Resolution-Proof Your Goals
It’s 2024. You’ve made it!!!
How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions?
That can feel like a loaded question, especially if you’re not keeping up with them. Resolutions are tough. Most of them leave us with a yes or no proposition. I’m either sticking to my diet or, most likely, I’m not. I’m either hitting the gym or I’m not. But what if instead of focusing on the all-or-nothing that resolutions leave us with, we found a better way?
By now, you’re either still on pace or you’ve given up. Not much wiggle room. Why are we so harsh that we create a pass-fail system to begin each year that we wouldn’t give to our worst enemy?
That’s why we need to create goals that are resolution-proof. Those are the types of goals that stay with us, the sticky ones. When spring gets here, summer starts, or fall begins, you don’t feel ashamed or guilty about those optimistic goals you set way back in December of last year because you made them resolution-proof.
Here’s how to resolution-proof your goals.
As writers, we have this visual proof, word count, or stacks of printed pages that can show the progress we’ve made. What determines whether we’re happy with what we see or disappointed doesn’t come down to keeping up with our resolutions as much as it does building better systems. Resolutions fail; systems can start and stop. You see, it’s the system, not that resolution, that will determine your success.
That’s why systems, not resolutions, will help you achieve your writing goals.
Every author has to start somewhere. It is so easy to compare our beginnings to someone else’s middle, but the reality is every best-selling author was once a beginner, too. The authors that achieved this status built systems that helped them achieve big goals like writing books. They are not relying on flimsy resolutions but sturdy processes that allow them to make high levels of contribution.
“Systems beat resolutions every year.”
So, if you’re feeling behind or have already begun giving up on those resolutions, let’s focus on your system. Every writer needs a routine. In that routine is a system that you’ll have to protect from outside influences. If your lunchtime is the best time to get some words down, block off your calendar. Mornings are your go-to time? Great. Make sure you’ve prioritized it because as Greg McKeown says in his book Essentialism, “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.” The same is true for your writing life.
A small amount of intentionality around your writing system will yield huge results, better than most resolutions ever will. Build a better system!!!
Dump your resolutions for a better, more focused system in 2024. The results you’ll yield will make you never again bank on New Year’s resolutions.
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