Setting Goals

When 2015 began, many people came up with resolutions for the new year.  I went the other way and elected to come up with a new resolution each day.  Yeah.  Suck it, lack of willpower.

I don't take much stock in New Years resolutions, but this last week, I did realize I needed to set some goals for myself in the future, targets to aim, otherwise I'd wander around without even the vaguest idea of a plan.  And it sounds cliched to explain why goals are important, but it's only a cliche if it's true so much of the time.

I think I began taking goals seriously when visiting my buddy Seth once and seeing he had his written down with various deadlines from months to years.  I have five deadlines: lustral (that is, a five-year deadline), annual, monthly, weekly, and daily.  Some are kind of vague with only a fixed time frame in mind like starting a film production company by 2020 or paying off most of my debt this year.  In writing this post, I should probably take some time to break those down into more manageable pieces.

But let's say I want to publish a novel by 2020, which I do.  That means one of this year's goals should be getting a first draft done, and within that year, this month's goal could be as simple as coming up with an idea and perhaps and outline too.  From there, I can break things down further by weeks and then day-by-day.

People are quite visual.  We see something shiny and we want it.  We merely think of something shiny and, eh, we'll get around to it one day.  But if you have your plan written out and in front of you, I think it'll go a long way towards motivating you to take steps to achieve them.

So if nothing else, making tangible goals should be your New Years resolution.