the past, I never got all of them done. This particular goal chart is more focused and there are only TWO things to get done in each month, instead of three or ten or twelve. Just two. Maybe that will mean less pressure to do them.

And since I already try to do those two things every month already anyway – something personal and something professional – I feel that it will make it easier for me to work my way through them and get them all done.

That is the plan, anyway!