Goals for the New Year

 I don't make resolutions for the New Year because resolutions are flimsy. They are usually worded vaguely. They're often worded in results (which may not be realistic), and they're not worded in a way that suggests the actions that need to be taken.

So once again (I think I've written about this before), I reach out for SMART goals. SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-bound.

So let's take one common resolution (and one of mine, actually): To lose weight in 2016. What's wrong with it?

There are so many things wrong with it. How many pounds a week? What is the process by which one will do it? What's the time parameters? Why is this focused on the result (weight loss) and not the action (Changed habits)? Is it realistic? With no real parameters it can set someone up for failure.

We can change the goal to action-oriented: I will eat healthy and exercise. 

Now, it's not specific enough; let's change it -- I will eat two fruits and two vegetables a day and walk every day, working my time up to half an hour daily by increasing my walk five minutes a week.

 But there's no time parameters. so let's add them.: Starting January 1, I will eat two fruits and two vegetables a day and walk every day, working my time up to half an hour daily by increasing my walk five minutes a week for the rest of the year, to be evaluated monthly.

This is a SMART goal. It's easily followable, easy to see if it's not working and needs adjusted. 

So my goals for the year (not resolutions): 

• Starting January 1, I will eat two fruits and two vegetables a day
• Starting January 1, I will walk every day, working my time up to half an hour daily by increasing my walk five minutes a week, for the rest of the year, to be evaluated monthly.

These are typical resolution goals, but then there's my writing goals broken down:

• By March 31, I will send 50 queries out for Apocalypse to science fiction/fantasy agents from Query Tracker. 
• By October 31, I will send 50 queries out for Prodigies to science fiction/fantasy agents from Query Tracker.
• By March 1, I will finish the rough draft for Gaia's Hands.
• By June 1, I will revise the rough draft of Kringle in the Night
• By August 1, I will put the final touches on Kringle in the Night
• By September 30, I will prepare Kringle in the Night for publication -- formatting, copyright, and cover production; To be published by November 1.
• By December 1, I will have three short stories written.

It's good to have all this written out, because it will be easier to accomplish. Now to get the vision board built, because I will need it by January 1. 

Discovering perseverance

Today is post number 976. In a little under a month, I will write my 1000th post.

This is probably the most consistent thing I've ever done in my life. Almost every day, I've written this blog as a way to reach out and as a way to help manage writers' block. I guess I'm in it for the long run. 

I'm serious about this being the most consistent thing I've done in my life (other than things like breathing and eating). I've had a habit of being really excited by a new hobby or skill and doing it for a while, but not completing it. Gardening is a good example: I will start seeds of all sorts of edible plants in January through March, plant them, and then give up right around the time weeds sprout. My yields go to zero because I can't find my plants through all the weeds. I'm not planting this year -- I'm letting my raised beds go fallow with tarps on them to kill the weeds. 

I wonder if my blogging will help me make more habits in my life stick. One of these is eating more healthy so I can lose weight again (Yeah, I didn't stick to that too well) and maybe walking. I may have to set New Years' resolutions (although I hate those). Or maybe I just keep doing the right thing.

Goals vs. New Years Resolutions

I’ve taught enough about goal-setting over the years that I can write very solid goals. Goals should be:

1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Action-oriented
4. Relevant 
5. Time-oriented

So, for example, the goal "Send queries*" fails several of these parameters:

1. Specific?  I don't know which of my manuscripts I'm sending queries for, nor to whom.
2. Measurable? Am I done with just one query? Seventy? Querying everyone in Query Tracker**?
3. Action-oriented? I guess we're okay here.
4. Relevant? Is this the action that is relevant to acquiring an agent? Yes.
5. Time-oriented: When do I need to have this done by?

The SMART (see what I did there?) version of this goal would be:

"Send 3 queries a day, targeting the agents on Query Tracker who handle science fiction, until I run out of agents." There's the goal, and I am on day 15 of that. I have thirteen days more of query writing this round. 

*****

I really like SMART goals, but I haven’t warmed up to New Year’s Resolutions.

First, resolutions aren't goals. They're not SMART. They're sound bites that you have to provide to people when they ask:

"What's your New Year's Resolution?"
"I plan to marry Viggo Mortensen."***

Second, there’s a concept in positive psychology called “ironic effects”, where doing something that requires self-control fails because we "know" we're going to fail. For a good example, stare at a cheesecake you're promised yourself you won't eat.  I find setting resolutions a guarantee that I will give up on January 31. And why not? Resolutions set goals without setting up plans.

What else can I do if not resolutions?
Write down my SMART goals!
And tell everyone, "I don't make resolutions."

*****

* Queries are the submissions you send to agents and publishers to ask them to consider your work and potentially ask to read the whole novel. All queries start with a query letter, a special kind of cover letter. https://www.agentquery.com/writer_hq.aspx has good instructions for a query letter. Most ask for a synopsis of the book and some segment of the book (first three chapters, etc.)

**I use www.querytracker.com. Writers, you'll thank me for this.

*** For my foreign (and domestic USA) folks who don't know, Viggo Mortensen is an American actor. In the Lord of the Rings movies, he played Aragorn.  When I first saw the movie in 2001, almost 17 years ago, I joked about marrying Viggo Mortensen, as did about a million geek girls worldwide.