Slaying the Inner Beast (Part II): creating a target

Last week in Slaying the Inner Beast (Part I): learning to see success, I talked about my personal discouragement in the amount of writing I did (or didn’t do, rather).

A couple of months ago, I had a few hours alone with no distractions, and I wrote 1800 words for a new chapter. When the distractions came back, I struggled for an hour to write another 100 words. I decided to be done for the day, but I felt guilty. That sounds crazy, but I felt like I should keep writing. Sometimes I need to smack myself and tell myself there’s more to life than words and computer screens. Because I had no goal, I had nothing to hit, and I couldn’t feel the accomplishment.

Zig Ziglar said, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

While it’s good to push yourself in life, whether in writing or something else, there also needs to be some sort of accomplishment, rather than failure all the time. You’ve got to set yourself up for success. It needs to be more than an intellectual knowledge that you did a good job. It needs to be something you can feel. A check mark, a completed word count, a strikethrough on the list of “to-dos.” Several weeks ago, I talked about using The Time Budget as a tool for accomplishment, and—if you didn’t already—grab your free download here.

I’m not saying to make sure you write five words every day. That’s too easy. I’m not even saying to write every day. Maybe have a weekly word count, finish a poem before a certain date, or quit messing with your blog article and just post it! What I am saying to do is stretch yourself. Give yourself a goal that’s going to be a little tough, but not one so far out of reach that you’ll quit. As it becomes easier, you can make it harder.

You may need to experiment and adjust your targets, depending on what you do with the rest of your time. You may need to have different goals a few months from now. But make a target.

I need to start doing this for myself. Because I constantly feel myself failing without feeling some accomplishments, I’m getting discouraged. I need to start giving myself clear-cut objectives. Personally, I probably would do best with a weekly word count, because sometimes I don’t have time to write every day.

Write down a few of your goals and then tell me about them in the comments. If you need help making a target, let me know and I’d love to help. :) 

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“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” ― Zig Ziglar

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