Hello and welcome to a special edition of What Makes You Happy: Goals Edition! We all have goals we drag our feet on, things we’d like to accomplish but can’t seem to make time for. I want each and every one of you to pick a goal you’ve been “saving for later.”
In order to achieve a goal, you have to break it down into bite-sized chunks. If you want to write 100 pages in 100 days, you’ll need to average 1 page per day. Breaking it down helps disperse intimidation. Anything is possible if you do it tiny piece at a time.
You’ve probably seen this or something like it. Basically a “smart” goal is something that meets the “smart” criteria. You can’t have a goal like “get famous.” It’s not specific enough. Instead, you could make a goal like “publish first novel.” Likewise, if “publish a novel” feels unattainable, you could “publish a short story.” Or even “collection 30 rejections.” That’s a great goal, because it doesn’t depend on anyone but you! You can’t control whether you get published or not. But you can control your own efforts. “Submit to 10 publications.” Specific, measurable, attainable! Relevant is just another way of saying important to you. Don’t pick something you don’t care about. High stakes! Make it count. And a time limit helps to make the goal concrete. It isn’t just a “whenever” goal. It’s a real goal with a real time limit: you decide!
But how do I do it? Well of course most of accomplishing a goal is to do the hard work! Most of achieving a goal is repetition. Form the habit, be strict with yourself. Even if your goal is about relaxation! Protect your time from other infringements. Do the work and you will be so happy you did.
But Jobe, Can I really do it? Can I really accomplish my goal?
J. Jobe 