New Year Goals— How to Prevail Over Sludge Attacks

This is an article about reaching your New Year goals. We’re now 55 days into the new year, and I’m taking a closer look at my goals. I thought it would be fun if you suffered along with me by examining your own. 

Some of mine have been weenie goals. “I will take a closer look at my writing goals.” Or vague: “I’m going to simplify my life this year!”

With every project we launch and sustain, we set goals, be they formal, informal, written or not. If their lifetime exceeds months, they required regular reviews.

Many of us wear hats other than our author hats. This is an article about how to reach important goals with each one of them. I applaud those authors who have reached a point where their writing income is sufficient to support them. I have not made it there yet so I wear my author hat and other entrepreneurial hats. One is for my home-based mail order business. Another is for my audiobook narration. Yet another is for my editing work. I wear my Wife Hat and my Mom Hat, symbolic of lifetime careers I cherish. And finally, there is my Volunteer Hat. For each of those hats, there are goals.

How about you? How are your projects going so far in 2020?

If you’re rockin’ it, read no further.

If you’re faltering, read on.

While goals are set with the best of intentions, sludge may be hijacking them.

Sludge. It’s a gradual erosion of motivation caused by disappointments, complications and sometimes simple weariness. It comes from honest efforts frustrated by complexities, half-hearted commitment and creeping negativity. Or having too much on your plate.

Take a fresh look at the long-term goals of your various projects.

Are they realistic?

Do they reflect what you “really, really want” to achieve with that work?

You’ve all heard Einstein’s definition of insanity:  “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Does it apply to you? It’s hard to summon adequate enthusiasm for a strategy that has repeatedly failed.

When you set your goals, do you develop a Plan B?  If not, it may be time to consider doing that.

What setbacks have you suffered, and why?  What new tack can you take that will bypass those problems?

You’ve read all the tips for goal setting: Write your goals on paper. Announce them to your friends and enlist their support. Develop a reward system that won’t wreak havoc with your health.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But you may have been working like a maniac for months. Years. Decades. If you’re not getting an adequate return on your time investment, give your goals an honest—brutally honest—appraisal.

If you have too many projects, weed out the ones that don’t work for you. They may have worked two or five years ago, but they may have run their course. Break free.

Some projects provide a needed supplemental income, but may not be inspirational. How can you make them more satisfying?

There’s a shortage of talent in the market, which is great for those seeking work. You may want to seek work that makes you feel needed, or work that gets you out among people so you can people-watch and gather material for your writing. You may like the thought of finding work that doesn’t exhaust you mentally, so you’ll still have gas in the tank to create new stories.

If goals for your writing are vague, find two or three living examples of people who have recently achieved success in your genre, people who worked hard and stayed the course and succeeded.  Study their paths of education, experience and networking. 

If you feel your talents and strengths match that path, start emulating their journey by creating new initial and intermediate goals that echo their approach.

Whatever you decide, follow your dreams! Just take time to assess your activities. Discard what isn’t working and find what does. Only you know what the right combination of focus and work will fit for you.

Here’s a checklist for you (and for me, since I’m reassessing my goals, as well).

1. Acknowledge your fear.  When striving for great things, there’s a risk of failure. Put your fear out there in the light of day.  Think of the worst that could happen if you set your course—then commit to the goal. Accept it! It’s either that, or avoid failure and settle for pablum—but your bar would be too low to realize success.
2. Recognize self-defeating behavior.

• Internet
• Games, Facebook, TV
• Re-arranging furniture
• Other “Busy” avoidance activity

3. Take action against it. Each day write 3 small goals that when completed get you closer to your large goal. Set your phone alarm or a timer for 15-minute intervals. If, when the alarm sounds, you’re not on target, correct your path before the entire morning (or afternoon, or evening) has passed in self-defeating activities.
4. Recognize and celebrate your courage. Record your modest-but-wonderful success in your Day-Timer. Draw a Star! Write, “I worked for one full hour on (project). I DID IT!!” Pump yourself up. Take a deep breath, smile and repeat, “I did it!”
5. Move boldly forward. Then, Day-Timer in hand, address your next mini-goal, and “Just do it!” Repeat the process for a month, and assess your project. Adjust goals and repeat the process regularly.

This will help you see that you are moving toward your goals. Sensing progress nurtures your motivation and hope. Rid your life of the sludge that keeps you from goals that will enrich your life and bring you lasting satisfaction.

Go forth and conquer!