Every Now And Then - Revisit Your Goals And Progress

I was just reading a copy of the latest SPLASH magazine from USA Swimming and there was a great article for swimmers dealing with goals. The transition time between the fall swimming and the end of the short course season in the winter and spring can be tough. These swimmers start out the year with some great goals and then, around Christmas time and the first round of championship meets, many swimmers find that they might not be where they wanted to be in early September. The author argued for these swimmers to take some time and revisit those goals.

As writers, I think it is also very important to stop and revisit our goals and where we are at right now in our careers. This is not just a chance to change out goals to fit where we want to be, but to really take a look at what we are doing right now to determine if we are still on target for what we had planned. In other words, we might have gotten side-tracked along the way with projects that were more of an immediate gratification (quick money or quick publishing). Maybe we got side-tracked with a great story idea that really isn't in line with what we should be working on at that time. Maybe we got side-tracked with things outside of our writing career.

Having a goal in our writing is crucial. It is what guides us and motivates us toward action with our career. But, if we have goals that might not be realistic, or more likely goals that we have forgotten, we might find this is the reason why we aren't motivated to write and move ahead.

So as yourself this AM a few questions:

• Where are you at with your writing right now?
• Are you happy?
• Is this in alignment with where you want to be with your writing?
• What steps are you currently taking with your writing that are moving you closer to that goal?
• Are you doing things that, while appear important right now, might not be something necessary for your goals?
• Do you need to refine your goals to something more realistic?
• Have your goals changed? If so, why? Did you change because you changed, or did you change because you didn't live up to your original goals.

This is introspection Monday! You're back to work after the holidays so get thinking. Get that brain in gear!