For the last two weeks I have received emails from over eight different companies offering to teach me how to have a wonderful and amazing year next year. Their premise is that I will have a wonderful year if I complete a goal. Since I am a writer, perhaps I should complete some writing goals.
The companies offer to give me practical advice to assist me. Some of them even offered to give me a certificate of completion when I finished their course. The least expensive offer was close to five hundred dollars.
Today, I will give you my three steps to complete a goal and have a great New Year. And, I won't charge you five hundred dollars.
3 Steps to Complete Your Writing Goals
I will give you a preview of the three steps. Beware, the next three lines contain spoilers:
Step One: Decide what you want to do
Step Two: Write down what you want to do
Step Three: Do what you wrote down.
1. Decide what you want to do.
Step one may seem simple. The most important word in step one is DECIDE. Yes, make up your mind.
You are creative, right? A writer. You have so many story ideas, which one should you do first?
Pick one. Just one. Work on this idea until it is finished. Focus. Finish.
But first you have to make up your mind. You can never finish something if you don't start. So for now, make up your mind.
(If you are not sure what you should decide to do, consider these writing goals.)
People cannot hit what they do not aim for.
― Roy T. Bennett
2. Write down what you want to do.
Step two is essential. Well, all three steps are essential. Don't skip a step.
You have to write down what you want to do.
Don't rely on your memory. When you wake up the next day and your six cats are meowing to be fed, if you haven't written down what you want to do, you might never remember. You have bills to pay and cats to feed. If it is not written down, you might not remember what you want to accomplish.
How many pages will you write today, this week? Decide, then write it down. Find a friend who would be willing to receive weekly updates from you. Send them at the end of the week how much you have written.
If you have a goal, write it down. If you do not write it down, you do not have a goal — you have a wish.
― Steve Maraboli
Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at the Dominican University of California, after studying two hundred and sixty-seven people, discovered you are more likely to complete goals if you write them down or share them with a friend. Seventy percent of the participants who sent weekly updates to a friend achieved their goal or got more than halfway there. But of the people who didn't tell a friend or write down their goal, only 35 percent made it that far.
3. Do what you wrote down.
Step three is an action step. You do what you wrote down.
You can control your future if you always obey what is written down. Before you go to bed tonight, write down what you want your future self to do. Such as, “Write three pages today.” When you wake up you will see the note you wrote the night before, and you will do what it says.
Last night I had my husband decide what time he was going to get out of bed this morning. First he wrote, “I want to get out of bed at seven.” I had him change it to “I will get out of bed at seven.” Then he signed the statement and I signed it as a witness to his promise. He made up his mind: step one. He wrote it down: step two.
This morning at seven, he hit the snooze button. Dr. Matthews's suggestion to tell your goal to a friend helped my husband this morning. I opened the blinds, turned on the shower, and ripped off all the covers on the bed. Then he did step three and got out of bed.
The Gift of Writing Goals
In twelve more sleeps it will be the first day of a new year. A day of hope; a day where we can begin again. We can have that feeling every day, but the first day of a new year feels like a gift.
So, as you start your new year, think of the three steps. You don't have to buy a fancy course. You can write. You can complete your goal of writing a first draft, editing the novel you wrote in November, or writing the story of why you flew to Asia in 1983 with a one-way ticket to Bangkok.
Decide what you want to do, write it down, and do it. I believe in you.
Tell your story.
Do you have trouble completing your writing goals? What do you do to help you complete them? Let us know in the comments.
Practice
Today I want you to take fifteen minutes to think. What do you want to do? Pick one thing. Just one. Now write it down. If you don't want to share it here, share it with a friend.
You can also do this exercise with the protagonist in your story. What does your protagonist want to do? Write down what they want. Then write for fifteen minutes about what your protagonist did. Did they accomplish their task?
When you're done, share your goals or your protagonist's in the comments. Be sure to leave feedback for your fellow writers so we can support and encourage each other in the new year.
I wish you all my best. I won't see you again until next year. Twelve more sleeps.
xo
Pamela
to have the kind of year you want to have something has to Happen about friendships take care your Family and friends also that is my Story is My Girlfriend her Name is Katelyn and happy new year and happy 2018
I’m literally rolling off my desk chair right now. This is great. If only I could get my 9th grade students to understand such simple logic!!!
Great article. Hopefully most readers don’t do with their writing the typical thing that people do at the start of the new year when they join a gym and quit going by February or March.
I went to the Y as my insurance now covers them instead of another gym. The place was full and the person who enrolled me said “this is January”.
I came across similar research about committing intentions to paper when I spoke to older groups about personal safety. Evaluation sheets were completed at the end of each session and individuald would write down what they found to be the most important thing they had heard. They were then asked to document the change they planned to make in terms of personal safety. Responding with qualitative information from these responses to project funders, gave the project a very favourable impact in the funders’eyes.
Regarding what I will commit too for 2018 is more difficult, but I will document it and share with a friend. I have two potential novels on the go – begun but as yet incomplete. One is a comptitive situation with the first 5000 words submitted as requested, along with a 500 word synopsis. I am continuing with this story, but will not hear and competition result until February 2018.
The other story was started recently as a comment to a prompt, and the response I received has encouraged me to continue with this one also. This is the story I will commit to continuing on a weekly basis – target 1000 words per week, written when I can snatch small periods randomly between other commitments. I have enough experiences under my belt to draw on for this one and I’m already excited about what I will do with it when completed. Still deciding between a novella and a full blown novel.
I didn’t proof read before sending the above, so apologies for all the many typos!!
What if you don’t have any friends who will help you keep your promises? Sounds sad and lonely but it’s not– I just don’t want anybody to watch me struggle while I nurture this embryo even if it’s just a weekly progress report. I’ll bet there are a lot of people who would rather share their progress with a remote person, perhaps a fellow writer from Write Practice? Any thoughts?
I have a problem procrastinating . . .
StarClan help me.
I want to make money to support my writing habit! If anybody out there wants to share with a remote reader, I’ll read…hmmm, maybe $1/month if you write about a page a day, more if you’re doing a book, *substantially* more if you send PDFs rather than e-mails or a “friends only” blog…
oh dear. So easy to say – not so easy to do. I’m still stuck on step one – have been for about 20 years 🙁 I feel paranoid about the pain of writing a complete novel and then not finding anyone who wants to read it. It would kill me.
I cannot deny it to be a great article.Pamela.can i get any one story of your’s.
Why is being the norm ok planning goals, reach goals. How about write, publish, live life and not be stress out about it. My goal!!!!