Resolutions for Success – Setting the Right Goals

I don’t know about you, but I don’t keep resolutions.

I make them, sometimes. Often during lengthy phone conversations with a particular long-distance friend. On many a Thursday night in January I’ve jotted down a list of about 20 things I wanted to accomplish in the next year – or five years. I almost never look at those lists again until a year has passed and it’s time to assess my progress. The things I can check off are almost coincidental, not stemming from the resolutions at all.

You see, I love making lists. I really love crossing things off them. But I tend to over plan and under execute. My intentions are good, but my follow through is poor. I get distracted by crossing off little, meaningless tasks, so I rarely find the time to make the big adjustments that will actually help me reach my dreams.

A job screener told me this once after an interview. I tested as focusing too much on the short term at expense of the big picture. Ouch.

Getting a book published was definitely always right there at the top of my five year list. But quitting my job to actually make it happen never appeared as an annual resolution.

All the catalysts that led to my life changing resignation came in the summertime, when I hadn’t intended to rewrite my life at all. I’d been resigned to the slog of my mediocre existence, until that wonderful yet unexpected moment when I wasn’t.

A hero rarely starts his quest on the first day of the year. He or she must go when adventure calls, or an enemy arises. If he could plan for that, it would probably be a pretty boring book.

I didn’t make an extensive list of resolutions this year, but I did think of three goals I want to achieve. They’re so fundamental to what I hope to do each and every week that I better still remember them at the end of December. These goals should drive my daily to do lists. If all those little tasks build up to these achievements, 2023 should be pretty wonderful indeed!

Find an Amazing Agent

This is no longer a five year goal – this is now a one year goal! Although publication timelines are long, now that I’ve finished my manuscript, finding a literary agent is the next concrete step which can conceivably be completed in a year.

As with anything, there’s a lot of this that’s out of my hands. Even if Phoenix Falling was the best YA novel ever written – and okay, I know it’s not – finding an agent still depends on reaching the right person at the right time. Someone who feels passionately enough about the first five or ten pages of my novel and a very brief pitch to want to advocate for my book and bet their future income on its success. Also someone who has the time and bandwidth to take on another author, and has ideas on how to market and sell my particular book.

But what can I do to make this happen? Keep on sending out my proposal. Research agents; fill out endless Query Manager forms; tweak my query letter, synopsis, and first ten pages. Not give up when I get a “no” or don’t hear anything at all after months of waiting. Continue to develop my craft, listen to my critique partners, keep writing, writing, writing. Attend conferences and workshops. Network. Read books about writing. Read novels. Get enough rest that I can handle all the emotions and power through the process.

Plenty of little tasks, you see. All leading up to one big dream that is hard, but attainable.

Become Financially Solvent

So this is lots less fun, and potentially less emotional, but probably more important from a practical sense. My six month writing sabbatical has now become a fifteen month lifestyle change that I’d love to make permanent. But my savings aren’t infinite. I gave myself permission to focus on my manuscript while I was rewriting it twice, but now that I’m in the submit and wait stage, I need to shift more of my time and focus to making a living.

That’s life for you. Some goals are about big dreams and exciting futures where you buy that beach house you’ve always wanted and have an unlimited travel budget. And sometimes you need to think realistically about how you’re going to pay your rent. I know that I’ve been blessed and privileged to live the way I have the past year, and many don’t have the resources to just quit their job to do what they love.

So what does this mean? Hopefully it means that I take on more freelance writing clients. I’ve already started writing blog posts and articles through connections at my coworking space, which has been a massive blessing. I’ve even written a few technical pieces for a company in my former industry, thanks to a connection from my previous job and the magic of LinkedIn. If you or anyone you know needs help with content writing or editing, please get in touch. I’d love to put my talents to work on your particular project.

It’ll take time and effort to establish myself as a freelancer, but I know I can do it if that’s what it takes to allow me to hold on to my low-stress, high-fulfillment life. It all comes down to figuring out those smaller building blocks–like researching opportunities and connecting with new people–and then doing the actual work.

And hey, if I get to a point that I need to go back to a more traditional job on a full or part time basis, then I’ll do that. Sometime you need to recalibrate.

Inspire Others to Change Their Lives

Ever since I started telling people I was going to leave my job to rewrite my novel and my life, I’ve been amazed by how inspired and impressed they’ve been. While I guess this journey seems scary from the outside, after my initial nail-biting conversations I lost sight of how strange and counter-cultural my choices were. I don’t feel particularly brave–just happy. There’s nothing I’ve done that anyone else couldn’t.

I know it may not seem that way, but I promise it’s true. While everyone likes to think they’re special–and I do think I’m talented and hard working and persistent–there’s nothing about me which means I can do something bold like this but you can’t. Your circumstances may be wildly different. It may be harder or easier depending on your situation and what you long to do. But you can change your life if you really want to. I believe that whole heartedly.

It’s scary. It’s uncertain. It will shock the people around you. And it’s absolutely bloody worth it.

I want that for other people. For you, my dear friends and family and former professional acquaintances who will read this first. Also for you, complete stranger who I hope will find my blog some day.

I hate to see people dreading going back to work every week, wishing away their lives as if they weren’t precious gifts we can never get back once they’re gone. It’s so easy to fall into that pattern. To be little more than stressed and overwhelmed and busy and exhausted and numb. I know. I lived that way for years. Most of the time I was too harried to even imagine that my life could be any different.

But it can be.

I want my story to inspire you. Maybe almost as much as I want my book to be published. Know that I’m here, rooting you on, as you change your life in a way that makes you bolder and more fulfilled. That allows you to be the hero in your own story. If even one thing I say or write makes even one person’s life a little better, then I’ll achieved one of my goals. Maybe this blog will be part of my financial solvency. That would be amazing!

And okay, maybe I’ve spent too much time this holiday season listening to the Spirited soundtrack, but I absolutely recommend you listen to the song below if you need a little inspiration. I only wish it was a video clip, because who knew a Christmas musical featuring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds was everything we wanted.

I want to make a ripple this year. How about you?

Maybe you know someone who needs a little push in a different direction. Please send them this blog, and then be that person that will run through a wall and support them every step of the way.

What Do You Want to Do With Your Life?

So as the new year dawns, I find myself asking, not: What do I want to do with my year? but: What do I want to do with my life?

If I live it right, I won’t forget the three resolutions I’ve chosen. Because they aren’t some fleeting ideas that will get lost as soon as I get busy. They’re not something I’m only saying because I feel like I should, like, “I’m going to work out this year.” (If you already resent your resolution the first time you say it, it’s not going to happen, so why waste the energy pretending?)

Just like I don’t want you to waste your life doing something you dislike, I don’t want you to waste your dreams on something ordinary, or expected, or small.

I’ll achieve my resolutions because they are fundamental to the way I want to live my life this year, and if for some reason I don’t, at least I’ll darn well remember what I tried to do.

What is fundamental, perhaps not to the way you’re living your life now, but the way you want to life your life?

Like I said, I’m all for goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound), but that’s probably not what you need. Not yet. There will be time for planning and budgeting and generating new habits. And all the to-do lists you could possibly handle. But first you need to know what you really want. The resolution you won’t forget. The one you yearn to achieve.

Only you can answer that. And you don’t have to wait until January.

I’m just here to tell you I believe in you. If I’ve done it, so can you.

And if you’re ready to declare your resolution, post it in the comments so I can cheer you on.