WRITE ME: Advice, Projects, Practices, and Motivation for Wattpad Writers

SETTING NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

It's New Year's Eve. Like many of you, I am reflecting on 2022. The highlight reel splashes in front of me and I enjoy picking it apart and reliving those moments. Many great ones come to mind. In terms of writing, I often feel a sense of excitement around this time because I'm looking forward to the things I hope to achieve in the coming year.

I have always enjoyed setting goals. It works really well for my mind. I would have done better as a young man had someone helped me in this regard.

Building out a trajectory, forecasting the future, making a five-year plan... these all basically mean the same thing. You choose your destination and then you back-engineer the steps it would take to get there. You put your arrow in the bow and you aim for the moon. You don't hit it. You know from the start that you'll never hit it, and yet you shoot anyway because the daily effort you put in to reach the moon will get your arrow higher than it would have gone had you aimed for a target on Earth.

My wife would categorize that as an unrealistic goal.

Some say that having unrealistic goals is a detriment. You want this thing so badly and work so hard to attain it. You get your hopes too high, which means, inevitably, you will be disappointed. You overwork yourself, you skip meals, you stay up too late, you lose friendships, and your mental health suffers. 

Ask yourself, is that really what you want?

I took a business course in college where we were told that if we wanted to succeed, we needed to expect these sorts of outcomes. Your friends, your significant other, and even your children would have to accept that you'll not be around. Because all that matters is achieving your goal in business and that requires many dedicated hours.

The answer lies somewhere in between.

We know, as writers, that our books are going to take time. Make a big old plan, that's fine. Five years, ten years. Go nuts. But then you need to create smaller goals that realistically reflect your lifestyle. Then return to your trajectory and see if some changes need to happen in your day-to-day life. Maybe, by tweaking a few habits and denying yourself one or two things that don't matter a lot in the long run, you'll find a little more time to devote to your writing. And it's in those little extra hours where you see the most impact on the other end. What do I mean?

Think ahead. There's the box you're opening. Inside are stacks of pristine books, all with your name on them. Take one out and turn to the front pages. Mixed in with all the copyright information is the publication date. Can you see it? It's a faraway date, but there. It's done.

Now imagine, you have the ability to change that date. And all it takes is a little balance each day. How can my day accommodate the lifestyle I want to keep while giving me the right amount of work time? How can I engineer this in such a way that I shave a few months or even a year off of that publication date?

We like setting New Year's Resolutions. It's a healthy habit. Instead of just setting high goals and trying to meet them in the next year, and in the time that you give yourself every day, find ways you can steal time from yourself. Live actively and live purposefully. Try to avoid wasteful minutes. If you're someone who needs downtime, there's nothing wrong with that. We all do, really. But figure out what that time is for. Maybe closing your eyes and putting on some relaxing music for 10 minutes gets the job done. Maybe it's going on social media so you feel like part of the outside world will recharge you in some way. Maybe it's exercise. Whatever it is you choose, and this applies across the board, before doing anything, just set yourself a timer. Limit yourself. Try to accomplish a task in that time. And then, when you feel you're ready, get back to completing your goals.

This is the daily system you need to build in order to meet your goals. This is the process.

One of my favorite, and most gruesome, representations of this idea comes from Desmond Tutu who just passed last Christmas. He stated that there was only one way for a man to eat an elephant. One bite at a time.

Gross, I know. But not all illustrations are pretty.

okaybyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee