There are a couple of big buckets to think about when setting a writing goal for this coming year. If you didn’t catch the webinar I hosted last week, I’ll be releasing the content really really soon, but in the meantime, let’s talk about what level of excitement to use when setting your writing goals in the new year.

Now, I know you’ve heard it said a million times that it is best to set “realistic” goals. I’m putting realistic in air quotes over here. But, let me tell you right now, that the last thing a goal needs is reality. 

A goal is a dream put into action, and dreams are not meant to be rooted in reality. If your reality was your dream, by definition it would cease being a dream. That is what makes goal setting and dreaming so powerful. It takes you out of your current realistic reality, and it places you into the sphere of possibility. The place where anything can happen.

People say that we should set realistic goals because our dreams are so good, and sometimes so huge, that we fear the goal. We pre-emptively cap our possibilities, because sometimes it is safer not to believe that thing we dream about is not even possible.  To accept a realistic dream is to accept a limiter on our life. It is saying the future we see when we close our eyes and dream is too good for us.  

I say... Fuck. That. 

Your future is not determined. It isn’t set in stone. The future isn’t even real yet, and so your goals shouldn’t reflect a realistic future. You only sell yourself short with realistic goals. We don’t know what is realistic. We don’t know what is possible. Think about it. What could you do with a big dream and a plan and a few years of insane work?

Instead, as we come into the New Year, set a goal that sets you on fire. Set a goal that sends crazy electrical energy through your body, a goal that is so so good, so truly aligned to your heart and soul that to achieve it will forever change your life. A pillar of your goal should be that it makes you feel so excited that you can’t help but move. You can’t help but work on it. But, don’t fall into the trap of making the amount you work on your goal the goal itself. So, don’t set a goal to write for two hours. Writing for two hours is a measurement, and you could crush that goal next year and maybe be no closer to what you really, really want. 

I believe goals are powerful, and if you are planning to set a goal in 2020, make it something to amazing, so exciting, that to achieve it would be a dream. And then design a plan against it and get to work.

Thank you for joining me on this Monday. I hope you have an incredible week of writing. 

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