I’ve begun the process of choosing goals for 2018. It’s a process that takes about a month because the decisions that I make now will in part shape the coming year for me.
If you have any suggestions for goals that are worthy of pursuing, please feel free to let me know. Suggested goals have been a staple of my planning for years, and many have been adopted, so fire away!
And if you’re looking to accomplish more in 2018, I encourage you to begin thinking about goals now, too. You don’t need to post them on the Internet like I do, but setting and revisiting goals throughout the year has been an integral part of my life for a long time, and it’s helped a great deal.
Oddly, my monthly updates are some of my most popular blog posts. For whatever reason, people enjoy reading about my success and failure.
Probably just my failure.
But start planning now. You shouldn’t decide upon your goals or resolutions in a day or two. Put some thought into them. Make it a meaningful process. Try to set goals that you have some control over.
For example, one of my goals for this year was to submit five pieces to the New York Times Op-Ed page. This is a better goal than, “Get published by the New York Times Op Ed page” because I have much more control over the former than the latter.
I admittedly don’t do this with every goal. Sometimes I like to apply pressure to myself, particularly in areas of expertise. This year, for example, I set a goal of winning three Moth StorySLAMs. A better goal might have been to compete in X number of Moth StorySLAMs, but having won 32 of them, I didn’t mind applying a little pressure to myself in this area.
Happily, I won four StorySLAMs in 2017, exceeding my goal.
Also, don’t be afraid of failure. In the past 6 years, my success rates have been:
2010: 44%
2011: 62%
2012: 30%
2013: 60%
2014: 60%
2015: 59%
Not stellar. A 52.5% average.
But I’m comfortable with the failure because I know I am setting meaningful, challenging goals. I want to be pushing myself at all times. That would be impossible if the goals I set were easily attained.
Make 2018 a year when you set goals that put you on the path of making your dreams come true.
