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. 

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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."

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* 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.