To get ahead in life, you’ve got to set goals. Everybody says so.
Unfortunately, not all goals are created equal. Setting the wrong ones can lead to time wasted, or it can derail our efforts altogether, and end in frustration and regret.
Clearly, a goal of “I’m going to be a famous writer” isn’t very helpful. “I want to be a better writer” is only slightly more useful. Better how? And anyway, how can we tell if we’ve hit the mark?
So the self-help world gave us SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based) goals. Much better. Now we’ll actually know when we’ve achieved a particular goal, because the metrics are clear. Still, a goal to “land an agent by the end of the year” might be SMART – but if its achievement is contingent upon other people’s actions, it’s a really DUMB goal. It’s a set-up for discouragement and self-recrimination. Do we really want to abdicate our power to reach our goals to other people?
Should we forget about goals then, and just wing it? Well, no, because there’s a danger of just drifting along, of getting lost in minutiae or daydreaming or resistance, and never getting anything done that we might consider worthwhile. It’s the road to regrets.
So what’s a writer to do? Setting SMART goals is a smart thing, but it only works if we have control over the outcome.
For short-duration and narrowly defined projects, outcome goals (“finish this blog post by Friday”) are often the way to go. For longer projects, say, writing a novel, it usually makes more sense to set process goals (“write 1,000 words (or 500, or just 2) every day”) instead of or in addition to outcome goals. It’s similar to breaking projects down into action steps.
In the long run, process goals tend to be more rewarding because they offer more frequent opportunities for success (and celebration!). They also offer more frequent feedback, and more flexibility for course corrections.
For my own writing, I have many goals. To get a novel published, however, is not one of them. It’s a dream.