Using Goals to Move Forward

Have you ever had one of those days/weeks/months when you simply don’t want to do something? Maybe you don’t want to go to work, or mow the lawn or paint the house. Maybe you don’t feel like doing your daily writing.

You do? Yeah, me too.

This has been one of those weeks for me, specifically in my writing. Actually, I should say in my writing-related activities (of which there are a growing number). Fortunately, I have a secret weapon that keeps me going. Yes, I know I gave away my secret weapon in the title of this post.

That weapon, of course, is how I set goals for myself.

In case you’re curious about the types of goals I use, let me give you some examples:

• My number one goal (with a bullet) is to get my work published. That is what keeps me writing, podcasting, blogging and submitting. I would say that I am at least partially consumed by the idea.
• I’ve committed to releasing a new episode of my podcast every two weeks. That keeps me working on new episode ideas and finding guests for the show.
• I’ve got a personal deadline of July 31 to complete editing my book.

I’m not saying that having goals always gets me energized, but it does keep me going and that is the key to finishing writing projects. It’s not going great guns for a week and turning out 20,000 words. It’s about writing every week and continuing to write until the project is finished.

I guess I should mention one other thing that keeps me moving forward. That is all the story ideas I have. I’ve made a promise to not start any new projects until I get the editing done. That keeps me honest so I don’t leave my project unfinished.

What do you do to keep going? I’d love to hear from you.

Personal Update

I pinged the publisher to whom I had submitted ‘Mik Murdoch’ just to find out how things are going (just to refresh your memories, I submitted a partial which they liked. They asked for a full and have had it for just about 3 months). Apparently they are working out their release calendar for the coming year and aren’t ready to make a decision about my book yet.

Am I encouraged? Yes, but cautiously so. I really believe ‘Mik Murdoch’ will find a home eventually and the fact that they don’t want to give me an answer (yes or no) until they know their production calendar tells me that they are at least considering my book. Keep your fingers crossed for me, won’t you?Have a great week.

Oh, one more thing; my book review of ‘Realmshift’ played on Cover to Cover (a Farpoint Media podcast) which is very cool. You should go over and have a listen.