In a guest post on John Fox’s blog, Catherine Lanser offers suggestions for setting writing goals that don’t make you crazy. You may have heard of SMART goals, goals that are: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. “But what if you are a little too focused on the outcome?” Lanser asks. “Is there a way to be focused without driving yourself crazy?”
She suggests some SANE guidelines for goal setting:
- S for Strict. You might set a strict goal of writing for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, every week of the year. Unfortunately, if you miss some days, you end up feeling guilty. Instead, Lanser suggests setting a flexible goal, such as “write more” than you are now, and then writing as much or as little as you have time. You might find that your average is about the same as if you stuck to your previous, strict goal.
- A for Avoiding. Lanser suggests asking what you’re avoiding when you set your goals. “It can be easy to set goals that make us feel like we are achieving a lot even if we aren’t really challenging ourselves,” she says. “Goals that fall outside of our comfort zone may be a little more uncomfortable, but they’ll also help us get somewhere new.” Consider setting goals around your fears, such as rejection, public speaking, or sharing your writing with a peer group.
- N for Narrow. Sometimes our goals start at one point and move narrowly towards the endgame with no room for detours. Instead, Lanser suggests we be flexible. “Set goals for the foreseeable future and allow yourself to change them as you need or want to,” she writes. “With writing, as your wants, needs, and even talents change it doesn’t make sense to keep doing the same thing just because you told yourself you would.”
- E for External. Do your goals require external forces to succeed? “If all of my goals rely on someone else’s actions, I don’t have much to do with them,” Lanser says. “I’m stuck waiting for things to happen to me, instead of creating what I want to happen.” For example, you can’t control whether someone will review or blurb your book or if a certain journal will publish your story. Those are great aspirations, but they suck as goals, because they aren’t within your power to achieve. Instead, set goals for which you control the outcome. If you want, set goals to help you achieve your aspirations, even though you don’t know the ultimate outcome.
