First of all: 2 quick announcements:
I finished my revisions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m teaching a course at The Porch, TN this January. Come talk about writing with me!
Okay, now for the irregularly scheduled programming.
It's not quite "circle back after the holidays" time, but it is already "plot how to become a new and better you" time of year.
Forget I said that. You're wonderful. You're amazing. And you probably have all the productivity systems in place that you’ll ever need.
Me though? I love to collect goal-setting and productivity knowledge. I have more project management free trials in my wake than ex boyfriends. More unfinished planners on my shelves than Stephen King has novels that are maybe 200 pages too long. More discarded BHAGs and NYResolutions than the stars in the sky.
I still manage to get a lot done, keep a lot of plates spinning, and have multiple irons in the fire at once. More potential projects than this intro has idioms.
And yet, goal setting season is upon us, with all the hope, brand-new notebooks and pens, KPIs and metrics, and action items we can pile upon ourselves.
For marketing, I love this. It helps me think deeply about target audience, how I'm going to serve them, and what assets need to be created to get that done.
For my life? It's a little messier. Broader.
In 2023, I started out the year with a keyword: curiosity. I wrote the word on an index card and pinned it to the cork board above my monitor. It reminded me to be curious about why people acted the way they did, why I reacted the way I did, and how I could figure out problems in new ways. Mixed results there.
In 2024, I had just started The Book Incubator, and my personal goals were all about bringing that to life. Hooray! This may be the first year that I've achieved my yearly goal. I'm nearly done with all the work that is within my control right now, so it's nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel. So here we are, about to enter 2025, and I need to make new goals.
Editor's Note: Setting Writing (and Business) Goals
When I was drafting my novel last year, I quickly fell into a routine: 5 hand-written pages a night every weeknight. I did this whether my daughter was awake and pulling on my shirt to come sit in her bed with her so she could tell me about what each of her baby dolls was doing that day. I did it when I got home late or when it was my turn to clean up after dinner. I took off for the holidays, but got right back on the train.
It's taken me so much longer to revise and rewrite sections of the book because I didn't have that discipline. I felt like I had eternal amounts of time, so my edits have taken all of that eternity. I eventually settled into a routine of a scene a day, but it took me a very long time to get there, and it was much harder to revise than generate the content in the first place.
I recently heard Dr. Benjamin Hardy speak about his book, Be Your Future Self Now. I cannot speak to the quality of the book itself, but the idea it proposes is interesting: You cannot 10x with a 2x mindset.
If you want to make a 10x change, you need to reframe your past and choose better in your present. I currently have these questions for myself on my desk:
How can I be disciplined and goal-oriented within a time of change?
What can I do right now?
What boundaries can I set?
What can I say no to?
All of these questions are in service of that 10x goal. What would someone in my position do if they were not just trying to grow their business, but 10x it.
10x feels like a huge goal. But it also helps to clarify your positioning.
I won't take on X type of client because that's not in service of my goal.
I won't target X audience because they don't fit my ideal customer profile.
I won't write with X audience in mind, because they aren't the purchasers.
I won't spend time marketing on X channel because my customer isn't there.
I will target X channel because my customer is there.
I will target X keywords because my customer is asking those questions.
This year my goal is to 10x my income. Some of the ways I want to get to that include goals around writing, revising, and finding an agent, but they also have to do with the ways that I'm going to work in my freelance writing business. I'm not quite ready to make those plans public yet (if ever), but I'm thinking about them now. I'm guessing you are too, so if you want a place to share your 2025 goals, to make them real, comments are open.
Recommended Reading: Some hit the DNF list this time
Weyward by Emilia Hart
Perfect cozy fall book. Generational witches, communicating with the animals, understanding the world around us, female bodily autonomy. I loved it. I’m guessing this is going to be one of those reads where I’ll think back in a couple of years, “I wonder how Violet and Kate are doing?” I highly recommend this one.
Circe by Madeline Miller
I had heard great things about this book, but I did not finish (DNF). I’m not sure what I was missing, but I wasn’t terribly invested in Circe. She’s a complicated figure, but also it’s hard to feel bad for gods (nymphs? demigods? I couldn’t keep track). That said, if you like ancient Greek myths, you’ll probably enjoy this one.
Thank you for reading. I appreciate every one of you.
Ok but how many ex boyfriends do you have...