There’s about two weeks left in the year, so it’s time for me to begin deciding upon goals for 2016.
For the last four years, I have posted my goals on this blog and updated the progress of those goals monthly as a means of holding myself accountable. Oddly, these monthly updates have become some of my most popular posts, and the amount of email I receive about them is surprising.
There is actually research that indicates that this process is detrimental to goal completion. Studies done since 1933 show that people who talk about their intentions are less likely to make them happen.
Announcing your plans to others satisfies your self-identity just enough that you’re less motivated to do the hard work needed.
This may be true, but I am not one of these lunatics. I am not fooled into believing that announcing a goals gets me any closer to success.
Rather, I am obsessive and driven and suffer under an indescribable existential crisis. All of these things propel me forward.
I also live in fear of appearing weak or ineffective or allowing someone to say “I told you so.”
Announcing my goals only pushes me harder to completion.
Every year, as a part of the goal setting process, I ask readers to suggest goals for the coming year. In many ways, my readers are some of the best equipped people in the world to suggest goals for me. You read about my thoughts and feelings on a daily basis, and you know me better than some of my friends who I see a handful of times each year but never take the time to read this blog.
Some of the goals that readers have suggested in the past have been some of the biggest difference makers in my life.
If you’re curious about the kind of goals that I typically set for myself, the goals from the previous six years are below:
Resolutions: 2010
Resolutions: 2011
Resolutions: 2012
Resolutions: 2013
Resolutions: 2014
Resolutions: 2015
I also write year-end review of my goals, which includes completion percentages for the previous years and an explanation of my successes and failures.
Last year’s review can be found here.
So fire away, dear reader. Tell me what foibles and flaws are in need of correction. Set me on a new course. Point me at a new horizon.
But when suggesting goals, please try to think of goals that are measurable.
Last year a reader suggested that I try to be less of a jerk. While this goal was an admirable one, measuring my success on a monthly or yearly basis would be impossible.
It was also kind of mean.
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I think you need to modify goal 6 from 2015. Instead of setting for yourself a goal of learning to cook three good meals that Elysha will love, learn to cook three good meals that you love that meet her standards of good meals and are good for you. From what I can tell, you work much better when your own motivations are engaged, and your complete failure on this goal doesn’t seem to be motivating you.
Thanks for the advice, Casey. Motivating myself for cooking might be even tricker since I tend to view meals as events to complete at quickly as possible. But I’ll think about it.
Just listened to your "Homework for Life" TEDx talk, and wow– what a great daily practice. I’m going to challenge myself to do it. But here’s where I’m going to challenge you, for 2016. When you describe how it is the small moments, the small stories that you tell, that resonate for your audiences… that’s exactly how it feels when I connect with my audiences… only through metaphor. I tell folktales and fairy tales to adults. My challenge to you: find a old story from the oral tradition and learn it. Just one. You’ll know when you find one that you can make yours. Learn it well enough that you can tell it. More difficult goal: find a venue where you can tell that story to adults (trust me, when you tell the world you have a folktale to share, suddenly the storytelling world shrinks dramatically). Given that you’ve got a reputation as a personal memoir storyteller, you’ll probably have to shift your audiences perception before you tell it. And I can’t promise it will go well the first time out.
I can’t even say that traditional stories will bring as much meaning to your life as your daily reflective practice, but as someone who has been exploring the well of story from the oral tradition for 30 years, I want to invite you to experience story through the lens of "once upon a time."
Thanks so much for the challenge, Tim. I’ve added to my list to consider. I’ll admit that it doesn’t appeal to me much, but it looks like I’ll be pairing with a fairly well known storyteller of folktales in 2016 for an evening of storytelling – both my brand and his – so maybe after we spend some time together working on the show, I will be inspired to find a folktale of my own.
Write a novel of comparable innovation, artistic quality and depth as Finnegan’s Wake (if you choose this one, though, it may take more than a year to accomplish; it took Joyce 17).
It’s not supposed to be goals that will kill me.