It’s a new year and the month of January is coming to an end. How about that? Have you set your creative goals for 2016? Like most of us you may have started the year by reflecting on the year ahead. You may have even mentioned to friends and colleagues your new year’s resolution for 2016 and now that January is coming to an end, how is your resolution going? Do you still keep it in mind daily, weekly?
Well I’m here to remind you of it. Perhaps I can help make that new year’s resolution a bit more structured and sound more like a GOAL.
You see when we make our new year’s resolution we’re usually in a happy place, perhaps we’ve had a few drinks and are filled with optimism and say something like ‘this year is the year!’ or ‘I’m going to do …… this year!’
It’s normal to want to do something new and different in a new year. The new year represents a clearing of the slate, where you can forget the previous year’s negatives and reset your compass toward something you’ve been wanting to do.
Hence why now is the best time to revisit those earlier thoughts and dreams and put in actionable steps to make them happen. It can start by simply writing down what it is you want to achieve this year. To help you out I’ve created a little Goal Worksheet that will ask the right questions – Download it here.
And seeing we’re talking new year’s resolutions, I’lll share mine here.
I’ll continue to do a sketch or doodle a week and post it on my website. I also have a little project to turn at least one of those doodles into a painting or other bigger project. But my number one goal this year is to finish a Detective Novel I started last year. This one is going to take a lot of time and consistent focus to get it done. So I’ve written down those dates and know when I should finish each milestone so that I can make the deadline. Stay tuned for more updates about this one.
And now I feel accountable to you to meet my goal. This is another thing that really helps to motivate you. If you’ve never tried it before, try telling someone what you want to achieve and by when and you’ll see how your thought or idea quickly takes on a very real dimension.
To recap if you want to achieve your creative goals this year:
- Determine what your goal is and write it down so it’s concise and clear to anyone who reads it
- Focus on one goal that you really want. If you add too many things your focus will be pulled in different directions and you won’t get far with any of them
- Set an achievable timeframe you want to achieve this by. Use a planner to see which days you can devote time to it and mark it in ink. Now stick it up somewhere you’ll see it often like the fridge or study.
- Tell a friend what you want to achieve so you feel accountable to someone. You might ask them to give you a prompt every now and then. Or better still you can ask them to check in regularly so that it’s a bit more structured.
- Be consistent. Try to do that thing on the day you committed to as much as you can. If you miss a day here or there, don’t beat yourself up about it, just allow yourself to pick up from where you left off on another time.
Take a moment to think about it and use the Goal Worksheet to help determine and set your creative goal. Tell me about it in the comments below – I’d love to hear it.
