Goal Setting and Desire

Finally, I am getting it. (No, not that! Well, that too, but we're talking goals here, k?)

For most of my life, I've heard, "You've got to set goals blah, blah, blah." Well, I’ve learned that I can set goals until the cows come home, jump over the moon, and come home again, and still never accomplish X, Y, or Z. Unless I want to.

"They" say that, in order to be successful, goals must be attainable, realistic, and manageable. True enough. But they seem to have forgotten to add “desirable” to the list.

I don’t know about others, but I have to really care about accomplishing a goal in order to make it happen. Perhaps I'm just a slacker at heart, but frankly, I can barely work up a tepid "I suppose I aughtta..." over goals for household projects. With writing goals, however, I get something more like an Austin Powers "Yeah, baby!" kick from my subconscious, and so, keep at it. For me at least, desire matters more than anything else in accomplishing a goal (more than anything, once you’ve *set* a goal, that is).

When you have the desire to complete the task, goals are a great thing. They're what get you from F or G (where mere enthusiasm and adrenaline may fade away) to Z! I know this now, because I'm getting there. I’m making better progress in my writing than I ever have in other projects where I’ve tried goal-setting. As a bonus, I’ve developed the ability to persist through “ugly” patches in my writing, rather than starting something new as a method of avoidance.

Now, if I could only inject some of that writing bug into my anemic desire to organize the garage…

Many thanks indeed to Lauri, Cindy, and Ramon in the CS Books & Writers Community for the enlightenment and encouragement. ;)

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TRACKING...

Yesterday's Big Accomplishment:
Hit the target – just over 300 new words for the funeral scene. Did the journaling including a writing exercise. (Thanks to Prill for the link.)

Today's Target:
Finish the funeral scene - get events in better order and flesh it out more; aiming for around another 300 words. More journaling.

On the percolator:
Same as yesterday...What is Kailia's Big Thing going to be?