With the above title, I'm betting most people would think the topic of this post would be holiday shopping and the all encompassing To Do's that come along with them. While I could write a post about that, I'll save it for another day.
Today, I'm going to talk about goal setting for the coming year. I'll be honest and admit with roughly 31 days left in 2015, I will not be meeting two of my goals. Two of the most important goals that I set nearly a year ago. It's more than a little depressing.
I could use the excuse that I was still grieving the sudden loss of a family member in the beginning of the year and lost too much time to make up. While I was definitely grieving, I'm almost certain I could have made up for the lost time in the later half of the year. Or I could say my work hours changed in January and gave me little to no time to write, but that excuse doesn't really stand up either. There are numerous writers who work long hours and still find time to write. And my work hours changed in June giving me back my writing time. I could probably list a few more excuses, but in the end it doesn't really matter why I didn't meet those goals. The fact is I didn't.
So one of the things I want to keep in mind when setting my goals for 2016 is to make sure I keep them realistic, meaning I build in time for unexpected things that crop up where no writing gets done. I want to make sure I don't set too many goals that there's no way I can accomplish them either. I've started a list of things I'd like to accomplish by the end of 2016. This list is quite long - about 15 things. As we move closer to the end of the year, I'll refine the list, combining some and eliminating others (saving them for future years perhaps).
As I work on my list, breaking it down from a few overall goals, to quarterly goals, to monthly goals, I started wondering how other writers set their goals. I'd love to hear your processes and how you get back on track. I'm always looking for ways to refine mine.
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